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Congratulations to ownerRez on their 10-year anniversary! 🎉 Wishing them continued success in the world of vacation rental management software.
Congrats on completing the first 10 years of a long journey. I'm new to OwnerRez, but am wondering how I worked without a good PMS for so many years. The further I dig the more capability I am finding. You commented on one-touch customer service in your guiding principles. I have been impressed by the support. Keep up the good work.
-Ed
Smoky Mountain Retreats
Wow! Thank you for sharing. What an amazing company! I love that you were able to see each other in person rather than just through a computer. Congrats on 10 years, OwnerRez!
I love OwnerRez! Congratulations on your continued success and happy anniversary!
Happy decade-iversary!!!! 🎉🍾💃🏻 So thankful for y’all and all the ways you help me run my business well. Congrats on your well-deserved DR staff retreat and cheers to the next decade plus!!!
Thank you OwnerRez, we feel so lucky to have you welcome us everyday to operate our business! YOUR ARE A BIG PART TO OUR SUCCESS.
Cheers to 10 years, cant wait to see what the next 10 years will bring!!
Beachside Rentals Inc.
How do you celebrate National Fun at Work Day?
Here at OwnerRez, we have a weekly Book Club 📖 (Atomic Habits is our current read) and regular GUaM 🏋️ (Get Up and Move) sessions. But even when we're having fun, like celebrating our ten-year anniversary at our company retreat in the Dominican Republic, we're always working hard! Read all about it in this Product Update detailing our January 24th release with 19 updates, including Booking.com Messaging now in your inbox.
Booking.com messaging has arrived in your inbox!
For those accounts connected via API to Booking.com (BDC) anyway, native in-app messaging is now available (on a go-forward basis). Corresponding with BDC guests directly in OwnerRez allows users to unify their guest messaging even more. With OwnerRez's guest conversation view and channel templates/triggers, you can save time and automate more of your messaging to be delivered via the Booking.com channel (or "on the platform").
If you already use Airbnb or Vrbo messaging in OwnerRez, you'll be pretty comfortable with the inclusion of Booking.com messaging.
OwnerRez has worked diligently in collaboration with Booking.com to ensure the seamless appearance of your channel messages within the OwnerRez Inbox. Users can navigate to their Inbox by clicking on the CRM dropdown menu and selecting Inbox.
New Booking.com messages will be listed in the Inbox. Note that the Via column indicates where the messages are from.
Clicking on each message opens the message in the Conversation View. When users open the Conversation View, they can see any comments that your Booking.com guests have added, allowing them to respond directly to their BDC guest within OwnerRez.
Booking.com messaging history works on a go-forward basis starting January 26th (or when you connect to Booking.com via API).
Update your channel triggers today to include Booking.com as an additional listing site to make use of this time-saving automation!
Do you see "echo" messages (i.e., something you sent the guest) coming back from Booking.com? That is probably happening because you have a trigger in OwnerRez sending an email template to your Booking.com guests.
To fix: Go in and switch that trigger (or create a new one) to send a channel template to Booking.com guests instead. This will be a cleaner experience for the guest and stop the echo message from happening.
If you use the same email trigger for different types of bookings, put "everything but Booking.com" on the trigger criteria like you do for Airbnb. Then, make sure that a channel trigger is sent.
The reason the email one creates an echo is that when you email the Booking.com guest, it sends a message to their platform email address (e.g., xxxxx@guest.booking.com), which lands in the messaging system. The messaging system strips out the text and adds it to the existing messaging thread. OwnerRez is then alerted by Booking.com that a new message was added to the thread, not realizing that it was the email you sent. When you switch to a channel trigger, this will stop because the message will be created on the thread directly by OwnerRez. No emails will be created on either side.
Be on the lookout for our upcoming integration with Glamping Hub as an Official Channel.
The upcoming OwnerRez Hubitat and Igloo Door Lock Integrations are moving along! We've updated the following in both integrations. The Schlage locks integration also benefited from many of these updates!
These updates, made under the covers, may seem insignificant to users, but they lead to improved API responses and usability. It also brings both integrations much closer to being opened up for public beta!
Booking List Export Does Not Export Booked Dates Correctly in Some User Cultures. Booking exports initiated from the Booking List View exported dates in a text format rather than the expected date format for those cells. We fixed this glitch, and Booking exports will export the dates column in the correct date format.
Cap Maximum Advanced Reservation to 360 days for Booking.com v1.1 API. The Booking.com v1.0 API allowed users to send availability information outside the supported 360 days without returning an error. OR corrected the Booking.com v1.1 API to cap the maximum advanced reservation to the supported 360 days.
Door Codes are Generated in Some Cases Even When Generate Codes for Blocks is Disabled. OR encountered a regression where door lock codes were generated for blocks despite the user disabling door lock code generation for blocks. This regression has been resolved, ensuring that door lock codes will not be generated for blocks if the user has disabled door lock code generation for blocks.
Filter Out Child Rates From Booking.com Property Mapping UI. Child Rates were improperly displayed in the Booking.com Property Mapping user interface. We resolved this issue, and Child Rates will no longer be displayed in the Booking.com Property Mapping user interface.
