Latest Activity...
Due to the coronavirus scare, we've had a zillion requests in the past week to provide a Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) option on travel insurance. We've had CFAR on the backlog for awhile, but the requests over the past week were overwhelming. So we listened! We dropped everything and got it out!
If you already have Travel Insurance turned on, you don't have to do anything to get CFAR. CFAR now rides along as an option in the guest form.
And we've changed how the guest forms look to call out Travel Insurance much more clearly with a bottom "No, I decline" option to force the decision.
In the case of adding on travel insurance after the fact, CFAR also shows there and will smartly detect if it's available and show the guest the correct language and options accordingly.
If you want to turn on travel insurance in your account, you can do that at any time under Settings > Travel Insurance. Read our support article about travel insurance and remember that properties need to have an address on file in order for travel insurance to work.
Enjoy!
OwnerRez changed insurance providers last November. Any policies purchased after November 18, 2019, will be with RentalGuardian, which is what the guidance mentioned above relates to.
Polices purchased prior to November 18, 2019 are from AIG Travel Guard, as you noted. We have received no guidance from them, which isn't a huge surprise - the reason we changed companies was because AIG was exiting portions of the business. We were informed that their existing policies will be honored as issued, but what that means in the current circumstances is anybody's guess.
Unfortunately, we have no better recommendation than to attempt to contact them for a definitive answer. Since we attempted to replace AIG's product with another similar product form RentalGuardian, it is likely that their response will be similar to what RentalGuardian is doing, but the only way to know for sure is to ask them.
Hi Paul,
Is this company the same company that our guests are purchasing insurance from when booking through our OwnerRez system? When I look at those documents they say "AIG Travel Guard" on them.
I have a guest who purchased a policy through her booking in OwnerRez from "AIG Travel Guard" in October 2019. I'm trying to find out if the travel cancellation coverage on that policy will pay for her canceled booking. Do we have any information on this company's stance on Covid-19? I would try to call them but I am sure it will be almost impossible to get through.
Many users have asked about Travel Insurance coverage and what the official policy is. It has changed a bit as time has progressed. RentalGuard and InsureStays have put out an official FAQ at this link:
FAQ's – Coronavirus (COVID-19) and Our Travel Protection Plans
Take a look and read that top to bottom. There is some very good information in there to know.
Additionally, we here at OwnerRez are working quickly to see if we can get the Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) product added in the next few days. No promises or ETA on that but we've been cleared for take-off on the carrier side to add it.
In addition, here are some additional important reference numbers:
To be fair to OP, this blog post is 8 years old. Much has changed in the STR industry over the last 8 years. Notice that Airbnb wasn't even on that list (it didn't exist yet). We need a new one of these.
This depends on:
Your region
Your location
Your type of property
Your settings
Your price
Your min day settings.
Etc.
I get 6 BDC for every ABB here. But what works for you or for me may have little applicability to others.
Ross C said:
To me, too far and away the best place is to be on the four major sites. FlipKey TripAdvisor, booking.com, Airbnb, VRBO. Plus you're hosted website.There is no expense to me, because I add their commission on as an admin fee. Everything that comes to me from these sites is then pure Revenue.
To me, too far and away the best place is to be on the four major sites. FlipKey TripAdvisor, booking.com, Airbnb, VRBO. Plus you're hosted website.
There is no expense to me, because I add their commission on as an admin fee. Everything that comes to me from these sites is then pure Revenue.
A lot of it is not accurate as far as my market goes. And some are missing.
For ex., my email newsletters that used to do quarterly and I have over 2K addresses on file resulted maybe in 3 rebookings ever in 4 years of doing it and 3 properties. Far from 'medium'. I basically stopped doing it. Mos email goes into spam anyhow.
Facebook GROUPS (not your own pages - VR dedicated groups and yard sale groups) are not mentioned and yet I get a fair amount of bookings from Facebook groups - more than from regional listings sites for sure.
Craigslist - only scammers use that.
