Latest Activity...
Very nice! It works well and will certainly help me a lot. Thank you!
I wonder if eventually it can be in the ics output file as a real date showing on my ics import (I use google calendar to aggregate dates for everything). I suppose it would be hard though as you do not want it to show as a reservation. I suppose you could create the date for the ICS file using the check-out time for that day (cleaning day) and the standard check-in time for that same day.
Anyhow not really important. Just thinking out loud.
It is now nice to record the date into the system as a real date.
Glenn
I do not have a luxury of 3 hrs as I have a lot of same day turns...Will try 2 hrs.
We just pushed out a new release that includes the cleaning date. You can set it on the Info tab and it will show there, on the Overview tab, and on the calendar.
No workflow or blocks around it yet, but hopefully having the value in place will help! :-)
Yes, that's exactly what grace period does. It's subtracted from check-in and added to check-out.
You may want to do more than an hour just to be safe. I use a 3 hour grace period on my properties -- I'd rather give the guest a bit of flexibility in case they forget something at the property or something like that, rather than them having to call me.
Question about grace period: I set 1 hour - will that cover upcoming Daylight savings time change? Right now the ERL gives me some warning on their site about 1 hr difference...Does 1 hr grace go before-and after the set time? thanks
Hi Barb,
Good morning!
Yes, it will! Our current widget doesn't show the owner response and that is vital if you're showing a critical review. We will make sure to add that. We'll also be adding the listing site it was left on with a filter option so that they can see where the review originated (talking about the widget).
The import/export features we're working on will pull in all that information - yes. There is actually a lot more information we've found like helpful vote count, private feedback, user avatar and more. We will store as much of that information as we can.
~Michelle
This is great news--thank you! The sample page didn't show owner responses, but will the system allow the posting (& eventual importing of) the reply to the review?
@BlueMtnCabins: Not yet, no. That's on the list to do, but honestly it's towards the back of the list. We want to mostly stress the collection and storage parts of it, right now, because so many of your reviews will be on other marketing channels. And that's what you want to push - guests leaving reviews on other listing sites. That's where the lion's share of your booking traffic comes from, so continue pushing guests to leave reviews on TA, VRBO, Air, FB and Google. The big engineering focus for us is in making easy way to export/import those reviews FROM those sites so that you can store it all back in OR and then show it on your website (or do other things with it - biz intelligence, reporting, automation). If guests left reviews on your website, that's great, but those reviews can never be pushed out to TA, VRBO, Air, FB or Google so they have limited value.
Love it, one question- is there a capability for guest to submit a review or not yet?
Have you ever looked at the reviews you get on TripAdvisor, VRBO, Airbnb and Facebook, and wished you could collect and store those in one place? And show them on your own personal website?
Now you can collect, store and display your reviews in OwnerRez through widgets and hosted websites!
One of our users stored 20 reviews and put the widget up. Take a look.
We've built quite a bit of functionality into this, based on forward-thinking, and we have some upcoming features designed where we will be making the storing/entry part of this vastly easier (automatic imports, etc). But no need to wait! You can get started with this feature right away!
Take a look at the following support docs to get started.
Yes that would be a great start!
For us small guys that do not have cleaners with unlimited capacity, managing cleaning and bookings becomes a key factor that we need to be very on top of. A year ago or so I got a booking that ended on a Saturday. I got a following booking soon after that began on the Sunday. I hadn't had time to check with the cleaner and when I did, she told me she had no more capacity to clean that weekend (Saturday or Sunday) regrettably. That turned into a significant problem and now I am careful to ensure cleaning can happen before I accept any new bookings following a booking so that I can block accordingly. Anything that OR can do (even starting with a cleaning date for the reservation) will certainly help! :-)
Great to hear all of your different workflows! There are so many different ways to work with cleaning staff -- that's why we haven't got into this yet. We want to make it flexible. I think we've got a good plan now...
We're going to start easy -- just the cleaning date Glenn mentioned, as that won't lock anybody in to a certain process. If you want to set the date and push it through to emails, go for it. If not, then continue with the current situation.
