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It's Wednesday, so let's talk updates!
We released 37 updates this past week which mostly focused on bug fixes and enhancements, particularly on SMS and messaging. We also released a first pass of our new Tags feature.
There is now a new Tags feature in OwnerRez. In a nutshell, tags gives you the ability to find and group data (properties, inquiries, quotes, guests and bookings) into common buckets so that you can filter or perform actions on those groups in the future. It's a way to slice and dice your data by another dimension.
For instance, need to label someone a "bad guest" and then filter out all bad guests from a report or export? You can now do that, or at least you can assign tags and start to filter some of the lists. We haven't fully implemented everything we'd like to do, but you get the idea about the purpose.
To get started, head over to Settings and scroll down to the new Workflow & Devices section. There's a new Tags option there. Click that and you'll see a basic list where you can create a tag. Enter whatever name you want there and save. Right now, that's all there is - just the tag name - but we'll be adding more settings to tags in the near future.
In the above example of marking bad guests, your tag name might "Bad Guest" or "bad-guest" or even "BG" depending on what kind of tag pattern you want to create. Then go find the offending guest and drill into their record. You'll see a new "Tags" spot at the top of the sidebar.
Click that change button and your tags will appear:
Select the tags you want and save. Instantly, the guest will have that tag set on their record and the selected tags will show from that point forward when you view the guest.
The tag will also show on the main Contacts (eg. Guests) list on the far right. You can also filter the Contacts list to show or exclude that tag as well.
Following this pattern, you can find and set tags on inquiries, quotes, bookings and properties, and then filter those records from their respective lists.
A good rule of thumb is to create and use tags that you will only use on one type of record. For instance, you do not need to use the same "bad guest" tag on both guest and booking records simultaneously. Tagging the guest is good enough. Any booking that the guest is on will also show the guest tags for the associated guest. So if you navigate to a booking for the bad guest, it will show both the booking-specific tags and the "bad guest" tag next to the guest name as well.
Before you ask, we know that Tags needs a number of additional features like:
The above ideas, and others, are already on our drawing board, so please be patient and try not to bombard the support desk with requests for these things. š
Sometimes you block off a property (ie. blocked-off time instead of booking) but the period of time is really more like a booking. For instance, the owner is staying there. We added an option on door locks to generate door codes for blocked-off time in addition to bookings. You can set it for booking only if you want the previous functionality to remain.
Calendar importing (iCal) is messy by nature because it does not contain a lot of booking-specific information and many channels support it in different ways. Because of this, we've had problems with cancelled bookings being incorrectly reactivated when a new booking occurs for the same dates. To help with this, we now check for a wider range of name/token matches when reactivating cancelled bookings from calendar imports. If not found, a new booking is created instead.
Ever wanted to export your seasonal rates to Excel? Now you can. This will dump out a spreadsheet that looks like just the seasonal rates editor.
Tax reports used to include all booking charges in the "taxable amount" figure where the charges had "taxed" selected. The problem is that in some cases, charges are marked as taxed but there doesn't end up being any actual tax line items. This would create an imbalance between the taxable charges and the taxes collected. To clarify this, we changed the default behavior of the tax reports to not include those charges (even if marked taxable) if no tax were collected for the booking. If you want the amounts to still show, you can do that with a new setting on the report.
Have you ever connected the Airbnb API and then later changed your email address on the Airbnb account? The email address on the API connection still shows the old one forever in OwnerRez. This doesn't hurt anything - it's purely for display purposes - but was irritating, so we fixed it. You can now request that the Airbnb API connection be refreshed and the new email address be shown. This is an admin-only function, so let us know if you need your connection refreshed by contacting our support desk.
We updated our surcharge logic to only evaluate season criteria on the arrival day only. We believe this will help clarify which surcharges are selected and why. This aligns with what all the major channels do already.
When guests are supposed to pay by check - typically because they selected that for a discount when booking - we show a warning so that you don't run a credit card later on. We now also show a link where you can to see and correct that payment restriction on the booking in addition to the warning.
