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Thanks for your note. At this time there are no discounts being offered to Advisors. 

Hi, Tammie!  We're also excited about the Certified Advisor Program and the potential benefits for our users. Thanks for being one of our clients!

Will there be a platform/page that advisors can list their services?  If so, how structured is the profile, services listed, and pricing sections?  Does OR plan on providing any guidelines on pricing or packages or are the company staying completely out of that?

Just curious if there is any benefits to being an advisor?  Like free platform usage?

Thank you for adding this program. It was so overwhelming for me to get started using OR,  I am doing fine now but i am happy that this will be available for new people coming in.

YAY! I feel like you made this just for me! I'm excited to go look at the advisors. 

Connect with experts. Get personalized help. Maximize your success.

We’re excited to announce the launch of the OwnerRez Certified Advisor (CA) Program, designed to connect experienced OwnerRez users with those seeking hands-on guidance and tailored support.

Certified Advisors are seasoned OwnerRez users who have demonstrated deep proficiency in using the platform and are passionate about helping others succeed. Whether you're just getting started or looking to optimize your setup, CAs provide one-on-one assistance beyond the scope of standard OwnerRez support.

What Is a Certified Advisor?

OwnerRez Certified Advisors are independent users who have passed rigorous testing to demonstrate expertise in specific areas of the OwnerRez system. They understand the real-world challenges of managing short-term rentals and offer personalized help with everything from account setup to advanced configurations.

This program empowers OwnerRez users to learn from peers who’ve “been there, done that”, ensuring that the help they receive is both practical and actionable.

Types of Certified Advisor Badges

Certified Advisors can earn badges in various specialties. Our first available badge is:

Account Setup – Demonstrates expertise in configuring OwnerRez accounts for operational use. This includes property setup, rate and rule configuration, messaging templates, and other core features (excluding channels and hosted websites).

 

More badges are coming soon in areas such as:

• Hosted Websites
• Property Management
• QuickBooks Integration

Program Policies at a Glance

• Certified Advisors are not employees or representatives of OwnerRez.
• There is no fee to become certified, but all CAs must pass specific quizzes and sign an agreement with OwnerRez.
• All services, fees, and expectations are arranged directly between the CA and the user.
• OwnerRez does not assume liability for work performed by a Certified Advisor.

Want to Become a Certified Advisor?

If you're an advanced OwnerRez user and love helping others, consider becoming a Certified Advisor! You’ll have the opportunity to support the community while earning income for your time and expertise.

To qualify, you must:

• Pass a series of quizzes specific to each badge.
• Sign a program agreement.
• You must be an OwnerRez user for at least two years.
• Renew your certification annually if desired (badge shows the latest certification year).

Interested? Fill out our request form here to start your certification journey. The process typically takes 2–3 weeks.

Looking for Help? Find a Certified Advisor

If you’re seeking help with your OwnerRez setup or want expert guidance on best practices, working with a Certified Advisor is a great option. Visit our public Certified Advisors page to browse current advisors, read their bios, and learn about their offerings.

Before getting started, consider these tips:

• Verify their badge is current.
• Set clear expectations for scope, timeline, and deliverables.
• Ask for references or past examples.
• Discuss fees and payment terms upfront.
• Establish regular check-ins and request documentation of their work.
• Use Team Access in OwnerRez to give temporary login access that you can revoke later.

We’re thrilled to see our community grow through shared expertise and peer-to-peer learning. Whether you're offering help or seeking it, the Certified Advisor Program is here to support your journey.

We’re thrilled to roll out our new integration with PetScreening, giving OwnerRez users a smarter, automated way to screen pets and service animals before guests arrive.

About PetScreening

In today’s travel landscape, pet-friendly accommodations are no longer a luxury; they’re a necessity. With more travelers seeking to bring their furry companions along, vacation rental owners have a golden opportunity to tap into this growing market. Enter PetScreening: a comprehensive solution designed to streamline pet management, ensure compliance, and boost your rental’s appeal.

Why Embrace Pet-Friendly Policies?

70% of vacation rentals aren’t pet-friendly, yet a significant portion of travelers are pet owners. By welcoming pets, you not only cater to a broader audience but also increase your booking potential. PetScreening facilitates this transition by offering a platform that handles the intricacies of pet management, ensuring both hosts and guests have a seamless experience. 

Comprehensive Pet Screening Before Check-In

PetScreening requires guests to provide detailed information about their pets, including breed, weight, bite history, and vaccination records. This proactive approach ensures that all pets entering your property are vetted, reducing potential risks and fostering a safe environment for all guests.

Save Time and Mitigate Risks

Managing pet-related documentation can be time-consuming. PetScreening takes the burden off your shoulders by handling the screening process, including validations for emotional support and service animals. This not only ensures compliance with regulations but also minimizes potential liabilities.

Integrate and Automate It All

PetScreening integrates seamlessly with OwnerRez, making pet verification a fully automated part of your guest’s booking experience. Once a guest completes the pet screening, status tags are automatically pushed into OwnerRez, allowing you to view the verification status directly from the bookings screen, and no manual lookup is required. This ensures a consistent, hands-off workflow that aligns with your custom pet policies.

Pricing

PetScreening is offering a limited number of free early adopter slots through the end of 2025. Regular pricing: $10 per pet per booking – no monthly minimums, no contract or base subscription required.

Ready to Connect?

Get started with PetScreening by visiting here and checking out the OwnerRez support article for integrating OwnerRez with PetScreening.

Happy Friday! From tightening profit margins to new taxes and stricter international rules, the vacation rental industry continues to evolve in response to shifting economic and political forces. Here are this week’s top headlines shaping the short-term rental landscape.

The U.S. travel sector is showing signs of a slowdown as economic pressures mount. Expedia’s Q1 revenue came in at $2.98 billion, below expectations, triggering a 9.2% drop in its stock price, largely due to weaker domestic demand. Marriott also revised its 2025 revenue outlook downward, citing shorter booking windows and cautious consumer behavior. Meanwhile, Airbnb reported a 6% year-over-year revenue increase to $2.3 billion in Q1, but net income fell 41.7% to $154 million, and the company is forecasting flat average daily rates for Q2.

In a first-of-its-kind move, Hawaii lawmakers approved a 0.75% surcharge on top of the state’s 10.25% lodging tax, raising it to 11%. When combined with county and general excise taxes, the total rate could climb as high as 18.712%, among the highest in the U.S. The estimated $100 million in annual revenue will go toward climate resilience projects, including beach restoration and wildfire prevention.

Fort Myers Beach, Florida, is rolling out Rentalscape, a new software system designed to monitor short-term rentals. The platform will automatically flag violations and notify property owners, reducing manual oversight and improving compliance.

In Europe, Spain passed national legislation requiring landlords to obtain consent from at least 60% of building residents before offering short-term rentals. In addition, 50% of all property owners must approve legalizing these rentals. The law also permits communities to charge up to 20% of monthly community fees to STR operators, citing increased wear and tear on shared spaces.

Airbnb is preparing to launch a major product update on May 13, with plans to go beyond accommodations. The revamped app is expected to offer deeper integration of experiences and services, AI-powered personalization, and new tools for group travel, signaling Airbnb’s continued evolution into a broader travel platform.

That’s a wrap for this week’s updates. Check back next Friday for more news and trends shaping the vacation rental world!

We are happy to announce our integration with Stay to offer our users a flexible rental platform co-founded by HGTV’s Scott McGillivray.

About Stay

Stay is designed to give property managers and owners more control and flexibility across short, mid, and long-term stays. With Stay Leads, hosts get unlimited access to high-quality guest inquiries for a flat fee—no commissions. Owners manage pricing and bookings directly, while leveraging marketing power and expert support to maximize rental income and value.

May 2025 brought powerful new automation capabilities, including six new Trigger and Tag automations, Google Ads and Tag Manager support, two new Gap Night field codes, and more exciting updates.

• New Features
  • Trigger & Tag Conditions Expanded for New Automations
  • Google Ads and Tag Manager
  • Gap Night Field Codes
• Enhancements & Tweaks
  • Push Notifications
  • Batch Update for QuickBooks Sync
  • Blog Social Share Image
  • Apply Season By Removal
  • Deprecated Legacy Ribbon View Removal
• Design Updates
  • Setup Interview
  • Add Properties
  • Deposits
  • Reviews
• Bug Fixes
  • May 7th Release With 17 Bug Fixes
  • May 14th Release With 25 Bug Fixes
  • May 21st Release With 21 Bug Fixes
  • May 28th Release With 17 Bug Fixes

New Features 

Trigger & Tag Conditions Expanded for New Automations

You requested—OwnerRez delivered. 💪 Utilizing the OwnerRez Conditions criteria for Messaging Triggers and Tag Automation enables hosts to automate their guest messaging. With our May 21st release, we've added even more Conditions to Messaging Triggers and Tag Automations! Let's review all of these new Condition criteria options.

Check-In and Check-Out statuses can be selected for Standard, Early, or Late check-in or check-out times. We all know that Airbnb guests can select early check-ins during their booking process. By selecting the Condition > Statuses > Check-In Status is > Early, you can send yourself a Booking template and trigger notifying you and your team about early check-in requests.

Or what about late check-out requests? You can also configure a Booking template and trigger notifications to notify you and your team about late check-out requests.

We added a new Financial section that includes Discounts and Optional surcharges. You can configure Conditions > Financial > Discounts and select specific discounts to notify you and your team via a Booking template and trigger when a manual discount code is applied or a discount is automatically applied to a booking.

Optional surcharges are now included in the Conditions > Financial > Optional Surcharges section, enabling you to automatically respond to guests who select an Add-on during their booking process, with a Booking template and trigger to follow up with you and your team or to send an additional legal agreement to your guest.

Want to be notified of Door Code Statuses? Now you can select the Conditions > Statuses > Door Code Status is > One Of > any or all of Code Not Generated, Code Failed to Generate, or Code Generated Successfully. This allows you to notify yourself or your team via a Booking template and trigger about any door code issues.

Another highly requested feature is a way to flag Repeat Guests. Now, you can add Conditions > Guests > Guest Type is > Repeat Guest to your messaging trigger or tag automation. Do you provide special gifts for your repeat guests? By selecting Conditions > Guest Type is > Repeat Guest, you can automatically notify yourself or your team via a Booking template and trigger about your returning guests, or perhaps send a special message to the guest thanking them for returning. Note that Repeat Guests are not limited by property, meaning that the Conditions > Guest Type is > Repeat Guest works even if your guest has previously booked another of your properties.

Finally, we've added the Review Status to Conditions. Let's say you received a poor Review. Now with the new Conditions > Statuses > Review Status, you can target either No Review or specific star reviews to follow up with yourself or your team via a Booking template and trigger to review what went wrong or your next possible steps to rectify the situation. You can also follow up with those guests who haven't yet left a review for their stay with a custom Booking template and trigger, reminding them to leave a review. Or, if you've received a 5-star review, you might want to send a special thank you to your guest or acknowledge your team for a job well done!

Are your ideas flowing yet? These are just a couple of ideas off the top of our heads, but the possibilities are endless. Remember that these new Conditions are also available in Tag Automations, allowing you to combine and leverage both for even more automation!

Still working out some kinks in your guest messaging? Explore all of OwnerRez's Dynamic Messaging solutions!

Google Ads and Tag Manager

Google Ads targets travelers seeking vacation rentals through specific campaigns, driving qualified traffic. Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a free tag management system that allows you to add, update, and manage marketing tags on your website or mobile app without changing the code, which tracks conversion rates and guest behavior on your website, enabling the optimization of your ad spending and website performance to maximize your bookings.

With our May 28th release, OwnerRez added support for adding tracking IDs for Google Ads and Google Tag Manager to your hosted website or integrated website widget, which follows and tracks the conversion process from inquiries, quotes, to bookings.

To set up your Google Ads and GTM tracking, navigate to Settings > Advanced Tools > Analytics Tracking and add your Google Ads Tracking ID, Booked Conversion ID, and Google Tag Manager ID, all of which are provided to you by Google.

