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Phishing and Email Security 6 replies

Cowtown Cabins
Nov 28, 2023 8:28 AM
Joined Jun, 2021 1 post

Thanks for the heads up!

Unveiling Schlage Door Locks Powered by OwnerRez, Accompanied by Some Creepy Crawly Fixes! 102 replies

Anne S
Nov 27, 2023 3:00 PM
OR Team Member Joined Sep, 2022 178 posts

Thank you Ann!  I successfully batch updated all but one.  The one gave this error for ORB8517363:

 

 

Also, I see the template and trigger guide.  Thanks!  Thats very helpful.  I noticed in airbnb many guests don't provide their e-mail address and airbnb is eliminating the airbnb e-mails they used to provide.   

Is there a way to do a channel template so that the code is sent, as a message within airbnb?  Or are we limited to email communication only?

That's good news, Michael! I suggest that you reach out to the OR Helpdesk if you are not able to sort out the door lock code for ORB8517363.

This support doc, Request Airbnb Guest Contact Information, addresses gathering Airbnb guest emails. And yes, you can configure either an Email Template or a Channel Template to send guest door codes.

Unveiling Schlage Door Locks Powered by OwnerRez, Accompanied by Some Creepy Crawly Fixes! 102 replies

Michael V
Nov 27, 2023 2:16 PM
Joined Mar, 2019 7 posts

Thank you Ann!  I successfully batch updated all but one.  The one gave this error for ORB8517363:

 

 

Also, I see the template and trigger guide.  Thanks!  Thats very helpful.  I noticed in airbnb many guests don't provide their e-mail address and airbnb is eliminating the airbnb e-mails they used to provide.   

Is there a way to do a channel template so that the code is sent, as a message within airbnb?  Or are we limited to email communication only?

Unveiling Schlage Door Locks Powered by OwnerRez, Accompanied by Some Creepy Crawly Fixes! 102 replies

Anne S
Nov 27, 2023 9:39 AM
OR Team Member Joined Sep, 2022 178 posts

I just setup the integration with one property as a 'test case'.  

 

I have two questions:

1.  Existing reservations don't seem to have door codes assigned.  Is this only for new reservations?  If so, Is there a way to proactivly assign codes to existing reservations?  (I set it to use last 4 of phone number).  I read you can see the codes on the booking pages but I am not finding them.  Can you share a screenshot where to find them on the bookings?

2.  Will I need to setup a template/trigger for this?  If so, can you please share the shortcodes so I can link to the code in the template.  A basic example would be helpful such as:  Hi XXX.  Please use the code XXX to gain access to the lock". 

 

Thanks!

Michael,

1. Yes, you can follow the instructions on the Batch Update Codes on Multiple Bookings section to add codes to your existing reservations. You can see the Door Codes set on individual bookings on the Booking Overview > General Info > Door Code.

Booking Overview > General Info > Door Code2. Yes, follow the instructions on Showing/Sending Codes To Guests to create your own Template and Trigger.

Unveiling Schlage Door Locks Powered by OwnerRez, Accompanied by Some Creepy Crawly Fixes! 102 replies

Michael V
Nov 26, 2023 9:28 PM
Joined Mar, 2019 7 posts

I just setup the integration with one property as a 'test case'.  

 

I have two questions:

1.  Existing reservations don't seem to have door codes assigned.  Is this only for new reservations?  If so, Is there a way to proactivly assign codes to existing reservations?  (I set it to use last 4 of phone number).  I read you can see the codes on the booking pages but I am not finding them.  Can you share a screenshot where to find them on the bookings?

2.  Will I need to setup a template/trigger for this?  If so, can you please share the shortcodes so I can link to the code in the template.  A basic example would be helpful such as:  Hi XXX.  Please use the code XXX to gain access to the lock". 

 

Thanks!

Phishing and Email Security 6 replies

Paul W
Nov 22, 2023 4:18 PM
OR Team Member Joined Jun, 2009 873 posts

So, look for OwnerRez versus Owner-Rez?  What are other common names used by phfishers?

The primary domain name we use now is ownerreservations.com.  That, or any subdomain in front of it, like these, is fine:

app.ownerrez.com
www.ownerrez.com
api.ownerrez.com

We also own and manage others like these:

ownerrez.com
orez.io

So if you see those, that's correct as well.  That first one ownerrez.com is going to become the primary pretty soon, and everything will run under that.  There will be a very loud announcement when that happens.  You might have noticed that our email addresses have already switched to that.

It's the mangled versions of those that others buy and try to use like:

ownersrez.com (note the middle "s")
ownerres.com (note the trailing "s" instead of "z")
owner-rez.com (note the middle dash)

And many others.  This is another reason we are moving to ownerrez.com.  In addition to being shorter and easier to read, it matches our name exactly, so there's no room for confusion.

Phishing and Email Security 6 replies

KAY-FAR
Nov 22, 2023 1:04 PM
Joined Nov, 2022 7 posts

Wow!  I saw this posted on Facebook and had been wondering what this was about.  Thanks for the article.

