Channel manager
Channel manager for small hotels: iCal sync with Airbnb and Booking.com
Calendars kept in step both ways with the two platforms that publish them — and honest arithmetic for the ones that do not.
Free for 45 days · no card · we do the setup
Nivasik’s channel manager keeps your room calendar in step both ways with Airbnb and Booking.com through iCal links, keeps a register of each channel’s commission, and builds a parity sheet with the price to list on each travel site so the amount that reaches you is your own rate. It does not push rates or inventory into MakeMyTrip, Goibibo or Agoda.
On the published plans it is part of Group — ₹2,499 per property a month, from three properties — and every property can use it during the 45-day free trial.
Read this first: what the channel manager does not do
- It syncs calendars, not rates. Dates move both ways with Airbnb and Booking.com through iCal links; prices and room counts do not.
- It does not connect to MakeMyTrip, Goibibo or Agoda. Pushing rates and inventory into them needs a signed connectivity agreement with each, which is the property’s to sign — and none is in place.
- It is not instant. Airbnb and Booking.com read your Nivasik calendar on their own schedule, and theirs is read into Nivasik when someone presses “Read their calendar now”. Two bookings for one room made close together on two sites can still collide.
- An imported booking carries dates, not money. It arrives without a rate; add one in Reservations if you want it counted in revenue.
How the two-way sync works
- Add Airbnb or Booking.com as a channel and paste that platform’s calendar (iCal) link into Nivasik; a test reads the feed and says what is in it before anything is saved.
- Copy Nivasik’s own calendar link for that channel into the platform’s calendar settings.
- Their bookings come in when the calendar is read: new bookings block your rooms here, and one that disappeared from the feed is cancelled only if the stay has not started.
- Your bookings go out when the platform reads your link, blocking those dates there.
- Everything is written down: every read, every booking imported and every failure goes in the log, and a channel that could not be read is flagged at the top of the screen.
An import that errs on the side of caution
- Updated, never duplicated: a booking already in Nivasik is updated, not made a second time.
- Checked-in guests are safe: a feed never moves or cancels a guest who is already in the building.
- Nothing is deleted, whatever a feed says.
- Failures are reported, including a booking the rack refused because the room was already taken — so a collision shows up as something to act on, not a silent overlap.
- A feed link can be replaced at any time; the old one stops working at once.
The parity sheet: what to list so you net your rate
For the next 30 nights and each room type, the parity sheet shows the price to list on each channel: your own rate grossed up by that channel’s commission, so what lands in your account is what you meant to charge. The formula is list price = your rate ÷ (1 − commission).
| Your rate | Commission | List at | Reaches you |
|---|---|---|---|
| ₹3,000 | 15% | ₹3,529 | ₹3,000 |
| ₹3,000 | 18% | ₹3,659 | ₹3,000 |
| ₹3,000 | 22% | ₹3,846 | ₹3,000 |
Illustrative commissions, rounded to the rupee. Use the percentages in your own agreements.
Add MakeMyTrip, Goibibo and Agoda as channels too. They publish no calendar link, but each keeps its commission in the register and gets its own column on the parity sheet — the exact numbers to type into their extranet by hand.
What it costs
Channel sync and the booking page come with Group at ₹2,499 per property a month, from three properties, with everything in Pro. Both are open during the 45-day free trial with no card.
Questions people ask
What is a channel manager for hotels?
Software that keeps a property’s availability in step across the sites that sell its rooms, so a room sold on one is closed on the others. Nivasik does this with calendar (iCal) links for Airbnb and Booking.com.
Is iCal sync the same as a channel manager?
It is the simplest kind: calendars only, read on each platform’s schedule. A full channel manager pushes rates and room counts through connections each travel site certifies; Nivasik does the first and not the second.
Does it work with MakeMyTrip and Goibibo?
Not for sync. They publish no calendar link, and pushing rates to them needs a signed connectivity agreement. You can still register their commission and use the parity sheet to know what to type into their extranet.
How often does the calendar sync?
Airbnb and Booking.com read your Nivasik link on their own schedule. Nivasik reads theirs when someone presses “Read their calendar now”, and every read is logged.
How do I avoid double bookings between Airbnb and Booking.com?
Connect both calendars both ways and read them regularly, especially on busy days. Because calendar feeds are not instant, a collision is still possible; when one happens, the rack refuses the second booking and the import reports it.
Is there a free channel manager?
Nivasik’s is open during the 45-day free trial. After that it is part of the Group plan.
Try it on your own place, free for 45 days.
We set it up for you — your rooms, menu or stock list, your staff and your prices — and walk it end to end on your phone. No card, and we invoice only if you stay.