Same thing on the cleaning workflow. There's a lot of variance on who sets the cleaning date for OwnerRez purposes -- cleaner, owner, or cleaner just does it and doesn't report a date. The eventual housekeeping module will support any of those modes, and then also support the cleaner log in to mark the booking cleaned and add any notes, photos, checklists, etc.
Different strokes for different folks. If I send them bookings as they come in, they'd be annoyed because I am bombarding them with emails that will slip thru the cracks and will be lost in the shuffle. Also my Oct, for example, has been booked for at least 2-3 mos.. I will hardly have anything but couple of fill-ins coming for my properties till at least Nov, if that. Realistically I only have a few weekdays unented plus Christmas on one of the properties thru the rest of the year. The cleaners do not have infinite availability, but they have more than one set of workers and if needed they just ensure that all cleanings are covered. If it works for yours with set date, then great, but for ex., I have a check out on the 15th morning and next check in on the 17th afternoon. I have no idea what their plan is, whether they will clean on 15th, 16th or 17th. So what would I mark as cleaning day? I leave it up to them as long as they know that check out is on 15th and next check in is on 17th, they can figure it out between my properties and other properties and cleanings.
Interesting neither of my cleaners would go for that sort of process. It has nothing to do with short notice bookings which I do not take either.
If I was to hold on to my reservations and only inform them once a month, I would get a lot of push back from them. Like you, I don't really care when it is done, but only that it is done before the next guest. However If I only doled out my new reservations to them once a month, then I would be inherently 'assuming' that they can meet the schedule as laid out in these new bookings. Lets say I acquire a month of bookings for October (right now it is Sept) and say have - in my package of bookings - a back to back on Nov 11th. I am now 'assuming' that they are available Nov 11th. My cleaners (for both properties) have many other customers and my actually be fully booked up on schedule that day and cannot clean. If they cannot clean, what do I do? I prefer not to make such assumptions on their availability.
Hence both cleaners have asked me to inform them *right away* when I get a booking and that is where the the nicely automated OR email comes in. They mark the booking in their own calender's and decide on when they clean and then let me know so I can book gaps in my calendar availability accordingly. I use the their cleaning date to block the calendar. 50% of the time they can commit to cleaning the same day (back to back situation if needed). But 50% of the time they may need an extra day.. or two. (availability block on the calendar is needed)
It sounds like your cleaners have somewhat infinite availability (perhaps due to size and/or small customer base)... I am jealous ;-) Unfortunately mine have a fairly large-ish customer base and therefore have some constraints on when they can clean. Hence they like new bookings immediately so that they can schedule in their calendars and tell me what is do-able and what is not. Also, based on volume, they occasionally ask me for a list of bookings and the cleaning dates that they have told me.. just so we are in sync and there is no miscommunication with a missed block or anything. A cleaning date on the report from OR would be nice as you can see...
So I do not view my request for cleaning dates as 'borderline pestering'. I do it more for them and for them to manage and ensure their schedules align with my property availability. If I could only find cleaners with *infinite availability*, then all would be good and I too would not worry about cleaning dates... ;-)
Cheers
Glenn
It has nothing to do with late bookings and I do not accept bookings for a date within two days as well.
I actually do not concern myself with "when" usually. I also do not book on less than 48 hr notice. If I do get a booking request on such short notice, I text housekeeper and verify that she can accommodate cleaning in time, so only then I will accept the booking. I do not "block" days for cleaning and I do not think my housekeeper cares about OR notification emails - I disabled them. Most of my bookings are well in advance. Basically, I give housekeeper the reservation schedule for upcoming month, and it is up to them to plan their cleanings accordingly in time. I do not check exactly when it is done, as long as it is DONE in time for next guests. If I was asking them when particular cleaning will be done, that would be borderline pestering. The only times I ask is if I have someone who wants to check in early, but I ask for info - if cleaning is done, I will say to the guest "fine, you can check in early". if not - then answer is No. The only "disruption" is "last minute" booking which I handle via text and follow up with email. I just do not think that cleaners would actually log into some portal and mark their cleanings there. They are not my employees, but those of cleaning co. They technically are not reporting to me.
