Hotelbeds

If you have an account set up with Hotelbeds, you can connect it to your iBex Channel Manager so that any rates and room availability are automatically updated by your iBex system. In return, any bookings made at Hotelbeds will also be automatically updated in your iBex system.

PMS users

All Bookings will automatically be allocated a unit in accordance with the sell order that you have set and will show on your Bookings Calendar.

Click here for more information on listing with Hotelbeds

Please read the Important Notes (at the bottom of the page) about interface limitations.

Set up the connection yourself FREE OF CHARGE using the Connection Instructions below.

If you would like Seekom support to make the connection for you, a charge of $110 per hour (+tax) will apply with a minimum charge of $50 (+tax).

Since each Hotelbeds contract requires it's own connection (please read the Important Notes below), we will require your Hotelbeds contract details including which room types and which rates will be linked with each contract.

Important Notes

Bookings

Hotelbeds sends new, modified and cancelled bookings to the Channel Manager.

Similar to other sales channels, Hotelbeds send bookings to the iBex Channel Manager. However, it is important to note that Hotelbeds do not send bookings as soon as they are created. Booking notifications are sent on an hourly delivery cycle, meaning that after bookings are created at Hotelbeds, they are placed in a queue to be sent on the next delivery cycle. Consequently, bookings may take more than an hour to arrive in iBex depending on the size of the queue.

Saying that, urgent bookings (such as a booking created the day before the check-in day) are usually prioritised, so may take just over 15 minutes.

We have no control to over this as this is how their system works so please contact Hotelbeds directly if you have any questions about this.

Due to the delay in bookings being received in iBex, it is recommended that you take measures to avoid over booking. Please click here for more information about avoiding double bookings.

Hotelbeds do not send credit card information.

Depending on the payment conditions negotiated with Hotelbeds determines how you receive payment for your bookings.

• Accounts with a prepayment arrangement will receive credit card details directly from Hotelbeds prior to the guests arrival (usually 7 days before arrival).
• Accounts with a credit arrangement will need to invoice Hotelbeds for payment. You can invoice them once a month with multiple bookings for that month or do it every 2 weeks.

Please contact Hotelbeds directly to arrange what payment method you prefer.

Hotelbeds Contracts

A Hotelbeds contract is an agreement between you (the property) and Hotelbeds that contains rooms, rates and supplements (extras), configured according to the agreement.

A property can potentially have more than 1 contract which enables the property to target different markets and to handle seasonal prices.

The rooms, rates and supplements in a contract are updated independently from any other contract so even if all contracts have the same rooms set up they can have different rates and availability to each other. ie if the Double room in one contract is updated, the Double room in other contracts will not be affected. In the iBex Channel Manager, this means that each contract will need its own Hotelbeds connection.

All Hotelbeds contracts are date based so it is possible to have a contract that is only valid for a period of a few months to a few years. The interface will handle the dates automatically so properties do not need to manually manage it on the interface. Any inventory or rates outside the contract period will not be updated at Hotelbeds.

Your iBex Channel Manager is limited to 3 connections per property which means it can only update a maximum of 3 contracts at any one time.
Once a contract in a connection has expired you can choose another contract with valid dates as a replacement or simply delete the connection and update it at a later stage.

There are essentially two type of contracts and both are supported by the interface.

• Net - Where the price and any minimum stay requirement can not be updated as they are fixed according to agreement between the property and Hotelbeds. The interface will only update inventory.
• Commissionable - Where the price, minimum stay requirement and inventory can be updated by the interface.

The inventory can be updated in two ways: availability or quote.

Availability is the number of rooms available for sale where Quote defines the total inventory which includes the number of sold and available rooms.
The interface only supports availability updates so properties must emphasize to their Hotelbeds contact that their contracts be set to receive availability updates.

Contracts can also include extra charges which Hotelbeds call supplements. These are used to handle extras like extra bedding, additional person charges, additional child charges and even discounts that may have different age ranges.

Any supplements must be set up and managed in the Hotelbeds contract directly in your Hotelbeds account (in the Agreement section of Hotelbeds extranet).

iBex does not support extras in channel bookings so any supplements found in a Hotelbeds booking will be added as text in the private Booking Note.

All Hotelbeds contracts must have the following settings in order for the Channel Manager to be able to update the account:

• Set to receive availability update,
• No room type can share availability with another room type within a contract.

