Syncing with Siteminder

[Jonna7]

Hi,

I have recently linked Siteminder with my AirBnB account.  Having completed the set up on the Siteminder end I have mapped the connection.  As I understand it, I now need to merge the multiple listings from within the Channel Manager Sync link.  However the properties are not showing up in Channel Manager Sync and multiple listings of the property have been auto-created in Listings.

Because the property is not visble in CHannel Manager Sync I cannot complete the final step to link the property to Siteminder.

Can ayone assist with how to resolve this?

Many thanks!

[Jayesh0 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Jonna7

I had the same problem.  I think this is a glitch in the system.  You must call Siteminder and have them unmap everything that you did and start over again.  There was also a huge time lag for me from the time I mapped to when the listing showed as ready to sync.

The support member who helped me had to access my AirBnB account so you may like to change the password so you can send it to them when they ask for it by email.  When we did it together over the phone the listing showed up ready to sync within minutes.

It's been more than a week so you may have already called them.  Hope you got it sorted out.

I have a couple of questions as well. 

When you set up the connection, did you use an existing account?  I had to split the listings onto 2 different profiles because we have 2 Siteminder accounts.  When I started connecting the brand new listings, I was given an option for the cancellation policy.  Imagine my suprise when I had the option for 30 day super strict and 60 day super strict!  I can't rember now if this was an option with the existing profile connection as well.  Did you see this too?  Looks like all the Siteminder clients can have Super Strict.  

Here is the one new listing I have done with the new cancellation policy:

https://www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/24699222

I have not figured out how to activate the guest requirement for government ID.  Do you know how to find this on the Siteminder side?  I tried setting it before syncing and it did not take.  It is not clickable once the listing is mapped.

Thanks, Lisa

[Jayesh0]

PS Don't sync the entire listing - choose the partial sync as this also has a glitch that has been making listings disappear entirely!!  

[Jayesh0]

One more thing.  If you have not called Siteminder yet, do not let them talk you into deleting one of the duplicate listings.  They wanted me to and I refused in case it wiped everything out.  It was hard to tell which was the original and which was the duplicate.  When they disconnected the channel, the extras automatically deleted themselves.

[Jonna7]

Thanks @Jayesh0, Lisa. The issue has been resolved. We did eventually need to delete the listing and start again.   It seems almost simpler to have a very basic listing on the AirBnB end, then connect, and afterwards go back and set up teh AirBnB listing.

Part of the problem we had was of our own making.  I did not realise that you can only map one rate break to one property, so the the length of stay discounting we provide on other platforms is not available on AirBnB.  This meant that Siteminder created multiple listings of the same property, which we couldn't merge and so deleted.

As you suggested I have synced the accounts on a Limited basis and am still finding my way on which end you need to adjust things like booking lead-in times, etc.  I presume the minimum and maximum stays data populates from Siteimder as I am unable to change this in AirBnB. 

The cancellation policies were also a bit tricky to resolve.  That said, the AirBnB support team were very responsive and helpful once they got eventually onto resolving our issue.

To respond to your queries - we only had one AirBnB profile to connect and have so far connected only one test property so that we can iron out the wrinkles in our internal processes before adding others.  I did get the sense that the cancellation policies changed from those I had thought I had set up.  However as I initially set up the property on AirBnB and then had to set it up again in Siteminder, it's possible both configs were not identical.

I asked Support about the Guest ID stuff and it appears only they are able to change this once the account is set up.

Thanks for your help,

Mark

[Jayesh0]

Hi @Jonna7 and Mark,

Glad you got things sorted out.  Seems like my duplicates may have come up for another reason altogether.  It was like trying to handle a slippery octopus with 50 legs!  Glad that is over!

If you want to create a length of stay discount you either have to make a whole new listing to connect to Siteminder or go to your listing and click on the pricing tab.  There are length of stay discounts, early bird discounts and last minute discounts.  At this stage I cannot say if they work correctly but at least the edit button is clickable which is not the case on all aspects of the listing so it might be worth a shot if this is something you want to do.

I did a lot of the editing on AirBnB before I did the mapping so I am not sure which site the information is coming from.  With the partial sync, I think it is mainly the pricing.  I noticed that all the photos migrated to Siteminder as I did not load all of them prior to mapping.

Did you see on the drop down box that you can have super strict 30 and super strict 60?  You are only supposed to have access to this if you do the full sync but I called and told them I would not be doing the full sync until all the bugs were out of they system and they set it up for me over the phone.  If you didn’t nominate and want it then you should give them a call.  I did set up another listing and found that this was available for existing and new accounts.  I thought it may have only be for new profiles but not so.

Don’t believe the support team about the Guest Requirements.  They assured me that there was Government ID required on every instant book now and we got a booking this morning from a guest who just signed up with no reviews and only a phone number and Facebook account.  I was leery about not being able to set this myself and had put in the house rules that you must present Government ID on arrival in case we wanted that option - so we will photograph a licence on their arrival. 

I would highly recommend that you add this to your House Rules immediately.  In the old days before Expedia bought out Wotif, you had to keep guests drivers licences on file for 2 years.  It is the only way to track back if there is an issue and I guess the big thing is that they know you can find them so it acts as a deterrent to any potential problems.  I am thinking about doing this for the BDC and Expedia Virtual Credit Card bookings too.  Makes me a bit nervous we do not have their actual card as a fall back.

You can always email hospitality@airbnb.com.  This is our email for Siteminder questions.  They take 5 business days to respond but are pretty consistent with this.

If I ever hear back about setting the guest requirements I will let you know,  Lisa