Welcome to Brance's blog series, where we explore the world of hotel channel managers. Today, we're focusing on Vertical Booking, a channel manager that has garnered attention for its comprehensive features. But beyond the buzz, how does it perform? 

We've thoroughly looked into Vertical Booking on several parameters, offering a detailed perspective on its strengths and weaknesses by reviewing each parameter.

In short, the tool scores fantastic on ease of use, customer support, and operations management, with positive scores of 81%, 88%, and 75% from users. It's not all rainbows, of course, as marketing visibility and reporting analytics still leave much to be desired. Before we jump into the complete review, though, let’s look at the review parameters.

Our Channel Manager Review Parameters You Can Trust

As part of our review policy, we’d like to state that our reviews were created using an AI analysis. Then, we went through the whole review for any inaccuracies before editing it for clarity and crispness.

Moreover, we’ve picked specific parameters, like ‘price,’ for example, that best demonstrate a channel manager's performance. We then judged our review of the channel manager's performance against these parameters. 

Here are all the parameters we have picked:

Parameter | Positive | Negative | Ok

--- | --- | --- | ---

Ease of Use | 81% | 13% | 6%

Technical Reliability | 56% | 25% | 19%

Customer Support | 88% | 9% | 3%

Price | 83% | 17% | 0%

Operations Management | 75% | 25% | 0%

Integration | 73% | 19% | 8%

Revenue Management | 100% | 0% | 0%

Marketing Visibility | 25% | 75% | 0%

Reporting Analytics | 0% | 40% | 60%

As you can see, the tool handles some parameters, like ease of use and revenue management, exceptionally well. However, for others, there is a long way to go to show any improvement. 

1. Ease of Use 

| Positive | Negative | Ok  |

|----------|----------|-----|

| 81%  | 12%      | 7%  | 

Positives: 

Vertical Booking is straightforward to get used to. It's no wonder it receives an 81% positive score in this department. 

For example, users appreciate its extensive customization options, including rate plans, room types, and policies. Then there’s also the user-friendly interface that facilitates quick and correct work execution, and the centralized control of multiple channels from one screen is a significant plus. Secondly, the channel manager's ease of connection and management, along with the CRS's user-friendliness for creating and managing bookings and offers, are highly praised. 

The calendar option, which allows for quick rate changes across platforms and seamless integration with business operations, makes it a favorite among users. 

In other words, you don’t have to worry too much about training staff; the tool is minimalistic and well-designed enough to do this independently.‍

Negatives: ‍

There are some prominent areas for improvement, as the negative and Ok reviews reveal. From our research, it currently stands at 12% and 7%, respectively.

The database search functions for guest profiles are inadequate when searching with limited information. Resizing images for the booking engine and the image upload process are cumbersome and not user-friendly. 

Setting up discount codes is more complex than necessary, and the software layout is not intuitive, making it hard to locate specific functions. 

Users also experience significant difficulty in operating the software at times. 

2. Technical Reliability 

| Positive | Negative | Ok  |

|----------|----------|-----|

| 56%  | 25%      | 19%  | 

Positives: 

Vertical Booking's technical reliability is another area where Vertical Booing excels; it receives a positive score of  56% here.

For example, it can help you manage multiple channels efficiently and quickly, reflecting price revisions across all channels. Moreover, as the reviews suggest, the channel manager operates without specific issues and is reliable for managing limited inventory. 

Its robust connectivity with OTAs and provision of a competent and cutting-edge security solution are notable. Similarly, the technical staff's promptness and effectiveness in resolving issues are highlighted beyond everything. 

Negatives: 

The technical reliability also requires a complete overhaul—the online reviews give it a 25% negative and a 19% satisfactory rating. As the negative and satisfactory reviews show, some places also require critical reform to the tool. 

For one, Inntopia clients experience a host of loading issues, and updates on availability between PMS and Channel Manager are slow. Short login sessions cause frequent logouts and integration with Opera PMS also needs rapid improvement and a workaround. 

The booking engine, for instance, also has multiple functional issues—indicating clear areas where technical reliability could be worked upon. 

3. Customer Support 

| Positive | Negative | Ok  |

|----------|----------|-----|

| 88%  | 9%       | 3%  |‍

Positives: 

Customer support is a strong suit for Vertical Booking, with an 88% positive user score proving this fact beyond all doubt.

Local support teams understand the business and area, and the presence of former hoteliers on the customer service team enhances solution effectiveness. One review mentions the timely technical support from the Turkish sales team and responsive customer service with quick solution implementation. 

The easily accessible support team, which provides efficient service and training on extranet features offered by customer service, is also praised. ‍

Negatives: 

However, the response time for urgent issues needs improvement, and customer service lacks Spanish language support. Support is slow to resolve issues, and challenges exist due to time zone differences. 

Many reviews point out the lack of genuine 24-hour support in the US market as a notable drawback.