Our support area has grown enormously in recent times. We noticed recently that when reading a support article, the sidebar expands too much (showing all categories) which makes it hard to see the category that the current article is in. So we changed the support article sidebar to auto-shrink except for the current category.
Now let's talk messaging!
Most OwnerRez clients have not yet seen or experienced the new SMS feature, so I apologize for mentioning stuff you may not be able to see yet! š But oh well, here I go anyway...
If you have more than one SMS number on your account, it was previously picking the default number. You can now see, and select, which SMS number to send your message from if you have more than one number.
Want to send an MMS (or photo) message but you really want to send a PDF or non-image attachment instead of photo? You can now do that! If you attach a file that is not an image, we will automatically create a file attachment out of it and insert a link to it in the body of the text message. When it shows up on the recipient's phone, they'll see a link they can click to download the file. Pretty cool. Makes me wonder why the major cellphone carriers don't do the same thing.
As the inbox grows, so does the potential chaos as messages show up from different sources and channels. We added a column and some indicators to the inbox to show if the current message is a SMS or Airbnb message. You can also filter for that in the inbox filter.
Want to mark messages as read because the guest said something final (eg. "Thanks, sounds good!") and you don't need to respond? You can now do that in bulk. We added check-boxes to the inbox and a Mark As button with read and unread options. Select the ones to update and mark them as read instantly. That will help take the top menu counter down as well, so that it stops bugging you for stuff that no longer needs attention. If you want to go the other way, and mark messages as unread, you can do that too.
You can also filter on the read/unread status and delivery status. This would help you find something unread from 3 pages back in the list so you can mark it read and stop the top indicator from bothering you.
Because your contact records (ie. guests) can be duplicate in OwnerRez, the same phone number could be on more than one guest record. So when SMS messages come in, which guest message thread should OwnerRez attach it to? There might be 5 Joe Blow's with the same phone number. Currently, OwnerRez uses default logic to guess which guest is the right one and show it on that message thread. However, this is often wrong and you need to move the message to a different guest. We added the ability to move a single message to a different guest. This will help you to clean up your messaging. Of course, you can also find and merge multiple guest records into one, so that is often the better solution.
Email History is awesome for showing you the nuts and bolts of what actually was sent - both to yourself and guests on your behalf. If you don't know about this, you're missing out. We have recently expanded this feature. It's now called Communication History and you can still find it under the Tools menu. We also added tabs to it for SMS, Calls and Airbnb messages. This shows all in and out-bound messages that we are sending or receiving at a granular level. We plan to add filters and other settings to this area, but for now this should help you debug issues as you use guest messaging and SMS.
Speed issues on communication history. We fixed some things to speed up how fast those lists load.
Vrbo rate logic for date criteria. We changed up how date criteria is evaluated so that it's evaluated separately instead of together.
Channel Bridge booking matches. If Channel Bridge imported a booking that matched, but without a token, and had no actual updates, it would throw an error. This has been fixed.
Airbnb API overwrite all availability rules. Some fields in Airbnb aren't used if you're on the API but they're confusing to look at because they might show old information. We are not overwriting all of them even if they aren't used. Clean slate approach!
Excel exports number columns. You might have noticed that some number columns would produce a textual value in the Excel cell where sorting and other number-related functions would not work correctly. This has been fixed.
Hosted website menu page order. We have fixed website menus to properly show the correct order of child pages.
Travel Insurance cannot be required. This has been a problem for awhile, and we finally got around to fixing it. Travel Insurance cannot, legally be forced on the customer to buy. It is opt-in only. We have changed in OwnerRez. It is now only allowed to be enabled or disabled.
Phone error messages are unclear. When filling in a phone number, you may have seen a message about length of the number but not understood what this is becase phone numbers are typically filled in from other records (like guest or booking pages). These error messages now refer to phone numbers for added clarity.
Missing space before "manually" on the booking overview tab. Yep. Fixed.
