I’m struggling to understand what each of the above are and how they differ from one another in definition and function........in the simplest way possible :)
It's a complicated issue. Take a look at this support doc and see if it helps:
https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/channel-management-overview
This one is more specific:
https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/channel-management-technical-terms-api-ota-syncing-mapping
Okay so I’ve read the info and tried my best to understand it without getting overwhelmed. So here’s my take away...........
1. Channel management is a concept or service/category used by me to work with my channel listings.
2. Under the category of Channel Management, API Integration and Channel Bridge are two of the tools used to make sure information is shared and/or synced between OR and the channels.
3. API Integration shares my listing info both ways, ie rates, photos, etc.
4. Channel Bridge shares additional listing info both ways such as renter info, reviews, etc
Have I got the gist of it?
As a follow up question to this, if my listing sites differ in content from OR, which one will my info default to?
Yep, that's basically it!
The content question depends on if you're API integrated or not. If you go API integrated, then the content will come from OR and overwrite what you have in the listing site. Airbnb lets you do a partial integration where rates and availability come from OwnerRez and your content comes from Airbnb -- that's called Limited mode.