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Integration with PriceLabs 35 replies

BlueMtnCabins
Nov 1, 2018 1:28 PM
Member for 9 years 1190 posts

Well the plus is that if I have no bookings via WH-managed site, I do not pay. Sounds like PL wants to pay whether I have bookings or not. I also did not understand whether paying for multiple channels pricing is extra on top of $49. Mine are year round, but at this point I do not think that my own pricing is so wrong that I absolutely need the pricing tool.

Integration with PriceLabs 35 replies

JTVRs
Oct 31, 2018 8:39 PM
Member for 7 years 385 posts

Depending on your monthly revenue, pricelabs can be cheaper or more expensive than wheelhouse. If you are seasonal, you can turn them off part of the year I think? It is fixed monthly.

3 properties 12 months a year would be you say $49 monthly? If they make 7500 monthly, that is similar to wheelhouse. Turn it off 5 months a year, it is much cheaper.

If you have property with high revenue, OK makes sense. If low revenue, WH makes sense.

To me, pricelabs and wheelhouse are the only two games in town.

Custom holidays have arrived! 4 replies

Ella
Oct 31, 2018 1:37 PM
Member for 11 years 139 posts

Hi there! Is there a way to disable a single holiday? I'm subscribed to u.s. holidays however, and have set three nights minimum for holidays. However, there are some holidays where I would prefer not to require three nights. For example this ucoming veterans Day. I also have a holiday fee added to my rate during holidays but for this holiday I would prefer not to apply that extra fee. Is there a way to set this?
Thank you for assisting
Ella

Integration with PriceLabs 35 replies

BlueMtnCabins
Oct 31, 2018 1:32 PM
Member for 9 years 1190 posts

I looked and they are way too expensive IMO. says $49 for 3 properties and I do not even know if that includes all channels + OR or ??? I I have used wheelhouse (good), beyondpricing (wild a..s guesses, don't like, will disconnect) for over a year. Wheelhouse charges .75% per booking, beyondpricing 1%. No bookings- nothing to pay, I like it that way.

being disappointed with beyondpricing (I used on VRBO, it just set lower than normal price for spring break, but sets some wildly high prices for other periods and they don't book), I think I will just use wheelhouse for trpadvisor (it never books anyhow) and go back to manual pricing like before. Just my 2 cents.

Integration with PriceLabs 35 replies

Chris Hynes
Oct 30, 2018 7:44 PM
OR Team Member Member for 13 years 1405 posts

It's per property + an extra dollar to push to two.

Integration with PriceLabs 35 replies

Sasquatch
Oct 30, 2018 7:30 PM
Member for 8 years 18 posts

Yes, I noticed that. I'm not sure if they charge per property, or per property pushed to a certain PMS/OTA. So I think for now while I'm trying them out I'll push to AirBNB only. Once OwnerRez can push to AirBNB and VRBO, I'll switch over to pushing to OR only and have OR push everywhere else.

Integration with PriceLabs 35 replies

Chris Hynes
Oct 30, 2018 7:26 PM
OR Team Member Member for 13 years 1405 posts

Yep, that's the gist. You can also actually push to Airbnb right now because PriceLabs can do that push for you: http://blog.pricelabs.co/feature-update-mapping-listings-between-channels/

Integration with PriceLabs 35 replies

Sasquatch
Oct 30, 2018 7:10 PM
Member for 8 years 18 posts

So, if I understand this correctly, I can use PriceLabs to update my OwnerRez pricing (provided I want to pay their fees), and then around the end of the year I can use OR to push those prices to AirBNB and VRBO, as long as I'm using the new channel integrations?

Introducing OwnerRez Channels 31 replies

Chris Hynes
Oct 26, 2018 6:49 AM
OR Team Member Member for 13 years 1405 posts

@BlueMtn: To sign up for Channels, go to the Billing section in the dropdown menu in the top-right. Hit "Change Premium Features" and turn on "Channel Management". We'll do a sweep of everybody that has channels enabled at the end of November and then apply the discount that way.

