MANAGEMENT OF ON-LINE SALES CHANNELS AT HOTELS: CHANNEL MANAGER SYSTEM

Abstract

Rapid development of technology has caused a dramatic change at marketing and purchase types of products in the last 20 years. This change which is also characterized by the growing rates of internet usage and online sales has affected hotel enterprises like all other business. Especially, intensive usage and accessibility of internet has established a dynamic web based platform where the hotel enterprises can easily market their services in which the consumers can access those services quickly, easily and cheaply. These web-based platforms named as on-line sales channels (OSCs) show an upward trend as an alternative to traditional marketing. However, today OSCs have become comparable for both end-users and channel managers as a result of the growing number of such platforms. And this fact has made the knowledge standardization obligatory in terms of marketing ethics, marketing style and on-line sales agreement. At this point, Channel Manager System (CMS) has become as a way of knowledge standardization for the hotel enterprises. Usage of CMS has made the management of relevant processes easier by enabling fast & easy update of necessary information, pictures, daily activities and prices in hotels. Within this context, this study examines contributions and amenities of CMS in terms of OSCs with an application which is currently used in a thermal hotel.