Unveiling Schlage Door Locks Powered by OwnerRez, Accompanied by Some Creepy Crawly Fixes! 102 replies

Anne S
Nov 22, 2023 10:47 AM
OR Team Member Joined Sep, 2022 178 posts

Feature Request for next Schlage integration update!! 

We have been having issues with our locks disconnecting randomly - seems to happen if the wifi goes out or has an issue. We only find out that the lock is disconnected once the guest arrives and... their code didn't get programmed because the lock was disconnected. 

It would be REAL helpful if there was an email or a notification that went out as soon as the lock experienced a connection issue so that we could troubleshoot proactively ASAP. Maddeningly there doesn't seem to be this feature on the Schlage app... but if OwnerRez could send out an email notification as soon as a lock had a connection issue, that would be extremely helpful in preventing very stressful guest moments.

If anyone knows of a better way to deal with this that currently exists, I'm all ears!

Thank you for the feedback DesertCompass. I see that you have already added this to the Schlage Encode Feature Request. That is a frustrating situation, for sure. Have you been able to troubleshoot your wifi connectivity issues?

You might want to keep an eye on our upcoming Igloohome and Hubitat integrations. Igloohome products are designed to work offline, using their "algoPINs" (short for algorithmic PIN). The Hubitat integration is unique because it is not a lock brand but rather a home automation hub for people with Zigbee or Z-wave devices (low-energy wireless communication protocol). 

Phishing and Email Security 6 replies

Katherine E
Nov 22, 2023 10:33 AM
Joined Sep, 2017 3 posts

So, look for OwnerRez versus Owner-Rez?  What are other common names used by phfishers?

Unveiling Schlage Door Locks Powered by OwnerRez, Accompanied by Some Creepy Crawly Fixes! 102 replies

Kelly M
Nov 21, 2023 5:53 PM
Joined Apr, 2021 27 posts

Feature Request for next Schlage integration update!! 

We have been having issues with our locks disconnecting randomly - seems to happen if the wifi goes out or has an issue. We only find out that the lock is disconnected once the guest arrives and... their code didn't get programmed because the lock was disconnected. 

It would be REAL helpful if there was an email or a notification that went out as soon as the lock experienced a connection issue so that we could troubleshoot proactively ASAP. Maddeningly there doesn't seem to be this feature on the Schlage app... but if OwnerRez could send out an email notification as soon as a lock had a connection issue, that would be extremely helpful in preventing very stressful guest moments.

If anyone knows of a better way to deal with this that currently exists, I'm all ears!

Phishing and Email Security 6 replies

Rex C
Nov 20, 2023 6:48 PM
OR Team Member Joined Aug, 2021 71 posts

OwnerWebs was not phishing, that was advertising spam. They were not trying to get your credentials, just trying to sell you their website design service. 


However, that is an unauthorized use of the Inquiry system and we have blocked their domain from submitting any further inquiries.

Phishing and Email Security 6 replies

Creekside Stayz
Nov 20, 2023 6:17 PM
Joined Dec, 2020 3 posts

Like OwnerWebs contacting me?

More Instant OwnerRez Email Alerts Added, and Enhanced Channel Sync Action Filters 0 replies

Anne S
Nov 20, 2023 2:02 PM
OR Team Member Joined Sep, 2022 178 posts

Get ready to click and save on this Cyber Monday! 💵

But before you unleash your inner shopping ninja to conquer the virtual aisles, check out this product update that details our November 22nd release with 7 updates, including More Instant OwnerRez Email Alerts and Enhanced Channel Grids.

Enhancements & Tweaks

More Instant Email Alerts Added

After the September 20th release of the Immediate 2-Factor Authentication Email and SMS Alerts worked out so well, we decided that we should configure the system to send a couple more email alerts more instantly to help with user workflows. These new instant email alerts include the Forgot Password Reset and Channel Message Is Received (e.g., Airbnb, Vrbo) Alerts.

Additionally, the email alert subject for Two-Factor authentication (2FA) now displays the verification code at the beginning of the subject line for increased visibility on mobile devices.

2-factor Authentication Email Alert Subject Displays the Verification Code at the Beginning of the Subject Line

Enhanced Channel Sync Action Filters

Digging into the Sync Actions of your API-connected listing channels has been made easier by the addition of new Filter options.

Here's how the API-connected listing channel > Sync Actions tab > Filter appeared before, with only the option to filter by property.

Old OwnerRez API-connected Listing Channel Filter

The new API-connected listing channel > Sync Actions tab > Filter has multiple new filter options for filtering for the following.

  • 34 Listing Channel Sync Actions, including Listing Updated and Photos Updated, to name just a few
  • Limit the dates of the Listing Channel Sync Actions by selecting the Date after and the Date before
  • Filter the Listing Channel Sync Actions by Errors

New OwnerRez API-connected Listing Channel Sync Actions Filter

Users can filter their own API-connected listing channel sync actions by navigating to Settings > their specific API-connected listing channel > the Sync Actions tab > Filter.

