This article will guide you through the process of getting your ThinkReservations account connected with Booking.com.
Prerequisites
The following are required before you can connect your ThinkReservations account to your Booking.com account:
Make sure you have an active Booking.com account that you can log into.
Your prepayment (deposit) policy is set up the way you would like on Booking.com.
Your Room Types are set up on Booking.com for every room type you have in ThinkReservations that you would like to share with Booking.com.
To see your room types within ThinkReservations, please go to Settings > Rate Types under the Room Configuration heading > Click on any of your available rate types > Scroll to the 'Room Types' area of the 'Rate Qualifiers' section.
If you charge additional guest fees, you will need to go to Booking.com's Extranet > Click on Rates & Availability> Calendar > Click the icon that looks like a person with the word 'Set-up' next to it > Set your 'Base occupancy' > Click Next > On the 'Edit pricing per guest' screen, you'll be able to turn on the price for each other option outside of the value you selected as your 'Base occupancy'.
NOTE: If your room type has a base occupancy of two but a max occupancy of four and each person above two is $25.00 extra, you'll need to make sure you set the option for three people to have a price of $25.00 and the fourth person to have a price of $50.00, etc...
Recommendations and Information
Setting a "Custom name" in your Booking.com Room Details page for each room.
Understand that ThinkReservations does not send booking engine settings to Booking.com
Using your Booking.com Extranet, follow the steps below to get to Provider Confirmation.
Step 1: Setting up your Booking.com account
If you do not have a relationship with Booking.com yet, go to https://join.booking.com/ and sign up. During the sign-up process, if you are asked, "Do you work with a Channel Manager?" please be sure to mark "Yes."
Your Booking.com market manager can help you set up your account. During the process, you will need to create your rooms on Booking.com -- in most cases, you will want a separate room on Booking.com for each room on ThinkReservations unless you have distinct room types that you offer (e.g., King Bed, Deluxe King Bed, etc.), and you have those same room types set up in ThinkReservations. It is also good practice to get your "property page score" as high as possible, as this affects things like where your property appears in search results.
Important: Please be sure that your information on Booking.com is set up correctly, paying special attention to the following, as they are not synced or connected to ThinkReservations:
Deposit/Prepayment Policy
Cancellation Policy
Meal Plan
Minimum/Maximum notice for online reservations
Room Occupancy or bed configurations
Child occupancy or fees for children
Extra guest fees/Derived pricing
Room photos and descriptions
Step 2: Connecting your Booking.com account to ThinkReservations
Once your Booking.com account is set up and ready to go, you can connect it to ThinkReservations as your Channel Manager by following the instructions below.
Pro Tip: If you like, we would be happy to schedule a 30-minute meeting with you to get connected.
Please log in to your Booking.com Extranet and follow these steps:
Click the circle Account button on the top right, and then Connectivity Provider.
You may be prompted to authorize the account again.
Next, click the blue Start button if you are not connected to an existing system. If you are currently connected to another provider, you will need to deactivate that connection first; then, you will see the blue Start button.
Then, you will be able to complete Booking.com's five steps to confirm the connection:
Click on the Search for Providers field and type "Think." Click on the blue box below that says, "Think Reservations (Think Reservations)." Ensure that the connection type is a Full Connection (two-way), and then click the blue Next button.
Make sure to clear the checkbox labeled "Content & Photos." You will manage content and photos for your Booking.com account directly on Booking.com.Accept the XML Service Agreement. After you have read and accepted the agreement, check the box and then click the blue Accept button.
Waiting for Provider Confirmation: Once you accept the agreement, ThinkReservations needs to confirm the connection and set up the mappings.
To set up the mapping, please click here and make an appointment with a member of our OTA team. During this call, be prepared to provide ThinkReservations with your Booking.com mapping information so we can link the rooms you have on Booking.com with the rooms you have in ThinkReservations and synchronize your rates. We can also help you create your OTA Rate in ThinkReservations if you don't already have one.
Once these actions are complete, go back to the Channel Manager section in your Booking.com Extranet to refresh the page. (We will walk you through this over the phone.)For the next step, "Confirm," Read the note displayed and then click the blue I confirm the connection with provider Think Reservations button. This will establish the connection to ThinkReservations! This step is typically done with ThinkReservations on the phone.
After a few seconds, your status will update to "XML Connection currently active". Now, ThinkReservations can push rates, restrictions, and availability to Booking.com.
Once complete, your XML Rate Plans on Booking will be synchronized between ThinkReservations and Booking.com automatically with your OTA Rate in ThinkReservations. When a new/modified/canceled reservation comes in from Booking.com, the reservation will immediately be reflected on ThinkReservations.
Step 3: Working with your OTA Rate
The rates, restrictions, and availability that we send to Booking.com come from one or more rate types in ThinkReservations.
If you want to adjust the pricing that is sent to Booking.com, you will adjust the rates in ThinkReservations in your OTA Rate. You won't manage your pricing on Booking.com. Similarly, if you want to adjust your restrictions like minimum nights, you will do so in ThinkReservations, not in Booking.com. If a room/date combination does not have pricing set (the box in the OTA rate is empty), then we will show your room as sold out on Booking.com. Depending on how many rate types you have on Booking.com, you may have multiple OTA Rates to match in ThinkReservations. Note that only XML Rate Plans are eligible to by synchronized to ThinkReservations, and non-XML rate types won't have restrictions in sync.
> To verify the rate types you have set up in Booking.com, log into the admin.booking.com extranet. From there, you can select Rates & Availability > Rate Plans
> To verify what rate plans in ThinkReservations are mapped - or linked - to the room types and rate plans you have in Booking.com, navigate to ThinkReservations > Settings > Booking.com. If you are logged in, click here.
> If you see a warning message that says: The occupancy for this room does not match Booking.com, then please check the Maximum Occupants listed for that room type on Booking.com does not exceed the occupancy settings in ThinkReservations.
NOTE
ThinkReservations requires that you have the channel manager module to connect to Booking.com
Disclaimer: The articles providing help or instructions on third-party systems are provided in our effort to assist you.
Please note that ThinkReservations does not own or maintain these third-party systems, or your account for these systems. Changes made by third-party providers may render the instructions inaccurate.
We recommend cross-referencing with official third-party documentation to ensure up-to-date guidance. Thank you for understanding.