@Bennett: We're hard at work on knocking out those channels! VRBO should be in around the end of the year, with Airbnb to follow shortly.

@Maged: Thanks for the kind words! We spend a lot of time to try and simplify and standardize these channels... glad everything is working smoothly for you!

Integration with PriceLabs 35 replies

Chris Hynes
Oct 25, 2018 6:50 PM
OR Team Member Member for 13 years 1405 posts

We can currently push to booking and TA (although TA requires the 5+). We'll have a channel bridge based rate push for VRBO, Air, TA etc. around the end of the year.

Introducing OwnerRez Channels 31 replies

Maged B
Oct 25, 2018 2:14 PM
Member for 9 years 12 posts

That's great news. I love everything that Owner Rez has to offer. It always feels very turn key compared to other solutions and they know exactly what we need before we do ourselves. I've tested the Beta version of the Channel Management and it's already more polished than many of the"established" Channel Managers out there (I've tested a few).

Introducing OwnerRez Channels 31 replies

Bennett J
Oct 25, 2018 2:02 PM
Member for 7 years 1 post

Channel integration is great but with missing out on full integration with all the majors (ie VRBO and Airbnb) and the fact that this is new and not fully integrated, I'm going to wait. When you have full flawless integration with all the majors, I'll def be signing up.

Introducing OwnerRez Channels 31 replies

BlueMtnCabins
Oct 25, 2018 12:31 PM
Member for 9 years 1190 posts

saw announcement, but where is the "sign up" to have 1st year for a $1/mo?

Introducing OwnerRez Channels 31 replies

Daniel
Oct 25, 2018 11:54 AM
Member for 9 years 18 posts

Awesome! Than you!

Integration with PriceLabs 35 replies

BlueMtnCabins
Oct 25, 2018 9:50 AM
Member for 9 years 1190 posts

exciting, I have been using Wheelhouse (tripadvisor, Airbnb), and beyndPricing (VRBO). If I can use PriceLabs (provided that their fee is not too high) and then push Pricelabs driven pricing via channels to VRBO, TA, Booking etc , that would simplify life immensely! My observation lately beyodnPricing was wildly off the mark coming up with unrealistic prices. So I am hoping for better solution here :)

Integration with PriceLabs 35 replies

JTVRs
Oct 24, 2018 8:32 PM
Member for 7 years 385 posts

You're welcome *smile*

Don't forget to ask then to add OwnerReservations to their page. https://www.pricelabs.co/

It is a valuable Back link for you! Or any other dynamic pricer you use, usually have a list.

To others, PriceLabs has a good reputation. That is why I asked for them to be integrated.

Integration with PriceLabs 35 replies

Chris Hynes
Oct 24, 2018 8:16 PM
OR Team Member Member for 13 years 1405 posts

We're very excited to announce our integration with PriceLabs! We've been hard at work on features to support this integration -- like the new Spot Rates concept that lets you "paint on top" of seasonal rates to set rates for specific days.

To learn more and set up the integration, follow the instructions in our PriceLabs Integration Guide.

PriceLabs is a powerful revenue management & dynamic pricing solution for vacation and short-term rentals. A data-driven approach, automation rules, and customizations to manage pricing and minimum-stay restrictions help vacation rentals increase revenues and save them hours in the process.

The customization options layer on top of market data help you automate things like cascading minimum stays (e.g., lower min-stay as a date gets closer, reduce min-stay to fill gaps), last minute discounts, orphan gap discount/premiums while still giving you good control over your pricing strategy. Learn more in this short video demo!

Introducing OwnerRez Channels 31 replies

Paul W
Oct 16, 2018 10:24 AM
OR Team Member Member for 16 years 878 posts

Yes. TripAdvisor Rentals and FlipKey are the same thing now. If you have a listing on TA Rentals, it will show on FlipKey and their other family of sites. They merged all that a couple years ago and now it's the same account. Basically, you need to follow our instructions in contacting them and saying you want to be use OwnerRez as a channel manager and then TA will convert you over to a new type of account (your reviews will be preserved) and give you a new Account ID to use. After connecting the TA channel in OwnerRez, read the instructions tab.