Filter the API-connected listing channel sync actions by navigating to Settings > their specific API-connected listing channel > the Sync Actions tab > Filter.

Bug Fixes

Damage Protection Settings Page Should Scroll to Bottom When Showing Affected Bookings. Newly affected bookings were correctly listed on the Start Damage Protection Coverages page, but the display was incorrectly loading to the middle of the affected bookings list. We have resolved this glitch so that newly affected bookings displayed are correctly scrolled to the bottom on the Start Damage Protection Coverages page.

Include $0 Bookings in Booking Detail ADR Calc. The Booking Detail Report and the Booking Summary Report displayed different Average Daily Rent Totals calculations due to the exclusion of $0 bookings in the Booking Summary Report. OR fixed this bug by now, including $0 bookings in Average Daily Rent Totals calculations for both the Booking Detail Report and the Booking Summary Report.

Rate Calendar Changeover Modal Typo on Mobile. The Changeover Rule modal displayed a typo "Rule Rule" when users selected dates from the Rate Calendar and then clicked Changeover Rule in the Set menu on a mobile device. We have corrected the typo on the Rate Calendar Changeover modal to now correctly display "Set Changeover Rule for X dates" for mobile devices.

Send Delete to Integrated Locks That Allow it When Booking is Canceled. Integrated door codes were deleted from our system when a booking was canceled. Still, even if supported, we failed to send a delete request to the integrated door lock partner, which resulted in the codes remaining active on the lock. We corrected this glitch and, if supported by the integrated door lock partners, deleted door codes from canceled bookings will be passed appropriately.

Show Validation Message on Disable/Delete Property Fail. When users tried to disable or delete a property and encountered an error, those error messages did not display correctly. OR has resolved the issue, and any errors occurring during disabling or deleting a property will display a valid error message.

Search Messaging Template Bodies, Image Source Additions for Hosted Site Blog Sharing, New Zealand Holidays 2 replies

Anne S
Nov 15, 2023 12:41 PM
OR Team Member Joined Sep, 2022 178 posts

Thank you for all these updates, team. I'm particularly pumped about being able to search templates by words in the body of the message! 

by Alece – Nov 15, 2023 5:34 PM (UTC)

Our pleasure, Alece! The ability to search the template body section is definitely a great update.

Search Messaging Template Bodies, Image Source Additions for Hosted Site Blog Sharing, New Zealand Holidays 2 replies

Alece
Nov 15, 2023 12:34 PM
Joined Jan, 2020 279 posts

Thank you for all these updates, team. I'm particularly pumped about being able to search templates by words in the body of the message! 

Unveiling Schlage Door Locks Powered by OwnerRez, Accompanied by Some Creepy Crawly Fixes! 102 replies

Paul W
Nov 15, 2023 10:57 AM
OR Team Member Joined Jun, 2009 873 posts

Quick update here...  Keep your eye out for the weekly Product Update blog post, which will discuss this in more detail, but an update went out this morning that included some Schlage fixes:

  • Delete expired codes from lock
  • Make code length editable now that Schlage supports it (for locks with latest firmware)
  • Use guest name for access code name instead of ORBxxx number

Unveiling Schlage Door Locks Powered by OwnerRez, Accompanied by Some Creepy Crawly Fixes! 102 replies

Dror E
Nov 15, 2023 9:51 AM
Joined Jul, 2022 5 posts

Any update or ETA when the first entrance notification using a code would be added? 

New Profile and Account Menus, Team Alerts Added, "Announcements," and Schlage Lock Updates! 5 replies

Anne S
Nov 15, 2023 9:30 AM
OR Team Member Joined Sep, 2022 178 posts

There is nothing permanent except change.

Heraclitus

Image by Sebastiaan Heitkamp from Pixabay

Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher, believed in constant change. With our November 15th release with 17 updates, OwnerRez made some big changes, including a restructuring of the My Account area and the addition of Team Alerts. Not because we believe in constant change, but because we believe in continual improvement for our users. This is one of our largest releases this year, so hold on!

New Features

My Account Restructure and Menu Changes

Since the introduction of Team Access in 2022, users have been able to access multiple accounts with Staff access (and, before that time, Portal access). Before this change, the My Account menu/area had many things in it, some pertaining to the user logged in and some to the account. For users with access to multiple accounts, in-app navigation could be somewhat confusing (contextually speaking).

Additionally, OwnerRez made some of these changes to accommodate limited screen real estate on mobile devices in preparation for future and more extensive design updates.

Here is what it looked like before this update:

Old OwnerRez Combined Account/Profile Menu

They have been separated into their own menus to differentiate between account-level and profile-level items. These changes should help users instantly recognize what account they are accessing and see their profile items simultaneously. 

The Settings menu has been moved under the Account menu as part of these changes. Also, Team Access Staff members can no longer access the Account Billing menu option (Billing will not be an option in their Account menu).