Notice the similarity between the Google Analytics Tracking ID, the Booked Conversion ID, and the Google Tag Manager ID fields? The GTM ID field has the extra GTM prefix added.

Do you have a website for your short-term vacation rental business yet? Explore OwnerRez's Vacation Rental Website options to build your brand and drive your customers to your direct booking website instead of third-party listing channels. 

Gap Night Field Codes

Property managers with minimum stay requirements often face "gap nights" – periods between bookings that are too short to meet minimum stay policies yet too long to ignore. Offering enticing discounts to add these "gap nights" to incentivize guests to book at a discounted rate was great. Still, users were previously limited to the one {BADJOPEN} field code that displayed both before and after adjacent nights of the booking, resulting in somewhat confusing and clunky language in message templates sent to guests.

As part of our May 21st release, OwnerRez has added two new field codes to address this, allowing users to send customized gap night offers for either before arrival or after departure. 

Field	Description
{BADJOPENARR}	Adjacent Open Night Before Arrival
{BADJOPENDEP}	Adjacent Open Night After Departure

Does this mean that the {BADJOPEN} field code is being removed? No, OwnerRez added these two new additional field codes to offer more flexibility in your guest messaging.

Want to create a booking template and trigger specifically for gap nights before arrival? Users can do that by using the {BADJOPENARR} Adjacent Open Nights Before Arrival field code in their booking template.

And then pair that booking template with the Arrival Gap (bookable) Condition in your corresponding trigger.

Conversely, you could also use the {BADJOPENDEP} Adjacent Open Nights After Departure field code to create a booking template and trigger specifically for gap nights available after departure, and select the Conditions > Departure Gap (bookable) is > Equal To > 1 in your trigger.

Enhancements & Tweaks

Push Notifications

Keeping connected across devices for your vacation rental business by enabling OwnerRez's email or push notifications ensures timely and proactive communication about important booking updates without constant manual checking in-app or email inbox, enhancing your productivity in today's digital environment.

OwnerRez has optimized our push notifications as part of our May 28th release to better detect events that should have generated subscribed push notifications and to send in-app alerts immediately suggesting users to opt back into push notifications on their current device.

We added a new notification, Push Subscription Unregistered, which, by default, emails users immediately if their device has been unsubscribed from push notifications.

Users can enable push notifications for Push Subscription Unregistered notifications for their subscribed device by navigating to their Profile dropdown menu (top right corner) > Notifications > Subscriptions tab > Push Subscription notifications and enabling the Push toggle.

Batch Update for QuickBooks Sync

While OwnerRez provides invoicing and payment collection, it lacks standard accounting functions, so our users often rely on our QuickBooks Online premium feature to ensure financial accuracy.

Manually deleting multiple payments can be tedious, especially if you unintentionally sync excessive data. It became apparent that our QuickBooks Batch Update for QuickBooks Sync tool also needed to identify and eliminate payments. With our May 14th release, we now include payment options in the Batch Update for QuickBooks Sync, enabling users to locate and remove payments made by guests on specific dates identified by the user.

When Show Payments is clicked on, the payments found are listed below. To exclude a payment, check the Exclude checkbox and click on Turn Off these payments.

Note that if a single payment is turned off, all future payments for that booking are no longer synced, and even if a payment is excluded later, any existing payment records in QuickBooks can still be excluded or removed.

Learn more by exploring all of OwnerRez's Accounting integration options.

Blog Social Share Image

Sharing your hosted website blog posts on social media can help increase traffic, build your brand, and share news with your vacation rental business's followers. As part of our May 14th release, OwnerRez has added the ability to add Social Share Images for blog posts from your hosted site.

Apply Season By Removal

The concept of Seasons in OwnerRez is pretty straightforward—a period of time to which you can apply specific nightly rates. However, guests often do not fully book according to season boundaries, and bookings may extend over two (or more) seasons. OwnerRez allowed users to choose how to handle bookings that span across more than one season, but with our May 7th release, the Pricing Preferences Apply Season By section has been removed, and nightly rates will be applied as configured. 

This feature only worked for direct bookings; channel bookings have always used the “Split Across” method, which is now the default and only option for all bookings. This change will only affect future direct bookings that span multiple seasons. Instead of applying rules based solely on the arrival or departure date, all bookings now follow a split-season approach.

Why did we remove the Apply Season By section from Pricing Preferences? While that option worked for direct bookings, most listing channels, including Google Vacation Rentals (GVR), did not support it, and the Apply Season By section created more problems for users than it helped. Luckily, this removal will not affect many users, and the nightly rates configured for each season will now apply accordingly, even if a booking spans two (or more) seasons.

Deprecated Legacy Ribbon View Removal

The deprecated Legacy Ribbon View has been removed as part of our May 14th release.

However, the Ribbon View is still available as part of the Main Bookings display.

Design Updates

Setup Interview

As part of our May 14th release, OwnerRez has upgraded the Setup Interview design.

Add Properties 

As part of our Setup Interview design refresh, we also updated the Add Properties portion of the Setup Interview process with our May 14th release.

Deposits 

The Deposits section also got a design update with our May 14th release.

Reviews

Reviews received a design modernization as a part of our May 21st release.

Bug Fixes

May 7th Release With 17 Bug Fixes

Fix Availability Widget Not Showing the Correct Price When Used on a Listing Site With a Specific Rate. This edge case occurred when the Availability/Property Search widget for a multi-property integrated website failed to display the correct total prices. OR corrected this issue to ensure that the Availability/Property Search widget for multi-property integrated websites will display correct total prices.

Fix Booking Not Marked as Pending When Booked Via Global Landing Page. This edge case occurred when a credit card was not charged correctly for a Request to Book (RTB) booking via a Public Booking Link (aka Global Landing Page), nor was it marked as pending; instead, it was incorrectly confirmed. We resolved this glitch, and RTB bookings via the Public Booking Link will be correctly marked as pending.

Fix Bookings on a MOR Channel Cannot Switch to Manual Charges. Users were unable to set a Merchant of Record (MOR) channel booking (e.g., Vrbo, Glamping Hub, Whimstay, etc.) to "Configure manual charges," posing challenges to the user if a channel sends incorrect data. OR fixed this bug, and users can now set a Merchant of Record (MOR) channel booking (e.g., Vrbo, Glamping Hub, Whimstay, etc.) to "Configure manual charges."

Fix the Change in Color When Importing Property Photos. When importing property photos, some image color profile information was changed when resizing and processing, making some images look desaturated and lifeless. We corrected this issue so property photo color profiles remain unchanged when imported.

Fix Changing Review Status When Merging Reviews. Some review public visibility statuses were incorrectly changed when merging reviews. OR resolved this glitch to ensure review public visibility remains unchanged when reviews are merged.

Fix Commissionable Amount in Line Item Pivot Report When Taxes are Marked as Not an Expense. Commissionable amounts displayed in the Line Item Pivot report were incorrect when taxes were marked as non-expenses. We corrected this issue so that commissionable amounts in the Line Item Pivot report are correct.

Fix Error When Having Connected Properties That Are Disabled. Connected properties encountered errors when disabled. OR fixed this bug so that connected properties can be disabled properly.

Fix Filtering For "Needs Attention" in the Deposits Grid. Even though there were deposits that needed attention, the Deposits filter for 'Needs Attention' failed to return matching records. We corrected this issue, and the Deposits filter will function correctly.

Fix Google Vacation Rentals Warnings for Taxes That Do Not Apply. Google Vacation Rentals (GVR) channel-integrated properties with taxes configured to exclude GVR continued to receive incorrect Listing Quality Analyzer (LQA) errors for applicable night requirement violations. OR resolved this glitch to ensure that GVR channel-integrated properties with taxes configured to exclude GVR will no longer receive LQA errors.

Fix Inbox Breaking When a New Message Arrives. Occasionally, the Unified Inbox encountered errors when a new message arrived. We fixed this bug, and the Unified Inbox will function correctly when new messages arrive.

Fix Inbox Not Receiving Updates After Posting a Reply. The Unified Inbox sometimes failed to remain current after posting a reply. OR corrected this issue so that the Unified Inbox always remains up to date.

Fix Inquiryspot Mailboxes to Bring Messages into OwnerRez. Due to a Google update, Inquiryspot mailboxes failed to bring messages into OwnerRez. We fixed this bug to ensure Inquiryspot mailboxes correctly bring messages into OwnerRez.

Fix Legacy Bookings Showing on PMv2 Statements to Hide Expense Categories as Selected by the View. Because pre-deducted expenses didn't exist as expenses to be hidden on legacy bookings, expenses contained blank or displayed "--" amounts in expense columns on PMv2 owner statements, which was confusing. OR resolved this issue by fixing those legacy bookings displayed on PMv2 statements to hide expense categories as selected by the statement view.

Fix the Misaligned Calendar in the Availability Widget. The calendar pop-up in the Availability/Property Search widget on the Properties page of hosted websites was misaligned, obscuring the month on the calendar. We fixed this bug to correctly align the calendar in the Availability/Property Search widget on the Properties page of hosted websites.

Fix Showing an Unsuppressed Email Address as Still Suppressed. Reactivated suppressed email addresses only displayed that the email address was reactivated for the account user who initiated the reactivation, confusing users with multiple OwnerRez accounts. OR resolved this issue by displaying reactivated suppressed email addresses for users with multiple OwnerRez accounts across all accounts.

Fix Time Triggers That Run After an Event Fails to Retry. Even when retries were configured to run, some scheduled triggers failed to retry even though all trigger conditions had been met. We fixed this bug, so scheduled triggers configured with retries will run correctly.

Retry Sending SMS Messages When a Transient Error Occurs. SMS messages sent by triggers that encounter message failures due to transient errors were not attempted to be sent again; they were only logged. OR resolved this issue, and we will retry sending SMS messages that encounter failures due to transient errors.

May 14th Release With 25 Bug Fixes

Correct Google Vacation Rentals LQA Property Description Error Message. The Listing Quality Analyzer (GVR) incorrectly referred to Google Vacation Rentals (GVR) property description Elements as Body. We resolved this issue so that if the property lacks a GVR property description override, "Description" should be used instead of "Body." If there is a GVR property description override, continue using "Body."

Correct Typo in Vrbo Channel Integration Mode Section.  A typo was displayed in the Vrbo channel integration booking mode section, and has been corrected.

Fix Ability to Check DNS When a Team Access Staff User. While the branded portals were functional, Team Access Staff members could not check the Domain Name System (DNS) configuration of branded portal domains. OR fixed this bug, and Team Access Staff members will be able to check the Domain Name System (DNS) configuration of branded portal domains.

Fix Airbnb Resolutions Updating the Existing Payment for a Reservation. This edge case arose when an Airbnb Resolutions payment incorrectly updated an existing booking payment. We resolved this issue to ensure that Airbnb Resolutions payments are applied correctly.

Fix Airbnb Triggers Firing Twice When a Booking's Dates are Adjusted. Occasionally, when Airbnb booking dates were changed, triggers incorrectly sent duplicate templates. OR corrected this glitch so Airbnb triggers will send templates correctly when booking date changes occur.

Fix Availability Widget Displaying Past Days as Available. The Availability/Property Search widget incorrectly displayed past days as available. We resolved this issue to ensure that the Availability/Property Search widget displays availability correctly.

Fix Book/Inquiry Widget Max Guests Displaying When No Property is Selected. This edge case occurred when the Booking/Inquiry Widget inaccurately displayed guest type input fields (e.g., Adults, Children, Pets) without any guest maximum limits, allowing guests to select more than the property's guest maximum before selecting a property. OR fixed this bug, and the Booking/Inquiry Widget will only display guest type input fields (e.g., Adults, Children, Pets) after a property is selected.

Fix Booking Cancellation Screen Calculation Display Error When PM Feature is Disabled. Some cancellation calculation refund display amounts were incorrect when the PM feature was disabled. We resolved this display issue to ensure that the cancellation calculation refund display amounts are correct.

