If you need to pause or stop taking direct bookings, you can apply stop sells, set your booking engine to enquiry only, or remove your direct booking rates from your booking engine completely.
⚠️ Direct Booking is not managed via Distribution > Channels — there is no channel settings page to disable like other OTA channels. Although Direct Booking appears under My channels, clicking the ellipsis button and selecting Go to Direct booking rates takes you to Direct booking > Rates, not a channel settings page. Direct rates for your SiteMinder booking engine are managed via the Direct booking tab.
Apply a stop sell
A stop sell closes availability for your direct booking rates on specific dates.
⚠️ If you have a PMS, RMS, or CRS connected to SiteMinder that syncs stop sells, update your stop sells in your PMS/RMS/CRS instead, not via Distribution > Inventory.
If you have no connected PMS/RMS/CRS, or your system doesn't sync stop sells, make a bulk update in the inventory grid:
Go to Distribution > Inventory.
Find the room rate and click the down arrow next to the room rate to see all linked rates.
Find the direct booking rate then click the Rates down arrow.
Select Stop sell from the dropdown menu.
Tick the checkbox for each date you want to close.
Click Save changes.
Exclude specific dates a direct rate can be sold
If you want to limit a direct rate to stop selling on certain dates rather than closing availability for all dates, use Applicable dates (also called stay dates). You can set multiple date ranges, select specific days of the week, or exclude a date range.
Set up Applicable dates when you create or edit a direct rate plan in Rooms and rates > Rate plans.
💡 Applicable dates set in the rate plan apply to your booking engine only. Specific times or hours of the day are not supported.
Set your booking engine to enquiry only
Setting your booking engine to enquiry only replaces the Book now button with an Enquiry button. Guests can still see your availability but need to submit a form to request a booking rather than booking instantly.
To set your booking engine to enquiry only:
Go to Direct booking > Configuration > Guest display options > Enquiry settings.
Tick Allow enquiry only.
Add a customised message in the text field. This message displays above the enquiry form on your booking engine.
Enquiries are sent to the e-mail address set in Direct booking > Configuration > Guest communications > Enquiry e-mail.
Suspend your direct booking rates
Suspending your direct booking rates removes them from your booking engine. Your rates remain in the Active list in Direct booking > Rates with a blue Suspended label, and you can reactivate them at any time without losing your previous configuration.
To suspend your direct booking rates:
Go to Direct booking > Rates.
Click the Active tab.
Use the Rate plans dropdown or checkboxes to select the rates you want to suspend.
Click the Actions button and select Suspend rates.
Suspend Demand Plus
If you have Demand Plus active, you can pause or suspend Demand Plus to stop your rates from appearing on Google Hotel Ads, TripAdvisor, and Trivago.
To pause or suspend Demand Plus:
Log in to your platform (desktop version).
Go to Distribution > Demand Plus.
Click Pause Demand Plus under More information.
Select Suspend or Pause.