Now, the top menu for that same account looks like this:

New OwnerRez Top Menu

The Account menu looks like this for account owners (if an Account doesn't use a Business name under Account Theming, the Account menu will say Account instead of the business name). Switch Accounts is available for users that have access to multiple accounts/portals.

The Profile menu (or My Profile menu) is now streamlined:

Some of the other items from the old My Account area/menu were moved to a new area under Settings called Advanced Tools. Team Access Staff Members do not have access to the Advanced Tools area.

The remaining items were moved/merged into the "?" drop-down in the top menu bar.

One we wanted to point out that was changed a bit was "OwnerRez Status." It was renamed "Service Status." It also now features a live status icon - if you see green with a checkmark, "all systems are go." If there is an incident, it will be yellow or red. Pretty cool!

Read the My Account Restructuring support article to learn more about the full changes.

Alerts (f.k.a. System Alerts) for Team Access Staff

My Alerts, formerly known as System Alerts, are alerts the system emails to you, the user. As a reminder, Guests do not receive these email alerts. My Alerts is now in the Profile menu (cross-linked from its old home in Settings for now).

On the My Alerts page, users can still do the following:

  • Disable Alerts button to turn off all Alerts (not recommended)
  • Change All button to de-select or select which Alerts to enable/disable.
  • Use the Action menu
    • Turn Off individual Alerts
    • Preview individual Alerts

OwnerRez My Alerts Page

Change My Alerts still operates the same way it did before, where you can turn on or off multiple alerts at once.

Change My Alerts

Now that you know where to go to get to My Alerts and see the same functionality is still present, the biggest news to share around this change is that Staff (set up under Team Access) can receive Alerts! (If you don't have Staff, feel free to scroll down to the next blog section)

As part of the My Account Restructure, the Team Access area has moved to Settings > Advanced Tools > Team Access.OwnerRez Advanced Tools < Team Access

Account users can "allow" Staff Team member Alerts at the time of invitation.

Staff Team member Alerts at the Time of Invitation

Or modify existing Staff Team members to "allow" them to receive Alerts by editing that Staff member's team access permissions.

Change Existing Staff Team Member Alerts

Account users can now turn on Staff Team member alerts for individual Staff Team members but cannot customize which alerts are sent; only Staff Team members themselves can customize their Alerts.

NOTE: If the user is a Portal user, and they are only a Portal user, they will not have Alerts in their Profile menu, as Alerts do not pertain to them as a Portal user.

Lastly, users with access to multiple accounts now select which account they want to use when adjusting the My Alerts settings. Below, My Alerts defaults to the account you own or the first account you had access to. To switch to another account, click/tap the drop-down and select the other account - in this example, Acme Vacations.

Learn more by reading the Alerts section of the My Account Restructuring support article, or stay tuned to the Alerts article that is currently under construction.

Enhancements & Tweaks

Announcements (f.k.a. Dismissed Alerts)

Announcements (formerly known as Dismissed Alerts) are an efficient way to communicate OwnerRez news and information. You're probably quite familiar by now, but if not, this is where they appear in-app:

Announcements were moved out of the old My Account menu to the "?" menu.

New OwnerRez ? Menu < Announcements

Before, "Dismissed Alerts" only showed those alerts a user dismissed themselves. That led to users not always knowing about everything that was announced if they didn't happen to log in while it was posted. So while moving it to a different menu, and renaming it, we made the area more helpful!

The Announcements enhancements include the following:

  • Announcements are displayed in reverse chronological order, with the newest announcements at the top.
  • Users can filter Announcement History by Category, with Partnerships and Product Updates being the default selection. You might be a user who cares to know about past incidents or webinars you may have missed. You can now change the filter to show those to review.

New OwnerRez Announcement History

Check out the OwnerRez Announcements support article to learn more.

Schlage Door Lock Updates

We received numerous comments and requests following the release of Schlage Door Locks Powered by OwnerRez on October 25th. Thank you for your valuable feedback. OwnerRez considered your input and made improvements to the Schlage Door Lock integration already to include the following.

  • Expired codes are deleted from the lock after expiration (taking into account any grace period configuration). There is a service that runs once an hour that will delete them off the lock. So it could happen right after expiration or up to an hour later, depending on the service's next run.
  • The door code length is now editable for locks with the latest supported Schlage firmware.
  • The access code name now displays guest names instead of the OwnerRez Booking ID (ORB########) in the Schlage Home app.

OwnerRez Schlage Door Lock Integration

Learn more by reading the Schlage support article.

Bug Fixes

Check Published Date Before Unpublishing Airbnb Listing. An Airbnb-connected property was delisted after failing three availability checks due to an OwnerRez user rapidly unpublishing and republishing the property. OR has resolved this issue and has optimized the listing status check process to prevent future unpublishing issues.

Default Phone Field to User's Country. As a followup to the October 4th Upgraded International Phone Number Input release, the system was always defaulting to United States, so we changed to detect country based on the browser being used. If the culture settings are different than the guest's, it will at least default to the user's culture settings instead of always United States.