Introducing OwnerRez Channels 31 replies

JTVRs
Oct 16, 2018 10:17 AM
Member for 7 years 385 posts

By "TripAdvisor", does that include Flipkey , etc?

Introducing OwnerRez Channels 31 replies

Paul W
Oct 16, 2018 9:57 AM
OR Team Member Member for 16 years 878 posts

We push all rules, rates and content for the listing. So the payment schedule (eg. 50% due up front, rest 45 days before arrival) is one of the things we push across. The TA channel settings in OR have some of these things broken out on the channel settings area. The rest come from the property data under the property menu. There are some channel-specific things (house rules, cancellation policy) that are unique to the channel, so those things are on the channel settings.

Introducing OwnerRez Channels 31 replies

BlueMtnCabins
Oct 16, 2018 9:54 AM
Member for 9 years 1190 posts

I am on pay per book with Tripadvsior, will it follow the settings set on OR or will Ta settings prevail (i.e per cent of down payment) etc.

Introducing OwnerRez Channels 31 replies

Paul W
Oct 16, 2018 9:36 AM
OR Team Member Member for 16 years 878 posts

Hi BlueMtnCabins,

We don't have a signup form. We'll be announcing additional channels directly. The direct channel integrations already in place are able to be connected if you have a channel (eg. Booking.com, CanadaStays, TripAdvisor) account in place. Go to Settings > Channels > Connect to get started. TripAdvisor is in active development right now and will be over the next couple months. Content/rate/availability/rule pushing is out and working. The booking part is in active development.

Introducing OwnerRez Channels 31 replies

JTVRs
Oct 13, 2018 6:19 PM
Member for 7 years 385 posts


>>>> The promise of being on "hundreds" of channels rings hollow. The key is to be on the big 5 or 10 channels in your area and the rest are a distraction. More channels means more work and more things that can go wrong -- even with a channel manager you still end up running around doing little one-off fixes. <<<<

I SO AGREE. A VR owner being on Booking.com, HA family, TA family, AirBnB... Is full usage of these not going to bring you 95+% of the bookings? I follow their forums some and the constant problems and complaints. Communications that were lost, misunderstanding, new features, double bookings, wrangling with CS over problems or reviews...

So trying to get 5% more bookings and the potential complexities/problems of 50 more little sites? If you are on BringFido, aren't they likely also to select the Pet friendly places on the major OTAs? Doesn't the LGBQT market really strongly use the major OTAs more than MisterBnB? You are already getting a lot of the specialty market in the big OTAs. Besides, some of those small sites (like BedAndBreakfast.com) will probably be absorbed anyway.

I would only really be interested in additional things like PPC type ads or Social Media campaigns that bring people to my site without introducing breakable functionality between me and the customer.

Introducing OwnerRez Channels 31 replies

BlueMtnCabins
Oct 12, 2018 3:20 PM
Member for 9 years 1190 posts

Where is sign up form?

Introducing OwnerRez Channels 31 replies

BlueMtnCabins
Oct 12, 2018 3:19 PM
Member for 9 years 1190 posts

sounds great

Introducing OwnerRez Channels 31 replies

Tim
Oct 11, 2018 8:16 PM
Member for 7 years 51 posts

Sounds great! I'll be waiting anxiously for the ability to push rates to AirBNB and VRBO

Introducing OwnerRez Channels 31 replies

Paul W
Oct 10, 2018 10:38 AM
OR Team Member Member for 16 years 878 posts

You may have wondered why it's been so quiet around here recently. We've been hard at work on a huge new feature: direct channel integration!

We've had two-way iCal sync and inquiry parsing for years, which provides the basic availability updates and inquiry quoting and auto response.

Direct channel integration has so much more potential: updating channels with rates, listing description, amenities, photos, receiving bookings with full financial and guest information, two way messaging with guests... and the list goes on from there.