Fix Channel Bridge Airbnb Import From Adding Refunds for Cohost Payout. Occasionally, Airbnb Channel Bridge import files incorrectly added refunds for cohost payouts, leading to incorrect guest balances due. We fixed this bug so that the Airbnb Channel Bridge will skip these transactions.

Fix Channel Bridge Vrbo Properties Dropdown Not Populating. The Vrbo Channel Bridge (CB) properties dropdown list was not populating properties correctly. OR corrected this glitch, and Vrbo CB properties will be populated correctly.

Fix Check-in/out Time Display When Purchasing Travel Insurance for Non-US Cultures. Non-US customers' check-in and check-out times were ambiguously displayed when purchasing travel insurance. We resolved this issue to ensure that non-US customers' check-in and check-out times are accurately displayed when purchasing travel insurance.

Fix LQA Payment Method Error Message. The Listing Quality Analyzer (LQA) displayed an unnecessary payment method warning error message for users who already had a payment processor configured. OR fixed this bug to remove the LQA unnecessary payment method warning error message for users with a payment processor configured.

Fix LQA Rule Showing as Channel Rules to be Property Rules. The Listing Quality Analyzer (LQA) incorrectly displayed an error message category as channel rules rather than the correct property rules. We corrected this issue to display LQA error message categories correctly.

Fix OAuth Error Message When Logged in as a Read-Only User. Read-only users who connected an OAuth application received unhelpful OAuth error messages. OR fixed this bug, so that a more helpful error message is displayed when read-only users attempt to connect an OAuth application.

Fix Review Stars Validation. Occasionally, when users configured custom Review stars, they encountered errors. We resolved this glitch to ensure that custom Review stars are saved correctly.

Fix Sending of Past Due Notifications for Grace Period Scheduled Payments. Following our April 30th Cancellation Grace Period release, past-due notifications were sent incorrectly for scheduled payments to hosts for properties with cancellation grace periods configured. OR corrected this issue, and properties with cancellation grace periods configured will no longer receive incorrect past-due notifications for scheduled payments.

Fix Sending of Triggers and Notifications When Importing Historical Vrbo Reviews. Occasionally, the system incorrectly sent notifications and templates via triggers when users imported historical Vrbo reviews. We fixed this bug, so the system will not send notifications and templates via triggers when users import historical Vrbo reviews.

Fix Sending Triggers for past Airbnb Inquiries. Occasionally, upon message updates, triggers incorrectly sent templates to past Airbnb inquiries. OR corrected this issue to prevent triggers from sending templates to past Airbnb inquiries upon message updates.

Fix Team Access 'Log In As' Portal User.  Following our April Team Access Design Update, we encountered a code regression in which clicking on the "Login as portal' button sent users to a page not found instead of successfully impersonating the portal user as intended. We fixed this bug to ensure that users can impersonate portal users.

Fix Vrbo Error When Offline Fees Are Configured With No Security Deposit. Vrbo channel-integrated properties that didn’t have security deposits configured but had offline fees set up encountered errors. OR resolved this glitch, so Vrbo channel-integrated properties without security deposits configured but with offline fees will be processed correctly.

PMv2:

• Fix $0 Bookings Being Included on the Owner Statement Export. $0 bookings continued to be incorrectly included on the Owner Statement Export files. We fixed this bug to exclude $0 bookings from Owner Statement Export files.
• Fix Canadian {OPHONE} Owner Phone Number Format on Template Preview. The {OPHONE} owner phone number field code was incorrectly formatted for Canadian phone numbers on PMv2 owner statements. This glitch has been corrected, and the {OPHONE} owner phone number field codes will now be properly formatted for Canadian phone numbers on PMv2 owner statements.
• Fix Undeposited Funds Being Included on Owner Statement When an Expense is Pre-paid. When prepaid expenses were configured, undeposited funds were incorrectly included on Owner Statements. OR resolved this issue by no longer including undeposited funds on Owner Statements when the expense is prepaid.
• Handle Airbnb Transaction-linked Channel Fees as Channel Fees. We experienced a code regression where Airbnb transaction-linked channel fees were incorrectly handled. We fixed this bug to handle Airbnb transaction-linked channel fees correctly.
• Protect Against Starting the PMv2 Upgrade Multiple Times. If a browser was slow to respond, users could click on the PMv2 Upgrade button multiple times, resulting in duplicate statement views. OR corrected this glitch by preventing users from clicking the PMv2 Upgrade button more than once.

May 21st Release With 21 Bug Fixes

Allow Guest Deletion With Linked Inquiries and Quotes. When guests were deleted, inquiries and quotes were not deleted in the correct order, resulting in errors. We fixed this bug to delete inquiries and quotes correctly when guests are deleted.

Alpha Sort Taxes Under Guest Channel Fees Section of Booking Charges Tab. Taxes listed in the Guest Channel Fee section of the Booking Charges tab were not displayed alphabetically, causing confusion. OR corrected this glitch to display taxes alphabetically in the Guest Channel Fee section of the Booking Charges tab.

Always Send Triggers With No Pending Criteria for Bookng.com Bookings. Pending Request to Book (RTB) booking triggers were not sending templates correctly. We resolved this issue by allowing pending RTB booking triggers to send configured templates, with the exception of pending Vrbo RTB bookings, in alignment with Booking.com RTB restrictions.

API v2 Messages Endpoint Quote_ID is Blank for Messages That are Received as Part of Airbnb RTB. Even though the IDs were present in subsequent messages, the initial Airbnb Request to Book (RTB) messages endpoint quote IDs were blank. OR corrected this glitch to ensure that endpoint quote IDs are included in the API v2 for initial Airbnb RTB messages.

Booking.com Transient Error Handling Improvement for Retrieving Conversations. This edge case occurred when OwnerRez received a Booking.com transient error when we attempted to retrieve a message thread. We fixed this bug to better handle and improve the process of retrieving Booking.com message threads.

Capture Security Deposit Reauthorization Before Expiry. Occasionally, users manually release security deposits while the system simultaneously reauthorizes them, resulting in guest confusion. OR resolved this issue by improving the security deposit reauthorization validation process to prevent this.

Change PM Property Filters/Lists Label to "Don't Group By Owner" Under Preferences. The Preferences > Property Management > Property Filters/Lists label "Group By Owner" was confusing, as it grouped by the inverse. Therefore, we have changed the Preferences > Property Management > Property Filters/Lists label to "Don't Group By Owner." 

Fix the Ability to Disable Automatic 5-star Reviews if No Templates Exist. Users were prevented from disabling automatic 5-star reviews if no review templates were configured. OR fixed this bug to allow users to disable automatic 5-star reviews even without configuring review templates.

Fix Arrival Date Criteria Validation. Arrival date conditions did not have any validation for missing values on surcharge and trigger conditions, resulting in errors. We corrected this glitch to validate arrival date conditions on surcharges and triggers.

Fix Grace Period Scheduled Payments to Follow Property Rules. When grace periods were configured for a property, scheduled second payments were not scheduled correctly according to the property's rules. OR resolved this issue by correctly scheduling second payments when grace periods are configured for a property.

Fix Inbox Real-time Updates With Old Messages and Messages Out of Order. Sometimes, the Unified Inbox displayed older messages out of order. We fixed this bug to ensure that Unified Inbox messages are displayed correctly.

Fix Latitude/Longitude to Use Period Rather Than Other Decimal Separator, No Matter the Culture. Depending on the culture selected, some latitude and longitude numbers were incorrectly formatted with a comma separator instead of the correct period, preventing channel integration completion. OR resolved this issue by always using a period separator for latitude and longitude numbers, regardless of the culture configured.

Fix Rate Calendar UI Issue Due to Internationalization. The in-app rate calendar displayed days in an incorrect column due to a regression in the internationalization code. We corrected this glitch to ensure that the rate calendar is displayed correctly.

Fix Rate Calendar Unexpected Popover Display. Some users reported that the rate calendar pop-up, which appeared when hovered over, remained visible even after other items were selected. OR resolved this issue so that the rate calendar is displayed correctly.

Fix Sendability of Airbnb Messages When Logged in as a Team Access User. Team Access staff members with limited access were not able to send Airbnb messages. We corrected this glitch to allow team access staff members with limited access to send Airbnb messages.

Improve CSV Import Error Messaging for Vrbo Commission Files. Users encountered vague or unhelpful error messages when importing Vrbo commission files, resulting in frustration and confusion. OR fixed this bug to provide more helpful error messages when importing Vrbo commission files when necessary.

Improve Invalid Phone Number Handling. When adding, editing, or updating guest phone numbers, the system failed to display error messages for invalid phone numbers. We corrected this glitch to validate guest phone numbers correctly when adding, editing, or updating.

PMv2:

• Non-commissionable Amount Should Include Taxes. Non-commissionable amounts incorrectly excluded taxes. We resolved this issue by including taxes in non-commissionable amounts.
• Booking Expenses on Bookings With No Owner Should Not Be on Statements (v1/Legacy also). Pre-deducted booking expenses with no owner selected were incorrectly included on owner statements. OR fixed this bug to exclude pre-deducted booking expenses with no owner selected on owner statements. Historical statements are unchanged.

Tax Effective As Of Option Doesn't Always Display. The tax "Effective As Of" radio button option for either Arrival Date or Booked Date did not always display correctly when the tax was saved. We corrected this glitch to ensure that the tax "Effective As Of" radio button option for either Arrival Date or Booked Date is displayed correctly.

Update Quote Statuses to Specify the Airbnb Quote Stages. Airbnb quote statuses were not updated and displayed correctly. OR resolved this issue by reordering the quote and inquiry statuses for clarity. 

We are happy to announce our integration with CookinGenie to offer users a personal chef service for their properties.

About CookinGenie

CookinGenie is a platform that connects personal chefs with guests seeking unique, personalized dining experiences. It enables guests to book chefs for anything from a taco night to 5-course French menu directly through the platform. Our chefs take care of everything – shopping, cooking and even cleaning up the kitchen. Your guests relax and get to enjoy the space you’ve created for them!

Features

• Enhance Guest Experience with an easy add-on.
• Include CookinGenie messaging as a custom code in your guest communications.
• Guests browse and select chefs based on their profiles, menus, and reviews. You don’t have to lift a finger.
• Kitchen requirements? Nope! Chefs just need a full kitchen (stove, oven, fridge). They’ve seen worse, trust us.

Pricing

Free for hosts! Guests will book the chef and pay the rate the chef charges. Reach out for guest promotion and referral commission options!

Ready to Connect?

Get started with CookinGenie by visiting here and checking out the OwnerRez support article for integrating OwnerRez with CookinGenie.

We are pleased to announce our integration with Knokx to offer users a custom website solution that utilizes our API.

About Knokx

Knokx transforms your vacation rental business with a high-converting website built by marketers, engineered to crush commissions and maximize profits. With powerful SEO tools, AI automation, email and social marketing, lead captures, and real-time analytics, it’s everything you need to own your bookings, boost revenue, and ditch the fees for good. It’s more than just a website; it’s your growth engine.

Features

• Pro-Grade SEO:
  • Dominate local search and drive commission-free direct bookings
  • Built-in keyword tracking for measurable, transparent results
• Custom-Branded Websites:
  • Professionally designed, high-converting sites that showcase your brand
  • Built by marketers for both beauty and performance
• Embedded AI Tools:
  • Automate messaging, content creation, and dynamic responses
  • Save time and boost engagement around the clock
• Live Performance Dashboards:
  • Real-time insights into traffic, leads, rankings, and ROI
  • Make informed marketing decisions for growth
• Advanced Lead Capture:
  • Smart funnels designed to convert visitors into guests and owner leads
  • Optimized tools for maximizing direct bookings
• Enterprise-Grade CRM:
  • Automations, segmentation, and journey tracking
  • Drive repeat stays and close more property management deals
• Transformational Host Benefits:
  • Brand Elevation: Launch a standout, trust-building website
  • Marketing Amplification: Attract quality guests, reduce OTA dependence
  • Operational Excellence: Seamless PMS integration to streamline operations
  • Future-Ready Tech: Built-in AI and analytics for scalable growth

Example Websites

• BeachStaysVacations.com
• EliteFloridaRentals.com

Pricing

Pricing starts at a one-time setup fee of $3,495. You can view the full details here.