Fix Additional Guest Phone Numbers Not Getting Saved on Quote Accept. Following the October 4th Upgraded International Phone Number Input release, additional guest phone numbers collected were not appropriately saved during the quote acceptance process when the guest selected a check or custom payment method. OR corrected this bug, and additional guest phone numbers collected during the quote acceptance process will be saved correctly when the guest selects a check or custom payment method.

Fix Check-in/out Time Formatting. Errors were caused due to formatting overrides of check-in and check-out times for non-US regions. We resolved the issue by fixing the non-US formatting overrides for check-in and check-out times and also now hide ":00" if the time format used contains AM/PM (or the culture equivalent) in field codes and a couple of other spots.

Fix Lynnbrook Deposits Import Handling of Chargeback "Reversals" (e.g., When the Host Wins a Chargeback Dispute). When the host successfully "wins" a chargeback, Lynnbrook adds an adjustment labeled "+Chargeback Reversal." However, OR incorrectly added these adjustments as a negative number, which is the opposite of what it should have been when the money was returned. We have fixed this bug, and any future "+Chargeback Reversal" will be correctly added with the fee insertion to include a description of: "Lynnbrook Group Fee ({adjustment description})."

Owner Statement Column Expense Attachments Count Should Not be Summable. It was discovered that the expense attachment counts listed in the Owner Statements Expense Attachments Count column were erroneously summable. We corrected this glitch, and expense attachment counts listed in the Owner Statements Expense Attachments Count column data type are now recognized as a text format.

Optimize Email List Report. Following the November 1st Email List Report Enhancements release that added Tags to the Email List Report, we noticed that the report was running slowly on larger data loads. It was solved by optimizing the Email List Report to handle those large data loads more effectively.

Remove Defunct Identifier Mapping for vacationrentals.com. OwnerRez has removed the identifier mapping configuration for the now-defunct vacationrentals.com.

Theme Selection on SMS Templates is Ignored. An account user with two phone numbers linked to their account set up a secondary account theme not associated with any properties and then created an SMS template with a trigger; found that when the SMS messages were sent, they came from the wrong phone number due to the SMS template set theme being ignored. OR resolved this bug, and the SMS template themes set will be sent from the correct SMS phone number.

Google Vacation Rentals: Private Beta

  • Channel Showing No Properties Label for Certain Users. Users with multiple active Google Vacation Rentals (GVR) properties had no properties listed in their GVR API integration. We fixed this glitch, and now the properties list will correctly display all active Google Vacation Rentals (GVR) properties.
  • Multiple Properties Without Property Link Page, Only Single Property Exposed Landing Page Fails. Users who created a specific GVR Booking/Inquiry widget and selected it as their GVR landing page experienced GVR landing page failures. OR solved this issue to now select the Hosted Website Book Now page as the GVR landing page for single properties and the Hosted Website property template as the GVR landing page for multiple properties.

Unveiling Schlage Door Locks Powered by OwnerRez, Accompanied by Some Creepy Crawly Fixes! 102 replies

Anne S
Nov 15, 2023 9:28 AM
OR Team Member Joined Sep, 2022 178 posts

Fixed! Thanks for all the hard work guys. I really appreciate it. 

by Nathan W – Nov 14, 2023 4:52 PM (UTC)

Our pleasure, Nathan!

Unveiling Schlage Door Locks Powered by OwnerRez, Accompanied by Some Creepy Crawly Fixes! 102 replies

Nathan W
Nov 14, 2023 11:52 AM
Joined May, 2022 4 posts

Fixed! Thanks for all the hard work guys. I really appreciate it. 

Webinar 11/20: Hopper - Travel Deal Tuesday - The Black Friday of the Travel Industry and What It Could Mean for Your Business 0 replies

Paul H
Nov 13, 2023 2:20 PM
OR Team Member Joined Oct, 2019 358 posts

Join us live with the Hopper team on November 20th at 1 PM Eastern and 10 AM Pacific time!

An introduction to Hopper Homes and Travel Deal Tuesday. Hopper is the most downloaded travel application in North America, boasting 100 million downloads. They cater to a Millenial and Gen Z audience by being an app-only OTA, allowing you to access a high lifetime value customer that travels more than any generation in history. They have recently launched a vacation rental OTA and are growing rapidly.

Founded by Hopper on the 28th of November, Travel Deal Tuesday is recognized as the best day in the post-Thanksgiving shopping period for consumers to find deals on travel, including vacation homes. It's a great time to get your listings up and running on Hopper to get an immediate advantage, receiving early bookings so that hosts can start and stay at the top of search in their respective markets. Here are some fun facts:

  • There are 2X as many deals as Black Friday or Cyber Monday combined.
  • Hopper is the most installed travel booking app GLOBALLY on Travel Deal Tuesday.
  • Hopper has 4x normal daily booking volume on this one day.
  • They send over nine million notifications about deals to users on the day.

The session is free to join, but you must use the Hopper webinar link to register.

