Latest Activity...
Calling all Trekkies! We take bugs seriously...
Six bugs were ready to be fixed, so we "beamed them up!" Inspect this Transporter bug report (aka product update) detailing our September 6th release with six bug fixes.
Don't Include "based on $x amount" Text When Regenerating Charges If Channel Adjusted. Users with channel-connected bookings see charge descriptions that include the description text "based on $x amount," but when changes were made to the booking, that description didn't update appropriately, leading to confusion. We have fixed this issue by removing the "based on $x amount" from charge line items and now have it just say "Rent" or "Cleaning Fee" by itself when the channel adjusts a booking.
Fix Issue Where Hosted Website Hero Caption Wasn't Using White Color Default. We recently fixed the Hero Unit caption sizing but had done some other Hosted Website header work, which caused the font color of the Hero Unit caption to be one of the other colors from your site's settings instead of the default white color. This has been corrected where Hosted Website Hero Captions default to the system's white-colored font as it did previously.
Fix Issue With Forum Post Message Unable to Handle Inline Image in Certain Cases. Some inline images displayed in forum system email alerts (when subscribed to a topic) were not displaying correctly due to converting the HTML body to plain text. This glitch has been resolved and inline images displayed in the forum system email alerts will convert and display correctly.
Handle Split Payout Configurations on Airbnb Transaction Import. Split payout configurations for Airbnb transaction-synced enabled properties created too many payments because the transaction sync did not reflect upcoming transactions, only completed transactions. We have fixed this bug, and split payouts for Airbnb Transaction Sync-enabled accounts will be correct moving forward.
Remove Facebook Option From Identifier Mapping. Facebook no longer supports custom static tabs to host book/inquiry widgets. The Facebook option in the in-app Channel Identifier Mapping area and an outdated support article, "Adding OwnerRez Widgets to Facebook Guide," have been removed.
Warn If a Channel That Requires Credit Card is Added Without a Card Processor Configured. Many of our first-class channels require configuring a credit card payment processor in OwnerRez before integration. However, if users configured a manual payment method, they didn't always receive a timely warning. We have resolved this issue, and users without a credit card payment processor configured after integrating with a listing channel that requires it will receive an in-app warning notification indicating the need to configure one.
- Does Hopper collect and remit taxes?
- If the host cancels an IB, is the host responsible for the credit card transaction fee?
- In what ways does Hopper help the host if a chargeback were to occur?
- will trigger communications go directly to the guest?
Hi Susan,
Please see responses below:
We do collect and disburse to you but you are responsible for remitting.
All Hopper reservations are instant book. Hosts can charge the Virtual Credit Cards from the time of booking until a month after checkout. If a host cancels a reservation, they will have to refund the full amount back onto the card if it’s already been charged (which may mean that the host incurs a transaction fee). If the Virtual Credit Card hasn’t been charged yet and the reservation is cancelled, then the Host should not charge the card (no transaction fee). All credit card payment processing fees/transaction fees are between the host and their provider, so if they have questions, I’d recommend that they reach out to them directly
Hopper is the merchant of record, so Hopper charges the guest on partners’ behalf and we manage chargebacks
What do you mean by trigger comms? We send you the Guest contact info at the time of booking. Maybe a question for OwnerRez if trigger comms can be setup once you receive the Guest's contact info.
We have a number of Canadian properties and would love to utilize your platform. Unfortunately we cannot set up in US funds. Looking forward to your expansion plans.
Hi Melanie, Thanks for your interest and we will definitely let you know once we open up to Canadian currency.
Is there a webinar with Hopper Homes?
Hi Jessica, Yes there is in September! Stay tuned as we will be announcing the date soon.
Where can I find out which jurisdictions they collect taxes in?
Hi Carissa,
We collect whatever taxes you have set up in OR and send over to you when you collect the funds for your booking, regardless of jurisdiction. You will have to remit your own taxes though.