Ready to Connect?

Get started with Knokx by visiting here and checking out the OwnerRez support article for integrating OwnerRez with Knokx.

Happy Friday! From million-dollar mergers and global booking shifts to stricter local rules and high-stakes legislation, the vacation rental industry is staying as dynamic as ever. This week brought major headlines, from Airbnb’s earnings outlook and Casago’s acquisition of Vacasa to anti-tourism protests in Europe and regulatory crackdowns across North America. Let’s dive into the top stories shaping short-term rentals right now.

Airbnb’s Q1 2025 earnings revealed a 6% year-over-year revenue increase to $2.27 billion, surpassing expectations. However, the company anticipates a slowdown in U.S. travel demand due to broader economic uncertainties, including high prices and trade tensions. This outlook led to a 5.3% drop in Airbnb’s stock price in after-hours trading. Notably, bookings by Canadian travelers to the U.S. have declined, with a 27% increase in bookings to Mexico instead.

Casago has officially completed its acquisition of Vacasa in a $130 million deal, marking the end of Vacasa’s time as a publicly traded company. The merger brings together Casago’s owner-focused management style with Vacasa’s large-scale technology platform, creating a combined portfolio of over 43,000 properties across North America and beyond. Casago CEO Steve Schwab will lead the new entity, with support from proptech investor Roofstock to further enhance operations and guest experience.

British Columbia, Canada, is enforcing new short-term rental regulations requiring all hosts to register their listings by May 1, 2025. Platforms must validate these registrations by June 2, or face penalties. Since the legislation’s introduction, over 20,000 listings have been registered, and long-term rental vacancy rates have increased from 1.2% to 1.9%.

If you’ve made summer travel plans to Europe, particularly Spain, Italy, or Portugal, you could be impacted by coordinated anti-tourism protests planned for June 15. Demonstrations are expected in popular destinations like Barcelona, Venice, and Lisbon, with possible disruptions to airports, roads, and tourist areas. The protests aim to draw attention to the strain mass tourism places on housing, infrastructure, and local communities.

Vrbo is dialing back parts of its Super Bowl ad campaign after Airbnb called foul. The ads hinted that booking with Airbnb means sharing space with a host, which isn’t always the case—Airbnb offers plenty of entire-home rentals. After a review by the National Advertising Division, Vrbo agreed to tweak the messaging, adding another chapter to the ongoing rivalry between the two vacation rental giants.

Now onto the legislation news. The Houston, Texas, city council has implemented new regulations for short-term rentals, including mandatory certification applications, annual human-trafficking training for operators, and a $275 annual operating fee. The ordinance also bans advertising rentals as event spaces and allows the city to revoke certifications following multiple code violations.

Senate Bill 1162 in Idaho would preempt local bans on STRs and limit the regulations cities and counties can impose. Requirements such as owner occupancy, rental caps, or signage rules would be prohibited. While basic licensing and enforcement are still allowed, the bill seeks to standardize how STRs are treated, more like traditional residential homes than businesses.

Arkansas lawmakers are advancing HB 1445, a bill that would block local governments from banning or heavily restricting short-term rentals. The bill allows revocation of STR licenses after three nuisance violations but limits municipalities’ ability to regulate beyond that. While proponents frame it as a property rights and tourism-support bill, several local officials have voiced concern over losing control to address community issues.

Twin bills in Ohio (SB 104 & HB 109) aim to ban local governments from outlawing or capping STRs, limiting owner permits, or requiring host residency. While health and safety regulations and licensing would still be allowed, the bills expand state lodging taxes to include STRs, potentially generating up to $150 million annually. Both bills are still in committee with hearings pending.

Vermont State Legislature put forward bill H.242, which proposes restricting STRs to only owner-occupied properties, a move the Vermont STR industry warns would devastate tourism and eliminate thousands of jobs. The bill has not progressed past committee review, but stakeholders are watching closely. Industry advocates argue that STRs represent a small housing footprint while making up a large portion of the state’s visitor capacity.

Colorado’s HB 25-1247 seeks to raise the cap on county lodging taxes from 2% to 6%, pending voter approval. In addition to current uses like tourism promotion and housing for workers, the expanded tax revenue could fund infrastructure, sustainability, and public safety. Critics caution the broader usage might stray from the tax’s original purpose and unfairly burden the STR industry.

Washington’s SB 5576 would replace the state STR tax with a 4% optional local excise tax that cities and counties could use for affordable housing. The bill has faced pushback from small operators who say the added tax burden could drive them out of the market. It passed the Senate and House committee and now awaits a full House vote.

If you’re looking for a strong advocacy and support network for short-term rental professionals, be sure to explore Rent Responsibly’s Alliance Program.

That’s a wrap for this week’s updates. Be sure to check back next week for the latest news and trends in the vacation rental industry!

We’re excited to share some great news - OwnerRez has been officially named a 2025 Airbnb Preferred+ Software Partner! 🎉

We’ve been a connected partner with Airbnb for many years, and for the past four, we’ve consistently earned recognition as a Preferred Software Partner! This recognition reflects the ongoing commitment and collaboration between OwnerRez and Airbnb to create a seamless, high-quality experience for short-term rental hosts and property managers around the world. Only a select group of software providers are included in the Airbnb Preferred Software Partners program, and even fewer achieve the “Preferred+” tier.

Why This Matters

Being part of the Airbnb Preferred Software Partners program means we’ve met Airbnb’s highest standards for integration quality, technical performance, and customer value. The Preferred+ designation is reserved for software providers who go above and beyond across key metrics and consistently deliver top-tier performance and innovation.

Collaboration That Moves the Industry Forward

For years, we’ve worked closely with the Airbnb team to improve our integration and ensure a smooth, feature-rich experience for OwnerRez users. From API enhancements to streamlined workflows, the partnership has allowed us to support your business with better tools, faster updates, and improved reliability.

We’re grateful to the Airbnb team for their partnership and support, and most of all, to our OwnerRez users who make milestones like this possible!

Looking Ahead

As we look forward to the rest of 2025 and beyond, our focus remains on giving you the best tools in the industry and supporting your business with powerful automation, channel integrations, and unmatched reliability. The Airbnb Preferred+ badge is a proud moment for us, but we’re just getting started.

Thanks for being on the journey with us. More great things are coming soon!

That's a great story. I love to see how you started off with your own STR and began managing others based off your success. My wife and I are doing a similar thing over in Destin to 30a Florida. We have been realtors selling short-term rental properties from Destin to Panama City Beach since 2010.

We purchased our first property two years ago. We also use OwnerRez and just started managing our first external property.

It's nice to see that you guys have already done the same thing in PCB. Were hoping to have similar success as your neighbors. Best of luck!

We are happy to announce our integration with WelcomeScreen, offering digital signage directly to your properties' TVs.

About WelcomeScreen

WelcomeScreen is a game-changing digital signage product that allows hosts to elevate their guest experience, boost direct bookings, and also create an entirely new revenue stream with advertisements.

Features

• More Direct Bookings - Increase repeat stays by displaying your direct booking link where it can’t be missed.
• Fewer Questions - Eliminate common guest questions about Wi-Fi, email, emergency contacts, and more.
• Seamless Setup - Get started in minutes—just download the app and personalize it for your property.
• Wow Your Guests - Create a 5-star hotel feel with personalized welcomes and instant access to everything they need.
• Fully Automated - No need to manually update guest names, weather, time, or check-in/out details—it’s all done for you.
• Extra Revenue Stream - Promote local businesses and upsell services directly through WelcomeScreen to earn passive income.

Pricing

Starts at $10/month/listing and they offer bulk discounts. Pricing details can be found here.

Ready to Connect?

Get started with WelcomeScreen by visiting here and checking out the OwnerRez support article for integrating OwnerRez with WelcomeScreen.

Tropical Beach Getaways began in 2016 when a husband-and-wife team bought their first condo in Panama City Beach, FL. Their success in managing rentals led to a growing business, now overseeing 13 properties. With backgrounds in business and accounting, they enjoy the flexibility of vacation rentals while creating great guest experiences.

Can you tell us a little bit about your history? 

Tropical Beach Getaways was founded in 2018. My wife and I purchased our first condo in Panama City in 2016 and realized we could manage our own property for vacation rentals. Encouraged by this success, we bought a second condo in the same complex in 2018. After successfully renting out our condo through OwnerRez and word of mouth, other owners began asking us to manage their units as well. Today, we manage 13 vacation rental properties in Panama City Beach, FL.

What is your background? 

My wife and I are traditional business owners. I am the founder and president of a local insurance group in Covington, Georgia. My wife has a background in accounting but is now enjoying life as a stay-at-home wife. She manages our condos and helps out with the grandkids.

Were you always in VR or property management, or is this a 2nd/3rd career?

Over the years, we have consistently managed various types of rental properties to supplement our income. As time went on and we purchased condos in Panama City Beach, we sold our long-term rental homes in our hometown and transitioned to starting a short-term rental management business. We have always had experience in rental management, though not specifically in short-term vacation rentals. Therefore, I would consider this our second long-term career plan for retirement.

Are you from that geographical area, or did you move there later?

We currently reside in Covington, Georgia, and have always lived there. We vacation in Panama City Beach, FL, monthly to check on our condos for ourselves and the owners we manage for.

If later, is there something that drew you to that area?

Panama City Beach, FL, is an excellent vacation destination for families in our area. As a young family, we often took our daughter there to enjoy the beach, and we believe it’s a wonderful place for others to have memorable family vacations as well.

What do you love the most about the VR business?

We appreciate the flexibility it provides and the joy of giving others a wonderful vacation or experience, whether that is once a year or twice a year when they book with us.

What do you dislike the most about it?

One disadvantage of vacation rentals is that they can be quite demanding during peak months. In the summer, we often have numerous check-ins and check-outs throughout the week, which can make it stressful to ensure that each unit is cleaned and ready for the next guest. Communication is essential in vacation rentals, especially when you are not on the property every day.

How do you use OwnerRez to manage your business?

We use OwnerRez to effectively manage our business in various ways. It allows us to handle property bookings, manage cleaners, send guest emails, and control door codes. Overall, it has significantly simplified our rental management operations.

What is the most useful feature OwnerRez offers?

One of the standout features of OwnerRez is its seamless integration with a variety of external applications, enhancing operational efficiency for property management. This functionality allows users to easily connect with smart door lock systems, ensuring that guests can enter their accommodations with ease and convenience. Additionally, OwnerRez can coordinate with cleaning services, streamlining the scheduling process and ensuring that properties are cleaned and prepared between guest stays. This level of automation not only saves time but also reduces the potential for miscommunications, ultimately elevating the guest experience and allowing property owners to focus on other important aspects of their business.

Tropical Beach Getaways has built a thriving business by combining experience, passion, and a commitment to great hospitality. Wishing them continued success in their vacation rental journey!

We are pleased to announce our integration with Keepers to help users manage cleanings.

About Keepers

Keepers helps take cleaning off your plate, for good. They handle everything behind the scenes, automated scheduling, cleaner dispatch, photo-verified inspections, and payments, so you don’t have to text, confirm, or follow up with anyone. Your calendar stays in sync, your properties stay guest-ready, and your time goes back where it belongs. If you’re still managing cleanings manually or relying on marketplaces that leave you doing the work, it’s time for something better. Keepers is built to make sure you never have to think about cleaning again.

With Keepers, cleaning pricing is no longer a guessing game. They set the cleaning fee for each property using their internal pricing algorithm, based on market rates, property size, and job complexity. You don’t have to figure out what to charge, they tell you exactly what cleaning fee to set in your listing so it matches the actual cost of the job. No more undercharging, no more surprises. Cleaners get paid what they expect, and you stay aligned with your guest fees. It’s accurate, consistent, and completely hands off.