To setup a Hotelbeds contract you need to contact the regional business team.

For the Australasian region, their contact is [e-mail]
For the rest of the world, http://www.hotelbeds.com/public/contact-us.html

Rates

The interface only sends base rates.

The occupancy of the room type in your Hotelbeds account is set up by one of their staff so any extra person or child rates must be set up and managed in your Hotelbeds account as a supplement. Please ensure that Hotelbeds set the base rate maximum occupancy numbers to match what is set in the rate that you are sending from your iBex account.

For example, if you have a rate that is valid for 1-2 occupants with an additional person charge for upto 2 extra persons, Hotelbeds will set up a supplement for 2 additional persons for that room type with the additional price that you advise them.

The interface does send minimum stay requirements.

Additional Notes

Hotelbeds is mainly a wholesale supplier so they do not have public booking screens. They sell your property through multiple agents and channels - please contact them directly for more information.

To access your Hotelbeds account you will need to log into their extranet (by clicking here).

Connection Instructions

There are 3 steps to connecting Hotelbeds to your Channel Manager:

1. Create an account with Hotelbeds
2. Getting Hotelbeds to activate the connection in your Hotelbeds account
3. Mapping them in your iBex Channel Manager

 Steps 1 and 2

To sign up with Hotelbeds you will need to open an account with them by providing them with your details and agreeing to their terms & conditions. Please click here and complete the form as necessary.

Once you have an account with Hotelbeds, you will need to create a contract with rooms for mapping and obtain the Username and Password for the Hotelbeds extranet site (which you can log into by clicking here).

Contracts with Hotelbeds must be set to availability type for iBex to update inventory and rates correctly (see the Important Notes for more information about Hotelbeds contracts.)

You can contact the Hotelbeds regional business team to set up a contract ([e-mail] for Australasia or find them in http://www.hotelbeds.com/public/contact-us.html for the rest of the world).

Once the above has been completed and you want to connect the account to your iBex Channel Manager, you will need to request the activation of your Hotelbeds account for HSI (Hotel Supplier Interface) and BMS (Booking Migration System) connection as this will enable:

1. Your Hotelbeds account to receive inventory/rate updates from iBex and
2. Bookings to be sent to iBex.

Please email Hotelbeds (at [e-mail]) to activate HSI and BMS and advise them the information below:

1. Your Hotelbeds Username (which you would have received from the previous step)
2. The URL for booking notification: https://ibexres.com/xml/HotelbedsNotif.php
3. Interface Support email: [e-mail]

Once the Activation has been confirmed by Hotelbeds you can continue with connecting them to your Channel Manager.

If the activation is not done, the error ‘Incorrect user or password’ will be displayed on the channel mapping page when you try to save the interface.

Step 3

Please note that if you want to update multiple contracts in your Hotelbeds account and are adding a new connection for the 2nd or 3rd contract, the instructions below do apply - just select the necessary connection when searching for Hotelbeds (see the bottom of the instructions for more information).