You can find all our upcoming and past webinars on our Webinars page.

Webinar 11/14: Airbnb - Standing Out in Territories With Growing Supply 0 replies

Paul H
Nov 9, 2023 11:49 AM
OR Team Member Joined Oct, 2019 358 posts

Join us live with the Airbnb team on November 14th at 2 PM Eastern and 11 AM Pacific time!

We will discuss strategies that hosts can use to respond to recent guest trends and market dynamics. Additionally, we will cover how hosts can improve their listings sort ranking on Airbnb and stand out from the competition.

The session is free to join, but you must use the Airbnb webinar link to register.

You can find all our upcoming and past webinars on our Webinars page.

Unveiling Schlage Door Locks Powered by OwnerRez, Accompanied by Some Creepy Crawly Fixes! 102 replies

Teresa J
Nov 8, 2023 9:18 AM
Joined Jan, 2023 6 posts

Yes, please provide an ETA for the fix.  As a work around, once the 7 digit code is created, if I go into the app and change the code by deleting the 3 zeros, will it still work as long as I don't sync it from OR again?

Unveiling Schlage Door Locks Powered by OwnerRez, Accompanied by Some Creepy Crawly Fixes! 102 replies

Kelly M
Nov 8, 2023 8:58 AM
Joined Apr, 2021 27 posts

Is there an estimated timeframe on addressing the 7 digit code issue? 

Unveiling Schlage Door Locks Powered by OwnerRez, Accompanied by Some Creepy Crawly Fixes! 102 replies

Chris O
Nov 8, 2023 8:55 AM
Joined Mar, 2023 22 posts

Submitted the contact form. Yes I have been using Hubitat for a number of years, across multiple locations. I use ZWave locks from Yale. When I first integrated with OwnerRez I had started to write a tool to move lock information into Hubitat from OwnerRez but didn't get to finishing it as other optimizations were easier to save time.

Eric - Can I be a part of the Hubitat beta?

by Chris O – Nov 6, 2023 6:19 PM (UTC)

Yep.  Use the contact form to send a ticket in and reference my comment.  We'll get you routed to the correct place.  Do you already have a Hubitat controller at your property (or residence) you can use?  Have you connected smart (Z-Wave or Zigbee) locks to it?

by Paul W – Nov 8, 2023 1:49 PM (UTC)

 

Unveiling Schlage Door Locks Powered by OwnerRez, Accompanied by Some Creepy Crawly Fixes! 102 replies

Paul W
Nov 8, 2023 8:55 AM
OR Team Member Joined Jun, 2009 873 posts

If I set my door codes to generate 7 days prior to guest arrival, will it set if a guest books less than 7 days out?  I have many bookings on Airbnb in off seasons that are less than 3 days and don't want to miss a door code setting.

by Julie M – Nov 6, 2023 9:43 PM (UTC)

Yes, if it's inside the door code generation period, the code will be set immediately.  There are a number of graceful fall-back steps like that that the system performs regularly.  For instance, there are locks that cannot be reached/set because of down internet or other problems.  The integration attempts to handle these scenarios.

Unveiling Schlage Door Locks Powered by OwnerRez, Accompanied by Some Creepy Crawly Fixes! 102 replies

Paul W
Nov 8, 2023 8:49 AM
OR Team Member Joined Jun, 2009 873 posts

Eric - Can I be a part of the Hubitat beta?

by Chris O – Nov 6, 2023 6:19 PM (UTC)

Yep.  Use the contact form to send a ticket in and reference my comment.  We'll get you routed to the correct place.  Do you already have a Hubitat controller at your property (or residence) you can use?  Have you connected smart (Z-Wave or Zigbee) locks to it?

Search Messaging Template Bodies, Image Source Additions for Hosted Site Blog Sharing, New Zealand Holidays 2 replies

Anne S
Nov 8, 2023 8:06 AM
OR Team Member Joined Sep, 2022 178 posts

I just make it my business to get along with people so I can have fun. It’s that simple.

Betty White

Friday is the perfect day to connect and create enjoyable experiences for guests because who doesn't love a good time before the weekend? It's the essence of hospitality, with a fun side dish of today's product update with all the ingredients of our November 8th release with 22 updates, including Template Filter Body Searches and Official New Zealand Holidays Added!

Enhancements & Tweaks

Template Filter Body Search Added

Searching for templates containing specific language located within the body of your email, channel, or SMS templates was not available. 

OwnerRez has added a "body" field to the Template filter, allowing users to search within the body of all email, channel, or SMS templates.

Navigate to Settings > Messaging > Templates > Filter > add your search terms in the Body field > Search.

Template Filter > Body Search

This makes finding the template(s) you need to update much easier!

Official New Zealand Holidays Added

OwnerRez has added New Zealand to the Official Holidays subscription list options as requested. Users can subscribe to New Zealand Holidays by navigating to Rates > Rules > Holidays > Lists.

New Zealand Official Holidays Subscription Added

Learn how to maximize your holiday rates by reading the Holidays support article.