BlueMtnCabins said:
Interesting. If i have more than one open day between reservations, it is the housekeeper, not I, who determined WHICH would eb a cleaning day: I am not her only client, so I send her list of reservations/dates and she plans between my turnovers and her other clients' turnovers. Of course if it is a same day turn then cleaning is that day, regardless. what I am trying to sya is I persoanlly do not see an urgent need to "assign" a specific cleaning day/date.
Interesting. If i have more than one open day between reservations, it is the housekeeper, not I, who determined WHICH would eb a cleaning day: I am not her only client, so I send her list of reservations/dates and she plans between my turnovers and her other clients' turnovers. Of course if it is a same day turn then cleaning is that day, regardless. what I am trying to sya is I persoanlly do not see an urgent need to "assign" a specific cleaning day/date.
Chris Hynes said:
Yep! We'll be adding a cleaning date as part of our next update to PM and the portal stuff. Fear not, the cleaning date itself on the booking will be part of the base package.
Yep! We'll be adding a cleaning date as part of our next update to PM and the portal stuff. Fear not, the cleaning date itself on the booking will be part of the base package.
The PM/housekeeping package will get an additional workflow around the cleaning date where a cleaner can be assigned to a booking, the owner or cleaner can set the date, and then the cleaner can accept the cleaning and mark it as complete later, with checklists, photos etc.
The block is an interesting concept. As you can imagine, a ton of stuff looks at booking departure to find when time is available or not, so it would be a big effort to check two dates in a bunch of places instead of one. We might be able to give you a faster link to create a block for that time, would that help?
Housekeeping aside, are you still planning to add a 'cleaning date' for each reservation in the base system? I have been asking for this for a while. This represents my entire needs as far as housekeeping goes, and I would imagine it would be all that simple (ie owners like me with just a few properties) would need. I would just be happy if the cleaning date shows up on the dates tab of the reservation.
If you are feeling generous, it would be great if the system intelligently looked at the check out date and the cleaning date together and if the cleaning date was later than the check-out date, it would extend the reservation block on my calendar. Occasionally my cleaner cannot schedule until a day or two after guests have left. I am tired of creating lots of tiny manual blocks on my calendars (cannot have new guests booking before cleaning is done). I would imagine this represents the needs of a lot of users (who don't need full blown housekeeping and/or PM functionality at an additional price).
We get a lot of questions about the best way to set up security deposits, when to use damage protection insurance, travel insurance, etc. I've seen a lot of different scenarios over the years, both with OwnerRez clients and my own properties, so here are my thoughts (I'm not a lawyer, standard disclaimers apply, bla bla bla)...
Security deposits are the first line of defense, whether you do a security hold on a card or a refundable deposit charge. I'd recommend taking a secdep even if you also have separate insurance. Not only do you have access to the funds immediately rather than having to file a claim, it also gives the guest some skin in the game so they tend to treat your property with more respect. You can also charge a deposit for other items covered in the renter agreement -- undisclosed extra guests, pets, etc. "covered in the renter agreement" is the key phrase there -- if the guest didn't agree to it prior to the charge, you'll loose a chargeback if they do one.
That said, there are issues that a secdep won't cover. Damage for an amount more than the secdep for one. There's also a risk of chargebacks unless you're taking the deposit by check. You can win chargebacks, but it's a capricious system. If the bank doesn't like you and the guest denies having done the damage, the bank sometimes just ignores the renter agreement and tells you to take the guest to court if you don't like it. I wouldn't recommend doing an additional charge for more than the security deposit for that exact reason -- if you don't have documentation that the guest specifically authorized an additional charge, you'll loose the chargeback. For secdeps, they specifically authorized the charge so that'll typically stand up, but language in a renter agreement about charging an undefined additional amount if necessary doesn't meet the banking requirements -- you'd have to take the guest to court.
The biggest thing to do is document, document, document. Pictures of damage, video of more cars than guests authorized on the booking, statements of neighbors or staff who witnessed, etc. If possible written admissions from the guest. Police report if relevant. Take pictures from time to time of everything so you'll have a recent "before" photo. Timeliness is key here -- the closer the documentation is to the time of the incident, the more weight it will carry. When I encounter damage, I'll get copious pictures and send the guest a professional email asking if they know what happened. A good deal of the time they'll admit it and we can work out a solution.