Step	Action
1	Login to your iBex account – click here
2	From left menu select the Add a sales Channel option (in the Sales Channel section in your menu).
3	At the pop up window titled ‘New Sales Channel’ click the button Register Available Sales Channel.
4	Enter ‘Hotelbeds’ into the search field (at top right of the window) and press enter on your keyboard.
5	Hotelbeds will be offered so click the plus icon to add them to your Channel Manager. You will then be taken to the Hotelbeds registration screen where you can add details and set any rules necessary.
6	Optionally update General section fields as required.   If you have multiple contracts in your Hotlebeds account and will be connecting them to multiple connections in the Channel Manager it is recommended that you add Notes so that you know which connection is for which contract (such as the contract name and the dates the contract is valid for).
7	In the Rules section you can set what rules you want your iBex account to apply to Hotelbeds.   Select what Selling Group you want Hotelbeds to be registered to (click here for more information about selling groups) Select the Rate Modifier that you want Hotelbeds to use. Rate 1 will typically be same as you sell at, other options will be a % increase or discount (click here for more information about Rate Modifiers). PMS accounts only – set Multi-booking Invoice as required. No’ means you will send an invoice for each booking, ‘Yes’ means you can send multiple bookings on one invoice. PMS accounts only – If you want to remove the amount charged by Hotelbeds for any bookings received, set the Commission charged by Hotelbeds. PMS accounts only – In order for the commission amount be removed from the booking, it needs to be registered to the booking as an extra. Set the extra that the amount is logged to in the Commission Extras Code field.Note – if you have not an extra registered to your account, save the details and register the extra once you have set it up.
8	Click Register Sales Channel button. You will now be taken to the Channel Mapping tab where you can set where the customer is sent to once they click your TripConnect button and what price is displayed on the TripConnect booking button.
9	In the Email Rules section:   Enter your email address in the iBex Notification Emails To field as this will ensure that you are notified if there are any issues with the connection between the 2 systems. In the iBex Email on New Booking option, you can block who receives a confirmation email from iBex when a new booking is made. The Operator email address will be the email address saved as the account email in your iBex account The Property email address will be the email address saved as the property email in your iBex account It is recommended to Block Customer as they will receive their booking confirmation from Hotelbeds. In the iBex Booking Email Rule option, you set whether or not iBex should follow your standard auto email settings after the booking has been made. It is recommended to set it to Do not send emails as Hotelbeds send email confirmation to the guest if they make any changes to the booking.
10	In the Channel Mapping Information section, you will need to add information about your property.   Please enter:   The Channel Operator ID – This is your username when you log into your Hotelbeds account The Channel Password – This is the password you use when you log into your Hotelbeds account            You can also set the Allocation Handling (we recommend Total Per Room).
11	Once entered, click the Save button at the bottom of the screen. Once saved, the screen will refresh with a new field enabling you to select which Hotelbeds contract this connection is for.
12	Your iBex Channel Manager can only update one Hotelbeds contract in any one connection (see the important notes for more information) so if you have multiple contracts in your Hotelbeds account, you will need to select which contract you want this connection to update.   Once selected, click the Save button at the bottom of the screen.
13	Once saved, you will notice that the Channel Property ID, the Contract Type and the Hotelbeds Contract Period fields will all be automatically updated.   The Channel Mapping table will also be shown enabling you to set what availability and rate should be sent to Hotelbeds for each room type in your Hotelbeds account for this contract.   Complete each row in the Mapping Table as follows:   iBex Room Name – Each row is a different room type. Channel Room Name – select the Hotelbeds room type that best matches the iBex Room Name. Stop Sell – Leave unticked. You only use this when/if you want to remove availability for that room type at a later date. iBex Rate Name – select the iBex rate that you want Hotelbeds to sell this room type at (for this contract).
14	Click the Save button.
15	Click the Save & Update Channel button. Your availability and prices will now be sent to Hotelbeds according to the mapping and any rules set in your settings.   If you want to update another contract in your Hotelbeds account you will need to register another connection in your Channel Manager by repeating the above but selecting either Hotelbeds (Connection 2) or Hotelbeds (Connection 3).

Changing a Contract

Use these instructions if you want the Channel Manager to update a different contract to one that is already connected. For example, when a contract has expired, you may want to replace it with a new one that you have set up with Hotelbeds.

Step	Action
1	Login to your iBex account – click here
2	From left menu select the Search Sales Channel option (in the Sales Channel section in your menu) so a list of all you sales channels registered in your account are shown.
3	Click on the ID of the Hotelbeds connection that you want to update with a new contract(ie htlbds, htlbds2, or htlbds3).
4	Go into the Channel Mapping tab.
5	If the current contract is still valid, select the Stop Sell option in the Channel Mapping table and select the Save & Update Channel button and wait for the channel updates to go through.
6	In the Channel Mapping Information section above the Channel Mapping table, select the new Hotelbeds Contract that you want to update.
7	Once selected, click the Save button at the bottom of the screen.
8	The Channel Mapping table will show the mapping for the original contract so you will need to update the mapping accordingly so that Hotelbeds receive the correct availability and rates for the new contract.   Complete each row in the Mapping Table as follows:    iBex Room Name – Each row is a different room type. Channel Room Name – select the Hotelbeds room type that best matches the iBex Room Name. Stop Sell – Leave unticked. You only use this when/if you want to remove availability for that room type at a later date. iBex Rate Name – select the iBex rate that you want Hotelbeds to sell this room type at (for this contract).
9	Click the Save button.
10	Click the Save & Update Channel button. Your availability and prices will now be sent to Hotelbeds according to the mapping and any rules set in your settings.