Integration with mybookingpal.com

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Integration with mybookingpal.com
December 18, 2015, by Michael Wiack

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Just wondering how smoothly (or not) other forum member's experiences with mybookingpal.com has been. Its been a little over two weeks since I signed up for this service but so far my property doesn't appear on any of the participating channels. To check if my property is appearing, I perform a regular search as though I were looking for lodging at my location and I use dates I know are open. My property doesn't show up in the results. So far I have had contact with three different people at mybookingpal.com and though all very nice, don't seem very knowledgeable about their website. They haven't found anything wrong with my account at their website but they can't tell my why my property isn't showing up. They all promise to get back to me with more info but....so far nothing.

24 Responses:

nickschiffer@bigpond, December 18, 2015:

Not quick nor smooth. Am thinking of ditching them. Friendly and helpful people, but seems half-baked.

My experience is very similar to yours.

John Amato, December 19, 2015:

Michael and Nick - they are working through some issues, particularly with AirBnB as they (AirBnB) have recently changed their calculations and policies. We are hopeful these will get resolved very soon. I have weekly calls with them, and expect some positive news next week.

Which channel(s) did you choose to use through them? AirBnB? Booking.com? Both?

John Amato, December 19, 2015:

Also - are you aware of any other Channel Managers, that you're interested in exploring? If so, let us know and we can reach out to them and see if they are more "fully baked".

Michael Wiack, December 19, 2015:

John - Did not choose either AirBnB or booking.com for various reasons. But there are about 30-35 other channels I did choose - couldn't find my property listed on any of them. I'm much more interested in having my property show up in the results on Expedia, Travelocity, and Hotels.com. As I said, they seem to have no idea what's going on. Nor do they follow-up after I contact them (even though they said they would).

John Amato, December 19, 2015:

Ok - (approx) how long ago did you ask for follow-up? Just trying to gauge things...

Cindy Amato, December 21, 2015:

Michael, and everyone else responding, I'm glad you've asked these questions. As hard as it is to hear about bad experiences, I think bringing them to light will help everyone including MyBookingPal. Hopefully they will be able to find out what is going on with the listing sites in question! Please continue to post any experiences you'd like to share.

John Amato, December 21, 2015:

And we will of course follow-up with them on these issues. I have standing weekly calls with them, so hopefully they have some good news for us soon. This week being Christmas, I don't expect much progress to be made. But next week and especially into the new year, we are expecting better and quicker results.

Michael Wiack, December 22, 2015:

Well I checked at least a half dozen "channels" this morning that supposedly carry my property and, no surprise, I couldn't find it anywhere. I wish fixing this problem were a priority of mybookingpal.com but they seem to be very lackadaisical about it. In the meantime, this is high season in the Caribbean and a huge lost opportunity for me.

nickschiffer@bigpond, December 23, 2015:

rentals united look like they offer broad coverage at a cost effective price. Can bookerville offer this as a channel manager alternative?

John Amato, December 27, 2015:

Yes, we are in the process of getting certified with them. It's pretty much in their hands at this point.

Michael Wiack, December 30, 2015:

Was just told this morning, for the first time, that mybookingpal has only completed integration with booking.com and airbnb. I have been emailing them for weeks now and this is the first time they mention this little piece of info. So even though my account profile shows me active with dozens of channels those are the only two that are working as of today. They told me expedia was next but they have no ETA on when activation will occur.

ResByRanda, April 5, 2016:

I've had it with MyBookingPal.com. I've been working with them since last fall and still have not got the pricing correct on Booking.com. Every time I look they've got different prices for my properties, none of which are correct. The one booking I've received from them confirmed at a drastically lower rate than is correct, hence I am taking a loss.
Stay far away from them until they get their bugs figured out!

John Amato, April 5, 2016:

Michael - just an update: BookingPal has just announced that they are now integrated with HomeAway/VRBO. We are looking for pilot-testers to begin beta-testing this, so anyone who is interested please contact me.

They are working on integrations with channels (listing sites) in the order of:

1) The popularity/volume of bookings likely to be received by the channel

2) The channel's ability to integrate and work through issues.

By far, the two most popular channels they have integrated with so far are Booking.com and AirBnB (and well I guess now HomeAway/VRBO). Those three channels are likely to produce 90+ percent of all bookings anyone is likely to get. Once they have these channels completed, they will move to some of the secondary channels.

