• Activating your iPRO Channel Manager Account 
  • Step 1: Do you have the right subscription?
  • Step 2: Add iPRO Channel Manager
  • Step 3: iPRO Channel Manager Behaviour & Rules
  • Step 4: Create your account and sync your properties
  • Step 5: Connect properties to your chosen sales channels
    • >> Connecting to Airbnb
    • >> Connecting to Booking.com
    • >> Connecting to VRBO
    • >> Connecting to Expedia
    • >> Connecting to Google Travel
    • >> Connecting to Homes & Villas
    • >> Connecting to TUI Villas
    • >> Connecting to Additional Sales Channels
  • Step 6: Ensure your properties remain connected and in sync
  • What is synced explained >>

Activating your iPRO Channel Manager Account 

Welcome to 'Getting Started with iPRO Channel Manager,' your comprehensive guide to maximising the potential of your vacation rental business. In this first section, we'll walk you through the essential steps to set up your iPRO account. 

Let's dive in and begin unlocking the full range of features and benefits that iPRO has to offer for your holiday let management.

This guide is based on your listings being complete, if you are not sure on the content of your properties then please refer to our 'Optimising Property Listings: A Strategic Guide to Setting Up for Success'

Step 1: Do you have the right subscription?

• Go to 'Channel Manager'
• If you don't see 'Channel Manager', you will need to upgrade your subscription please contact us

NB We currently offer two connections the 'iPRO Channel Manager' and one bespoke connection 'Mr & Mrs Smith', this connection will only sync Rates, Availability and Instant Bookings.    Please note that you must have a direct contract with 'Mr & Mrs Smith' to use this connection.

Step 2: Add iPRO Channel Manager & Complete Registration Form

• Go to 'Connections' and click 'Add New Connection'
• You will need to complete the licence and merchant details to be able to successfully list and sell on the major sales channels. This information is mandatory and essential to be able to activate your accounts on the 3rd party sales channels.
• YOU MUST COMPLETE ALL THE INFORMATION LISTED BELOW BEFORE CONTINUING

• Once you have completed the form, you can click 'Continue'

Step 3: iPRO Channel Manager Behaviour & Rules

Sync Discounts - Yes / No

The first option is whether you want to 'Sync Discounts', it maybe that you wish to keep your discounts to only your website clients and use different promotions on the different sales channels.

Payment Provider

You will need to set your payment provider, as if you are processing payments using a virtual card ??????????

'How do we handle the booking if the channel price is less than the website price?'

This option allows you to set how iPRO will interpret the amount the guest has paid for the accommodation part of the booking, it is important to understand that due to uplifting prices and the charges applied for the 'Host Fee' by the 3rd party sales channel, the prices will not match with what the guest would have paid if they booked directly with you.

IMPORTANT: iPRO will add an extra automatically that is set to 'Host FEE', this is the charge that the 3rd Party Sales Channel has charged for providing the booking

Option 1: Set booking price to match the channel price

In this scenario, we will set the price of the accommodation to match the amount that the 3rd party sales channel has provided as the price the guest has paid.  This means you will not be able to track any discounts or increases due to the various discounts and uplifts applied

Option 2: Apply a discount and set commission based on net price (Recommended)

In this scenario, we will apply a discount to the booking so that the accommodation cost is set to what we expected if they had booked direct.  The discount however will impact the amount we pay the owner, as we will calculate our commission based on the rental amount - the discount.  Hence the commission is calculated based on the net accommodation amount.

Option 3: Apply a discount and deduct it from the agency commission

In this scenario, we will apply a discount to the booking so that the accommodation cost is set to what we expected if they had booked direct.  The discount however will impact the commission we have earned from the booking, as we will deduct the discount from the calculated commission for the booking.  If you earned £500 commission but the discount was set to £200, the total commission earned for the booking will be £300.

Please select the extra we should assign when the sale price is higher than booking direct, this will be used to cover the uplift in price

If the booking, is higher than expected after the host fee and any mandatory extras.  Then iPRO will automatically assign the additional earnings to the extra 'OTA Markup'.  This will be an additional income for the booking and will increase your commission.  This extra can be configured like any other extra. (see configuring extras)

Cancellation Policy

While many of the Sales Channels have their own customised cancellation policies i.e Strict, Super Strict, Relaxed.  Some do not and therefore you can set your default rules here.

We would recommend something like the following:

Number of days to arrival from

You need to start from 1 day before check in, meaning that this canncellation policy is valid up to the day before check in

Number of days to arrival to

How many days away from check in does this cancellation policy cover, in the example above we have up to 56 days before check in where the cancellation policy is 100%

The second row starts from 1 day after the last day of the first cancellation policy, and it ends on 365 days before check in.  So in this example we have a 30% of the full rental amount that is payable if you cancel you booking outside of 56 days before check in and inside of 365 days before check in.

If you cancel more than a year in advance then the cancellation incurs no cost and any monies paid are refunded back to the guest.

Please note that you can create more rows with different percentages however the simpler you make this the more likely you are to attract more guests.

Step 4: Create your account and sync your properties

Once you have completed the configuration and rules, you are able to choose which properties you would like distribute via the 'iPRO Channel Manager'

Once you have selected your properties you can click 'Assign', this will activate your account and will push the properties to the channel manager so you can start the distribution task.  This is connecting to either new sales channels or mapping your properties to your existing listings on sites such as Airbnb and Booking.com

Step 5: Connect properties to your chosen sales channels

Our sales channel connection process allows you to create and agree specific terms and conditions with the chosen sales channels 

• The 'Distribution' tab, here you have access to all the sales channels we work with.
• Hover over the sales channel and click the 'Connect' button
• You can now follow the onscreen instructions and prompts, please read all points very carefully to ensure you configure successfully

>> Connecting to Airbnb

>> Connecting to Booking.com

>> Connecting to VRBO

>> Connecting to Expedia

>> Connecting to Google Travel

>> Connecting to Homes & Villas

>> Connecting to TUI Villas

>> Connecting to Additional Sales Channels

Step 6: Ensure your properties remain connected and in sync

• The iPRO dashboard will show all properties and allow you to see if there are any sync errors 

Next, ensure your data-readiness >>