Features

• Direct OwnerRez Integration – Syncs seamlessly with your OwnerRez calendar.
• Automatic Scheduling – Cleanings are scheduled in real-time based on bookings.
• Real-Time Job Creation – Cleaning jobs are instantly created as reservations come in.
• Photo Verification – Before-and-after photos are required for every job.
• Quality-Based Payments – Cleaners are only paid when the job meets your standards.
• Hands-Off Coordination – No need to text, confirm, or check in—everything is automated.
• Peace of Mind – Know your property is guest-ready without lifting a finger.

Pricing

They charge a $16 monthly fee per property to remove the entire housekeeping burden off of you. More details here. 

Ready to Connect?

Get started with Keepers by visiting here and checking out the OwnerRez support article for integrating OwnerRez with Keepers.

See if Keepers services your market here. For questions, please call 866-341-5337 or email info@usekeepers.com

We’re excited to introduce our new integration with Hello Guest Screen, bringing a personalized digital concierge experience directly to your properties' smart TVs.

About Hello Guest Screen

Hello Guest Screen is the digital concierge for your smart TV—making guests feel welcomed and informed, while helping hosts stand out and book direct. If your TV has access to the Amazon App Store or Google Play Store, you're all set! And even if it doesn’t, a Firestick or Google Chromecast works like a charm! No need for two remotes or pre-setting the TV for your guest(s)—they've got you covered!

Features

• Personalized Guest Greetings - Display the guest’s name, check-in/out dates, and a custom welcome message on your TV screen.
• App-Free Experience - Guests don’t need to download anything—everything appears directly on the smart TV.
• Automated Scheduling - Messages appear and disappear based on the guest's reservation dates.
• Brand Customization - Add your logo, brand colors, and custom messages to enhance your brand identity.
• QR Code Integration - Share house manuals, Wi-Fi info, local guides, or direct booking links with a simple scan.
• Streaming Video Support - Add YouTube videos to showcase your property, city, or even a personal welcome.
• Weather Forecast Display - Automatically shows a 5-day forecast based on the property's location.
• Multi-Screen Support - Use HGS across multiple TVs within one or several properties.
• PMS Integration with OwnerRez - Connect with property management systems to automate guest data syncing (like name and dates).

Benefits

• Better First Impressions - Guests walk into a personalized, high-tech welcome that sets the tone for their stay.
• Stronger Brand Loyalty - Showcasing your brand and direct booking links helps convert OTA guests into repeat guests.
• Less Guest Confusion - Answer common questions up front (like Wi-Fi, checkout time, or local tips).
• Reduced App Fatigue - No need for guests to fumble with another app—info is displayed clearly on the TV.
• Quick Setup - Takes under 10 minutes to get up and running.
• Low Cost, High Impact - Priced affordably per screen and scalable for any portfolio size.

Pricing

Starting as low as $14.99/month. You can find the pricing details here. Recive 10% off your subscription by using code: OR_10%

Ready to Connect?

Get started with Hello Guest Screen by visiting here and checking out the OwnerRez support article for integrating OwnerRez with Hello Guest Screen.

Happy Friday! The vacation rental landscape continues to shift, with new regulations, legal battles, and evolving guest expectations shaping the market. From policy changes and community pushback to booking trends and rebranding efforts, here’s a look at the major developments making headlines this week.

As of April 21, 2025, Airbnb has implemented a global update to display the total price of listings, including all fees, by default in search results. This move aims to enhance price transparency for guests and aligns with regulatory pressures, such as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s “Junk Fees Rule.” Hosts and property managers are advised to reassess their pricing strategies to remain competitive under this new system.

Maui Mayor Richard Bissen has proposed phasing out more than 7,000 short-term vacation rentals in an effort to address the island’s severe housing shortage. While the plan could free up over 6,000 units for long-term residents, a UHERO study warns it may cause major economic fallout, including a $900 million annual drop in visitor spending and nearly 2,000 lost jobs. The Maui County Council has yet to vote on the proposal, but uncertainty is already impacting property owners and the broader tourism industry.

In Ocean City, Maryland, residents have initiated a petition to overturn a recent ban on short-term rentals in certain residential zones. The petition, which has garnered over 1,300 signatures, seeks to place the issue on the next election ballot, reflecting ongoing debates about the role of short-term rentals in community dynamics. 

Louisiana lawmakers are reviewing bills that would grant local governments the authority to regulate short-term rentals more effectively. Proposed legislation includes measures to enforce permitting and safety standards, as well as provisions allowing residents and organizations to take legal action against unlicensed rentals. These efforts aim to address concerns about housing availability and neighborhood impacts. 

New York City’s Office of Special Enforcement has filed a lawsuit against LuxUrban Hotels, Inc., seeking to enforce a $1.2 million judgment related to illegal short-term rental operations. The city alleges that LuxUrban attempted to evade accountability through corporate rebranding, emphasizing its commitment to upholding housing laws and regulations. 

Bookings by Canadian travelers for U.S. Airbnb accommodations dropped by 12.1% in March 2025 compared to the same period in 2024. This decline is attributed to escalating trade tensions and new tariffs imposed by the U.S. government. The decrease is notably impacting border regions and popular destinations for Canadian tourists. 

Summer rental bookings along the Jersey Shore are off to a sluggish start in 2025, prompting some property owners to reduce prices. Factors contributing to the slowdown include higher inventory levels and concerns about decreased Canadian tourism, influenced by recent trade disputes. 

Panama City Beach, Florida, historically known for its vibrant spring break scene, is implementing measures to transform into a family-oriented tourist destination. Efforts include stricter regulations on alcohol consumption, increased policing, and the introduction of new attractions like a $60 million Dolly Parton-owned venue. 

A recent report from Phocuswright indicates that the short-term rental sector’s growth has plateaued, with usage among U.S. leisure travelers remaining steady since 2020. Challenges include increased scrutiny, inconsistent guest experiences, and competition from traditional hotels. The industry is urged to enhance transparency and service quality to meet evolving consumer expectations. 

That’s a wrap for this week! Stay tuned for more updates on the ever-changing landscape of vacation rentals.

I signed up for the free trial and there is seemingly no way to cancel on the website. Additionally there is a huge lack of functionality for Android as you can only access the messaging feature on mobile. I specifically wanted to use this to book more gap nights and while the tech seems like it could work, I want to be able to manage this on my phone which doesn't seem possible. Overall the lack of being able to manage my account and billing on the website and not being able to cancel the free trial without jumping through hoops is a massive turn off. 

Happy Friday! The vacation rental industry continues to evolve, with significant developments this week highlighting the dynamic nature of the market. From regulatory shifts to community concerns, here’s a roundup of the latest news.

Brands are now using vacation rentals as a new sampling channel, placing natural and organic products directly into Airbnbs and boutique hotels. This immersive strategy delivers high conversion rates, targeted consumer reach, and valuable marketing data, offering a more intimate and effective alternative to traditional in-store demos.

In Riley County, Kansas, officials are considering amendments to short-term rental regulations. Proposed changes include a 500-foot minimum distance between STRs, mandatory designation of a local responsible agent, and ensuring all property taxes and fees are paid before licensing. The effort aims to address growing resident concerns about neighborhood impacts while still allowing rentals to operate under clearer rules. 

Meanwhile, Houston, Texas, has passed its first short-term rental ordinance, requiring an annual $275 registration fee per unit and a 24/7 emergency contact. City leaders framed the ordinance as a starting point, suggesting that more updates could follow based on feedback and enforcement experience.

In St. Joseph County, Indiana, police are warning property owners to be cautious about one-night local bookings. Officials report a rise in short-term rentals being used for parties, including one recent incident involving gunfire at a rental in Granger. Authorities recommend owners require multiple-night minimums, carefully screen guests, and install exterior security cameras.

Optimism remains strong in the industry despite competitive pressures. According to Key Data’s 2025 Vacation Rental Industry Outlook, 66% of surveyed property managers expect revenue growth this year, although 55% anticipate increased competition as more listings hit the market. The report emphasizes the need for strong marketing, guest experience enhancements, and smart pricing strategies.

That’s a wrap for this week! Stay tuned for more updates on the ever-changing landscape of vacation rentals.

Happy Friday! The vacation rental industry continues to evolve, with significant developments this week highlighting the dynamic nature of the market. From regulatory shifts to personal stories of homeowners leveraging rental opportunities, here’s a roundup of the latest news.

During the Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia, local homeowners are capitalizing on the influx of visitors by renting out their properties. For instance, photographer Whitney Boykin and her family vacate their North Augusta, South Carolina home to accommodate guests, earning enough in one week to cover their annual mortgage. Data from AirDNA indicates that in April 2024, the number of rentals in Augusta surged to 1,700, with average revenues reaching $5,300.

Vacation rental management company Vacasa is at the center of a bidding war, with Davidson Kempner offering $5.83 per share, surpassing Casago’s $5.30 per share bid. The outcome of this competition could significantly impact the company’s future direction and the broader vacation rental market.

Maui Mayor Richard Bissen’s proposal to phase out over 7,000 short-term vacation rentals by 2026 aims to address the island’s housing shortage, exacerbated by the 2023 wildfires. A recent study by the University of Hawaiʻi Economic Research Organization (UHERO) indicates that while this move could add approximately 6,127 units to the long-term housing market and improve affordability, it may also lead to significant economic drawbacks. These include a projected $900 million annual decline in visitor spending, the loss of 1,900 jobs, and a $60 million decrease in property tax revenue by 2029. UHERO suggests alternatives such as implementing new taxes, auctioning rental permits, and incentivizing new developments to mitigate potential economic disruptions while addressing housing needs.

Washington lawmakers are advancing Senate Bill 5576, which would allow cities and counties to impose up to a 4% excise tax on short-term rentals like Airbnb and VRBO. The revenue would fund affordable housing initiatives, including construction, rental assistance, and homelessness services. Supporters argue the measure addresses the state’s housing shortage, while critics warn it could deter tourism and burden small rental operators. If enacted, the tax could take effect in April 2026.

That’s a wrap for this week! Stay tuned for more updates on the ever-changing landscape of vacation rentals.

Will you be having a Webminar with Happy Guest to learn more about it??

Who is their competion? or, most similar to them that you integrate with also??

You need to scroll down beyond the form section. The Register button is located further down the page.

Being in Pinellas County, the County's new requirement is going to be met with a fury of lawsuits. Like so many of the beach towns in Pinellas County where I own and operate, the County is violating State Statute 162 which preempts all inspections to the state agency, DBPR. This is reckless behavior by the County Commission as ordinances around noise and trash already exist. For all those in Pinellas County unsure or worried about what is happening, get involved. I lead a group of 300+ property owners actively fighting back and winning against the radicalized city commissions. Find me IG @FirstChairVacations or FB Matthew Barrowclough. 

Happy Friday! 

The world of vacation rentals is never static, and this week, it's full of twists and turns. New regulations, fresh challenges, and some heartfelt stories show just how much the industry is changing. Ready for a closer look?

Things are heating up again in Hawaii. A recent report from the University of Hawaiʻi Economic Research Organization explores the impacts of Maui's proposal to phase out vacation rentals in apartment-zoned areas. While it could increase long-term housing by up to 6,127 units, the policy may also lead to significant economic losses, including a $900 million reduction in visitor spending, the loss of 1,900 jobs, and a drop in property values. Alternatives like raising TVR property taxes or gradual phase-outs are suggested to mitigate these effects.

​Los Angeles is intensifying efforts to curb illegal short-term rentals, particularly in rent-controlled apartments, to alleviate the city's housing shortage exacerbated by recent wildfires and in anticipation of the 2028 Olympics. The City Council plans to enhance enforcement of the 2018 Home Sharing Ordinance by implementing measures such as requiring booking platforms to block unauthorized listings, allowing residents to sue violators, establishing a dedicated enforcement team, increasing fines, and hiring hearing officers for related cases. Murray Cox, founder of Inside Airbnb, supports these initiatives, emphasizing the importance of strict enforcement to prevent housing stock depletion and rent increases due to illegal short-term rentals.