In typical OwnerRez fashion, we evaluated the third party channel manager options and ended up developing our own direct channel sync engine which powers all of these integrations. There are four reasons we chose to build it ourselves instead of teaming up with a channel manager partner to save time:

  1. We directly control and are responsible for the integration with each channel. This means that we can deliver our trademark power and reliability rather than having to play telephone through a third party to get to the channel.
  2. Channel managers are EXPENSIVE! Some charge 3-5% of the gross booking total on top of the already large commissions that each channel charges. As vacation rental owners ourselves, we know how steep of a price that is. They justify it by saying, "just build it into your rates", but that means your booking volumes go down. Building direct integrations takes longer but lets us price on a simple per-property flat rate (see below).
  3. Many channels require a minimum of 5 properties to access any direct integration. For smaller folks, we've developed a channel bridge tool that links into the same channel sync engine but bypasses the 5 property limit.
  4. The promise of being on "hundreds" of channels rings hollow. The key is to be on the big 5 or 10 channels in your area and the rest are a distraction. More channels means more work and more things that can go wrong -- even with a channel manager you still end up running around doing little one-off fixes... and you end up being limited in pricing and policy decisions to what is supported by the lowest common denominator channel.

You've seen a lot of "coming soon" language on OwnerRez this year, and we recently centralized the direct and synced channels into a main Channels area. All of that is currently free while we're in beta. Synced channels (iCal and inquiry parsing) will always be included with the base OwnerRez subscription. As of 1 December, direct and channel bridge channel integrations will become a premium feature, which will cost $9.99/mo for the first two properties and $1/mo for each property after that.

Here's what the premium channels feature will include as of 1 December:

  • Booking.com rates and availability push and booking and credit card processing integration
  • TripAdvisor listing content (description, photos, amenities), rates and availability push, booking import, and inquiry import
  • CanadaStays listing content, rates and availability push and booking import
  • VRBO/HomeAway channel bridge booking download with full charges, payments, and guest contact info
  • Airbnb channel bridge booking download with full charges, payments, and guest info

As a bonus for our customers, whether you've new or have been with us for years (those of you around since 2009, thanks for making this all possible!) we're waving the $9.99 fee for the first year for anyone who signs up by 1 December. You'll just pay a flat $1/mo per property for premium channels until December 2019.

We've got great plans for more channels and more channel related feature throughout the rest of the year and into 2019.

As vacation rental owners ourselves we're salivating over the possiblities and can't wait to get all of this stuff done! The current roadmap starts with booking.com content push, then into VRBO/HomeAway and Airbnb content push (both via channel bridge for everyone and direct integrations for 5+ property users). After that we'll branch out into additional channels like Expedia and Agoda, and then fully integrate seamless messaging through all sources (channel direct, SMS, email, phone, etc).

OwnerRez co-sponsoring the Santa Cruz Vacation Rental Bootcamp by VR Mastered 0 replies

Paul W
Sep 4, 2018 10:29 AM
OR Team Member Member for 16 years 878 posts

Santa Cruz Vacation Rental Bootcamp

Don't miss this OwnerRez-sponsored opportunity!

Our friends Tyann Marcink and Alanna Schroeder teach the VR Mastered #vacationrentalbootcamp only once a year. This year it is in Santa Cruz, California in October.

Here's a little note from Tyann and Alanna:

Are you new?
Seasoned?
Uninspired?

Looking for a weekend getaway with like-minded individuals, or simply ready to make your short-term rental business soar?

It's time to level up your vacation rental and short-term rental business!

Join us in Santa Cruz this October for the highly anticipated exclusive #vacationrentalbootcamp.

5 days
4 experts
1 amazing location

When we say EXCLUSIVE, we mean it!

Seats are limited to 20 attendees so that each and every one of you gets valuable hands-on instruction that is not possible at large events.

Boot camp is learning AND doing, a laptop and your attention are required!

Boot camp is not for the complacent host, owner, or manager, satisfied right where they are.

Boot camp will stretch your limits of knowledge, inundating you with ideas, skills, and processes that will one day become second nature to your workflow.

We will cover:

  • Social media
  • Photography
  • Videography
  • