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I'm still having to revert to the legacy ribbon.
The new ribbon defaults in the desktop to not starting on the left at the beginning of the month, and thus showing the entire current month, and this requires having to scroll left or right every time, and in the mobile version it does the same thing plus doesn't every show the entire month, whereas the legacy version does.
Can you allow choosing the default view to be from the first of the month?
Can you adjust at the column widths so that the entire month can fit in the smaller mobile phones?
Thanks!
Your success ignites OwnerRez's innovation on today's Never Give Up Day! 🚀
It may be Friday, but we aren't surrendering just yet! Soar into the latest product update about our August 16th release with 16 updates, which include our Hopper Homes Partnership and some great new features like Search Filters For Dropdown Lists and Weekend Nights Rule Added to Property Rules.
In case you missed Wednesday's announcement, OwnerRez is excited to announce our partnership with Hopper Homes as a new first-class channel partner!
Read the Hopper Homes Setup & Connecting support article to learn more.
Navigating through an extensive array of options in a dropdown menu to find the proper selection can be challenging, particularly when certain choices closely resemble each other.
OwnerRez has added new search filters to all dropdown lists with 10+ items!
The Create Trigger Event single-select (radio button) dropdown list is just one example.
But users can use the search filter in multi-select (checkbox) dropdown lists, such as the Listing Sites dropdown menu list.
If users have 10 tags or more configured, the multi-select (checkbox) dropdown list search filter will be visible.
OwnerRez is crossing its fingers that these fresh search filters for dropdown lists will make searching for the proper selection easier for our users.
So, when you talk about the weekend, are you including Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights? Or is it just Friday and Saturday nights? Or maybe you're considering Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights? It might vary for each of your properties, depending on their locations!
Weekend Nights Rule has always been a global setting that applied to all properties in OwnerRez and was configured by navigating to Settings > Pricing Preferences > Weekend Nights dropdown menu selection to make that change. But that didn't help users that wanted to apply different Weekend Nights to other properties.
But now OwnerRez offers users the flexibility to determine which nights are considered "weekend nights" for each property by navigating to their specific Property > Rules > Change > Weekend Nights dropdown menu selection. This will be especially helpful for those that operate properties needing different weekend strategies.
Watch the Property Level Rules support video to learn more.
OwnerRez users have had the option to Hold these dates so that other guests cannot book these dates while this quote is active for quotes in-app for a while now, but there was no way to accomplish the same calendar block for active quotes via our API.
Here's an in-app Quote example using the Hold these dates so that other guests cannot book these dates while this quote is active option.
OwnerRez added an update to the API that adds a createHoldBlock parameter to the POST Quote API creating the option to add calendar blocks for active quotes via API.
Learn more about this topic by reading our API for Apps - Creating Quotes and Bookings support article.
To tax or not to tax...that is the question!
Some users inadvertently turned off rent taxability when they really shouldn't have (perhaps not understanding the consequences of that change) and were confused when their configured taxes were not applied to quotes, surcharges, bookings, etc.
OwnerRez has additional help text added to many other settings in-app, so we decided that it would be beneficial for users to add help text under Rent Taxability too. To help guide our users, we've added the following help text, Control whether "Rent" charge line items are taxable or not when generating charges for quotes or bookings, under the Rent Taxability section of Pricing Preferences.
Rent Taxability defaults to Taxable and users can review their own Rent Taxability selections by navigating to Settings > Pricing Preferences > Rent Taxability.
Learn more by reading the Taxes Overview support article.
OwnerRez frequently gets questions about tag criteria, which is a bit confusing. Users often ask whether our tag criteria are Boolean operators that allow users to combine words and phrases using the words OR or NOT to limit or broaden search or trigger results.
We want to help our users define their tag criteria searches correctly so those grids and filters display the correct results and the right triggers fire through the use of their carefully crafted tags.
Previously, Tag Filters were labeled either "Has Tags" and "Doesn't Have Tags".
We've updated the Tag Filter Labels in-app, including the Booking Views, the Quote, Guests, Owners, and Properties grids, as well as the Create Triggers section and we hope those labels are now clearer for our users.
But let's attempt to answer the original tag criteria question because we know you are now wondering!
In this example, your team needs more time to prepare for Anniversary or Birthday trips, so Early check-ins are NOT allowed.
Guest Sarah Johnson has an Anniversary trip tag associated with her booking and has requested an Early check-in.
While Guest Mary Jones only has a Birthday trip tag associated with her booking.
Let's use the booking filter and add the "Has Any of These Tags" tag criteria for both Anniversary or Birthday trips and select Search.
The search results display that both the Sarah Johnson and Mary Jones bookings are highlighted with the property color, while other bookings that do NOT have either Anniversary or Birthday trips tags associated with the bookings are greyed out.
Now let's add the "Has Any of These Tags" tag criteria for Anniversary or Birthday trips and select the "Has None of These Tags" of an Early check-in to see those results.
Our search results indicate that only the Mary Jones booking has the required additional time for your team to prepare for her Birthday trip adequately.
As you can see, ALL tag criteria must be met for results to display in the Booking Views, the Quote, Guests, Owners, and Properties grids, as well as in the Create Triggers section.
Want to make sure that your triggers will fire correctly? A good test would be to apply tag criteria to the Booking Filter to verify tag results before you apply tag criteria to your trigger configuration.
Learn more by reading our Tags Overview support article.
Add Title Attribute for Widget iframes. Widget iframes not correctly optimized for accessibility returned the error message, "iframe elements do not have a title." even though a title was added to the widget iframe. We have corrected this error, and widget iframe titles will be correctly assigned and optimized for accessibility.
Change the Failure Message When Sending an Email Hits an Unknown Snag. The previous system alert email failure message text displayed the unhelpful message, "Unknown. Contact support for more information." However, the Helpdesk team would advise users to resend the message again manually so that guests would receive the message. We have changed the system alert email failure message (and communication history) text to display the more expedient and useful, "Unknown. Try resending it manually."