Filters on Team Grids (Portal and Staff) Have Confusing and Inconsistent Persistence Behavior. Both the Portal and Staff Team Access filter grids' Clear and Reset buttons were not acting as expected and continued to display filtered results based on conditions previously set by users. OR fixed this glitch, and the Portal and Staff Team Access filter grids will now act as expected and correctly.
Fix a Typo in Owner Statements. Owner Statements contained a typo where the word "booking" was duplicated on some expense descriptions. OR corrected this typo in Owner Statements, and the word "booking" will no longer be repeated.
Hubitat Common Locks Fail to Sync Properly. Hubitat connected common (e.g., shared main entrance) and multiple (e.g., front and back door) door lock mappings failed to sync correctly. We resolved these issues to ensure that common and multiple-type door lock mappings sync correctly.
Large Number of Properties on Portal Access Display are Cut Off on Some View Ports. Some Portal Team Access users with access to accounts with large numbers of properties encountered a visual bug that truncated or cut off the list of properties. OR corrected this glitch to ensure that Portal Team Access users can view complete lists of all properties.
Optimize Bookings Ribbon First Load. Booking Ribbon calendar loading times were slow for OR users with many properties. We have optimized the Booking Ribbon calendar metadata build loading times to ensure that accounts with large numbers of properties load faster.
Portal user > Reset Password Button Fails in Some Cases. Some Portal Team Access users encountered Reset Password failures because the Reset Password email incorrectly included the inviteId field instead of the id field. We fixed this bug, and Portal Team Access users' Reset Password emails will now contain the correct id field.
Remove Mention of Renter Agreement From {BBINFO}. The sentence contained in the {BBINFO} field code, "An electronically-signed copy of the renter agreement will be emailed to you." has been determined to be unnecessary as the {BBINFO} field code pertains to a high-level overview about billing shown to the guest in the confirmation email and has been removed.
Review Date Incorrectly Updated on Subsequent Airbnb Webhooks. Updated Airbnb reviews displayed the channel review period expiration date rather than the expected actual written date on the updated review. We have fixed this bug to display the exact written date on the updated review correctly.
Schlage Logic to Match Existing Code to Booking Fails. An OR user with a Schlage API-connected lock encountered door lock code generation failures due to a timeout error. When the system attempted a retry, they received a "The requested access code name is already in use on the device" error message because the door lock code already existed. OR corrected this glitch to now attempt to match an existing code on Schlage locks upon retry.
Send a System Alert When a Deposit Fails to Import Correctly. OR deposit import failures failed to send system email alerts to account users. OR resolved this issue to ensure that deposit import failures will send system email alerts to account users.
Show Cancellation Policy As-of-date in Travel Insurance Section on Quote. Full Cancellation Policies were incorrectly displayed within the Travel Insurance section of quotes rather than correctly displaying the effective Cancellation Policy as of the time of the quote. We corrected this bug to display only the effective Cancellation Policy as of the time of the quote.
Treat Nofie as Request To Book for Airbnb Request To Book Requirement. Nofie API-connected users who attempted to complete a Request to Book (RTB) Airbnb API connection encountered errors stating that they had to switch their Nofie API connection to RTB to meet Airbnb's requirement. However, Nofie was incorrectly listed as Instant Book, leading to this error. OR resolved this glitch, and Nofie will be correctly listed as Request to Book (RTB).
Hello,
We do have an article on addons here that may be worth a look: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/add-on-services
As for offering add-ons to Channel guests by way of OwnerRez, there are two options worth considering, the first one would be the most relevant to your situation I believe.
1. You can create custom email Templates and Triggers to send to your booked channel guests, making them aware of what add-on services you have available, as well as the associated costs for each. Let them know that they can respond to your email if they'd like to have any of those included with their booking. Also let them know that should they opt to add anything on, you'll charge their card for the added costs (if the card has already been received). Then, you can go into their booking and manually add that charge, and run their card to collect the payment
Airbnb would prefer you go through the Resolution Center to add those charges, but Vrbo API bookings are treated like Direct Bookings.
Of course, we recommend written consent prior to collecting additional payment for any booking, regardless of the source.
Using custom Templates and Triggers means that you'll have to be paying attention to those emails back from the guests, and there would be no way to pull any reporting to show you what was or wasn't opted for. There is another method that would allow you to pull a report to gather that data.
2. Another option is to create a Custom Field Definitions that present a question to those guests on the Point of Contact form they fill out after the booking has been created, but there's still no way for their selection to automatically apply the charge to the booking. You'd set up optional Custom Fields that are Yes or No questions, and use the description box for each Custom Field to clearly outline what is being offered, and the associated costs. You'd then need to manually add the Surcharge for any service requested to the booking charges table on a case by case basis, so that means that you'd need to be on the lookout for anyone who marked Yes for any of those services. You can see their responses in the Custom Fields tab on the booking itself, as well as in some reporting.
Regarding automatically tagging, this isn't possible at this time but is on our roadmap. We have this mentioned here - https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/tags-common-issues-questions#automation
Join us live with the PriceLabs team on January 25th at 1 PM Eastern and 10 AM Pacific time!
PriceLabs is a powerful tool that automatically adjusts your pricing based on market data and customizable rules. During this session, we will cover the following topics and leave plenty of time to answer your questions live:
The session is free to join, but you must use the PriceLabs webinar link to register.
You can find all our upcoming and past webinars on our Webinars page.