​A couple is preparing to welcome their first renters to their Manasota Key vacation properties since Hurricanes Helene and Milton struck in 2024. Eddie and Jen Powers invested heavily in restoring the rentals to their original condition, with Eddie, a retired airline pilot, depleting his retirement savings for the repairs. While they have received an insurance payout for one property, they are still awaiting an assessment for the second. The restoration process included labor-intensive tasks such as manually cleaning 30 tons of contaminated rocks. Despite their efforts, the couple is uncertain about continuing their rental business, expressing doubts about enduring another such ordeal.

Pinellas County is enhancing its vacation rental ordinance to improve enforcement, especially for noise complaints and property violations. Key changes include a cap on occupancy, stricter noise restrictions, and more precise definitions for bedrooms. Owners must register, undergo inspections, and face fines for violations. The county aims to crack down on disruptive rentals, including events like weddings. A new Certificate of Use Program was launched at the end of March to hold owners accountable.

That’s a wrap for this week! Be sure to return next Friday for more Industry News — from regulations to market shifts, we’ve got you covered.

Hey Megan,

Could I ask you to take some screenshots and email them in to help@ownerrez.com so we can take a closer look? We recently transitioned to a new platform for our webinars, so if there's an issue with the registration process we'll want to get that noted and addressed ASAP.

I registered for one of our webinars myself and didn't run into an issue. Let's find out what's going on for you!

Spring has sprung with our feature-packed April update! We're helping you streamline your operations with the addition of Limited Access for Staff, Automatic Vrbo 5-star Reviews, Offline Surcharges, and New Cancellation Grace Periods -- all ready to help your vacation rental business blossom.

• New Features
  • Team Access: Staff Limited Access
  • Vrbo Automatic 5-Star Reviews
  • Vrbo Reviews: Automatic Import
  • Offline Surcharges
  • Cancellation Grace Period
• Design Progress
  • Credit Card Icons
  • Team Access
• Enhancements & Tweaks
  • Unified Inbox
    • Airbnb Messages
    • Activity Timeline
  • New Owner and Property Field Codes
  • Support Center Search Results Breadcrumbs
  • OwnerRez Forum Post Previews
  • Booking.com Additional Guest Fees
  • Turkish Language Guest Forms
  • PM v2 Legacy Bookings
  • Disabled Integrations
  • Communication History Email Activity
  • Closed OwnerRez Stripe Accounts
  • Property Disable Channel Integration Disconnection
  • PayFlow Pro, Plug'n Pay, and USA ePay
  • Plug'n Pay
• Bug Fixes
  • April 2nd Release With 21 Bug Fixes
  • April 9th Release With 16 Bug Fixes
  • April 16th Release With 14 Bug Fixes
  • April 23rd Release With 13 Bug Fixes
  • April 30th Release With 13 Bug Fixes

New Features

Team Access: Staff Limited Access

OwnerRez's Team Access feature allows you to grant access to your Staff Members, each with their own login credentials, enabling them to view calendar availability and perform actions such as blocking off time or viewing owner statements. However, Staff Team Access was not restricted by property, meaning they could see and do almost everything in your account until our April 16th release, where you can now limit access to Staff Team Members to either Read Only or Full Admin rights by property.

What does "Limited Access" mean for Staff Members? Granting Limited Access allows current or new Staff Members to view and edit Bookings (including Booking financials), compose Inbox messages specific to all or particular properties granted access to, and access limited Tools menu options.

Users can configure "Limited Access" for new or current Staff Members by navigating to the Team Access > Staff tab, and either selecting an individual Staff Member or inviting a new Staff Member, choosing the Limited Access button, and then choosing either All properties or the default Specific properties.

When logged into their account, Staff Members with limited access (in this case, Suzie Staff) can only view and edit bookings, individual booking financials, and the Unified Inbox messages associated with their permissioned properties.

The Tools menu options for Staff Member Limited Access are limited to Quick Quote, Find or Create a Guest, and Communication History for the configured properties only.

Vrbo Automatic 5-Star Reviews

Smart vacation rental owners recognize that guests who are likely to leave positive 5-star reviews often forget to do so, while dissatisfied guests tend to complain, leading to reviews. Even though Airbnb and Vrbo promote feedback, many guests don't participate. However, when hosts review first, it prompts guests to do the same, as Airbnb and Vrbo notify them to check out the host's review after submitting their own. This strategy effectively boosts guest reviews.

One of OwnerRez's long-awaited feature requests, Vrbo Automatic 5-star Reviews (which operates much like the Airbnb option), is now available as part of our April 23rd release.

To turn on your Vrbo Automatic 5-star Reviews, navigate to Reviews > the Host Reviews tab > and from the Automatic 5-Star Reviews dropdown list, select Turn On for Vrbo.

The Vrbo Automatic 5-Star Review Configure Settings are slightly different from Airbnb's. Vrbo host reviews of guests do not include a narrative, so there is no need for review content templates.

Vrbo Reviews: Automatic Import

Another exciting development is that running Channel Bridge to import your Vrbo reviews is no longer necessary (if you're channel-integrated (a.k.a. API-connected)). Just like being channel-integrated with Airbnb and having reviews auto-imported in real-time, that is now the case for Vrbo.

Are you wondering about your Vrbo reviews from before this feature release? OwnerRez has imported older Vrbo reviews already, take a look!

For now, you can still use Channel Bridge to import Vrbo reviews (and Airbnb) if you're not API-connected.

Offline Surcharges

As many of you know, price transparency has been a big push by Airbnb and Vrbo, among other channels, lately. That is primarily due to recent legislation, such as the 2024 California Legislation (AB-537), and advocates of the short-term vacation rental industry pushing for transparency of rates and fees and how they are displayed to all guests. For OwnerRez users, this posed a challenge in collection of offline surcharges while ensuring pricing transparency and compliance with laws and channel policies. OwnerRez has worked with Airbnb and Vrbo to be able to display and disclose these fees appropriately.

In our April 30th release, OwnerRez has added support for Offline Surcharges for Airbnb and Vrbo channel integrations. This allows guests to be properly notified about an offline or stay-collected fee charged on-site or by third parties.

Configure Offline Surcharges like any other surcharge by navigating to Settings > Pricing > Surcharges > + Create Surcharge > Description > and selecting Offline.

In the Conditions section, be sure to add the "Listing Site is > One Of > Airbnb, Vrbo" condition.

The Mode column will display the Offline surcharge mode in the Surcharges grid.

How are these Offline Surcharges displayed to channel-integrated guests during the checkout process? On Airbnb, these offline surcharges are displayed as individual line items in the Price Details and the Due to host at property sections.

Vrbo guests will see Offline Surcharges displayed in the Paid at property section.

Are you looking to expand your marketing? Explore all of OwnerRez's direct channel integrations.

Cancellation Grace Period

Recent California legislation (SB-644) requires hotels and short-term rentals to allow free cancellation within 24 hours of booking if the booking is made more than 72 hours before check-in. However, when bookings are canceled, most payment processors require hosts to pay the non-refundable card processing fees.

With our April 30th release, OwnerRez has implemented an authorization-only payment option to tackle the issue of non-refundable card processing fees for canceled bookings (except for last-minute bookings arriving within 72 hours). This option allows hosts to place temporary holds on funds through card authorization, which finalizes the charge after a configurable grace period expires for direct and channel-integrated bookings. In this example, we have it set for 24/72 hours (he second value is capped at 72 hours at this time; you can do less than 72 hours if need be).

Configure your Cancellation Grace Period by navigating to your existing Cancellation Policy or to create a new cancellation policy by going to Settings > Rules > Cancellation Policies > select either + Create Policy or your Cancellation Policy > Grace Period > Free cancellation period after booking, and add your cancellation Grace Period.

During the booking process on hosted websites, guests will see your Grace Period displayed with your Cancellation Policy.

How does that Grace Period appear in OwnerRez on a booking? On the Booking > Transactions > Scheduled section, payments will have the Pending and Authed (Authorized) labels displayed in the Status column.

While users should note that this Grace Period option allows hosts to fully comply with California laws, configured grace periods are not prominently displayed on listing channels such as Airbnb, Vrbo, or Booking.com at this time.

Design Progress

Credit Card Icons

Credit card payment field icons display accepted card types, utilize recognizable icons, and visually align with input format expectations to enhance user and guest confidence and payment completion rates. With our April 16th release, OwnerRez updated the payment field credit card icons. These updated payment field credit card icons are included on the in-app Billing, Payment Method, and Booking Transactions pages and the guest-facing Purchase Travel Insurance form.

Team Access

With OwnerRez, you can grant access to Staff or Portal Users (whether owners, cleaners, maintenance staff, etc.) to view calendar availability and perform actions like blocking off time or viewing owner statements. The Team Access area received a design update that refreshes the Portal and Staff tabs and the + Invite Portal User button.

Enhancements & Tweaks

Unified Inbox

Airbnb Messages

Effective communication with Airbnb guests via the OwnerRez Unified Inbox enhances your guests' experience by resolving issues quickly, leading to positive reviews and repeat bookings. With optimized webhooks, our April 9th release now allows Airbnb guests to update their messages within 15 minutes of sending, and the updated Airbnb message is automatically reflected in the OwnerRez Unified Inbox.

This release lays the groundwork for future Unified Inbox Airbnb Messaging improvements, including message read indicators, message updates, message deletion capability, and reactions.

Activity Timeline

OwnerRez's Unified Inbox organizes and displays your guest Activity Timeline communication across platforms. As part of our April 16th release, OwnerRez has updated how automated messages, including triggers, are shown to better distinguish between automated and manually sent messages in the Activity Timeline message stream.

Automated message templates sent by triggers are now displayed in the full-view Activity Timeline with a gray background and are collapsed by default to reduce information overload. While manually sent messages will open in another tab, automated message templates sent by triggers can be expanded in the Activity Timeline by clicking on the gray field.

Explore all of OwnerRez's dynamic messaging options.

New Owner and Property Field Codes

OwnerRez field codes are dynamic placeholders that automatically insert relevant property, guest, or booking information into your custom message templates, saving time and allowing you to personalize your guest communications. With our April 2nd release, we've added the following Owner and Property Field Codes to offer users even more flexibility with their guest communication.

Field	Name	Description
{OPHONE}	Phone Numbers	All of the owner's phone numbers
{OPHONEPR}	Primary Phone Number	The single primary phone number of the owner
{OPHONEI}	Primary Phone Number (Informal)	The primary owner phone number without +1 if USA based
{PCITY}	Property City	The property's city
{PSTPROV}	Property State or Province	The property's state or province
{PCNTRY}	Property Country	The property's country

Breadcrumbs in search results show users their navigation path, improving orientation, enabling easy backtracking, and enhancing overall site usability. Navigating the OwnerRez public Support Center's comprehensive search results can prove challenging, so we've added breadcrumbs to the Support Center search results for clarity as part of our April 9th release.

OwnerRez Forum Post Previews

Connecting with your OwnerRez peers on the expansive and busy OwnerRez Forums allows you to share best practices, learn about new features, and build a network among other vacation rental industry contemporaries. However, viewing individual posts required users to click on each one to discover its content. With our April 2nd release, we've introduced post previews when hovering over individual posts on the OwnerRez Forums. This lets you quickly assess the post content without clicking, saving time and enhancing your OwnerRez Forum experience.

Booking.com Additional Guest Fees

Transparent Booking.com (BDC) additional guest fees eliminate surprises, build trust, improve conversion rates, and reduce guests' questions. That's why OwnerRez has optimized our Booking.com channel integration handling of additional guest surcharges or fees, including improved multipliers and information-friendly user error messages with our April 9th release.

Check out OwnerRez's direct channel integrations with all major vacation rental channels.

Turkish Language Guest Forms

As OwnerRez users increasingly host international guests, OwnerRez recognizes the importance of offering multilingual options on the updated guest-facing Review, Travel Insurance, and Public Booking Link guest forms. 

Following up on our July 2024 Multi-Language Support for Guest Forms release, OwnerRez now includes Turkish translation on these updated guest forms.