Fix Broken Link Protection When Property Public Name is Changed. When users created a multi-property OR Hosted Website with the broken link protection enabled and subsequently edited one of the properties' public names in the Public name field, the broken link protection redirected potential guests to a not found page with a page index list displayed. We fixed this bug, and for properties with any of their properties' public names in the Public name field edited, the broken link protection will correctly redirect potential guests to the correct property on their multi-property OR Hosted Website.
Fix Drop Shadow on Hosted Website Headers With Multiple Lines. Users that added multiple header lines to their Hosted Website and set only one of those header lines to display a drop shadow noted that the drop shadow was incorrectly applied to all header lines. We've corrected this bug, and any drop shadow formatting applied to Hosted Website header lines will display correctly.
Fix New Ribbon Extra Width of One Day of Month Showing. Following last week's Ribbon Calendar Update, we noticed extra width space visible on the last day of the month and that the calendar grid was not correctly aligned. This issue has been resolved, and the Ribbon Calendar grid now displays correctly.
Fix New Ribbon Holiday Sticking After Display Then Scroll Then Hover on Old Days That Used to Have Holidays. Following last week's Ribbon Calendar Update, we noticed that the holiday hovering reminder tooltip pop-up remained visible even after a user scrolled past the holiday. We've fixed this bug, and the holiday reminder tooltip pop-ups upon hover will disappear after a user scrolls past the holiday.
Fixed Florida Rentals Not Able to Sync Reviews. Following our July 19th release, it was noted that even though guest reviews for Florida Rentals API-connected properties were pulled from FR and were in the OR feed, those reviews were not being pushed to the FR website. We've fixed this bug, and all FR reviews, including other participating first-class listing channels (currently: HomeToGo, Houfy, and FloridaRentals), will be visible and displayed correctly on the appropriate API-connected first-class listing channel websites.
Make New Ribbon Booking Background Printable Again While Also Keeping Fade to Grey Background on Booking Filter. A user noted that the new Ribbon Calendar booked property color ribbons were not visible when printing. The Ribbon Calendar prints correctly now, displaying the property colors behind the booking's ribbon while keeping any filtered bookings to remain greyed out.
Pet Notes Should be Editable Regardless of Suitability and Max Pets Selection. Users could only edit pet notes if the pets rule was set as "Allowed but up to a maximum." This bug has been fixed so that pet notes can be edited no matter the pet's setting under property rules.
Reviews Entered From Guest Directly Do Not Set the Listing Site (Source). When a guest submitted a review via the OwnerRez review form, it was not setting the listing site the booking was associated with on the review. This has been fixed to properly show the listing site on the review, the Listing Site column under CRM > Reviews, and the Reviews tab of the booking.
We are excited to announce our Partnership with Hopper Homes as a new first-class channel partner.
Hopper is the #1 most downloaded travel app and is the 3rd largest OTA in the US. With over 100 million app downloads, Hopper adds 3M+ users per month and reaches an additional 200 million travelers via its B2B business. Leveraging its data-driven approach to travel, cost-savings and flexibility, Hopper is set on becoming the leading short-term home rental offering.
Through B2B partnerships with companies like Capital One Travel, Hopper gets access to millions of additional users who drive incremental bookings for supply partners.
Hopper Homes launched successfully in January 2022 and is growing at a rapid pace. In H1’23, Hopper's booking volume and listing views more than doubled compared to all of 2022! They are also launching products that will improve both the guest and PMC experience, helping suppliers get inventory live and performing quickly on our marketplace. Hopper's goal is to give hosts and property managers access to new audiences, and soon, the added consumer benefits of their fintech will drive conversion and bookings.
Pricing Model - 14% Commission:
-This is applied to the total rental amount with fees w/o taxes
-The guest is not charged a traveler service fee
-Commission is charged before funds are remitted to the owner/PM
Get started with Hopper Homes by visiting here and checking out the OwnerRez support article for how to integrate OwnerRez with Hopper Homes.
Admittedly iPhone 13 mini. But as I am using OR on it a lot throughout the day, it’s a significant inconvenience to not see the entire current month. Seems that the properties column can still be narrowed enough to fix that.
With the desktop mode, the default view seems to be to start on the left at four dates before the current date. Is it possible to set the default instead at from the first of the month on the left side?
Seeing the entire current month right off every time I navigate to Bookings is what I need.
Thanks!
1) If we submitted our name early for the Google Beta would we have been notified already if we are on the limited Beta list?
2) Does the Listing Site Tracking apply to Florida Rentals? Is there a way to set up Florida Rentals so the users can get a quote right from the site.... getting emails asking for a quote is so "Old School" - thinking of not renewing my subscription just because of the pool guest experience
I can confirm seeing the entire month on mine, 1920x1080 resolution.
What screen size are you using? The ribbon view is designed to show 33 days on 1024 pixel wide screens (the most common smallest resolution for laptops and desktops), like this:
Unless you're zoomed in or have a very small laptop or mobile/tablet device, you should be able to see an entire month.
Once again disappointed with updated ribbon. Still can’t view the entire month as I can with old ribbon, so have to continue using the old one.
Thrilled to hear the Google Vacation Rentals update! Thank you, OR team!
Our pleasure Alece!
Thrilled to hear the Google Vacation Rentals update! Thank you, OR team!
Glad to hear about those plans.
My current setup allows for booking details to be included in OpenPhone, so that when a guest texts/calls, we can quickly identify which property they're booked at, if they're currently staying or arriving shortly/in future, etc. Having just the guest contact info limits its usefulness and still requires us to open OR and cross-reference the name to see if it's a current or future guest, property, etc.
A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.
Moore's expression for the pursuit of improvement is akin to OwnerRez's quest for innovation! Discover more as you scroll through today's product update by delving into our August 9th release with 18 updates, including Ribbon Calendar enhancements and more.
Remember the Ribbon Calendar Overhaul that we rolled out in March? Upon release, it couldn't do everything the Legacy Ribbon View could do (Bookings Filter, cough cough), so a number of users chose to revert to the Legacy Ribbon View. Revert no more! Come try out the further enhanced new Ribbon View!