Where there is code, there are bugs.
OwnerRez hates bugs! And not every release can be a blockbuster either. So behold this tech safari, where we went on a bug hunt and fixed these 5 pesky bugs in our January 17th release.
Allow Structured Data Attributes (itemscope, itemtype, itemprop, etc.) in the Rich Text Editor for Hosted Websites. Some structured data attributes were not saved correctly in the Rich Text Editor for Hosted Websites. OR resolved this glitch, and Structured Data Attributes will now save correctly in the Rich Text Editor for Hosted Websites.
Don't Error on Inserting Customer Mapping if QuickBooks Online Account is in Bad State. Users who had unpaid or inactive QuickBooks Online accounts encountered customer mapping errors. We fixed this glitch, and users with unpaid or inactive QuickBooks Online accounts will no longer experience customer mapping errors.
Fix Booking Client Error Page. Some users encountered errors on our new guest Review and Travel Insurance purchase forms when using an incomplete URL. OR resolved this bug by showing a friendly error instead of an ugly raw server error.
Fix Regression on Airbnb "listing approval status change" Webhook. OR discovered a regression in our handling of the Airbnb "listing approval status change" webhook. We corrected this issue to ensure the Airbnb "listing approval status change" automated webhook runs smoothly.
Google Vacation Rentals Private Beta:
Day of the Week were not applied to Google Vacation Rental (GVR) API-connected properties. This bug was fixed, allowing Day of the Week criteria to be the only criteria configured for discounts or surcharges.
Is there any way to send out a trigger with a link to purchase the Add-on after the time of booking. IE pool heating that guests don't want to purchase until closer to stay. Also, is there a way to automatically create a TAG if an add-on is purchased so that we can use it to create trigger emails/messages?
On Tuesday, 1/23, join Pam from our Engagement team as she discusses what you need to know about Marketing using OwnerRez and other available tools.
The session starts at 12:00 pm Eastern, 9:00 am Pacific. It is free to join, but you need to use the sign-up for OwnerRez Focus Session - How to Market Yourself link to register.
You can find all of our past and future webinars on our Webinars page.
So grateful to hear a fix is in the works to make this integration more usable!
Just to further add to what Ken said, our engineers got together and came up with an idea for a fix. However I can't provide an ETA for the fix at this time. Thank you again for bringing this up!
~Caleb
And for places without a street address or deliverable address (such as rural cabins, homesteads, etc.), this is a BIG problem. They don't accept GPS coordinates as a legit business address and that's unfortunate. Working with Google to resolve this is like pulling teeth and the reality is it's unresolvable they will not change and there is not high level manager you can talk to to suggest such change.
Friday is my second favorite F word. Food is my first.
Anonymous
Cheers to both! While you're waitin' on your weekend filled with good food and fun, check out our latest product update that details our January 10th release with 26 updates, including the yummy Guest Travel Insurance Form and Multi-Select Tool for Property selection!
As a follow-up to our October 4th Redesigned Guest Review Form, OwnerRez is excited to reveal the redesigned Guest Travel Insurance Form!
Let's refresh our memories with what the old Guest Travel Insurance Form looked like.
This redesigned "standalone" Guest Travel Insurance Form is only accessible when users send the Purchase Link from individual bookings after a booking is made/entered. (NOTE: the travel insurance option presented during the quote acceptance process is still the legacy style).
Users can send the travel insurance purchase link by navigating to the individual Booking > Insurance > Send Purchase Link. If the booking is still eligible, the button will be available.
The Send Purchase Link pop-up modal still appears with buttons to copy the link for, preview, and Compose Email to include a link to the new Travel Insurance Form. It is the same link generated by using the {BUTRAV} field code in your messaging templates.
The redesign carries forward the floating booking information card that debuted on the Guest Review Form and is a mainstay of all redesigned guest booking forms, including the contact information pop-up.
And, of course, it is mobile and device-responsive.
Do we have plans to continue redesigning other guest forms? Yes, we're already hard at work on them!
Learn more about Travel Insurance by reading our Travel Insurance Overview support article.
OwnerRez has replaced the old individual property selection checkboxes with a new Property Multi-Select Tool!
This new Property Multi-Select Tool allows users of multiple properties to quickly and efficiently select their desired properties by adding the first few letters of a property or owner. Note that the dropdown box displays the number of properties selected; in the case below, there are 11 properties.
The Property Multi-Select Tool filter text box only appears if there are more than ten options on multi-select boxes (or 15 on single-select boxes).
This new Property Multi-Select Tool is available in-app in the following areas: Agreements, Bookings, Deposits, Holidays, Imports, Payment Methods, Property Management, Settings, Spot Rates, Taxes, Triggers and more.
OwnerRez takes security seriously. We already have a Banned Passwords list that guards against some common passwords. Still, we realized we needed to expand the logic similarly to prevent repetitive passwords by checking the supplied password for character uniqueness. We now have a check for complexity and will return a validation error stating: "Your password uses too few unique characters. Please enter a more complex password." if the proposed password does not comply.
Learn more by reading our Privacy & Security - Overview support article.
As a follow-up to the August 2023 Direct Booking Listing Site Tracking Added release, OwnerRez has optimized the Booking Widget Listing Site Tracking for Hosted Websites, custom domains utilizing Booking Widgets, etc. for URL persistence - especially inside of Iframes.
