Free hotel resourceLaunch checklist
The direct-booking launch checklist.
A practical direct-booking launch checklist for independent hotels: inventory, rates, payments, confirmations, cancellations, recovery and website conversion. Use it before the first real reservation and after every material connector change.
Eight accountable launch gatesCollect the hotel facts once.
Download the versioned worksheet before setup. It gives the hotel and its launch owner one place to confirm room identity, rates, policies, media rights, inventory authority, guest contact and recovery ownership. Duplicate the room-type and exact-room rows for every sellable unit; keep internal fields out of public copy.
- Booking and exact-room identifiers
- Public facts and internal ownership separated
- Recovery dates and source owners included
Choose one inventory authority
Name the PMS, channel manager or controlled booking database that decides whether a room is sellable. Every direct and OTA update must reconcile with that source before launch.
- Property and room identifiers mapped
- Timezone and sellable dates verified
- OTA connection tested separately
Prove every room night
Availability is a set of nights, not a single room count. A booking must reserve the same exact room for every night and reject concurrent attempts safely.
- Overlapping stays tested
- Retries create one reservation
- Out-of-order rooms stay closed
Make the final price final
Show currency, taxes, inclusions, supplements and cancellation terms before payment. The stored reservation keeps the rate version used at checkout.
- Total matches confirmation
- Rate changes are traceable
- No automatic add-ons
Keep card data with the provider
Use hosted payment fields and let the hotel receive the funds through its approved provider account. Store references and status — never raw card numbers.
- Provider fee shown separately
- Failed and abandoned payments tested
- Refund responsibility agreed
Give the stay one identity
The guest, hotel team, payment record and support workflow must use the same stable reservation reference from confirmation through cancellation.
- Reference is unique and readable
- Confirmation can be retrieved
- Guest and hotel views agree
Exercise changes and cancellations
A booking flow is incomplete until date changes, cancellation windows, refunds and inventory release have been tested with duplicate requests and network failures.
- Cancellation is idempotent
- Inventory returns once
- Hotel receives the event
Test delivery and recovery
Confirm that hotel and guest messages are delivered, failures are visible and bookings remain recoverable if email, a provider or the application is temporarily unavailable.
- Delivery status is recorded
- Independent backup restores
- Incident owner is named
Measure the website journey
Test the path from the hotel’s Book button to confirmed reservation on real mobile and desktop connections. Measure starts, errors and confirmations without advertising profiles.
- Dates are the first action
- Core pages stay fast
- Drop-off has a clear owner
Questions before go-live.
Can an independent hotel launch without a channel manager?
Only when the hotel has one controlled source of sellable inventory and a safe operating process. Hotels selling the same rooms through several channels normally need a verified PMS or channel connection before direct booking goes live.
Should the booking page be cached?
The presentation shell can be cached, but live availability, holds, price checks and reservation writes must use current data and fail safely.
What is the most dangerous launch mistake?
Allowing more than one system to sell the last room without an atomic reservation or verified synchronisation path.
Does a successful payment mean the booking is complete?
Not by itself. Payment and reservation status must reconcile so the guest is never charged without a recoverable booking, and the hotel never confirms an unpaid stay unintentionally.
Checklist complete?