With the re-introduction of the robust bookings filter and availability range filter added to the property filter, the new Ribbon Calendar now matches the Legacy Ribbon's functionality.🎉
When users click the Bookings Filter button, they can filter the ribbon by Listing Site, Booked dates, Payment and Security Deposit Status, and more!
After users click Search, the results will display the regular property color while results filtered out will be grayed out. Note how the Bookings filter button has moved to the left, next to the applied filters, just like the Legacy Ribbon View.
Need to clear a filter? Simply click on the X next to the selected filter, click on Show All or choose Clear (Show All) from the Reset dropdown menu.
The Bookings Filter addition to the Ribbon Calendar provides significant advantages to those users that manage multiple properties, as it can filter on various booking data.
Users could filter by property since the new ribbon calendar's launch but it's still a useful feature to point out.
Need to filter on availability? You can now on the new ribbon view; just click on the filter icon located within the Filter properties search box.
And the Filter Properties pop-up appears allowing users to search for booking availability (and more) across all or select properties.
Need to clear your selection? Just click on the Show All link.
But that's not all! We condensed and streamlined the new ribbon view so moving the handle is much smoother and more efficient. And we optimized it for numerous devices and browsers!
However, it's important to note that YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary), based on factors such as your device, operating system, internet speed, browser, and other variables.
Lastly, in the previous version of the Ribbon Calendar, we occasionally observed that date headers and bookings didn't sync up correctly and the booking date placement was off by one day. We corrected that as part of this release also.
Still not sold on the new Ribbon Calendar? Users can still revert to the Legacy Ribbon View for the time being.
Want to see more? Read all about it in the Ribbon View section of the Main Bookings Display support article.
Due to ever-changing SMS regulations, OwnerRez has added SMS brand application support for our Canadian users with the addition of the Canadian Business Number BN-9 in the SMS Brand application process. The Canadian Business Number BN-9 is a 9-digit business identifier used in Canada to which businesses can register their business accounts with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
We have removed the old CCN format as it is no longer accepted as part of an SMS Brand application.
Read our SMS Overview support article to learn more.
Add Edge Case Checking for Airbnb Publish Status and Clear Pending Publish Flag on Airbnb Check Status if Possible. This Airbnb bug occurred where a listing could be both in a "pending sync" but somehow also a "published and active" status. We fixed this by adding some validation checking that will unpublish and republish the listing and then update the listing status in OR.
Alphabetize Templates Dropdown in Trigger Forecast Filter. The Email Template subset dropdown list in the trigger forecast filter has been updated to now display in alphabetical order.
Blocked-Off Time Cancellation Should Report User That Cancels (Could be Portal User). Blocked-off time cancellations initiated by Portal users generated email system alerts that incorrectly displayed that the OR account user canceled the blocked-off time. This bug was rectified and email system alerts will now accurately display the name of the user who initiated cancellations for the blocked-off time.
Clear Review Body if Air Specifically Does. Our Airbnb review webhook handling initially would only update a review body if Airbnb provided one, but wouldn't clear a review body once set if Airbnb provided an empty body. We found some cases where guests entered bad reviews that Airbnb subsequently removed. OR now looks for any hidden reviews that contain empty bodies, and clears the review body out on the OwnerRez side as well, so the user will no longer see contested (and removed) bad reviews.
Don't Clear Car Suitability on Location Tab When Editing Amenities on Amenities Tab. We found that the car suitability text that was set on the location tab was being cleared upon saving in the amenities tab. We fixed this issue and saving the amenities tab will no longer clear the car suitability text (which used to be on the amenities tab, but now is on the location tab).
Don't Set Standard Max Nights for Air So That Allow RTB Above Max Option Works. Even though OR was sending the information, Airbnb was ignoring the "Allow request to book above max nights" setting in the Airbnb API connection, which was added in a late June release, if users had their max nights set to less than 28 nights. We have resolved this issue by no longer sending the calendar max nights to Airbnb if it's the same as the property and improving the label displayed in the Airbnb API connection to "For this setting to apply, the property must have a max nights rule of 28 nights or more and no seasonal or calendar max nights overrides."
Fix Bay Grande Single Property Layout. The Bay Grande hosted website template for single properties was encountering header text display overlaps. This bug has been corrected and header text will now display correctly for new single property hosted websites using the Bay Grande template.
Fix Issue Where Hosted Certificate Could Get Stuck Halfway Through Installation. OR continually monitors the hosted website certificate process and noticed that hosted site certificates were not always installed on all necessary servers due to an error. This error was fixed to allow hosted certificates to install elsewhere even if the certificate errors first on a different server.
Improve Hopper Cancellation Endpoint. In preparation for the public beta of the Hopper Homes API integration, we improved the cancellation endpoint after feedback garnered from the private beta.
Rework Airbnb Listing Nickname Truncate to 40 Chars. A user alerted OR that their Property Name was truncated after syncing their Airbnb API-connected property. We noticed that Airbnb supports more than 20 characters now and OR has increased it to 40 characters. While not displayed to guests on Airbnb, the listing nickname is referred to as the property "Name" in OwnerRez.
Send Profile Changed Alert to Old Email Address Too. OR always sends a system email alert to the newly changed profile email address on a user's account, but for security purposes, we now cc (carbon copy) the old email address on the alert sent to the new email address.
Set {PAYTYPE} Field Code for Credit Card Payment Type. The PAYTYPE (Payment Type) field code never included "Credit Card" so if the payment type selected was "Credit Card", that field was blank on booking confirmation, payment confirmation, etc. email templates sent to guests and users. If Credit Card is the PAYTYPE (Payment Type) selected, it will be correctly displayed on booking confirmation, payment confirmation, etc. email templates sent to guests and users.
Show a "No Phone Number" Error on Booking SMS Triggers if There's No Phone. SMS users that had not yet reserved an SMS phone number and subsequently created SMS triggers to send a template upon a booking creation were receiving incorrect error tooltips detailing why the SMS template was not sent in the Booking's messages tab. This issue has been resolved and users will now see a tooltip explaining that the message will not send due to "You have not reserved an SMS number."