International guests can now select the Turkish language on the guest-facing Review, Travel Insurance, and Public Booking Link guest forms by clicking the upper right language button and selecting Türkçe.

PM v2 Legacy Bookings

Owner statements for vacation rentals are vital for fostering a transparent relationship between property managers and owners, detailing financial performance, income sources, and expenses like rental revenue and cleaning fees. However, following the October 2024 release of OwnerRez's PMv2 for New PM Users, we've realized that due to changes in the way that expenses are handled after PMv2 upgrades, that it's possible that some bookings not yet fully remitted prior to the update may not be rendered or displayed as expected on current Owner Statements due to the different way expenses are treated in legacy versus PM upgraded bookings.

While the underlying financial amounts are correct, legacy bookings may contain blank or display "--" amounts in expense columns, which may be confusing. It's important to note the following about these Owner Statements that contain legacy bookings.

• The Remitting Now column is still accurate.
• Booking Expense columns for Commission, Damage Protection, and Taxes will be blank or display "--" because no such expenses existed on legacy bookings.
• The Hidden Expenses column will be blank or display "--" because pre-deducted expenses didn't exist as expenses to be hidden on legacy bookings.

As a workaround in the interim, PMs can consider removing these columns from their Statement Views until after they've completed remitting all legacy bookings.

How will you know which bookings are Legacy Bookings? Legacy bookings are identified with a gold Legacy label displayed in the Owner Statement Preview Status column so PMs can easily detect which bookings are actually pre-upgraded legacy bookings.

Are you managing properties for others? Explore OwnerRez's Property Management (PM) premium feature.

Disabled Integrations

Hiding disabled integrations declutters your OwnerRez interface and helps you focus exclusively on your relevant, active integrations. Since our October 2024 Disabled Integrations release allows users to still access their disabled integrations if necessary, OwnerRez has decided to hide your disabled integrations by default on the following integration grids.

• Channel Integrations
• Door Lock Integrations
• Hosted Websites
• QuickBooks Connections

Users can still view and access their disabled integrations by clicking the Show All link at the top of the integration grids.

Communication History Email Activity

Email communication keeps your guests informed, builds trust, and ensures clear expectations, fostering positive reviews and repeat bookings for your vacation rental property. Viewing the activity of your Communication History emails for individual bookings identifies when your emails have been queued, sent, and delivered and when they've been opened. With our April 2nd release, emails will be organized and presented by activity for clarification. You can view the email activity organization by navigating to Tools > Communication History > Email tab and selecting an individual email or by going to an individual Booking > Email History > Email tab and selecting an individual email there.

Discover all of OwnerRez's dynamic messaging options.

Closed OwnerRez Stripe Accounts

When you close your OwnerRez account, disconnecting your Stripe account allows you to take your Stripe account with you. As part of our release on April 9th, we have made this process easier by automatically disconnecting Stripe accounts when users close their OwnerRez accounts.

Considering other payment processor options? Explore all of OwnerRez's payment processing choices.

Property Disable Channel Integration Disconnection 

Sometimes, you may need to disable or re-enable a property, such as when it's sold or is no longer offered as a vacation rental. Disabling the property in OwnerRez disabled the channel integrations, like Airbnb and Vrbo. However, it didn't disable the listing on the listing channel (e.g., Airbnb, Vrbo, etc.), necessitating users to pause or delist it on each platform individually, which was cumbersome for those managing multiple properties.

With our release on April 9th, OwnerRez will automatically disconnect or unpublish property listings from the listing channel (e.g., Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, etc.) when a property is disabled.

PayFlow Pro, Plug'n Pay, and USA ePay

While OwnerRez initially deprecated several Legacy Payment Methods with one of our September 2024 releases, we determined that the PayFlow Pro, Plug'n Pay, and USA ePay payment processors should be restored with our April 2nd release. PayFlow Pro, Plug'n Pay, and USA ePay will be maintained as "supported connections" for the foreseeable future.

Are you considering a new payment processor for your vacation rental business? Check out OwnerRez's recommended payment processors and gateways.

Plug'n Pay

Plug'n Pay Technologies is an online payment gateway provider and a merchant account provider, that enables merchants to accept credit cards using a secure online environment. They also include fraud prevention tools, offer extensive online reporting for managing transactions, and provide easy bank reconciliation. Their one-page merchant account application makes it easy to apply and get approved for a merchant account for the US and Canada, as well as limited assistance in the Caribbean.

In our April 23rd release, OwnerRez optimized our Plug'n Play integration to ensure that it is fully updated to support hosts with their online payments.

Bug Fixes

April 2nd Release With 21 Bug Fixes

Anchor Search Bar When Scrolling Down in Support Center Sidebar. The Support Center top-left search bar wasn't always displayed as expected when scrolling. We corrected this glitch to anchor the Support Center's top-left search bar when scrolling.

Don't Add Extra Hosted Site Header Row on Save. When users clicked on Save, additional hosted website header rows were inadvertently added. OR resolved this issue so that hosted website header rows are saved correctly.

Don't Clear Listing Number/Linked Account Token When Importing Vrbo Listing. Vrbo listing numbers and/or linked account tokens were inadvertently cleared during the Vrbo listing import process. We corrected this glitch to ensure that Vrbo listing numbers and/or linked account tokens are retained during the Vrbo listing import process.

Don't Match Deleted Bookings in Airbnb Deposit Processing. This edge case occurred when an Airbnb deposit was incorrectly associated with a previously deleted booking. OR fixed this bug, and Airbnb deposits will not be matched to previously deleted bookings.

Fix Ability to Change Main Font in Hosted Website Settings. The Main Font dropdown menu was unclickable on the hosted website Fonts & Colors tab, which prevented users from changing the main font on their hosted website. We corrected this glitch so that the Main Font dropdown menu is available, and users can change the main font on their hosted website.

Fix API Message Send to Use Property Preference or Primary Host for Airbnb. Some channel-integrated Airbnb messaging failed to correctly select and display the configured primary host. OR resolved this issue to ensure that the configured primary host is displayed in channel-integrated Airbnb messaging correctly.

Fix Branded Portal Errors. Branded portal sites were inadvertently generating errors. We corrected this glitch to ensure that branded portal sites no longer generate errors.  

Fix Delayed Negative Review Scheduled Date. While the review was actually sent on the correct date, automatic delayed negative review banners displayed incorrect scheduled dates for the review's sending. OR fixed this bug to display the correct date on the automatic negative delayed review banners.

Fix iCal Parsing When File Has Leading Whitespace. iCal import files with leading whitespace (space characters at the beginning of a file or folder name) encountered import failures. We resolved this issue by now skipping leading whitespaces when importing iCal files.

Fix Internationalization Validation Error. We encountered internationalization validation errors on account billing pages. OR corrected this glitch to ensure that there are no longer any internationalization validation errors.

Fix Row Strikethrough on Booking Cancellation Screen. Canceled bookings did not correctly display strikethrough text on the booking cancellation screen. We fixed this bug so that the strikethrough text on the booking cancellation screen is displayed correctly.

Fix Sending of Selected Notifications When Batch Deleting Bookings. Even when configured to be sent, Booking is Deleted notifications failed to be sent after bookings were deleted through the Execute Batch Operation. OR corrected this glitch to ensure that configured Booking is Deleted notifications are sent after bookings are deleted.

Fix Single Property Hosted Site Photo Display When Caption Text Preceded by Periods or Pound Sign. Photos with caption text preceded by period or pound sign characters were not displayed correctly on single property hosted websites. We resolved this issue, and photos with caption text preceded by period or pound sign characters will be displayed correctly on single property hosted websites.

Log Airbnb Listing Publish/Unpublish Errors and Show Listing as Pending. This edge case occurred when a user encountered an Airbnb publishing error with an unhelpful error message. OR fixed this bug so that Airbnb publishing errors will be displayed as pending.

Match Widgets to Correct URL Paths. Occasionally, Availability/Property Search widgets for multi-property websites always matched to the first property with an index path if the first property had no URL configured. We corrected this glitch to match widgets to the correct URLs.

Prevent Security Deposit Reauthorization Failure With OpenEdge. This edge case occurred when a user encountered security deposit hold reauthorization failures with their payment processor, OpenEdge. OR resolved this issue to prevent deposit hold reauthorization failures with OpenEdge.

Show Note Preview When Hovering Over Notes Column Icon on Contacts Grid. When the Contacts grid Notes column icons were hovered upon, previews did not display the first 200 characters of the note as expected. Additionally, when clicked, they incorrectly redirected to the Conversation view instead of the guests' note. We fixed this bug to display the Contacts grid Notes column icon previews correctly when hovered upon, and when clicked, they are correctly redirected to the guests' note.

Track Airbnb Bookings That Come in as Request to Book Due to Rule Violations. Following the Channel Booking Mode February 26th release, OwnerRez realized that we recognized the need to accurately track bookings passed to OwnerRez as Request to Book (RTB) due to rule violations for channel-integrated Airbnb properties configured as Instant Book mode. OR resolved this issue, and the correct Booking Mode is now displayed as "Request To Book (listing was Instant Book mode, so this is a request for a rules override)" on the Booking > Overview > General Info section if RTB bookings passed to OwnerRez are due to rule violations for any channel-integrated Airbnb properties configured as Instant Book mode.

Update Worldline Branding to "Bambora (Worldline)." Since the payment processor Worldline has rebranded to Bambora (Worldline), OwnerRez has updated the logo.

Unified Inbox:

• Load New Inbox Messages When Scrolling on Mobile. Older Unified Inbox messages were not loading correctly on mobile devices. We fixed this bug to ensure that older messages are correctly loaded and displayed on mobile devices.

Use Selected Theme When Populating Template Headers and Footers. Some template header and footer themes selected were not correctly populated as expected. OR resolved this issue so that the selected themes are correctly populated.

April 9th Release With 16 Bug Fixes

Add Ability to Delay Good Reviews and Clarify When Auto Reviews Don't Apply. Users were prevented from postponing positive reviews, and the language displayed indicating when automatic reviews do not apply was unclear. We fixed this bug so that users will be able to delay positive reviews and clarified the language displayed indicating when automatic reviews do not apply.

Allow Top-level Domains Longer Than 5 Characters in Hosted Website Header Email Address Link. This edge case occurred when a user's hosted website header email address link had a top-level domain longer than 5 characters, resulting in errors. OR resolved this issue by now allowing top-level domains longer than five characters in hosted website header email address links.

Fix Ability to Move Bookings Across Airbnb Mutually Blocked Properties. Following the March 19th Moving Bookings Between Mutually Blocked Properties release, it became evident that moving bookings across mutually blocked properties did not work correctly for Airbnb bookings. We corrected this glitch to ensure that Airbnb bookings can be moved across mutually blocked properties correctly.

Fix Booking Statistics Report Not Retaining the Settings. The Booking Statistics report failed to retain consistent results based on Arrival or Booked Dates. OR resolved this bug, and the Booking Statistics report will run and display the results correctly.

Fix Custom Fields for Deposit and Payment Dates to Align With Property Timezone. Deposit and payment date custom fields failed to properly display dates on templates in alignment with the property timezone. We corrected this issue so that the deposit and payment date custom fields will display dates correctly in templates.

Fix Error When User Removes Lock From Property Mapping. Some users encountered errors when attempting to remove Schlage locks from property mapping. OR resolved this glitch to ensure that users can remove Schlage locks from property mapping correctly.

Fix Link to Last Text Message Sent for a Booking Under Booking > Messages. Clicking on the link for the last SMS or text message on the Booking > Messages page resulted in errors. We fixed this bug, and users will be able to click on the link for the last SMS or text message on the Booking > Messages page correctly.

Fix Location Rendering of Date Picker Dropdown on Hosted Website Templates. The hosted website Mountain template dropdown calendar selection was displayed too far away from the Arrival or Departure fields. OR resolved this issue, and the dropdown calendar selection is now displayed appropriately to the Arrival or Departure fields on the hosted website Mountain template.