Check out our Listing Site Tracking support article to learn more.
OwnerRez has released the Airbnb Thread Redesign (Beta) that automatically includes all NEW Airbnb API connections made. Existing Airbnb API Connections will be phased in over time. Although users won't notice any changes in-app (unless they see the conversion underway which will say so in a status message), this under-the-covers update is crucial as we continue progress toward a fully unified Inbox.
Allow Long Domain for OAuth Apps to Fetch Tokens. OwnerRez fixed a regression for new OAuth app connections caused by the domain change.
Allow Sending Quote if Airbnb Guest Has Phone. Users could not send quotes to repeat Airbnb guests with no contact email address. We resolved this glitch, and users can now send quotes to repeat Airbnb guests with no contact email address.
Allow Switching Back to Profile From Portal Access. Some billed OR account users could not effectively toggle between their billed OR account and their Portal Team access accounts. OR corrected this bug, and billed OR account users can toggle between their billed OR account and their Portal Team access accounts correctly.
Allow Team Users to Change Review Auto-Show Setting. Staff Team members were unable to make changes to the Review auto-show configurations. We fixed this glitch, and Staff Team members can now change the Review auto-show configuration.
Clarify Arriving and Departing Times on New Guest Booking Forms. The text displayed on the new/redesigned Guest Forms was incorrect/redundant due to recent changes to check-in arrival window rules. OR corrected the typo to display the correct text as it pertains to arrival and departure.
Country Code Duplicated in Phone Number on Theme Overrides. Duplicated country code could be seen under Theming for their contact phone number, rendering their public phone number display incorrect. We resolved this bug so that country codes won't be duplicated in Theming.
Don't Send Add Triggers on Channel Modify Events if the Booking Was Initially Merged. A user encountered an issue where a booking arrived when their API connection was disconnected. The user's Welcome email trigger wasn't initially sent; however, after the booking was modified, the system saw that the Welcome email trigger hadn't been sent and went ahead and sent it. OR fixed this glitch to better handle triggers on modified or merged bookings - usually seen with new user setups.
Door Lock Billing Details Doesn't Expand When Other Add-ons are Present. OwnerRez Billing Invoice Premium Feature Door Lock Details did not expand correctly when other premium features were present on the Billing Invoice. We resolved this issue, allowing Billing Invoice Premium Feature Door Lock Details to expand and display properly on Billing Invoices.
Fix Bedroom Pluralization Bug in Sleeping Arrangements. One-bedroom properties had their Sleeping Arrangements displayed incorrectly as "1 Bedrooms" on their OR Hosted Website. This typo has been corrected, and one-bedroom properties will be correctly displayed as "1 Bedroom" on their Hosted Website.
Fix OAuth Connection Redirects. Some users encountered issues connecting OAuth Apps due to the January 3rd OwnerRez URL change. OR swiftly resolved this glitch by redirecting Oauth connection attempts.
Fix Single Sign-On Bugs on Bookings Month View. Some users could not see multiple properties on the Bookings Month View due to the January 3rd OwnerRez URL change. We quickly corrected this bug, allowing users to log in and view their Bookings Month View properly.
Improve Guest Message Querying Performance. This edge case occurred for some users with many Airbnb messages. OR fixed this glitch by changing the indexes to the guest messages table to associate guest contact information with current bookings in an optimized fashion.
Min Nights Display Shows Incorrectly When Setting Rates on Calendar. Users that had their gap night minimum night requirement set and then attempted to set rates via the Rate Calendar that extended past the arrival or departure of a booking experienced the display of their minimum nights decreased by one night. Minimum nights were not actually changed in the system; however, the display was incorrect and concerning. We corrected this issue to have the Rate Calendar minimum nights display correctly in these cases.
Modernize "Can't do that" Validation Message. The old "Can't do that.." validation message was outdated and too wordy at that. OwnerRez has updated and simplified the "Can't do that.." validation message.
Preview "Send Invite to Portal User" Fails if Portal User Has Accepted the Invite. Previews of the "Send Invite to Portal User" triggered an incorrect permissions request, requiring users to log in again while already logged in. We fixed this glitch, and users can view "Send Invite to Portal User" previews as necessary.
Smart Refund Gives Success Pop-up When It Actually Failed. A user encountered a refund failure and associated failure message despite receiving a refund success message. OR has corrected this bug to process and correctly display refund success or failure messages.
Store QuickBooks Customer IDs to Reduce Customer Duplication on Sync. We now store QuickBooks Customer IDs in a mapping to prevent customer duplication. Upon sync, contact information in QuickBooks, using OR as the source of truth, will be updated. If the names are different between OR and QuickBooks, names will be unchanged on either side.
Update Connect to QuickBooks Icons to Latest. Per Intuit's request, OR has updated all QuickBooks connect icons in-app and the Support Center.
Vacation Rentals LBI Inquiry Parsing Missing Some Info. Inquiries received from Vacation Rentals LBI did not correctly capture complete guest details and comments. We have resolved this issue, and inquiries received from Vacation Rentals LBI will properly capture full guest details and comments.
Hubitat Private Beta:
scheduleEvents, and checking for duplicates before scheduling reconcileDoorCodes.Google Vacation Rentals Private Beta:
Thanks for the above post! We're taking a look to see what can be done.