Show Booking Listing Site on Portal if User has Permission. While Listing sites were displayed to portal users when hovering the booking on any calendar view (Ribbon, Month, Year), that information was not included in individual booking details. This has been fixed by adding the channel name under General Info if the portal user access includes "Can View Source/Listing Site."
On Thursday, 8/10, join us for a live focus session to discuss Mutual Blocking!
Adria Hahn will dive deep into the intricacies of Mutual Blocking and how OwnerRez can help make this complex process easier. We'll answer all the questions you have live!
The session starts at 1:00 pm Eastern, 10 am Pacific. It is free to join, but you need to use the sign-up for OwnerRez Focus Session - Mutual Blocking link to register.
You can find all of our past and future webinars on our Webinars page.
We do have plans to add categories to the booking changed triggers for things like financials changed, calendar changed, contact changed, etc. so you can target things more granularly, but don't have an ETA on the roadmap yet.
What exactly are you linking up in OpenPhone? Are you matching things back to the booking id or just loading contact info? If you're only doing contact updates, you could use contact created/updated like this example: https://zapier.com/apps/hubspot/integrations/ownerrez/1168079/create-hubspot-contacts-whenever-new-guests-are-created-in-ownerrez rather than triggering off all booking changes. The guest/contact should be updated much more rarely than the booking, basically just when contact info changes or a repeat booking comes in etc.
I'm finding that with only the 4 trigger options available, it's a challenge to utilize this integration effectively. I built out a multi-step Zap to create/update a contact in OpenPhone when a booking is updated (which became one of your example cases). However any time bookings are updated even with things like tags applied/changed, Vrbo commissions added, etc.), it runs the Zap -- causing us to max out our number of paid Zaps unbelievably fast! If I set it to only run when a booking is created, then I don't yet have access to guest contact information, as that only comes in when they complete the rental agreement.
1. Do you know of a way to limit the scope of the Booking Updated trigger to only include changes to guest contact information and dates of stay?
2. Are there any plans to more finely tune the trigger options available to make Zapier more useful?
Are you celebrating National White Wine Day 🥂 or International Beer Day 🍻 today?
Root beer and non-alcoholic white wines count too! Raise a toast to this full-bodied product update with rich details about our August 2nd release with 13 updates, where you can savor reading about the Google Vacation Rentals limited beta worthy of both beer and wine!🎉
Patience is a virtue, and soon OwnerRez users shall be rewarded! Yes, indeed, our number one channel feature request, Google Vacation Rentals, is coming.
Rather than leaving our eager users in suspense, know that OwnerRez is diligently working on this private beta integration by actively testing it in production on Google Vacation Rentals with some of our employees' properties.
Be assured that we're hustling to reach the "limited beta" phase, but at OwnerRez, we never settle for half-baked solutions and want to be sure that we get this integration right for our excited users.
At the moment, the Google Vacation Rentals private beta is not available to any OwnerRez users, and regrettably, the waitlist for our Limited Beta is already filled.
Ever wonder how a guest found and booked your hosted website? OwnerRez has some first-class channels, bnbfinder and Nofie among them, that send guests directly to your hosted website instead of generating inquiries or booking from the channel.
Previously, it might have appeared that inquiries or bookings in OwnerRez were direct bookings because they weren't attributing credit to those first-class channels. However, OwnerRez has added parameters to URLs for those listing channels that automatically add the listing site information so that users will know where the guest found your property listing.
How does it work? Each time a guest is sent to your hosted website to book from one of these listing sites OR appends the name of the listing site into the hosted website direct booking URL.
And users will see the listing site displayed in OwnerRez on the individual inquiry or booking.
The best part? OwnerRez users don't have to do a thing! No setup or setting changes are required. This is automatic for inquiries for these listing sites.
Learn more by reading our Channel Management Overview support article.
Like Airbnb, some of our API-connected listing channels function as the Merchant of Record (MOR), handling credit card transactions and then disbursing payments to owners/PMs for bookings.
In some cases, the payment type for those channels was set as "Bank Transfer," which was confusing. We have changed all transactions from API-connected listing channels that function as the MOR to be labeled as "credit card (processed elsewhere)" for clarification on future transactions.
Learn more by reading the Payment Processing Overview support article.
Apply Footer to Guides. OwnerRez has applied our standard website footer to the Guides index page and each Guide's page.
Don't Delete All File Field Values When One File is Deleted. When guests deleted one of the custom field files they uploaded on quote acceptance/booking checkout, all files displayed for the host (OR user) were shown as struck through/inaccessible because there was no longer a current field value. This bug has been resolved so custom files submitted (or deleted) during the booking process will behave as expected.
Don't Error When Viewing a Review That Has No Property. In the July 21st release, OR enabled all eligible direct-booking reviews to automatically sync to other participating first-class listing channels (currently: HomeToGo, Houfy, and FloridaRentals) but missed the booking validation check, which caused errors. We have corrected this bug by adding a booking validation check to determine that the review has a valid booking attached.
Don't Treat Any Pets Allowed as No Pets Allowed for Vrbo and Hosted Websites. OwnerRez removed pets as an amenity allowing users to set pet policies in their property rules instead. However, we realized that this process did not include checking for "any pets allowed" which resulted in "no pets allowed" being pushed to Vrbo and hosted websites. For clarification, this change did not affect other channels like Airbnb; the regression was only for Vrbo and hosted websites only. This bug has been resolved, and any property pet rules will be properly passed to Vrbo and hosted websites.
Fix Issue With Vrbo Listing Import Failing on Importing Description. When some users attempted to import a property with their Vrbo listing, the import failed if they had checked the "What to Import: Description" checkbox. This bug was fixed, and users can now successfully import a property with their Vrbo listing if the "What to Import: Description" checkbox is selected.
Handle Case for Vrbo BUS Where Guest is Missing Name. Vrbo always passes guest names with the expectation that all bookings will continue to have names associated. However, if a user deleted the guest's first and/or last name in OwnerRez, the Vrbo booking update service would error. Now if this happens, it will always be rendered as "?" and/or "Guest" so the name fields are never null in the feed sent to Vrbo.