All of the above is basically to keep honest people honest. It sounds like I'm suspicious of guests, but I'm generally not -- 95% of people are good guests and everything will go smoothly. The point of the above is to establish a process beforehand and know what you'll do, know how to collect all the documentation you need, and be ready to work through it.
The second line of defense is accidental damage insurance. A couple of clarifying points here... First off, damage insurance doesn't cover intentional damage. Sometimes there's a fine line between negligence and intent, but no damage insurance will cover intentional damage or vandalism. That's why I recommend taking both the secdep and the insurance, so you're covered in both cases.
Secondly, the insurance offered through Airbnb, VRBO, CSA, etc. is insurance for the guest, not for you, the owner. That's why the guest has to admit fault with those insurances, and the insurance won't pay out if they don't admit to doing the damage.
We did a bunch of research on different companies when choosing the damage protection product to offer through OwnerRez, and that's why we went with TravelGuard/AIG's ARDI. That insurance is for you, the owner, not the guest. You submit a claim directly to TravelGuard, not a third party. The guest doesn't have to admit fault -- the guest doesn't even know about the insurance as you are carrying it.
To find out more about how our damage protection works and costs, check out our article on ARDI & Damage Protection.
Another option is to self insure. Charge $50/booking for a damage waiver and put that into a separate account, which you tap into when damage occurs. Of course, in that case any issues or amounts over the balance are on you vs. the insurance company. If you've got a high volume so your risk pool is larger, and a high risk tolerance, that can be a more economical option than a damage insurance policy.
Finally, there's also the option of offering travel insurance for cancellations because of weather, sickness, accident, etc. This is insurance for the guest, but offering it can also help you out as the owner. If you don't at least offer travel insurance, enforcing a strict cancellation policy can be awkward. For my personal properties, I offer travel insurance during checkout, and then also have a triggered email go out through OwnerRez after booking reminding them of the option. If they're booking during higher risk times of the year (in my case, snow in the mountains during winter), the email template language changes to identify the risk and strongly suggest they purchase the travel insurance if they don't feel comfortable in snow etc. That way, I feel I've done my due diligence in offering coverage options, and in the event of a cancellation I can hold strong to my policy. For travel insurance, we also use TravelGuard -- their All Seasons Travel Plan.
If the guest didn't buy travel insurance, suggest they check their credit card policy. Some cards include travel insurance/cancellation coverage for trips bought on the card.
Do you have anything else to add? I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences in the comments.
Excellent!
We're still contemplating the separate housekeeping management module, but we also don't want to get over complicated on the modules. I've seen sites where every last thing is a separate module with a fee, and it gets confusing and feels like nickel and diming. On the one hand, I can see that it feels "wrong" to be paying for a "PM" module when you don't use the owner statements, but on the other hand our PM module is very reasonably priced. Some competitors charge $25 bucks for PM PLUS an additional $15 for housekeeping, vs our $15 for both. Maybe we should rename the module to be a bit more generic? Anyway, a bit of inside baseball there, but rest assured this is something we're considering, we just want to get it right when we do.
You actually can already set up email alerts for new bookings (and change of dates/time/properties). If you go to a property and look at the Third Party Alerts tab, that'll let you add email addresses to be alerted when any bookings for that property are created or changed.
The housekeeper confirmation is a great idea, and something we're planning on adding. We're getting together feedback from many folks on how they schedule cleaning, because everybody does it a bit differently. Some schedule beforehand and need to pass the housekeeper a cleaning date, while others like yourself just want the confirmation and let the housekeeper maintain their own schedule. Cleaning checklists, photo upload to note the state of the property, all of this is on our list of stuff we will be adding eventually. Thanks for the reference on resortcleaning.com -- some good ideas there!
We got great feedback on the Gallimaufry post from June, so I figured it should become a recurring series. We do announcement posts for the larger features, but there are so many small ones that can get lost in the chatter if they're not called out and recognized.
Gallimaufry (n): A collection or hodgepodge of things with no apparent unifying theme.