4. Price 

| Positive | Negative | Ok  |

|----------|----------|-----|

| 83%  | 17%      | 0%  | ‍

Positives: ‍

The price, more than anything, is a significant boost to Vertical Booking’s offerings. It is considered favorable, with an 83% positive score in the collective reviews. 

The service is provided at a great price, offering a good return on investment. It is the most reasonably-priced vendor in the market, with very low pricing compared to competitors. Users appreciate the reasonable price point for the features offered, as our research has shown. ‍

Negatives: 

However, some users consider the pricing higher than competitors, which could influence renewal decisions for many people.

5. Operations Management

| Positive | Negative | Ok  |

|----------|----------|-----|

| 75%  | 25%      | 0%  |‍

Positives: 

Operations management is another place where Vertical Booking gets a 75% positive rating, as the online reviews say. 

Users particularly praise the ease of creating and managing bookings and offers and selling rooms and packages through a premium interface as a top feature. Similarly, unified management of website bookings, OTA channels, and GDS is a significant advantage for anyone in the hotel business. 

These features, taken collectively, indicate an efficient operations management that supports hoteliers in their daily tasks. ‍

Negatives: 

A significant limitation is the inability to make group reservations, and the lack of HTML support for changing mail quotations restricts customization. 

The absence of a city analysis demand feature limits market insight capabilities, and the system does not support day-use booking, affecting short-term stay opportunities.

6. Integration 

| Positive | Negative | Ok  |

|----------|----------|-----|

| 73%  | 19%      | 8%  | 

Positives: 

Vertical Booking's integration capabilities are viewed positively, as shown by a 73% score. 

Seamless integration with payment systems and business platforms, efficient online sales channel management, and complete management of reservations and distribution channels are highlighted as prominent features that make the tool stand out here. 

The all-in-one platform simplifies connectivity with external partners, and the broad selection of channels for rate and inventory distribution is another key strength, as online reviews suggest.

Negatives: 

What stands in particular in negative takes is the trouble with mapping discount codes with the PMS. Also, the inability to connect with Inntopia is problematic. 

Moreover, the limited number of connectable channels and visibility issues with discounts entered in VB are notable concerns. There’s also a lack of API documentation and the system's failure to provide SDK and code boilerplates—indicating areas for improvement in integration. 

For this reason, the tool gets a well-received 19% in its negative reviews. While the positive reviews make up the majority, another 8% are fixed at satisfactory, showing not everything is terrible with the tool.   

7. Revenue Management

| Positive | Negative | Ok  |

|----------|----------|-----|

| 100% | 0%       | 0%  |‍

Positives: 

Revenue management with Vertical Booking receives a perfect score, a flying 100%, with users noting its ability to sell at the right time with the right price. 

Profitable features for managing advantageous prices, automatic revenue rules to increase rates, and quick rate changes possible with the Calendar option are highly praised. The platform offers all the needed functionality for revenue management, helping to increase business and drive more direct bookings. 

The dynamic management of pricing and stay conditions across different channels, along with rate setup and dynamic services, helps hotels to be more competitive and provide better service to customers. 

Negatives: 

There are no reported negatives in this area, indicating complete satisfaction with Vertical Booking's revenue management capabilities.

8. Marketing Visibility

| Positive | Negative | Ok  |

|----------|----------|-----|

| 25%  | 75%      | 0%  | 

Positives: 

The tool received a meager 25% positive review, indicating much work remains to improve it to good or even average levels. 

Apart from this, the only plus point of the tool, as mentioned online, is its marketing visibility, which helps small independent hotels compete with larger chains. ‍

Negatives: 

The majority of reviews, as you probably already saw above, are negative. 

Many things are wrong with Vertical Booking. For one, booking engine customization is needed for a better user experience on mobile devices, and web, mobile, and tablet channels should be streamlined for consistency. 

Moreover, the customer-facing package section requires visual and functional improvements, indicating significant areas for enhancement in marketing visibility. 

9. Reporting Analytics

| Positive | Negative | Ok  |

|----------|----------|-----|

| 0%   | 40%  | 60%  |

‍Positives:‍

There are no positive reviews for the tool, as the online reviews show. This is a clear indication that something needs to be tweaked here. ‍

Negatives: 

On the contrary, reporting analytics gets a lot of negative reviews. 

It gets a 40% negative score, as the online collective reviews show. The technical aspects of the software could be more intuitive, and there is a lack of comprehensive documentation for VB functionalities. 

There’s also need for a model form to prepare requests for new external service connections and more precise reports is highlighted. There are other similar issues encountered with the handling of different currencies that indicate significant areas for improvement in reporting analytics.

Is Vertical Booking Channel Manager Worth the Cost?

So, what’s the point of a Vertical booking channel manager? Will it cover your costs?

Vertical Booking channel manager does exceptionally well in revenue management, integration, customer support, etc. There are prominent areas that need an overhaul, but overall, it’s a good tool that does what it says on the tin.