Property description angle brackets. Angle brackets can cause weird situations in web applications because web apps are made up of HTML which is communicated by many angle brackets. Because of this many web apps and web servers look for, and block, angle brackets. This was causing problems with our property description pages. It is now fixed. Enter all the angle brackets you want.
Mutual blocking when disabling properties. Before, if you had mutually-blocked property calendars, that blocking would stay in place even if one or several of the mutual properties was disabled. This created problems down-stream and has now been fixed. When disabling a property, any related mutual blocking is automatically removed.
Bedroom drop-down options. If none of your properties have 3 bedrooms, why should the property filter on your website show a 3 bedroom option to guests? Now, it doesn't.
Widgets showing show pets. Same as bedrooms above. If none of your properties allow pets, why have a pets option on the widget? You could always turn that off, but now the widget is smart enough to know that none of your properties allow pets and remove the option by default. And just like that, OwnerRez is one step closer to reading your mind.
Security hold instead of deposits. Scheduled security holds were using the word "deposit" which we stopped using in most places. This has been fixed.
It's not "checkout". Likewise, we removed the word "checkout" from places that are referring to the point of initial booking. On the internet, it's common to refer to the shopping cart process as having a checkout where the order is submitted. In the hospitality industry, "checkout" has a completely different meeting, so we changed that.
Reviews filtering by property. This is now fixed. By which I mean, it now works again.
SMS sending empty message. We fixed SMS sending to not try to send if the attachment is empty or a bad file type. Before it would try to send and then the failed delivery would show in the thread below.
SMS failed delivery email. Speaking of failed delivery, when that happens, we send an email to the user saying what happened. But the failed delivery email was referencing a bad link which has now been fixed.
SMS preview not previewing. For SMS templates, the preview window was not resetting correctly when selecting a different booking.
SMS templates not in triggers. Just like it sounds - the trigger template drop-down wasn't showing SMS triggers. It is now.
Mobile inbox needs to look like mobile. Before, the message inbox was unreadable on mobile. It showed the first column but clipped the others. We changed this so that it shows the guest name above the message in one readable column.
PLEASE include me in SMS. I am so waiting for this feature!
OwnerRez has a ton of great features that we are constantly updating. We love partnering with companies that can add even more functionality for our users. It’s even better when a company can bring something to the table that we don’t support.
RueBaRue does just that. RueBaRue offers owners and property managers the ability to send property guides and destination guides to the guest for their booking. These guides reduce the time you spend communicating back and forth over email. Not only is this good you, it’s good for your guests.
Here is a testimonial from one of our esteemed users who integrated with RueBaRue:
"We love RueBaRue, and we highly recommend property management companies explore this easy to use integrated and online guest portal property guide! We no longer have to spend hours communicating to the guests pre-arrival/post departure/ or even during the guest stay. RueBaRue is such a great tool to take property management services to the next level and stand out!
The integration is working perfectly with ownerrez. Guests get an email and a text with a link to their guest portal specific with their booking information. It includes check-in instructions, house rules, safety locations, and informational tools on how the house operates. We really noticed the value of RueBaRue during the COVID-19 Pandemic. We had a fast, easy way to communicate to all our travelers the local laws/ordinances to keep compliant. We were able to update all guests at once of any emergencies or helpful information. It takes some time setting up RueBaRue but once you have all your properties custom it does all the work for you from there. We don't have nearly the amount of phone calls pre-arrival from guests asking what kind of coffee maker or where to get keys etc. It's all in the guest portal!!
Everything about the home is at the tips of the guests fingers and this means when the wifi password changes, you no longer have to send a staff to the property to update those refrigerator house rules, you can simply update them on the property guide. Have complicated TV instructions? Just snap a video and upload it to RueBaRue. Additionally RueBarRue offers a guide with local restaurants and activities to do in the area! The texting feature is also a total plus." - Beachside Rental
Here are some examples of what the guides looks like:
If you’d like to play around with this on your own, here is a link to Beachside Rentals guest book:
https://www.ruebarue.com/rental/5198118023069696
Check out RueBaRue by following this link:
Well, don't worry about Airbnb getting rid of the proxy email - you can turn that back on again in your Airbnb control panel. You can opt back in to getting the proxy email if you use a hidden setting in the account area under "Professional hosting tools".