Two questions about reviews for Google Vacation Rentals:
- If we have Google Business Pages for our STRs, will the reviews in our current Google Business Pages be shown on Google Vacation Rentals? I have a page for each individual property with reviews. I would like to see those reviews continue to exist.
- Will the reviews that we have on our OwnerRez website also be shown on Google Vacation Rentals? There are reviews that booked direct and reviews channel bridged (from Airbnb and VRBO) that I'd like to see on Google Vacation Rentals. Will any of those be posted on Google Vacation Rentals?
Hey Pam--good questions! From our observations, all reviews from OR are being pulled into and displayed on Google Vacation Rentals. Google Business Pages have no connection with Google Vacation Rentals, as they are two different entities within Google. We recommend that you import all of your individual property reviews that are currently displayed on your Google Business Page into OwnerRez so that they can be pulled into and displayed on Google Vacation Rentals.
Two questions about reviews for Google Vacation Rentals:
It looks that way. It will not integrate unless I change my ABB settings from request to book.
Where can I find out which jurisdictions they collect taxes in?
I went thru the onboarding everything worked fine. I can get to my property in the owner portal but when I search my area it doesn’t show up. Anyone else running into this?
Yes, in the API Integrations area you can set a per-channel Rate Adjustment to increase your rates for that channel by a designated amount:
14% IS RIDICULOUS!!!
On Friday, 9/6, join Tiffany Lawson and Robin Michael as they cover advanced settings for customizing your direct booking website with OwnerRez.
Learn about how direct bookings help increase your revenue and the four main ways OwnerRez can help.
The session starts at 1:00 pm Eastern, 10:00 am Pacific. It is free to join, but you need to use the sign-up for OwnerRez Focus Session - Direct Booking Websites Advanced Settings link to register.
You can find all of our past and future webinars on our Webinars page.
Before you start celebrating the American Worker 💪 on Labor Day...
Unwrap OwnerRez's labor of love as you dig into this product update revealing all the specifics about our August 30th release with 17 updates, including new Account Billing History Exports, the ability to add Inquiries with unavailable dates, and the good news that Vrbo has removed their 50 image limit!
OwnerRez prides itself on how much data users can export out of OR, but one area that users could not export from was OwnerRez Billing History. Now you can, and this new Account Billing History Export feature should prove valuable at tax time!
OwnerRez users can now export their Billing History, which includes all payments, subscription charges, and the following subtotals:
Export your Account Billing History by navigating to your Account dropdown menu and selecting Billing.
You can export your Account Billing History by selecting the format (Excel, CSV, or TSV) desired from the Export dropdown menu on your Account Billing page.
DNS settings for your Hosted Website and Branded Portal can be complex, and we want to help you, but we do not have access to users' domain registrar accounts. Users can write to our Helpdesk, but the domain registrar often needs to be involved anyway.
We now guide users in-app to "Contact your domain registrar first, if you run into any snags." (as we already did in our support documentation) to ensure a more efficient issue resolution as they can assist directly in managing the domain's settings.
Contacted your Domain Registrar and are still having trouble? Don't hesitate to contact the OwnerRez Helpdesk!
Some OwnerRez users handle offline inquiries for dates that aren't available (due to bookings or blocks) but want to record those Inquiries into OR to capture both the inquiry and associated guest contact information.
Even though users could intentionally type in unavailable dates in the Inquiry Date Picker, it didn't allow users to select unavailable (booking or blocked) dates from the dropdown calendar to reduce the possibility of double-booking accidents.
OwnerRez has improved the Inquiry Date Picker to allow users to select unavailable dates from the dropdown calendar.
The inquiry record will display Unavailable Date warnings, allowing users to capture the inquiry and associated guest contact information.
The OwnerRez Direct Rate and Channel Rate Tester tools had date picker calendars, but those date pickers didn't display availability, which was frustrating and could cause confusion if the dates selected weren't available and users received an unexpected error.
We've added live availability to the Direct Rate and Channel Rate Tester tools to the date picker calendars for more accurate results!
Users can use these tools by selecting either the Direct Rate Tester or the Channel Rate Tester from the Tools dropdown menu.
