GLOSSARY
Channel Manager (CM)
Tool that syncs availability, pricing, and inventory across sales channels.
A channel manager distributes rates and availability to OTAs and sales channels, reducing overbookings and manual updates.
Channel managers like our CM platform often connect to PMS or RMS to keep inventory, restrictions, and pricing in sync across channels. They push and pull data on rates, stop-sells, allotments, and derived pricing.
Robust setups include two-way sync, channel-specific rules (length of stay, packages), and monitoring for failed updates. Good CM performance lowers overbooking risk, aligns parity across channels, and feeds accurate pickup data back to forecasting tools.
In the product
Where this term matters in operation.
The glossary is not meant to be academic. It explains the language teams use in Kotao while selling, planning, paying, reporting, and automating.
In sales
Terms like this appear inside POS, checkout, bookings, offers, and customer communication.
In back office
Finance, inventory, HR, and reporting need the same meaning so reports do not drift apart.
In integrations
APIs, imports, webhooks, and exports work better when teams use the same definitions.
Related terms.
Acquirer
Bank or payment institution that signs merchants and routes their card transactions into the card networks.
API (Application Programming Interface)
A set of rules and protocols that allows different software applications to communicate with each other.
Apple Pay
Mobile wallet by Apple that tokenizes cards for contactless and in-app payments.
BaaS (Banking as a Service)
A model where licensed banks expose banking capabilities to other companies via APIs, letting them embed accounts, cards, or payments.