You get a new year, you get a new start, you get a new opportunity.
As we head into a new year, it was satisfying to review our 2023 New Year Resolution to publish Product Update blog posts more promptly. Nailed it! 💪 Before fully tackling your 2024 resolutions, check out our first Product Update of 2024, with all the details about the January 3rd release with 12 updates, especially our shortened domain, ownerrez.com!
As announced by email on Tuesday, January 2nd, OwnerRez transitioned from ownerreservations.com to ownerrez.com on January 3rd! Why change the URL? First, there are fewer letters you need to type into the search bar, and we are all about speed and efficiency. Secondly, we market ourselves as "OwnerRez," not "OwnerReservations," so we figured it was time our branding aligned to make it clearer to users that they are in the right spot. Everything else remains the same.
Please Note: This was simply a URL change. And if muscle memory still has you typing ownerreservations.com (with its 9 extra letters!), you will be redirected to ownerrez.com just fine.
With this change, users most likely had to enter a two-factor verification code to initially log into ownerrez.com to set up a new browser cookie (i.e., "security handshake").
Other users noted some things they had to overcome, depending on what they personally use in their own "tech stack." Because of this, OwnerRez recommends that users review the following to ensure that regular logins work effectively going forward on all personal devices.
See other OwnerRez Domain Names to understand what other domains are officially used by OwnerRez.
Add Door Lock Column to User Invoice Export. As a follow-up to the October 27th Schlage Door Lock Integration, a Door Lock column detailing that charge has been added to the OwnerRez Billing History Export file.
Allow Setting Codes on Manual and Brivo Locks Again. Users could not set door lock codes on Manual and Brivo door locks due to a bug. This bug was corrected, and users can again set door lock codes on Manual and Brivo door locks.
Don't Error in Case Where Billed User Has Alert Off, But Team User Has It On. Users experienced errors when the billed account user had their alerts turned off, but a team member had the alert turned on. OR fixed this glitch that prevented billed users from turning off alerts when their team members had the alert turned on.
Don't Error on QuickBooks Sync if Phone is Missing. QuickBooks users experienced syncing errors when syncing bookings without a guest phone number. We resolved this issue, and QuickBooks users can now sync bookings with or without a guest phone number.
Don't Show Tools Menu New Label if New Items are All Hidden. The green in-app OwnerRez New label was inadvertently displayed on the Tools menu despite all New items being hidden. This glitch has been fixed, and the green in-app OwnerRez New label will only be displayed for active new features.
Fix Error With FloridaRentals Booking Pull. FloridaRentals API-connected bookings were attempting to import old booking information, resulting in errors. FloridaRentals corrected this issue so that historical API-connected bookings will no longer attempt to update.
Fix Issue Where Airbnb Cannot Select RTB Even When Only Channel. New Airbnb API connections did not allow users to configure their Booking Mode to Request to Book (RTB) even if they had no other listing channel set to Instant Book. We fixed this bug, allowing new Airbnb API connections to have its Booking Mode be RTB when users have no other listing channels set to Instant Book.
Handle Backward Calc Case in CB for Vrbo Where Payment Commission Overwrites Total. Vrbo's transaction feed used by the Channel Bridge tool sometimes mistakenly overwrote totals with Vrbo payment commissions. This issue has been corrected, and the Vrbo Channel Bridge calculations will now calculate and sync accurately.
Handle Errors in Booking.com Derived Prices API. Some Booking.com (BDC) API-connected properties encountered unhandled rate errors when a guest fee was configured for more guests than allowed at the property. We enhanced the system error process to ensure that users receive more accurate and helpful error messages.
Merge Lynnbrook Group Host Fees on Line Item Pivot. Line Item Pivot Reports were incorrectly displaying divided Lynnbrook Group host fees. OR corrected the Line Item Pivot Report, and Lynnbrook Group Host Fees will merge correctly.
Set the Line Type on Owner Payouts to QuickBooks. The Line.DetailType category wasn't syncing correctly when pushing PM Owner Payouts, causing QuickBooks errors. We resolved this issue so that the Line.DetailType category is synced properly to QuickBooks.
At the end of 2023, OwnerRez finished its 10th full year in business. To celebrate that 10th anniversary, and to realize a longstanding dream by the founders, our entire team went on a company retreat in the Dominican Republic in early December.
What an incredible journey! With more than 7,000 customers, 40+ employees, hundreds of partners, and over a billion dollars in processed bookings, we're taking a moment to look back.
(OwnerRez Team during our company retreat in the Dominican Republic)
The current "OwnerRez, Inc" was founded 10 years ago in of January 2013 by Paul and Chris.
But years before that, back in 2007, Paul Waldschmidt and his wife, Katy, needed a solution to manage their property management business, Shenandoah Rentals, so Paul got to work! Balancing work, family, and building OwnerRez all at once became quite the feat. There were ups and downs - mostly downs! - and the product treaded water for about 6 years until the end of 2012 when Paul got on the phone with his friend Chris and proposed a new joint venture. The new OwnerRez was incorporated on January 1, 2013.
Before OwnerRez, Paul and Chris were friends who had worked together for many years. Since both were property managers and software engineers, they knew what a property management system needed to succeed.