We strongly recommend that you do this. OwnerRez uses this address specifically to have the guests sign your rental agreement, just as they say, so this is not a violation of terms.
Ditto on Airbnb message triggers, especially with them getting rid of the proxy email!
Great. here is another idea. A trigger that can be set up for un-booked inquiries.
Meaning, there was an inquiry, dates are available, quote or response was sent, but travelers has not booked did in <number of days>.
So something like this:
Inquiry quoted = yes;
Inquiry booked = no;
Days after quote created = <number of days>
So that we can create a triggered follow up email or text.
Please put Australia on the list too. Understand it cannot be done straight away but it is something a lot of us do already outside of OwnerRez. Would be so much easier 'in' OwnerRez :-) Thanks!
Could some sort of Tag be added to the cancellation policy screen?. I have properties grouped in Countries so it would be nice to see which policies relate to which group.
Absolutely awesome how you're constantly improving the product! I'd be honored to be in the first batch of SMS users.
Short links for guest forms has already gone through engineering and is currently in testing/QA. 😇 Look for that out live by end of August.
What we're doing with Air and SMS messaging necessitated shortening those, but also Booking.com broke their message thread awhile back and any link beyond 100 characters or so is broken in half and completely unusable. So we had to change up how we do links.
As an example, the default link for quotes will look like this:
https://orez.io/v1/q/1234567890
Which will auto expand to the current version that looks like this:
https://app.ownerrez.com/forms/quotes/1234567890
The short version will become the default output in messaging and field codes.
Paul W said:
Sure. And I'm guessing we'll add some kind of auto-responder setting as the Inbox grows in use so that you can configure that yourself.
Sure. And I'm guessing we'll add some kind of auto-responder setting as the Inbox grows in use so that you can configure that yourself.
Paul, could you not set up the SMS service to send out and auto response to any texts that received a reply with the auto response saying this number not monitored and to contact via another method?
Thanks, Kara!
In general, there is no way to stop guests from responding to a text message. If their carrier supports it, they can always respond. There are no SMS or MMS specs for "not allowing a response".
However, to stop responses, you could simply say something like:
"AUTO-REMINDER: Booking blah blah blah. Please email [x] to respond"
So that it looks robotic and official.
And since you're using a separate phone number, nothing will come back to your own cell phone. The response would simply hit the inbox in OR where you could to ignore it. 😇
Yes, would love to be added to the SMS beta group. And I agree with others, I'd be using this to send key code and a "thank you" at check out. I don't want it encourage unnecessary back and forth with easier accessibility. It would be great if it was something like a Remind type of thing where guests wouldn't respond back--I think. I need to think about this more though. Excited to check it out. You guys are great! Thanks!
For light use, you can always use an external email-to-sms service instead. I also, want one-way door codes and payment reminders, etc. I do NOT want to get replies, as that creates chatty guests who want to know where the spoons are and how to work the TV....
Love hearing that SMS is being included into OR. $15/mo is so doable, considering I'm paying $60 plus per month right now. Would love to be included on Beta testing!!!
Happy Friday Everyone!
Florida gang members are hosting large house parties at vacation rentals with the aim of spreading coronavirus, cops say. Yes you read that right. ...Wow.
These “COVID-19 parties” with crowds of up to 400 people have received more than 600 noise complaints since March, stated Osceola County Sheriff Russ Gibson. Good thing OwnerRez offers Damage Protection.š
Florida continues tackling tough VR issues in court. A FL appeals court ruled Wednesday that the steep $20,000 fines for illegal vacation rentals the city of Miami Beach imposes is in violation of state law. This affirms the opinion of the lower court and strikes down what is considered to be the harshest fine structure any local government has imposed to crack down on short-term rentals. According to the ruling, Florida Statute states that a city’s fines “shall not exceed $1,000 per day per violation for the first violation, $5,000 per day per violation for a repeat violation, and up to $15,000 per violation if the code enforcement board or special magistrate finds the violation to be irreparable or irreversible in nature.”