Include Blocked Message Detail in SMS Blocked Error. When SMS premium feature users sent messages to an unsubscribed phone number (i.e., the number had replied "Stop"), they received an error without an error description. We fixed this, and users will now receive the following error message, "ERROR - 21610, Attempt to send to unsubscribed recipient".
Skip Vrbo CB Transactions With No Ref ID and No Payment Fee -- They Look to Be Dupes. Some Vrbo Channel Bridge (CB) transactions included no Ref ID or Payment Fees. These Vrbo transactions appear duplicated and will be skipped during the Vrbo CB process.
Tooltip Verbiage Incorrect on Cancellation Refunds Radio Button. When users selected a partial refund on a booking that had a tax that did not apply to cancellations, the refund radio button tooltip stated "credit card" even if payments on the booking were made by other methods. The refund radio button tooltip label has been corrected, and partial refunds with non-credit card payments will display the tooltip, "Automatic refund cannot be processed" as the only automatic refund method OR supports is for credit card refunds.
Tweak Wording for Pets and Nofie. We noticed that the word "modal" was on the in-app Nofie instructions, and we changed that word to "window," as modal is not a common term. Also, while completing the removal of pets as an amenity, we noticed the word "amount allowed" in the language displayed on the property rules pet restrictions section. We changed those words to "number allowed" for clarification.
Join us live with StayFi on August 8th at 2 PM Eastern and 11 AM Pacific time. Arthur Colker, the Founder & CEO of StayFi, is teaming up with OwnerRez for a webinar on growing your direct bookings business. This webinar will focus on direct booking strategies for short-term rentals, featuring real success stories from vacation rental owners and property managers.
Key webinar takeaways:
Join us for this exclusive collaboration between StayFi and OwnerRez, and elevate your vacation rental business’ direct booking business. Don't miss this opportunity to gain valuable insights and actionable strategies that will lead to greater success in the competitive vacation rental market. Register now and secure your spot for this illuminating webinar.
The session is free to join, but you must use the StayFi webinar link to register.
You can find all our upcoming and past webinars on our Webinars page.
B2 Vacations has some of the most loyal owners in the industry with a retention rate of 98%. This is accomplished by having full transparency with owners and guests. It has led to an average guest rating of 4.9 stars with over 2,000 reviews.
Our family has been coming to Myrtle Beach for over 30 years. For years, we would lose money by letting other companies manage our rental income. In 2017, we bought a new place and Chanda started managing the rental herself. Renting the units went so well, we bought a total of 8 condos in Myrtle Beach. In the 2020 HOA meetings, other owners saw our success and asked us to manage their units. So, we got our Property Management license, formed our company, B2 Vacations, and started managing rental units for other owners. We now have almost 100 rentals in Myrtle Beach. Our goal is to reach 200 units in the next 3 years.
Navin recently retired from a big technology company where he worked in software development. Chanda is a Physician Assistant working in Pediatrics.
We love to travel and know what guests are looking for when they vacation. We joked about opening a Travel Agency many years ago. Running a vacation rental business allows us to give our guests the same experience we would expect for ourselves. We also love helping owners maximize their rental potential. While many owners struggle and lose money, we strive to help them cover their costs and mortgage. We have the most loyal owner base.
Some guests try to manipulate the system. They try to extort discounts with the threat of bad reviews over minor things.
OwnerRez is our home base. We manage all reservations, integrations with Airbnb & Vrbo, payments, guest communications, and owner statements in OwnerRez. We are on OwnerRez constantly all day long.
Integration with various tools like Vrbo, Airbnb, PriceLabs, etc. Also, the automated communication with guests and owners through email and SMS texts.
>>>>>>>>>
Navin and Chandra, congratulations for your organic and impressive growth! Your story is a great example of "success begets success."
Join us for a live Q&A on Thursday, August 3rd, at 2 PM Eastern and 11 AM Pacific time.
We host live demo webinars every week, which you can register for here. During our sessions, we've noticed an increase in the number of questions being asked. As a result, we've decided to hold Q&A sessions to specifically address any questions you have.
The webinar is free to join, but you need to use the sign-up for OwnerRez Q&A link to register. On the registration form, there are multiple sections to write in your questions. Please write in questions prior to the webinar so we can start off by answering those right away.
You can find all of our past and future webinars on our Webinars page.
I've been enjoying adding guests to my mailing list. I've been toying with adding them to a google contact as well, so that they show up in my phone if they call/text so I know to answer the phone. Haven't quite gotten that working yet, more of a zapier/google integration issue, but still working on that.
On Wednesday, 8/2, join us for a live focus session to discuss Team Communication!
Adrielle Tecklenburg from our onboarding team will dive deep into the topic of Team Communication. Learn about Team Access, 3rd party alerts, how to properly set up staff members, and ask us any questions you have live.
The session starts at 1:00 pm Eastern, 10 am Pacific. It is free to join, but you need to use the sign-up for OwnerRez Focus Session - Team Communication link to register.
You can find all of our past and future webinars on our Webinars page.
Hi Pree,
This is Adam from StayFi We don't yet have the ability to associate more than one guest to a booking in OwnerRez. We're in contact with the OwnerRez team on this so as soon as it's available we'll update our integration to support this.
As for SMS opt in, that is a similar issue, as soon as OwnerRez supports this we'll update our integration to send this data over. One thing I would recommend though is using StayFi's Zapier integration to sync guest data collected via WiFi to other 3rd party apps / services. With the Zapier integration we do send SMS opt in status so you can use it in your other systems.
Best,
Adam
We are pleased to announce our partnership with i-checkin to set door lock codes automatically without lifting a finger!
i-checkin allows you to automate guest access for your properties. Control both the common and vacation rental doors simultaneously through an intercom and electronic lock. Guests' smartphones are used as temporary keys, ensuring convenience. Full automation of the check-in process is guaranteed through seamless integration with OwnerRez.
System price, including controller, door lock, and installation = 224 USD
Package with touch screen = $328 USD
Monthly subscription price = $5.50 USD/door lock
Get started with i-checkin by visiting the i-checkin website and check out the OwnerRez support doc for how to integrate OwnerRez with i-checkin.
