Booking.com | Connection Instructions – Seekom

If you have an account set up with Booking.com, 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 booking.com will also be automatically updated in your iBex system.

For any questions regarding your Booking.com account please click here to access Booking.com's Partner help page.

Version 4 Instructions

All Bookings will automatically be allocated a unit in accordance with what order you have set your units to be allocated to and will show on your Bookings Calendar.

Click here for more information on listing with booking.com
If you're not already signed up with Booking.com, please click here and complete the details required. They will get back in touch.

Please read the important notes (bottom of page) about interface limitations.

Set up the connection yourself FREE OF CHARGE using our self help instructions below.

Note: 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).

Instructions

There are 2 steps to connect your iBex account with booking.com

Sign up for the connection directly with booking.com (all illustrated in Step 1 below),
Register booking.com in your iBex Channel Manager account and set which rates and availability should be sent to them (illustrated from Step 7 below).

Step

Action

In order to link the 2 systems you must first sign up to booking.com’s XML service(which is what booking.com use to connect the 2 systems) so you must contact your booking.com account manager and advise them that you want to connect the 2 systems via XML.

Your account manager will then activate the XML connection function in your account so that you can sign up for the service.Once it has been activated, login to your booking.com account and commence your XML signup via the ‘Channel Manager’ link in the Property Info section as shown below:

Once you select Channel Manager, the following screen will appear .

Click Start so you can search for the provider Seekom and then select iBex/Seekom.

You will also need to select ‘Two Way Reservations & Availability‘ as shown below.

To complete the sign up, accept booking.com XML terms and conditions.

A copy of this agreement will be sent to the property via email with the subject of the email being ‘Confirmation of your agreement to sign up for XML’.

Booking.com will then email Seekom to confirm that your property has signed up for XML so that we can confirm to them that the connection is required. This can take up to 2 hours during standard business hours and will be done automatically for you.

You will receive an email (with the subject of the email being ‘Confirmation of your connection request’) confirming that your hotel is ready to complete the XML sign up with Booking.com.

You must then login back into your Booking.com account (via the link in the email) and activate the XML connection in step 4 of their process as shown below.

You will receive an email from Booking.com (with the subject of the email being ‘Connection activated’) advising you have activated the connection.

You have now completed the XML sign up with Booking.com so the next step is to add booking.com to your iBex Channel Manager account and set what rates and availability should be sent to booking.com.

From left menu select Sales Channels New Sales Channel

At the pop up window titled ‘New Sales Channel’ click the button Register Available Sales Channel

Enter ‘booking.com’ into the search field at top right of window and press enter on your keyboard.

Matching results will be displayed – see example screen image below.

If this the first and only connection to booking.com click the green plus icon adjacent to booking.com (see above example).

If this is an additional connection select booking.com (Connection 2 or 3) as appropriate. Refer Important Notes section below.

Optionally update General section fields as required. Notes are private.

Refer sample example screen image below.

At Rules section:

select what Selling Group you want booking.com to be registered to (click here for more information about selling groups)

select the Rate Modifier that you want booking.com 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 booking.com for any bookings received, set the Commission charged by booking.com.

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.

Refer example below.

Click Register Sales Channel button. You will progress to the Channel Mapping tab.

Enter your email address at iBex Notification Emails To field.

It is recommended that iBex Email on New Booking are set as follows:

Block Operator – not checked
Block Property – checked
Block Customer – checked

It is recommended that iBex Booking Email Rule is set to ‘Follow normal email rules’.

As booking.com does not send cancellation emails your only notification of these will be if you turn on iBex emails.

At Property ID enter Hotel ID as supplied by booking.com.

Set Min Stay Handling field as required (we recommend First Available).

This is really only relevant if you will be mapping a single room type from iBex to multiple room types at booking.com (eg. for length of stay price variations, etc).

Set Allocation Handling field as required (we recommend Total per Room).

This is really only relevant if you will be mapping a single room type from iBex to multiple room types at booking.com (eg. for length of stay price variations, etc).

It is recommended that Room Level Inventory is set as ticked.

Click Save button.

Room and rate mapping will now be set – refer sample screen image below.

Complete each room mapping row as follows:

Channel Room Name – select as required (this is the room type name at booking.com).
iBex Rate Name – select as required.
Channel Rate Name – select as required (this is the rate name at booking.com)

Click ‘+’ to map any iBex room type to further room types at booking.com (eg. for differing minimum stays/rates – see notes at bottom of this page). See image below for an example where the Standard Room has been connected to multiple room types at booking.com.

Click Save button.

Click Save & Update Channel button.

Wait a few minutes and click View Log button.

TIP - If the Remote Service Log Viewer indicates queued updates are pending, wait a further few minutes and click the ‘Refresh’ button.

If you have performed the connection successfully you will see OK messages for inventory & rates uploaded.

See example below.

IMPORTANT NOTES

We strongly recommend to activate Rate Level Occupancy (RLO) in your Booking.Com account. This will calculate the single and multi-pax pricing correctly. Once RLO has been enabled for your account, Booking.com receives the base room rate only from Seekom – extra adult/child pricing must be maintained directly at Booking.com.
You can send booking.com different prices for differing minimum stay requirements by setting the minimum stay handling option in the Channel Mapping tab.
If you use Genius rates within your booking.com account (also called derived or read only rates at booking.com), only the bookings are processed between the 2 systems. Rates and availability are not updated by iBex as these are controlled within your booking.com account. The Genius rate must be mapped in order for iBex to be notified of these bookings and any rates that are applicable will be marked with an (r) in the Channel Rate column in the mapping table.
Any cancellations or amendments made to Booking.com bookings at Booking.com will be sent to iBex.
If the booking was originally sent to iBex then it will be updated in the system and you will receive an email notification (if set to do so in your settings).

Any bookings made at Booking.com before your Booking.com account was connected to iBex will not be understood by iBex so you will be emailed by iBex to advise you of an error due to an ‘Unknown Booking‘ with the Booking.com reference which you will need to manually cancel in iBex.
Any booking that has been made through an online sales channel that is connected to your Channel Manager (such as Booking.com, Wotif, etc) must be cancelled at the booking source. If it is amended within iBex directly, you will still be charged commission by the sales channel and the cancellation it will be overridden by any update that the sales channel sends to your iBex account (so revert back to the original booking status).
Booking.com will NOT send you any email notification about new, modified or cancelled bookings.

As advised in the connection instructions, iBex will send notification of new bookings, modification and cancellation for Booking.com. There is 1 exception if Seekom do not retrieve the booking from Booking.com within 1 hr Booking.com will send a fax or email notification to the hotel.
Booking.com offer an opt-in function to accept reservations without credit cards for same day bookings made after 4pm. Reservations are limited to a one night stay and this option is only offered if the hotel has 3 or more rooms available with Booking.com at the time of booking. Please contact your Booking.com account manager for more details.
iBex supports up to 3 connections to booking.com from a single property. Instructions vary at step 11 above if setting up a 2nd or 3rd connection.
After any extensive modification of your rates/prices within iBex it is recommended you perform a full re-synch to booking.com. Click here for instructions

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