Users can now see their live availability displayed in the date picker in the Direct Rate and Channel Rate Tester tools!
Learn more by watching the Direct Rate Tester support video.
A generous number of images on your listings amplifies your property's allure, giving guests a comprehensive and enticing glimpse into their potential vacation experience.
But until now, Vrbo only accepted the first 50 images per property on their side. OwnerRez recently received word from Vrbo that the 50-image limit has been removed!
Check Airbnb Account OAuth Failure Status on Property Failure. When OR receives an OAuth failure status on an Airbnb API-connected property, we now force a check and validate the affected Airbnb account.
Don't Wrap Amenity Text With <p>When Converting Plain Text to HTML Unless There's More Than One Paragraph. Some amenity text was displayed on multiple lines, rather than one long line as expected when it was converted from plain text to HTML because the paragraph element (<p>) was incorrectly wrapping the amenity text. We have corrected this and amenity text will now only display on multiple lines when there is more than one paragraph converted from plain text to HTML.
Fix Deposits That Reverse Fee Amounts (Positive to Negative) on Refund Fees Which Created a Wrong Total. We noticed that OR deposits with fees and refunds were not displaying correctly. The system incorrectly showed a refunded fee as a debit adjustment instead of a credit, incorrectly displaying deposit amounts. The amounts stored under the covers were accurate. We've resolved this bug and adjusted fees will be correctly displayed.
Fix Error When Trying to View a Review Which Has No Listing Site and No Booking. A user who imported a review without an associated property and booking hit a crash bang and could not view the review. We thought we had fully corrected this issue before, but this additional fix should fully resolve it.
Fix Error With Batch Rule Copy for Pets Policy. Users who attempted to batch copy rules that did not have a pet policy set experienced errors during that process. This bug is fixed and the batch copy rules process will run correctly whether a property has a pet policy set or not.
Fix Issue Where Airbnb Host Fees Weren't Created When Transaction Sync Was Enabled and Transaction Fee Expense Was Disabled. Some PMs noticed that their Airbnb Host Fee was not generated when the Airbnb Transaction Sync was enabled but Transaction Fee Expenses disabled. This issue has been corrected and Airbnb Host Fees will be properly generated when the Airbnb Transaction Sync is enabled and Transaction Fee Expenses disabled.
Fix <p> Rendering in WP Plugin Short Code Amenity Tooltips. Users of our WordPress plugin may have noticed some amenity text was appearing in the mouseover/touch tooltip with <p> tags. We've fixed this glitch and amenity text will no longer include extra HTML elements in the tooltip text rendered using the WordPress plugin.
Fix "Watch this topic" Becomes Unchecked if a Forum Reply is Edited. When a user is logged into the OR Forum and comments on a post, the "Watch this topic" is by default checked. However, if a user edited and saved the comment, the "Watch this topic" checkbox became unchecked. This issue has been resolved, and editing replies to OR Forum topics will correctly keep the "Watch this topic" checkbox checked after editing and saving (unless the user manually unchecks it).
Fix Hosted Site Blog Paging. Some Hosted Website Blogs did not display correctly or act as expected when a user clicked on "Older Entries." This paging calculation bug occurred when users created multiple Hosted Website Blog entries and set the blog settings posts to display per page to a number lower than the total number of blog entries. We have corrected this bug, and Hosted Website Blogs will again display correctly and act as expected when a user clicks on "Older Entries".
Mark OAuth Failing Status on Airbnb API Integrations When We Receive an auth_revoke Webhook. When OR receives an auth_revoke webhook from an Airbnb API-connected property, we will add an OAuth failing status on that Airbnb API-connected property. Affected users will be notified by OR system alert emails as any failures will prevent them from completing deposit or transaction syncs.
Mark Vrbo Messages Unread Before Updating Warehouses. When historical Vrbo messages were automatically imported for new or existing listings, we assumed they were already read. But we were making that assumption too late in the process, resulting in inbox "unread" counts increasing even though there appeared to be no new unread messages. This bug has been fixed, so the inbox unread count should be accurate.