Get ready for some Friday feels... our latest product update is here!
OwnerRez appreciates your undivided attention 👀...even more so on a Friday. Dive into this exciting product update and stay up-to-date with our latest July 26th release with 15 updates!
As announced in our June 6th product update, Vrbo Messaging Added to the Inbox (Public Beta), we noted that we anticipated importing Vrbo message threads of Vrbo guest conversations pre-dating that release in a future release. Well, that time is now! 📨
OwnerRez is importing older Vrbo Messages that are dependent on listing status checks. What does that mean for OwnerRez users? When OR checks your Vrbo listing status, we will trigger the Vrbo message thread import for that listing simultaneously. We expect to have all Vrbo Message Thread imports completed by the end of next week if all goes to plan, as OwnerRez diligently checks Vrbo listing statuses at least once a week.
OwnerRez has also improved the conversation area! The conversation buttons (shown below) displayed will default to the last form of communication used with the guest, whether channel (Airbnb or Vrbo) or SMS (if enabled). In the example below, the user last communicated with this particular guest within the Vrbo Messaging feature, so that is the default at this moment in time.
This user also has the SMS Messaging premium feature enabled, so the SMS button is available to be clicked on. When it is, the guest's phone numbers still appear to the right as they did before. When more than one, you can choose which number to use for sending.
We now hide the channel messaging buttons if not applicable to that guest's conversation history and default to the last form of communication used (this applies when you have SMS Messaging enabled).
If users are not API integrated with both Airbnb and Vrbo, only the users' API-integrated channel button will be visible to the user to select. Additionally, if the guest chose to book this property on Airbnb (or, conversely, Vrbo) the next time, the Airbnb button would be the default button for that booking conversation.
There is much to learn about OwnerRez messaging options but the Messaging Overview video and our Vrbo Messaging support article are great places to start.
We've added more Booking.com Cancellation Policy Codes to OwnerRez for even more control over your listing!
Booking.com sends us the charges and cancellation policy for bookings as users have them set on the BDC side, but OR was missing some available cancellation policy options. Those additional cancellation codes have been added to OwnerRez.
Learn more by reading our Booking.com Setup & Connecting support article.
Custom iCal links offer simplicity and easy integration for your property booking calendar syncing. While API-connected properties enjoy greater flexibility, real-time updates, and advanced features for their properties, at OwnerRez the choice is always yours.
But it was still difficult to see which bookings were managed by a custom iCal link or an API connection with a listing channel.
OwnerRez users can now more easily see whether a booking is managed by iCal or API connection on the Booking Channel Tab.
And users can click on either the iCal or API connection link that takes them to their iCal setup or API integration.
iCal information also includes the last day the linked calendar was imported, and users can also choose to click the Attribute to Listing Channel by selecting that button.
Learn more about your choices by reading our Custom iCal Links and API Integrations Overview support articles.
OwnerRez users know the importance of embracing a vacation rental social media presence for your property.
Now all OwnerRez Hosted Websites social media links open in a new tab to enhance the user experience and retain website engagement by allowing easy return to your vacation rental website pages.
Don't have your own direct booking Hosted Website yet? Learn more by reading our Hosted Websites Overview support article.
When users set up SMS Messaging they are asked to submit their SMS Brand. Federal requirements mandate an approved Brand registers its business website and address, which can now include a PO Box.
OwnerRez updated the SMS Brand application to comply with these updated federal regulations, now allowing vacation rental businesses to include PO Box addresses.
Want to get started with SMS Messaging? Check out our SMS Overview support article.
Add Booking form_key to API Result. OwnerRez has added the booking form_key to the API result endpoint.
Handle Undocumented Airbnb API 'Workspace' Room Type. The Airbnb API has an unsupported/undocumented "workspace" room type on their side. We are working with Airbnb to see if they plan to support this. In the meantime, we deleted rooms with the workspace type across all listings to prevent publishing errors.
Display PointCentral Service Plan Message Even if Login was Technically Successful. This edge case occurred when an OR user turned on two-factor authentication somewhere in their PointCentral account. The PointCentral API does not support that and was causing strange error responses even though the user could successfully log into their PointCentral account. OwnerRez released a hotfix to provide more friendly errors in this case instead of the generic "couldn't parse response" error. Still, the user ultimately fixed it by turning off 2FA in their PointCentral account.
Fix the From and To Number Labels on Failed SMS System Alert Emails. Some Failed SMS system alert emails displayed the To and From phone numbers labels backward. This bug has been fixed, and both the To and From phone numbers will be correctly listed and displayed on Failed SMS system alert emails.
Handle BDC Modify of New Booking as Add if it is Fresh. An error occurred when a Booking.com (BDC) booking dependent on a connection order was subsequently modified, causing booking errors. We have fixed this bug to handle any new BDC booking modifications as an add event to ensure that the booking is handled correctly in OR.
Handle Case Where PointCentral Returns Missing Lock List. This edge case occurred when an OR user turned on two-factor authentication somewhere in their PointCentral account. The PointCentral API does not support that and was causing strange error responses, including missing lock lists. OwnerRez released a hotfix to provide more friendly errors in this case instead of the generic "couldn't parse response" error. Ultimately, the user fixed it themselves by turning off 2FA in their PointCentral account.
Handle Missing Payment Type in Vrbo Channel Bridge. Some OwnerRez users experienced errors when attempting to complete the Vrbo Channel Bridge process due to an issue with some unexpected data located in the payment area. This bug was fixed, and the Vrbo Channel Bridge process will run correctly.
Mark Vrbo Commission Imports With Proper Category. Some users attempting to import their Vrbo Commission Pay-Per-Booking (PPB) files experienced errors in the expense and channel categories. This bug has been fixed, and the Vrbo PPB File Import process will now run correctly and as expected.
Patch Issue With RemoteLock's Regression Causing Failure With Igloo Locks. RemoteLock experienced a software regression on their end that started returning unformatted timeout errors instead of programming locks because the requested start/end time wasn't a round hour. Igloo locks only support hours, not minutes/seconds. RemoteLock could not fix it quickly, so OR released an update to round to the hour on our end for Igloo locks only.