First, the big features we've already announced over the past couple of months:
New regional listing site: New York Rental By Owner
We've done a ton of work on our Hosted Websites since we released them back in January and will continue making them better. Keep those ideas coming!
Here are the recent additions:
The availability/property search widget we released in June was one of our most widely requested widgets. We released some solid updates to that this month, as well as a brand new and fully rewritten multiple month calendar widget that subsumes the 3 month calendar and year calendar widgets to a much more flexible and responsive widget.
Thanks to all of our loyal users who suggested many of these features!
Super glad to see this. I've enabled PM tools and am testing it out now.
I would vote for:
-A separate "housekeeping management" module
-The ability for either me or the housekeeper to set up email alerts for new bookings (in case they forget to log in, or we get a last-minute booking)
As you continue to develop this module, some of the features they list over at resortcleaning.com might be interesting. I thought about using them but they only work with HomeAway calendar sync and don't support other listing sites, which kills their usefulness for me, so I haven't signed up with them. I particularly like the idea of a real-time status check--I would *LOVE* it if the housekeeper could indicate when they're done so that I know I have the all-clear to process the security deposit refund and can offer early-check-in to the next guest if they text me asking if they can arrive early (saves me the hassle of having to call my housekeeper and see if she's done, which I always hate to do because then I feel like I'm rushing her...).
Pipe dream, I know, but you did ask for product feedback! :D
With the rise of walled garden listing sites, it's become important to be able to customize inquiry responses depending on which site the inquiry came from. Some regional sites still include guest email addresses so you can send quotes directly from OwnerRez -- see our list of Regional Listing Sites. Most national sites like VRBO/HomeAway, FlipKey/TripAdvisor, Airbnb etc. have removed guest contact info until after booking, so you don't want to autorespond to them, or want to send a simple "we got your inquiry and will answer in the listing site" email.
To address this, we've moved Autoresponders to settings and added criteria for Property, Listing Site, and Time of Day.
Any existing Autoresponders on your properties have been converted to the new Autoresponders section in Settings.
Listing Site criteria allows you to run an Autoresponder for only a subset of sites. If you have multiple autoresponders, only one will be chosen to respond, based on the priority you set.
The During Time Period criteria allows you to make Autoresponders that only run during a certain time of day. For example, maybe you want to respond directly during the day, no autoresponder, so that you can give that personal touch. But you might have an Autoresponder running in off hours, overnight, letting guests know that you will respond in the morning, so they get immediate feedback.
While we were at it, we also reworked the Settings categories to move related items together. Everything that was in Settings is still there, but if you don't find the link you're looking for in the old section, look through the page in other sections.
Chris (thank you for asking), to me personally I'd rather leave things as they are now (without PM module that I have to pay for) because my housekeeper is very content with just receiving a spreadsheet of bookings for following month from me which I can easily do through download. And if there is an update (like new booking), I just send her an updated version. this worked with my 2 properties prior 3 years with other housekeeper as well (except b4 the OR I sent a part of manual spreadsheet i maintain) and it is working now with current housekeeper. Unless I have 5+ properties I do not see enabling PM module just to get the feature.
besides, when I send a spreadsheet, I have email tracker - i know she at least opened the email I am not sure if she will 'forget" to log into a portal and look for updates.. I am not her only client.
There's been some debate on this internally. Portal access is a pretty big ball of features, and something we'll be adding to over time with scheduling for cleaning, maintenance, etc. The way a lot of competitors price this is to make a separate "Employees Module" with cleaning logins and a "Property Management Module" with owner logins.
Instead of adding yet another module to add and pay for, and make folks that need both owner and employee logins pay twice, we rolled the single login feature into the PM module for now, and eventually make PM into a more general module that can be used by PMs or not PMs and has overall advanced features like the portal access, expense tracking etc.
Susan and Victoria, you've both been with us for awhile, so you've probably got some good feedback. Does our current direction make sense? Or would it be better to add a separate "Employees Module"?
Good morning! Yes, the Portal Access feature is only available within the PM tools area. You have to turn on the PM premium feature to use Portal Access.
looks like only if you have PM features enable. I have 2 properties, does not show as available to me
is only for those with PM or for owners? I need this for use with my cleaners. I own 3 condos.