They spent years working shoulder to shoulder until 2017, when the company started outgrowing its startup phase. Now, we have eight teams of employees, covering 7 time zones and 3 countries, and continue to hire new talent every year. If you'd like to read the longer version of how OwnerRez started, take a look at our story page (a work in progress).
(Paul, Katy, Chris, and Devin, the owners of OwnerRez, in Punta Cana)
As a virtual company, we have no physical office, so most of us have only seen each other through a tiny rectangle on our computer screens or at industry conferences. While we have the ability to engage virtually, there's something special about meeting in person.
At the end of our tenth year, and after months of planning, the entire OwnerRez team assembled at the Iberostar Grand Bávaro resort in Punta Cana in early December. There, in the resort lobby, we finally got to shake hands, hug each other, talk, drink together, and connect in person for the first time in ten years.
We were joined in Punta Cana by industry trailblazer, Matt Landau, who facilitated our daily team bonding sessions. During these sessions and the trip as a whole, our team was able to connect and express their personal and professional goals. This time was invaluable and opened up conversations that would have never happened via our typical virtual team meetings.
What a week! There was a wonderful Welcome Cocktail Party, group dinners, excursions around the island, nightlife, and more.
We created a dedicated 2023 Company Retreat page, so take a look to see the details and photos of the trip.
Looking back, it would be difficult to talk about OwnerRez's journey without talking about our principles.
A company's principles are like a compass guiding its decision-making and actions. Principles reflect the values and beliefs of the organization and serve as a foundation for how employees interact with customers, partners, and each other.
Over the years, we have worked hard to define clear and well-defined principles, so that we can maintain consistency in our behavior, build trust with our users, and stay focused on our goals. This has shaped the culture of OwnerRez, creating a sense of purpose and identity that unites our team members.
Below are some of the principles we live by and consistently take into account when making decisions:
People First
We call ourselves a “People First” company (a term coined by Michel Falcon based on ideas from Harvard Business Review), which means, among other things, that we have honest, transparent conversations with our team and customers. We believe in happiness more than a "growth at all costs" environment. As part of this culture, we are committed to being financially responsible. It’s hard to care about your team when you’re spending money frivolously or taking on large amounts of debt, so we don’t do that.
Create Happiness
The root cause of OwnerRez’s success is our commitment to “create happiness.” Creating happiness takes humility and being willing to adapt and evolve constantly. It requires understanding how your team really operates and how your customers really interact with your system, which means you have to measure and understand the details. You have to be skeptical of yourself and your biases. Paul Waldschmidt wrote an article for VRMA called "OwnerRez and the Power of Happiness," which is a short but excellent summary of this principle.
Continuous Improvement
As you may know, we take pride in providing frequent updates to our platform. In fact, OwnerRez releases more updates in a single month than some of our competitors release during a whole year! Even if they're small, we attempt to release updates every week of the year. Continuous improvement leads to happiness.
Speed Is A Feature
We pride ourselves on our engineering strength and commitment to improving good features. Users can "sense speed" in software. Back in the day, Google beat Yahoo because it was fast and it "just worked". That sense of power and speed is a feature of OwnerRez, and we take steps every day to measure and watch how fast our features perform and fix where they slow down. Measuring speed forces you to improve constantly.
The Customer Owns The Data
We believe your data is your data. This is why we have designed OwnerRez to allow you to export your data easily in case you need it outside of OwnerRez. Many other property management platforms block your data or only allow you to access small parts of it. While we may not have an export button or API for accessing every last piece of data in your account, our philosophy is that you should have access to it (or at least the important parts) so that you can take it with you when you go. And as we grow and build, we are committed to continuing that tradition. By the way, this also means we don't sell or share your data with partners!
One Touch Solves
It can take a day or two (or 4 or 5 😞) to respond to every ticket and phone call that comes in. While we work on improving our response times - and believe me, we are working on that night and day - we make sure that every response is as warm, relevant, and complete as possible. The only thing worse than not getting a response is getting one that is incomplete or robotic. While we can't control how much support traffic we get, as a team, we can always make sure to treat each sender with respect and solve as much as we can in the first touch. "One Touch Solve" reminds us that we only want to see each support case once. The more times the support case returns, the more we miss that goal.
Others
If you're curious, our other principles are: Perseverance, Manager of One, Perfect Enemy, Be Levelheaded, and Own Your Mistakes.
We won't go through the meaning of all of them, here and now, but each one of these principles means something important to our team.
Principles matter and are integral in the story of how OwnerRez grew and prospered over the last 3,650 days.
At OwnerRez, we're always looking to the future and thinking about how we can continue to improve our platform and services to best serve our customers. We're committed to being the best PMS on the market for years to come, and that means constantly improving our support and in-app features.
We're excited about the upcoming features we plan to release in 2024 and beyond, and we'll continue to listen to feedback from our customers to ensure we're meeting your needs. We're dedicated to providing the most user-friendly, efficient, and reliable vacation rental software available, and we're looking forward to continuing to grow and evolve alongside our customers. You may have seen our holiday newsletter, but in case you missed it, check your inbox! In that newsletter, we discussed the highlights from 2023 and some of the features we plan to release in 2024.