Vrbo Commission Fee Import Doesn't Show Errors When There Are Any Successes. OwnerRez users experienced an error when attempting to import Vrbo Pay-Per-Booking (PPB) Commission Fees that instructed them to "Fix the errors below." However, no failed rows were displayed to fix when there were also some successful imports. This bug has been fixed and the Vrbo PPB Commission Fee Import process will now show any error details even when there are successes.
Ever since the Zapier integration with OwnerRez launched as a public beta in February and became a fully integrated feature in May, many members of the OwnerRez community have been busy creating hundreds of zaps to automate their daily tasks.
If you’re asking yourself what, exactly, a “zap” is, it is an integration between web applications that allows users to automate tasks between the two. The online platform, Zapier makes this easy by providing a no-code method of connecting a trigger in one web application with an action in another.
For instance, there is a zap that integrates Facebook and Gmail. The trigger and action are when a new post appears on your Facebook timeline (trigger), an email is automatically sent to your Gmail account (action).
You could do this manually, but it would require constantly monitoring your Facebook feed, then manually selecting each new post and selecting the method to share it, which would be very tedious and time-consuming. This zap automates this for you.
While OwnerRez has a multitude of existing built in integrations and functionality, it’s nice to have even more options to automate your workflow with the business web apps you already use and rely on.
Let’s take a look at some of the ways OwnerRez users have leveraged the power of Zapier to create zaps to streamline their workflow.
Many OwnerRez users use HubSpot for marketing, sales, content management, and customer service. This zap will help keep your HubSpot contact list current with your OwnerRez guest list by automatically creating a contact in HubSpot whenever a new guest is created in OwnerRez.
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This one’s for all the Microsoft users out there. This zap will add new OwnerRez guests to your Microsoft Outlook address book automatically.
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Feedback is important for improving your business, and Survey Monkey is the most popular, free, online survey tool out there. This Zap, using the built-in Zapier filters and delay steps, automatically sends a survey via SurveyMonkey to guests at a specified date after their OwnerRez booking has ended.
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Slack is a very popular communication, collaboration, and productivity tool used by small and large companies alike. If your team uses Slack, you could use this zap to alert your team of new bookings in OwnerRez as soon as that booking is created.
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OpenPhone is an online workspace that brings your business calls, texts, and contacts into one easy to manage interface, making managing your communications a breeze. You can use this zap to automatically keep your OpenPhone contacts up-to-date by creating or updating contacts in OpenPhone as soon as the contact is created in OwnerRez.
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These are just a few of the existing zaps that can streamline your workflow by automating repetitive, time-consuming tasks. Check out these OwnerRez integrations!
If you’d like help figuring out ways Zapier can work for you, they have a handy AI Brainstorm bot that will help you identify automation opportunities based on your business needs.
If you want to create your own OwnerRez integrated zap, head over to Zapier to learn the basics and get to zapping!
Please visit our Zapier Integration support document for more information and resources about our integration with Zapier.
Once you get to the P.A.Media Marketing, click Book a Call. I just tested it, and the link is working.
I am trying to book a time and your link is not working.
Today is National Junk Food Day, but before you start indulging...
Take some time to read this latest product update detailing our July 19th release with 18 updates, including some great new features like Eligible Guest Reviews Distribution and New Property Damage Protection Policy selectors. Then, proceed to savor those tasty treats guilt-free! 🍩🍕😋
OwnerRez users invest tremendous effort in obtaining reviews. The more reviews (hopefully positive) that you have on your listings on each channel, the better!
Eligible direct-booking reviews will now automatically sync to other participating first-class listing channels (currently: HomeToGo, Houfy, and FloridaRentals) without having to do a thing! Previously, this was all opt-in on each available channel's settings for this to happen. Other first-class channels will be looking to support this in the future (it requires additional development on their part to do so). Please note: this is available for Vrbo also, but you must opt-in on the Vrbo API settings page to do so. Also, please note, this is not available for Airbnb API connections.
On the OwnerRez CRM Reviews grid, users can now clearly see which reviews are eligible for Channel distribution in the Distribution column. Eligible reviews are those that were received from direct-booking guests.
On each review detail you can see more specifics around this.
Of course, we have to add the disclaimer that all reviews remain subject to each specific listing channel policies and level of development that they have done on their side/site.
Learn more by reading our Reviews Overview support article.
Congratulations, you've just got a new property to add to OwnerRez! Most of you probably know about the native Damage Protection options that OwnerRez offers; if not, you may want to read up here first.
Before this release, if OwnerRez users had Damage Protection turned on and subsequently added a new property, the system automatically added the Standard $1500 Damage Protection Policy automatically in the background.
Now, if OwnerRez users have Damage Protection turned on and subsequently add a new property, they will be able to select the Damage Protection Policy level at the time each new property is added. This has been added to all screens where you can add a property/properties.
The system will attempt to default to the policy level you always use or the one that is used the most across all properties in your account. The system will default to the Standard $1500 level if it varies widely. From there, you can select a different one if so desired. This was added to 6 areas. The sixth area is the Property Re-Enable screen. If you disable a property but re-enable it later, it will ask you to select a Damage Protection level for it too. Here are the 6 spots for your reference:
Add a (single) property screen:
Add multiple properties in bulk screen:
Import Airbnb Listing screen (if you select "Create a new property option," Damage Protection dropdown becomes available):
Import Vrbo Listing screen (if you select "Create a new property option," Damage Protection dropdown becomes available):
Import property data from Excel screen:
Re-Enable Property screen:
Learn more by reading the Damage Protection Overview support article.
Vacation Rental owners and PMs can certainly empathize with guest credit card failures. It can be embarrassing for a guest to find out that their scheduled payment or security deposit has failed and is sometimes completely out of the guest's control due to technical issues, fraudulent activity alerts, exceeded credit limits, or bank errors.