Google / Bing - I have but cannot directly trace any bookings to it. I do have spikes in calls usually during high demand seasons when I am already booked, presumably from google.
I do not use Ad words.
I MAKE KEYCHAINS, LUGGAGE TAGS FOR OUR CONDO IN MAUI. I HAVE MADE THEM FOR OUR MTN. CABIN, ALSO. THEY ARE THEMED TO THE AREA, WITH A TAG WITH OUR WEBSITE ADDRESS. THEY ARE POPULAR WITH OUR GUESTS. I AM STARTING TO SELL THEM- THEY ARE CUTE! I SELL THEM FOR ABOUT $5 EACH. WE HAVE AN 98% OCCUPANCY RATE, AND THIS HAS HELPED ALOT! DORIWARNER@AOL.COM
Can you write in a support request to the Helpdesk, with the ORB number of the booking in question?
I've gone through this process, but no sign of the refund on my PayPal account.
Just wondering if it has happened or I just recorded it on OwnerRez
create a season instead?
yes. i use these
Is this still current?
Last November, we had our first OwnerRez Happy Hour Hangout in Scottsdale, AZ, alongside the VRBO Partner Summit. It was a great success, and a good time was had by all!
This year, we're looking at doing another OwnerRez Hangout alongside the VRBO International Conference in Orlando. This is held from a Sunday through a Wednesday.
As we plan for this, we'd like your input on when and where it should be. Please follow the link below to take our survey:
We'd like to meet with as many of you as possible! If the response is good, we may even hold multiple events to better suit everyone's schedule.
Is there a way to have the holiday span a number of days? ie from xx/xx to xx/xx ?
I want to note spring break weeks for various schools. The more they overlap, the more in demand those days will be.
Thanks,
Denise
This blog post is from 7 years ago, so yes, it's a little out of date.
What were you looking to be able to do? If it's regarding custom sources, take a look at the support docs:
https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/custom-sources
This needs to be update, perhaps? I'm not finding the answer following the instructions.
We're working with RentalGuardian on getting an answer on the 30+ day bookings.
I see that this new carrier will only cover reservations of 30 days of less. What are we supposed to do with snowbirds that stay 60 days?
Marcy
Yes! Each property can have a different level of protection. Go to Settings > Damage Protection. That'll display a list of all your properties and the selected level for each, which you can change as desired.
Note that if you change the level of protection for a property, that will change the level for all new bookings / policies purchased going forward. It will NOT change the level already purchased for existing bookings.
question: is it possible to select different coverage amount for different properties?
Such as , for my smaller property I may want $500 coverage; larger property $1500. Can it be set up that way?
Stop watching
Cathy, you can turn it off on either API integrations or calendar imports in OwnerRez, specific to those channels. Go to the Damage Protection section in OR > Settings to get started and select a plan level.
We (OwnerRez) can submit a claim for you at any time electronically, so no worries on that. We hope to have the full claims process be self-service in a couple weeks. Remember that, right now, any claims you have would still be TravelGuard based since those are the policies already purchased and filed. Practically speaking, no one should have RentalGuardian claims until a new booking that was created after Monday arrives/departs in the future. All your pre-existing bookings will continue showing TravelGuard ARDI information.
I see the new rental company is now the one that is listed on new reservations coming in but is says there is currently no link to submit a claim. What is the timeframe going to be on the link being done?
Marcy
#2 go to settings> Surcharges and Discounts > Add a surcharge. Call it maintenance fee or whatever you like.
How do we turn it off for other channels?
How do we add a surcharge (Maintenance Fee)?
We the host pick which plan we want?
Hi Cathy,
Answers:
1) Yes, and also on bookings from other channels unless you turn that off.
2) The fee is shown in the table above where it shows the "Premium" amount
3) Yes
4) Yes if you want. You can turn it off for those channels, but we encourage it for all bookings including platform. The advertised coverage that VRBO and AIrbnb claim is different and not the same type of protection.
These answers and more can be found here:
https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/damage-protection-overview