Here’s to another ten years of success! 🥂
Hi! I currently have a paid email marketing subscription to StayFi. However, I want to take advantage of your free email marketing offer. Therefore, I would like to know answers to some questions:
1. Can I cancel my existing StayFi Email Marketing subscription and still access the free email marketing offer?
2. What is the process for transitioning from my paid subscription to the free email marketing plan?
3. Does the free email marketing plan include all the features available in the paid plan, or are there any limitations?
4. Will my existing guest data from StayFi be automatically transferred to the OwnerRez platform for use with the free email marketing tool?
I appreciate your assistance!
This update seems necessary for zapier to have much value at all. I'm running into the same problem mentioned above.
I'm trying to keep a record of all guests in a google sheet. I have it set to update whenever the guest is updated. However, something as simple as a new message from the guest, or message to the guest triggers an update even though no contact information has been updated.
I'm burning through zaps, making the functionality close to worthless for this use case.
OwnerRez wishes each and every one of you the happiest of holidays!
We hope you can spend special time with loved ones and enjoy the season. But we still have one last product update for the year to unwrap! Our December 20th release with 20 updates has a couple of special gifts for our users, including the restoration of Staff full admin permissions, Team Alerts tweaks, a new Multi-Property Hosted Website Dynamic Photo Layout Option, and much more! 🎁
Multi-property Hosted Websites now have the option to configure their photo layout option to a Dynamic photo display similar to Vrbo and Airbnb.
Here's the legacy property page photo layout:
And this is the new dynamic property page photo layout:
The first 5 property photos are now featured full-width. The page tabs are shifted below the photos and the booking/inquiry widget also shifted below to make room.
When you click/tap on any of the 5 photos, it brings you to a Photo Gallery where any property photos tagged to rooms or amenities are organized at the top in a tab view. In this example, the Amenities tab is selected and shows photos that are tied to a supported amenity (see below for full details). If there are groupings, they will show at the top as thumbnails. In this case, there's only one group of Amenity photos (Workout Room).
Rooms, Exterior, and Amenities tabs will show if any rooms exist of the applicable type:
If you click or tap on a photo in the Gallery, it will open up the Carousel view that is used in the Legacy layout.
Current multi-property hosted website users can change their photo layout from the legacy style to the new dynamic layout by navigating to Settings > My Website > their Multi-property Hosted Website > <property name> > Content tab > Photo Layout > Dynamic. When new hosted websites are created they will default to the Dynamic layout (and can be reverted to the Legacy layout.
Following the November 15th My Account Restructure and Menu Changes update, Staff Team members could no longer access the Team Access area.
OwnerRez has moved the Team Access area into the Account menu drop-down for quicker access and restored Staff Team members (that have "full admin access" permissions) ability to add or manage Portal users.
Here's what the Account menu looked like before:
And here's the new Account menu with Team Access included:
While Staff Team members can still no longer manage account billing or other team staff members, they can now access the Advanced Tools area (Settings > Advanced Tools). Lots of Staff users were used to accessing these items when they were located in other spots in-app, so it was a must-fix!
Learn more by reading the Team Access - Overview support article.
After the November 15th Alerts (f.k.a. System Alerts) for Team Access Staff release, OwnerRez wanted to smoothen and clarify some of the Team Alerts design.
First, we improved Team Alert email footers to define which account sent the Team Alert.
Secondly, on the staff add/change page, we clarified what allowing or denying Alerts really means:
Read the Messaging - My Alerts support article to learn more.
OwnerRez users can determine whether Channel Booking Confirmation Messages or regular emails are sent to guests in the API connection's Email configuration section. But we removed the option on certain API channels, when that channel is "merchant of record (MoR)" (i.e., Airbnb, Booking.com, TripAdvisor).
Users can still configure the non-MoR API connections to send the default Booking Confirmation system message used for direct bookings, or create a separate template and trigger for channel bookings by navigating to their specific API connection> Change > Email. But we did update the wording of the 2nd sentence to help clarify what's possible.
The selection made will still appear in the specific API connection expanded rules.
If users deselect the Send Booking Confirmation in the Email section of the applicable API, the expanded rules after saving will reflect that.
The Channel booking > Messages > Automatic Messages > New Booking - Guest Notification will display hover tooltips stating, "Skipped because channel handles confirmation."
Another version that will show when necessary is: "Skipped: Disabled in booking rules"
Payment method currencies have been in certain places to help users who have multiple payment processors due to handling multiple currencies. One place is on the Deposits grid, filter, import areas, and the Credit Card Processing History Report.
When users manually record a deposit, the payment method currency is again displayed along with a helpful tooltip upon hover.
The payment method currency is now displayed in the Credit Card Processing History Report export.
Airbnb requires hosts to offer Instant Book on Airbnb if hosts provide it on other API-connected channels. We worked to make sure we were enforcing that requirement with all the new first-class channels that have integrated with OwnerRez over the last couple of years. But we also determined that none of those channels even offer Request to Book (RTB) mode.
To clarify which first-class channel partners do not offer RTB mode, OR will display the disabled RTB radio button with strikethrough text and a tooltip explaining that the channel doesn't support RTB upon hover.
The other big thing to note on this one is we converted Florida Rentals back to a basic integration from the full bookings integration. Florida Rentals users were so accustomed to receiving an inquiry from prospective guests and handling it themselves instead of allowing users to instantly book that Florida Rentals had reverted the work they had done a while back, but we hadn't reflected that in OwnerRez.