And the statement Your scheduled payment just FAILED in large font at the top of Scheduled Payment and Security Deposit Failure System Alert email system alerts sent to guests could generate feelings of embarrassment and shame for guests. Owners and PMs know that resolving scheduled payments or security deposit failures requires discretion, support, and understanding to ensure guest satisfaction and a positive experience.
For this reason, OwnerRez has added Scheduled Payment and Security Deposit Failure System Messages so users can edit them if so chosen. These were previously "hard-coded" system messages (i.e., no user could edit them). In the process, we softened the default messages by replacing the all-caps FAILED in both.
Here is the default system message for a failed scheduled payment, which still includes the reason, if known, in red.
OwnerRez users will continue to receive more obvious System Alerts notifying them of a scheduled payment failure with the Failed Reason detailed.
Security Deposit Failure System Messages have been equally softened to inform guests that their scheduled security deposit has failed while maintaining more obvious system alert emails for OwnerRez users.
Users can also view all of the Payment and Security Deposit Failure System Alert Emails in-app within the Communication History section of OwnerRez.
We rearranged the System Messages list a bit when adding these new ones. Users can view these new System Messages in-app by navigating to Settings > System Messages > Scheduled Transactions Messages.
Users can also edit these System Messages by clicking on the Action dropdown menu and selecting Change Message allowing users to make any customizations to that System Message.
Learn more by reading our System Messages support article.
Setting max days in advance (now known as Max Availability) booking window rules for your properties helps protect from unintended consequences. There was previously a "No Limit" radio button option. This caused issues for some users receiving unwanted bookings at inaccurate/low pricing, and some channels don't support such an unlimited option anyway.
To help with this, we have added property rule defaults for Max Availability at 365 days and Lead Time of 1 day from now (to protect against unintended same-day bookings) to all new properties, if not otherwise indicated.
If a property didn't have a max set, it was set to 365 or their furthest out specific date rate (spot rate or seasonal specific date) -- whichever was greater.
Of course, users can always configure these default settings to their preference at any time by navigating to the specific Property > Rules > Booking Window.
Note: Channel restrictions still apply.
The Booking Window rules are summarized nicely on the Rules view page of the property.
Learn more by reading the Booking Window section of the Availability Rules support article.
Allow Applicable Custom Field Types to be Used in Email Templates, Not Just Booking Custom Field Types. Users that attempted to input a non-booking type custom field code into the To input field did not result in an error as expected and needed. This bug has been fixed to allow users to add any type of custom field as long as it applies to the template type used.
Clarify "You do not have permission" Team Access Error. OwnerRez Team Access users that attempted to accomplish "primary account only" processes, such as changing account billing information, received unhelpful error messages. This bug has been fixed to now warn OR Team Access users when they attempt to accomplish "primary account only" processes and they will receive the more helpful "This must be done when logged into the primary OwnerRez account, not a team user." warning message.
Enable Test Quote API for bnbfinder. bnbfinder is in active development on some live quoting features. OwnerRez has enabled test quotes to allow bnbfinder to continue that work since their original channel configuration did not allow for test quotes.
Fix bnbfinder Listing Links. The property listing links displayed in users' bnbfinder API connection settings were incorrect. This bug has been fixed and the property listing links displayed in users' bnbfinder API connection settings have been corrected.
Fix Deposit Links in Transactions Grid. Deposit links displayed on the Booking Transaction grid were not hyperlinked correctly. This has been fixed and any Deposit links on the Booking Transaction grid will now open correctly.
Fix Email Bodies Not Visible in Conversation View. Last week's release led to an unintended outcome on the guest conversation view, causing the body of any emails in the conversation view to not be visible. Our users were quick to point this out to us. Easily resolved once we were made aware that it was happening.
Fix Ugly Layout on Team Invite Acceptance "Link to existing account". When OR users received a Team Access Email Invitation, the Link this Account button was displayed over and on top of important "Linking your Account" information. This has been fixed so the Link this Account button will display correctly, allowing the user to properly view the "Linking your Account" information.
Hackaround Airbnb "longer must be greater" Error. Airbnb was returning errors on properties that had a weekly discount but no monthly discount because the monthly discount was set to 0. This error has been fixed to now pass monthly discounts in the same manner as OwnerRez treats weekly Airbnb discounts if there's a weekly discount and no monthly discount.
Owner Email Address Doesn't Show Up in API if Loaded From Cache. We noticed that occasionally owner email addresses did not appear if loaded from the cache from integrations utilizing the OR API. This bug has been fixed and all owner email addresses (if entered) will load and display properly from the cache from integrations utilizing the OR API.
Purge Rejected SMS Brands After Account is Closed. After an OwnerRez user account closure, OwnerRez will purge any rejected SMS Brands from the closed user account.
Re-enable Cancellation Fee on Cancellation Policy Re-enable if Needed. This was an edge case where if a user disabled both a cancellation policy and the associated cancellation fee surcharge, the cancellation fee surcharge was not re-enabled upon re-enabling that cancellation policy. This bug has been fixed and any cancellation fee surcharges associated with cancellation policies will be re-enabled if the cancellation policy is re-enabled.
Re-merge Airbnb Bookings Missing Threads Caused by Airbnb Outage. Due to an Airbnb outage, users were missing booking conversation threads and unable to send channel messaging using OwnerRez. We fixed this by remerging the missing Airbnb conversation threads.
Support Segmented Codes on Kaba. An OR user had a Kaba door lock integration and couldn't generate door codes that included segmented numeric characters in the door code. OwnerRez was only supporting segmented numeric codes but we have fixed this to now handle door codes with unexpected sequences and translate them to valid segmented codes that guests can enter.
Update HomeToGo Instructions Onboarding Link. The HomeToGo API connection onboarding instructions URL in-app was outdated. We have updated it with the correct URL.
I would recommend reaching out to Turno for clarification on how they handle that situation. My understanding is that processing fees apply only if payment is made via Turno, rather than directly to the cleaner. However, I am not 100% certain as to the details.
You wrote:
Please note that processing fees will still be charged when using services by Marketplace cleaners.
I know that one of our regular cleaners is listed on Turno as a cleaner. Does this mean that if we sign-up for Turno that we would now pay processing fees each time she cleans for us?