Randa - I have asked our BookingPal account manager for an explanation of what happened to your pricing; I will update as I have more information.

Michael Wiack, April 5, 2016:

John,

I already have my own accounts with VRBO/HomeAway and I bet many other Bookerville folks do as well. I also have my own accounts with FlipKey/TripAdvisor and Booking.com. What I had hoped to get from mybookingpal was access to all those other channels they list - especially Expedia. It seems to me (and maybe others) they are a bust and not worth the effort.

ResByRanda, April 5, 2016:

Michael I agree. The amount of time I spent with them already, I could have had all my properties up and running correctly on Booking.com months ago.

John Amato, April 5, 2016:

Sure. But you don't have integration, so you're having to deal with propagating rates, photos, etc. to all the listing sites you're using, and then bookings that come in don't get updated automatically in Bookerville.

It's perfectly fine to run that way, but I just wanted to point out that there are benefits to using the Channel Managers. Sorry you had bad experiences; they are working through kinks for sure.

dlxhivac, April 10, 2016:

MyBookingPal.com is not offering any more connections to HomeAway/VRBO until they are done beta testing their connections with some current subscribers. Anyone here a beta tester for MyBookingPal and HomeAway? If so, how is it going? My page on Airbnb is done but not sure about how accurate their pricing is. They promised Booking.com last week so hoping for it at least this week.

Rentals United seems to be going much slower and will only synch to HomeAway/VRBO if you have 5 or more properties. They have not synched any channels for me yet.

I first signed up with these 2 channel managers about 3 weeks ago.

MyVR.com advertises that they are a channel manager and include VRBO/HomeAway and FlipKey but they are currently closed to new subscribers while they update their offerings???

John Amato, April 10, 2016:

I think what you're experiencing is that this concept of "Channel Manager" is much more difficult to implement than it is to assert. Just about every "Channel Manager" I've heard of to this point is experiencing technical difficulties and setbacks.

I do believe they will get past them, so once they have these issues worked out, I think it's going to be the best of all worlds.

Deborah, June 11, 2016:

All a big headache isn't it, this channel manager stuff. I joined up with Rentals United about 4 weeks back thinking it was supposed to be a one stop shop to get onto a number of websites. Well, after all this time, there is still one website I am not listed on (and in fact myself, RU and misterbnb have all been in discussion to make it work, and still no listing!) I am on a couple of sites finally, but then I got an email telling me I have to "log in and update my calendar and rates every 15 days or risk being deactivated". Then I got told by RU to let them know I am using a channel manager and "And we see what they answer, if you have to login anyway and you prefer to be disconnected, just let me know." This is not what I thought channel managers do. They all advertise how you can connect to a 'million' websites through them(easy, right?), but then you need to set up accounts, log in, check you're live on the sites, etc etc. Not good enough.

Pam Martin, September 12, 2016:

Hi John,

We've just received the invite for the Booking Pal webinar. What is the rate for VRBO bookings with BookingPal?

Thanks, Alana
assistant to Pam Martin

Bennett Jacoby, April 29, 2018:

Sorry to necro this old thread, but does anyone know if the bugs have been worked out of RU and MyBookingPal? Also, what happens on the channel manager and on AirBnB/VRBO if I already have active accounts on AirBnB/VRBO and then sign up with the channels managers...will the channel managers create an extra posting of my property in these channels? These channels are already very successful for my properties so I don't want to disconnect them if I sign up with a channel manager.

John Amato, April 29, 2018:

Excellent question. I believe they are now capable of working with your existing listings. But I have asked both of them to clarify that, because it's a very common and important question. I'll post back when I hear their official answers, but I believe they have worked that out now.

John Amato, May 3, 2018:

Ok, here is what BookingPal said (they happened to reply first):

"In that case we are able to do a switchover. The listing will remain the same on the Channel, but will be managed by BookingPal."

Me: "Ok - so they can maintain their status, reviews, etc., is that right?"

BookingPal: "Correct"

John Amato, May 3, 2018:

Here is Rentals United's response:

"Airbnb and VRBO both offer the option to map the new listing into the existing one.

So RU will be pushing a new unit but the mapping is done within the channel."

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