Since our June 7th Vrbo Messaging Added to the Inbox (Public Beta) release, OwnerRez users have been able to experience native in-app OR Vrbo messaging.
OwnerRez has now implemented the latest available Vrbo Messaging API version, including updated date and time parameters. OwnerRez is always proactive in ensuring that Vrbo messaging is up to date, even if users don't notice any changes.
Check out our Vrbo Messaging support article to learn more.
Clarify CB Merge Conflict Message for Airbnb. Messages displayed for Airbnb Channel Bridge merge conflicts were unclear. OR has clarified the merge conflict messages related to Airbnb Channel Bridge.
Don't Error on Schlage Code Gen for Guests With No Last Name. Schlage door locks generated errors for guests without a last name in their booking information. We fixed this bug, and Schlage door locks will correctly generate door lock codes whether the guest has a last name in their booking information or not.
Fix Issue Where In-app Dates Weren't Editing in the Correct Format. Certain dates within the app could not be edited in the correct format. OR has corrected this glitch to edit in-app dates in the valid format.
Fix Issue With Excel Importers Parsing Value Resulting in Unexpected Results When Formatting is Applied. Some OR Excel import templates were attempting to format certain cells/columns incorrectly automatically, which resulted in import failures. We fixed this bug in Excel Importers by updating the parsing to disregard formatting for non-numeric columns.
Fix Regression Where Owner Blocks Couldn't Create Code for ByLock integrations. Users who used ByLock door lock integrations encountered a software regression that resulted in owner blocks no longer generating door lock codes. OR resolved this issue so that ByLock door lock integrations properly generate owner block door codes.
Fix Regression Where Searching by Phone Number Without Country Code Wasn't Working. We encountered a regression of the October 9th Upgraded International Phone Number Input release that resulted in the system not retrieving the correct guest record in users' search results if the phone number was entered without the associated country code (e.g., +1 for the US). We fixed this glitch so that users can successfully search for and retrieve guest records without the associated country code.
Handle Co-host Payments in Airbnb Transaction API. Airbnb co-host payments were incorrectly appearing as refunds in the Airbnb Transaction API. OR has resolved the issue with co-host payouts, and they are now correctly added as payments to the Airbnb Transaction API.
Hosted Site Requests To/Error Should 404. Hosted Websites that could not be found were returning unhelpful error messages. We corrected this bug to produce a more practical "404 Page Not Found" error.
Rate Calendar Shows Wrong Season in Tooltip. We noticed that sometimes the tooltip displayed the wrong season when hovering over a day in the Rate Calendar. OR fixed this glitch to ensure the correct season for the corresponding rule is displayed upon hover in the Rate Calendar.
Show Cancellation Policy/Rate Notes Using Both Mode on Hosted Websites. Rate notes, along with the associated Cancellation Policies, were not properly displayed on some Hosted Websites when using "Both" mode. We resolved this issue so that Rate notes and associated Cancellation Policies will be correctly displayed on Hosted Websites.
Up Dining Seats Max to 89. The OR Property Accommodations Dining Room settings only allowed for a maximum of 39 seats. The Property Accommodations Dining Room settings has been increased to allow a maximum of 89 seats.
Up Surcharge Increment Maxes to 49. The maximum limit for surcharge multiplier increments has been increased to 49.
Google Vacation Rentals Private Beta:
Hi Brittney,
I see that you haven't turned on email marketing in StayFi yet. The pricing information that you see for email marketing in your account doesn't reflect the discount because this discount is so new we haven't had a chance to update those pricing sliders to reflect the change. But I assure you, since you have OwnerRez connected, once you turn on email marketing it will be free under 200 contacts. We'll be making the discounted price more visible in the coming days.
Hi Rozz,
Can you share the email associated with your StayFi account and I can look into this for you. or feel free to email support@stayfi.com and we'll help resolve this.
You can add your OwnerRez account level email to your Vrbo listing. Doing so will direct inquiries to you through OwnerRez. You still won't be able to provide them with a quote (due to the link issue), but it might make it easier since you will see all the messaging in your OR account as well as in Vrbo. You can add your OR account level email found here:
https://app.ownerrez.com/inquiries
When you receive a message though the Vrbo system, you'll see an email notice from OwnerRez with a button to either "View" or "Respond" to the inquiry.
I am new to OwnerRez and just got my first listing set up on OwnerRez and listing on VRBO. I got my first inquiry. It was emailed directly from VRBO to my email address. It doesn't show up in VRBO. I want to send this user an offer to book my site for a reduced rate. How do I sent a Quote to this user in OwnerRez? I don't have their email address, so I can't add them as a contact in OwnerRez, and OwnerRez doesn't have the email because the inquiry didn't show up in OwnerRez like it does from Airbnb messages. Please help.
so when I go to create an account it says I am getting a 50% discount on their monthly fee with OwnerRez. Is this correct? I thought it would be totally free for the first 200 contacts. If someone could clarify that would be appreciated. Not going to finish making my account there until I know for sure!
Hi Thanga,
this offer is only for users using an exclusive group of PMSs that includes OwnerRez. This promotion is already launched and is separate from any future pricing changes in the new year.
Best,
Adam
Hi Andrew/Brittney, can you provide the email address on your StayFi account and I can look into this for you.