More Image Source Options for Hosted Site Blog Sharing

OwnerRez users are increasingly using their Hosted Website Blogs to increase traffic, build their brand, and share news with their vacation rental business followers.

Hosted Website blog pages have added a couple more options to configure either a teaser or masthead images for social media sharing and we tweaked the fallback logic for each available option, in case the chosen image is unavailable.

Hosted Website Blog Image Sharing Settings

Check out our Adding a Blog support article.

Coming Soon - Florida Rental by Owners (FLARBO) as an Official Channel

Be on the lookout for our upcoming integration with Florida Rental by Owners (FLARBO) as an Official Channel.

OwnerRez Florida Rental by Owners Listing Channel

Bug Fixes

Clarify Inquiry Parsing Note on Identifier Mapping Area. OR has updated the instructions for handling unrecognized inquiry emails by adding instructions on the in-app instructions on Identifier Mapping section to advise on how to handle unrecognized inquiry emails.

Currency When Stripe Charged in One Currency and Paid in a Different Currency. When Stripe charged in one currency and payment was made in another, the Stripe fees were not correctly converted to the destination currency. This glitch has been fixed, and Stripe fees will now be correctly converted to the destination currency.

Don't Blow Up When Recording Stripe Refundable Security Deposit Fees on Quote Accept for Last Minute Bookings. Errors occurred when recording Stripe refundable security deposit fees for a last-minute booking quote acceptance. OR resolved this bug, allowing Stripe refundable security deposit fees for a last-minute booking quote acceptance to be recorded correctly.

Don't Create a New Code on RemoteLock Error if Generating Code by Phone. This edge case occurred when a user encountered an error after they configured their RemoteLock integration to generate door lock codes based on guests' phone numbers, then created a booking that generated a phone-based door lock code, subsequently disabled the guest directly on RemoteLock, and then ran a batch update with the "resynchronize all bookings" option selected. In an attempt to bypass the error, the OR logic generated new door lock codes that were not based on the guests' phone numbers. We corrected this glitch, and door lock batch updates with the "resynchronize all bookings" option selected will generate new door lock codes based on the OR door lock configuration.

Don't Dedupe Airbnb Payments That are in the Process of Being Deposited. If an Airbnb payout included two payments for the same booking, the initial processing for that deposit would only create one payment. We have updated the system to catch this case and correctly match all included payments for a booking.

Don't Delete Blocks on Bookings Only Mode iCal Import. Some calendar blocks were inadvertently deleted during the iCal Booking Import process when in bookings only mode. OR corrected this issue so that all future calendar blocks will be accurately imported during the iCal Booking Import process while in bookings only mode.

Don't Look at Check-in End When Determining Whether Airbnb Check-in is Standard. After adding the Check-In End time rule in last week's release, we found that some reservations (< 48 hours until arrival) can specify a check-in time range even when the property/listing doesn't have a check-in end time. The result was these bookings were highlighted in the calendar ribbon as having non-standard check-in times (with the red line/pipe). We fixed this to only consider the check-in start time and compare that against the property check-in start for ribbon display purposes.

Don't Look Back to Old Channels When Looking for Message Thread. Guest conversations pulled old channel booking information instead of the current listing channel booking, as expected. We fixed this glitch to no longer look for old channel booking information and instead locate and correctly display the current listing channel booking.

Fix Clicking the "Confirm" Link in a Pending Booking System Alert Shows an Error if Booking is Canceled. After a user canceled a pending booking, the Pending Booking System Alert email contained links to "Confirm and take payment now" or "Extend due date," resulting in errors when clicked because the booking was already canceled. This correction happens when the Pending Booking System Alert email links for "Confirm and take payment now" or "Extend due date" when used will now display an error explaining that the user cannot complete that process.

Fix Report Percentage Change Incorrect. In some report exports, the last "Change" column incorrectly calculated the percentage change between two periods for each property (group). The in-app report displays were correct; this bug only affected report exports. The report export calculations have been fixed.

Fix System Booking Alert Shows Time Crossed Out, Replaced With Same Time. After last week's product update, booking alert emails had default check-in/out times crossed out with the exact same time displayed to the right. This check was unnecessary if check-in/out times weren't changed. There was an extra space in the code causing this. It is now fixed.

Handle No Token Case on Listing Site Identifier Mappings. An error occurred while attempting to view a property identifier mapping with no value. OR fixed this bug, allowing users to view property identifier mapping properly.

Improvements to Inquiry Widget Resizing. A user noticed that on their direct booking websites when attempting to resize the Inquiry Widget Comments/Questions box on Mobile, the Send Inquiry button would disappear from the widget. This glitch has been fixed to still allow resizing but where the Send button stays where it should.

Remove Discount Multiplier. OR has decided to remove the ability for users to configure discounts with a multiplier. As neither Airbnb nor Vrbo support discount multipliers and this caused confusion for some of our users, we have decided to remove the option to configure discounts with a multiplier altogether.