During the Covid-19 pandemic, short-term rentals outperformed hotels, according to the preliminary findings from STR, and AirDNA, hotel data intelligence and global benchmarking firms. The most recent week of the analysis showed, larger short-term rentals had the highest occupancy level of 61.4 percent. Short-term rentals came in at 58.2 percent, while traditional hotels were at 39.2 percent.
And this is while many hotels were open and STRs were not! It makes sense of course since most travelers want isolation and better cleaning standards. Vacation rentals win again!
If you haven't already, let us know what is the right word to call you: https://www.ownerrez.com/blog/what-is-the-right-word-to-call-you
Thanks Paul
Guess why i left my old provider amongst other reasons! I think its going to depend on how people envisage using the service? Personally i look at it as more of a push only service rather than a 2 way chat. For sending those important message such as key codes or don't forget to do this etc. A text provides more confidence that such messages have not been blocked by a spam filter. More in depth conversations would be via email or direct text. It would be nice if there was some scope for lighter users. Typically 2- 3 messages per booking is all that's needed.
Iām sure you already know I want to be in the early round of SMS testing, but just in case... ;)
@Brendan C: Yes on both. The time of day option is already through development and in testing. Look for that in a month or so.
Apologies, I forgot to include another important note in the blog post. I just added it:
"SMS is only available for US/Canada phone numbers to start. Our infrastructure supports the ability to add other country codes in the future, but we'll be starting it off with the US/Canada limit in place. If you're a European or Asian client, you could still use it, but the phone number you select would have to be US/Canada based to start."
Le Touquet Holid made me remember this when he mentioned GBP currency. Apologies for not mentioning that up front!
Are you still working on being able to send messages directly to the AirBnb/VRBO inboxes? Also, are we able to pick times that triggered emails get sent? I would love those features.
Please include me in SMS
Please include me in Sms
Wow, your old PM was pretty expensive! That's about 13 cents (USD) per message that your old PMS was charging. At that rate, the base fee $15 we are charging would barely cover 100 messages.
We are including 300 outbound messages and unlimited inbound which works out to 2-3 cents per message depending on your ratio of outbound/inbound. It's 3 cents/outbound after that.
It's not hard to hit 100 messages. 1 trigger on each booking plus some back and forth small conversations. Consider a simple trigger with some polite responding...
Automated trigger: "Make sure to read the welcome packet email we sent for your stay at [x]"
Guest: "Got it, thanks. Who should I call if I have a problem?"
You respond: "You can call this number or my cell. Have a good stay"
Guest: "Will do, thanks"
You're at 4 messages, even without having an actual extended conversation. In testing, we saw this routinely. It's not hard to hit 100 messages in a month even with 1 or 2 properties.
Thanks Paul i understand you have to cover the back end costs for such a system - Just to give you an idea my previous PMS did this for around 10 UK Pence per text on straight usage system. :(
@Le Touquet Holid: The cost is both monthly and usage based combined for all users. There is a monthly fee to have the service connected and running (which covers your phone number and the premium features built into OR). And then the usage is billed as you use the number in excess of what is included for free. Larger PMs will have a usage charge in addition to the monthly. Smaller owners may end up paying the monthly fee only. The telephony costs and features are too expensive to operate going purely on credits as this point in time. That may be something we're willing to look at in the future.
@Tim: You'll register a new phone number which you can pick from a list of available ones in your area code. You will essentially "own" that number on your account so pick a good one. Later you'll be able to use the same number to make calls, etc. Guests will fully be able to respond by SMS and the message will come into OwnerRez and show in the guest's conversation thread and inbox. Guests can also call the number and they'll get a voicemail message that you can see and configure on your account. If they leave a voicemail, you'll be emailed the message. In the future, you'll be able to use the number to make and receive live calls as well, so pick a good number that you want to use moving forward.
Please include me in the text beta program. Jim Willis