Fix Navigating Back in Browser to a Page in a Grid Should Return to the Correct Page. When attempting to return to a previous page of a table/grid (e.g., bookings, inquiries, quotes, etc.), the browser incorrectly returned users to the first page of the table/grid. We corrected this glitch to ensure that navigating to previous pages of a table/grid will navigate correctly.

Fix Not Sending Notifications When Receiving Vrbo Inquiries Without Text. Vrbo inquiries without additional information or text (only dates and/or guests) failed to send notifications to users. OR resolved this issue to ensure that Vrbo inquiry notifications are always sent to users, regardless of whether additional information or text is included.

Fix Padding on Communication History. The margin spacing or padding on the Communication History page was incorrect. We fixed this bug, and the padding on the Communication History page was corrected. 

Fix QuickBooks Customer Creation and Update to Prevent Duplicates. QuickBooks integrated users noticed that some guests with the same first name were created as duplicates in QuickBooks. OR corrected this glitch so that guests with the same first name are not created as duplicates in QuickBooks.

Fix Typo in Limited Cancellation Policy in Airbnb Channel Integration Dropdown. We fixed the typo within the Limited Cancellation Policy shown in the Airbnb channel integration dropdown list.

Fix Update CVV Button When Editing Billing Info. The Update Card Verification Value (CVV) button for entering your 3 or 4-digit security code to update account billing information was not functioning properly. OR resolved this issue to ensure that users can update their account billing information correctly.

Photos Downloads From SMS Should Include File Extension. Photos downloaded from SMS messages sometimes failed to include file extensions (e.g., jpeg, jpg, png, etc.). We fixed this bug so that photos downloaded from any message thread will include file extensions.

Polish Amenity Editor Checkboxes and Icons. Following up on our January 22nd Amenities release, we decided to further optimize and enhance the selection of property amenities for easier checkbox and icon selections.

April 16th Release With 14 Bug Fixes

Display Security Deposit Status on Single Record View. Expired security deposits showed the incorrect status of "Reserved" on the individual Booking > Transactions > specific security deposit Status. We resolved this issue so that the security deposit Status is correctly displayed.

Display User-friendly Error Message While Attempting to Purchase Travel Insurance From an Unsupported Location. Unhelpful error messages appeared for guests residing outside covered locations when they attempted to purchase travel insurance. OR corrected this glitch to display more user-friendly error messages to guests residing outside covered locations when they attempt to purchase travel insurance.

Fix Airbnb Messages Being Sent From the Wrong Host Account (Co-host Instead of Host). Some users who enabled Airbnb co-hosting encountered issues with messages incorrectly displaying as if they were sent from the co-host instead of the host. We fixed this bug to ensure that messages display the sender correctly.

Fix Airbnb Resolution Payout Currency Parsing. Some Airbnb resolution deposits encountered currency parsing issues. OR corrected this glitch to better handle Airbnb resolution deposit currency parsing.

Fix Applicable Nights Not Working With Per Stay Tax on Google Vacation Rentals. Taxes configured for the first Initial Night/s of a Booking Only are not supported by Google Vacation Rentals (GVR), resulting in GVR sync errors. However, that limitation was not included in the Listing Quality Analyzer (LQA). We resolved this issue to include this tax limitation in the LQA for potential GVR channel-integrated properties.

Fix Issue With Booking Widget Using Incorrect Theme Header and Footer. This edge case occurred when a user's booking widget used and displayed an incorrect theme header and footer. OR fixed this bug to ensure that booking widgets use and display the correct theme header and footer.

Fix Issue With Scheduled Security Deposit Processing. This edge case occurred when a scheduled security deposit collection date failed to update after a booking was changed. We resolved this issue to be sure that scheduled security deposit collection dates are updated after a booking is changed.

Fix Line Item Pivot Report Total Commissionable Amount Being Short of the Tax Amount. Despite the Total Tax Amount already being deducted in non-commissionable expenses, it was incorrectly deducted again from the Total Commissionable Amount in the Line Item Pivot Report. OR fixed this bug to ensure that the Line Item Pivot Report calculates correctly.

Fix Property API v2 to Return Correct Room ID for Booking.com Bookings. The OwnerRez Property API v2 failed to return the correct room_id field necessary for Booking.com bookings. We resolved this glitch by correcting the Property API v2 to return the correct room_id field necessary for Booking.com bookings.

Fix Stripe Payment Methods From Being Disabled When Updated. Some Stripe payment methods were inadvertently disabled when users attempted to update them. We corrected this glitch so that Stripe payment methods can be updated correctly.

Fix Surcharge Dates Condition While Pushing it to Channels. Some surcharge date conditions were not processing the logic correctly when pushed to listing channels. OR fixed this bug to ensure that surcharge date conditions are processing the logic correctly when pushed to listing channels. 

Fix to Cancel Channel-managed Bookings on Property Disable. Some channel-managed bookings were not correctly canceled when a property was disabled. We resolved this issue, and channel-managed bookings will be canceled when the property is disabled.

Fix Triggers Grid From Showing Duplicate Records if There are Multiple Conditions With Same Type. The Triggers grid incorrectly displayed duplicate records for triggers that contained multiple conditions of the same type. OR corrected this glitch so that the Triggers grid displays triggers correctly.

Fix Vrbo Channel Bridge Tax and Fee Discrepancies. This edge case occurred when a Channel Bridge (CB) export contained duplicate tax values, which caused tax and fee discrepancies. We fixed this bug to ensure that the CB process handles tax and fees correctly

Fix UI Issues for Inbox, Contact Info & www Site Menu. Some small User Interface (UI) issues continued to exist in the Unified Inbox, Contact Info section, and the public www website menu, which we resolved with our April 16th release.

April 23rd Release With 13 Bug Fixes

Fix Ability to Change Contact Tags From Conversation Sidebar. The link for changing tags on the guest conversation's left sidebar did not successfully open the Change Tags pop-up window. OR fixed the link for changing tags on the guest conversation's left sidebar, and it will successfully open the Change Tags pop-up window.

Fix Announcements Read More/Dismiss Buttons Not Working From Some Pages. When clicked, the Read More or Dismiss button of some in-app global announcements did not open the pop-up correctly. We corrected this glitch to ensure that all Read More or Dismiss buttons of in-app global announcements open the pop-up correctly.

Fix Color Selector on Widgets. We encountered a regression that impacted the color selectors of hosted website widgets. OR resolved the issue so that the color selectors for hosted website widgets function correctly.

Fix Guest Instructions Spacing on View Page. There were no spaces between the Check Out Tasks list task words on the Guest Instructions page. We fixed this bug by including spaces between the Check Out Tasks list task words on the Guest Instructions page.

Fix Mergeability of Channel Guests With Non-Channel Guests. Even though the guest contact info was identical, the system prevented merging a channel guest with a non-channel guest. OR corrected this glitch so that channel and non-channel guests can be merged.

Fix Missing Anchor Button When Editing a Hosted Website. The Anchor button was missing from the hosted website editor. We resolved this issue so that the Anchor button is available on the hosted website editor.

Fix Sign-in With Google Not Following Redirect. After users logged out completely, OwnerRez links did not redirect correctly to a link entered following a Google sign-in. OR corrected this glitch to redirect users correctly following Google sign-ins.

Fix Tax Rate Being Rounded to 2 Decimal Places From 4 Decimal Places. Properties configured with four decimal percentage tax rates experienced incorrect rounding to two decimals for bookings or quotes, leading to inaccurate tax rate calculations. We fixed this bug to ensure that tax rates are calculated correctly.

Fix Validation of Advanced Notice When Creating a Quote Via APIv2. Some partner listing channel quotes incorrectly encountered "minimum advanced notice not met" errors. OR corrected the API v2 by ensuring advanced notice validations when creating quotes via API v2.

Fix Various Bugs Surrounding New Team Access Staff Limited Access Permissions. Following the April 16th Limited Staff Team Access release, OwnerRez encountered a code regression that, among other things, prevented Full Admin Access Staff Team members from filtering bookings. We resolved these issues to ensure that the Full Admin Access Staff Team members have all granted functions.

Unified Inbox:

• Fix Inbox Thread Not Auto-Refreshing on Incoming Message. The Unified Inbox did not automatically refresh upon the arrival of new message threads. OR corrected this glitch to ensure that Unified Inbox automatically refreshes upon the arrival of new message threads.
• Fix Sending of Airbnb Message With an Attachment to Not Lose Accompanying Message. Unified Inbox Airbnb messages with attachments experienced a loss of message text, while the attachment remained visible after sending. We resolved this issue to display the Unified Inbox Airbnb messages with attachments correctly after sending.
• Show Only Guest Name on Airbnb Thread if Participating Instead of Listing All Names From Hosting Team. OwnerRez users with hosting teams experienced all team members being displayed in the Inbox Airbnb messaging threads, leading to confusion. OR fixed this bug to display only guest names in the Inbox Airbnb messaging threads for OwnerRez users with hosting teams.

April 30th Release With 13 Bug Fixes

Allow Disabling a Property That has Already Been Disconnected on Booking.com. This edge case occurred when a user encountered errors when attempting to disable a property already disconnected from the Booking.com (BDC) channel integration. We corrected this glitch to ensure that properties can be disabled without errors.

Better Leverage Guest and Property Validation During Booking Creation Via API. Properties and bookings created purely for testing during a partner OwnerRez API v2 integration process could not be deleted correctly. OR resolved this issue by enhancing guest and property validation for bookings created through the OwnerRez API v2, allowing properties and bookings to be deleted.

Clean Up Overlap and Alignment Issues on Hosted Site Hero Unit Page. When adding custom photos to hosted website hero units, the photo layout experienced overlap and alignment issues. We fixed this bug, so custom photos added to the hosted website hero units are displayed correctly.

Don't Resend Notifications for the Same Channel Message. Notifications were resent for the same channel message because the system incorrectly detected a change, possibly due to an emoji reaction or a message deleted by the guest, which OwnerRez does not currently support. OR resolved this issue, and channel message notifications will not be resent for the same channel message.

Fix Duplicate VAT Fee Record for Airbnb Bookings. Some duplicate Airbnb value-added taxes (VAT) were incorrectly recorded in OwnerRez bookings. We corrected this glitch, and Airbnb VAT records will be added correctly.

Fix Error When Syncing Vrbo New Listing Discount. Some Vrbo errors caused an OwnerRez error during the synchronization of new Vrbo listing discounts. OR fixed this bug so that Vrbo errors do not trigger OwnerRez errors during synchronization of new Vrbo listing discounts.

Fix Hosted Website Amenities Icon Display. Some amenity icons were not correctly displayed on hosted websites with four or more properties. We resolved this issue, so all hosted website amenity icons are displayed correctly.

Fix "Looking for delete?" Link on Rates Calendar. The Rates Calendar "Looking for delete?" link was incorrect and has been updated with the correct URL.

Remove Incorrect Date Verbiage From {BTRAVINS} Field Code. The language rendered and displayed in the {BTRAVINS} travel insurance field code contained incorrect dates. OR corrected this glitch to ensure the {BTRAVINS} travel insurance field code renders and displays correct dates.

Shorten Secdep Renewal Before Expiration. Some security deposit renewals occurred 36 hours before the credit card hold expired, which was frustrating for guests with 5-day security deposit holds or shorter. We resolved this issue so that security deposit renewals run 2 hours before expiration and exclude security deposits scheduled to be released within the next 26 hours.

Show Indication of Disabled Listing Site on Booking Overview Tab. The bookings overview tabs did not accurately display listing sites with the Disabled text if the listing site was disabled after the booking was made. OR fixed this bug, and disabled listing sites will be accurately displayed with the Disabled text if the listing site was disabled after the booking is made.

Show Sent Date in Inbox for Old Outbound Channel Messages. Some sent dates were not correctly displayed for older outbound channel messages. We resolved this glitch so that the sent date is displayed for older outbound channel messages.

Update bnbfinder to Savvy. bnbfinder has been renamed Savvy with a new logo, and both the name and logo have been updated in the app and Support Center.