Show Mutual Blocking Disabled Flag for Bookings. Mutual blocking disabled flags on bookings were not displayed if mutual blocking was disabled on a booking. This issue has been resolved, so that if you change a booking and set "Don't block other properties" that will be displayed properly on the Overview tab of the booking under Status.

Too Much Padding Between ProJob Global Alert and the Body When No Other Alerts are Present. When in-app global alert ProServices progress banners were displayed, the padding (i.e., margin) around them was too large. OR corrected this bug to remove the extra padding or margins around the in-app global alert ProServices progress banners.

Google Vacation Rentals: Private Beta

  • Use LengthOfStay Min/max to Use SetForward Stay Based Options Instead of Only Arrival SetMin/Max. There was an issue with the Google Availability Feed where the Maximum/Minimum night stay season property rules were not being properly enforced, which would have allowed guests to book for fewer nights than the minimum stay required. This glitch has been fixed, and Maximum/Minimum night stay season property rules are now correctly passed to Google's Availability Feed.
  • Rate Amount Message Needs to Use Sleeps Override Amount If Set. Google Vacation Rentals (GVR) assumes two guests when calculating booking charges. Still, GVR API-connected properties with extra guest surcharges were not correctly added to the booking quote until the potential guest clicked on the Hosted Website booking widget. OR resolved this bug to pass additional guest surcharges added to the RateAmountMessage to correctly display during GVR booking quotes.

Phishing and Email Security 6 replies

Chris Hynes
Nov 7, 2023 6:24 AM
OR Team Member Joined Oct, 2012 1404 posts

We have noticed a recent increase in phishing attacks targeting OwnerRez and email accounts. These attacks attempt to gain access to your OwnerRez account and other accounts linked to your email.

Anatomy of a phishing attack

In a phishing attack, an attacker will prepare a login screen that looks identical to the OwnerRez login at a similar domain. For example, OwnerRez using the word "owners" instead of "owner" or with a dash in it. They'll find your email address on a public site, like your booking website. Then, they'll send you an email alert that looks like an OwnerRez email with a link going to the fake login screen. If you type in your username/password, then the attacker will have your password. These attacks are getting more sophisticated, spending more time making the email and login look very convincingly similar to what you receive from OwnerRez.

We implemented two-factor authentication last year. This blocks many attacks because the attacker would need access to your email to get the two-factor code, even if they have your password. However, there still exists a potential vulnerability that could be exploited: If you use email 2FA and your email password is the same as your OwnerRez password, and you accidentally enter your password on a phishing page, then the attacker can gain access to your email. From there, they can retrieve the 2FA code and use it to log in to your OwnerRez account.

Maximizing security

How to defend against phishing and maximize security? There are several things you can do. First of all, we support both app-based and email-based two-factor authentication. We've required at least email two-factor authentication for everyone as a baseline, but we recommend upgrading to app-based security as it's much more secure. If you had set up a two-factor auth app for both your OR account and your email account, you'd still be secure in the scenario above as even if the attacker had the password to both your OwnerRez account and email account, they still wouldn't have access to your two-factor auth app on your email account -- so they wouldn't be able to log in to your email. You can learn how to set up 2FA via an app by reading this support doc.

The other side of security is using unique passwords for each account. Never reuse a password between accounts because this allows an escalation attack where the hacker gets the password to one account and then is able to log in to others using that same password. The best way to do this is by using a password manager. Browsers like Chrome and Safari have built-in free password managers, or if you want more control, there are many third-party managers out there -- Keeper, LastPass, 1Password, Dashlane, Bitwarden, etc. Use the password manager to generate a unique password for each site, and then you only have to remember one password to access the password manager, and it will do the rest to fill in the password for each site. Password managers also look at the URLs you're trying to log in to and will alert you if you're on a phishing URL that's similar to the real URL but not the same.

Step by step

  1. Set up a password manager or use the one in your browser.
  2. Configure unique passwords for each site
  3. Set up app-based two-factor authentication in OwnerRez.
  4. If you currently have multiple people sharing the same OwnerRez account, then it can be hard to share app-based authentication. Instead, create separate Staff Team Access Accounts for each person who will be logging in to OwnerRez so that they can have their own unique password and authenticator app configured.
  5. If possible, also set up app-based two-factor authentication for your email account to protect that as well.

If you follow the steps above to create unique passwords and set up app-based two-factor authentication, that provides many additional layers of security that protect you in case you accidentally do click on a phishing link. This is called "defense in depth" in the industry, and you want as many independent levels of security as possible for a high-value target like your OwnerRez account.

Unveiling Schlage Door Locks Powered by OwnerRez, Accompanied by Some Creepy Crawly Fixes! 102 replies

Julie M
Nov 6, 2023 4:43 PM
Joined Nov, 2021 2 posts

If I set my door codes to generate 7 days prior to guest arrival, will it set if a guest books less than 7 days out?  I have many bookings on Airbnb in off seasons that are less than 3 days and don't want to miss a door code setting.