Send Address Along When Creating Stripe 3DS2 Payment Method From Vrbo Bookings. A user pointed out that the guest's cardholder address was missing in Stripe. This was due to the payment being authenticated via 3DS2. We've resolved this by ensuring the address is always passed from Vrbo to Stripe when it's a 3DS2 payment method so it can be stored under the "payment method" in Stripe for that booking.
We are excited to share that we have partnered with WYND to provide an integration with a device that detects both smoking and noise.
WYND Sentry revolutionizes property monitoring with cutting-edge features, combining smoking and noise detection. It ensures a smoke-free and serene environment. Real-time incident alerts empower rapid responses to potential issues, while in-depth incident reports provide comprehensive insights. With WYND Sentry, safeguard your investment, elevate security measures, and enjoy unparalleled peace of mind.
$15/Month, Hardware included! Click here for more details.
Get started with WYND by visiting the WYND website and check out the OwnerRez support doc for how to integrate OwnerRez with WYND.
Is there a webinar with Hopper Homes?
So all automated messages sent via OwnerRez would be sent via email, correct?
Hi Brendan C, that is correct.
On Friday, 9/1, join Steve Clark and Pamela Bogaczyk as they cover the basics of getting your direct booking website up and running with OwnerRez.
Learn about how direct bookings help increase your revenue and the four main ways OwnerRez can help.
The session starts at 12:30 pm Eastern, 9:30 am Pacific. It is free to join, but you need to use the sign-up for OwnerRez Focus Session - Direct Booking Websites Basic Settings link to register.
You can find all of our past and future webinars on our Webinars page.
Does Ownerrez have a "markup widget" so that an OTA with this structure can mean the same post-commission nightly rate for the owner? Putting everything on for a discount (-commission) doesn't really get my attention.
instant booking-
i wanted to know if I can keep my ABNB on request and have Hopper on insta book since there’s no issue with cancelling- vs ABNB.
Hopper sent me this email- I want to remain on request only for ABNB.
My understanding is that OwnerRez will block you to connect to instant book channels if you have Airbnb on Request only so you would not be able to be on request only on Airbnb and use Hopper at the same time. That said, I do recommend you to pass on your feedback to OwnerRez. If there is high enough demand, they may consider changing this block. Even if Hopper works on instant booking, we allow cancellations without penalties so hosts like yourself can still do their own verification checks on guests and decide to cancel without penalty in case the guest does not pass. Because of this we are a friendly instant book channel to someone that usually work on request only. We have passed this information on to OwnerRez but you can certainly do so yourself also to add some interest to this product change request.
We have a number of Canadian properties and would love to utilize your platform. Unfortunately we cannot set up in US funds. Looking forward to your expansion plans.
I keep getting this notification- using iPhone 12.
So all automated messages sent via OwnerRez would be sent via email, correct?
I have some questions before integrating with hopper. Does the host process the payments or is it collected by hopper and paid to the host like AirBnb does? Also, is the messaging sent via the hopper app or is it emailed to the guest?
Hi Brendan,
Hopper processes the payments (like Airbnb), we are merchant of record. We don't currently have a messaging feature but we unmask guest details (email, phone) once they book to make it easy to communicate with them.
Thanks
I have some questions before integrating with hopper. Does the host process the payments or is it collected by hopper and paid to the host like AirBnb does? Also, is the messaging sent via the hopper app or is it emailed to the guest?
Hello Newton Properties team,
For now we are focusing on the US and properties that process payments in USD. We do plan on expanding next year hopefully.
Hi Brock,
This might seem like a high commission but we do not charge a traveler service fee like other OTAs because in our tests that negatively impacts conversion. We want to get you bookings from the get go! Many new hosts increase their prices to offset the commission.
Hi Michelle,
I understand your concern about guest verification. One good thing about the Hopper guest is that they are mostly existing app users with booking history across flights, hotels, cars etc. We do unmask the guest details once they book so that you can answer questions and build a personal relationship.
