Works as expected, tons of integrations

Simplifies my life, a lot.

Pros

Tons of integrations, at a pretty much fixed price. Lots of others charges per reservation, per connection, or whatever, but Siteminder only charges per room. Nothing else. It's super clear and transparent. Interface is fairly easy to use. I especially like that you can choose to resend a failed reservation, which usually fixes any problems. In general, Siteminder rarely causes problems, and there's very little I need to contact support about.

Cons

It still functions as a middle-man. Lots of new PMSs are offering integrated Channel Managers, and they will be more native, which will inherently have an advantage over traditional Channel Managers. Another thing is there support is super slow. You have to submit a ticket and wait for them to get back to you. Good thing though is that there is VERY little I had ever needed to contact them about. A few connections I'd like to see a better connection with, in particular HostelWorld and HotelTonight.

Great channel manager & user-friendly

The property I manage online is displaying live availability 24/7 across many channels, including Airbnb which is becoming a popular OTA. Room rates can easily be adjusted for specific periods. Overall this is one of best systems ever and very user friendly, which is very important.

Pros

It is so easy to setup; from adding a new channel to the mapping process. Rates can easily be configured for specific room types and channels, unlike others which are not so flexible.

Cons

Does not have HBSi connectivity. Some channels such as Flight Centre, Apple Leisure Group/Mark Travel Corporation connect via HBSi and I am using Synxis for this.

Flaky product, never make any improvements, terrible customer service

I would never recommend this to anyone. The support is awful, they have little idea about the product. Honestly, it is easier to muck about with it yourself and find the solution on your own than call a useless support team who rarely know what they are doing. I don't think I've ever called and found them to be useful. There is no one in charge, you cannot speak to anyone in authority to get anything done and they refuse point blank to deal with any suggestions, let alone complaints. They do not give two hoots about their customers' experience. Every time the money comes out of my bank each month I feel sick. I literally hate paying them. I can't wait to find an alternative. Till then better the devil you know.

Pros

The chanel manager works and makes it easy to manage mutiple selling platfroms.

Cons

I have been using this for 2 years and in that time they have made not one single improvement to anything. I buy a suite of products. Little Hotelier (back office) Siteminder (Channel Manager) and The Booking Button (online reservation booking engine) Little hotelier is a terrible product. I was guaranteed when I signed up that there would be a major update to this software, but there has been nothing. not one single thing to improve it. This platform looks and functions like it was built to run on windows 95. It is terrible. The booking button lacks functionality. It works in part, but they never make any improvements. One major thing is that you cant translate promotions, so you are stuck with the one language that you use to set up the majority. You can translate most screens, but not promotions. I reported this issue in 2018 and was guaranteed that it would be looked into, but a year later and it is exactly the same. The iPhone app is one of the worst apps I've ever used. I've tried to give feedback on it, but it falls on deaf ears. They literally do not care about their customers.

Very user friendly.

Pros

We were looking for one product with which to manage our inventory for several different OTAs. This is what SiteMinder does beautifully. We are also able to offer unique specials on our own site by using Channel Manager as our booking engine.

Cons

The only criticism is minor. When using the calendar feature in the RESERVATIONS menu to jump to a specific date, after entering the start date, you must also go back to the last calender and page forward to the required finish date. For example, if it is Feb and you want to look at arrivals in August, after selecting the "From Date" of 08/01, the "To Date" does not automatically change to August, but remains in Feb until manually moved to August.

SiteMinder Proper is Good, GDS...not so much

SiteMinder proper is a positive experience.

Pros

The flat fee makes it easy to budget and not have to analyze/verify/reconcile every month.

Cons

The SiteMinder program works well. My praises for GDS by SiteMinder are less, as its major functionality flaw for me is that travel agent information does not load into my reservations, creating a nightmare to keep staff trained and abreast of how to work-around this major deficiency.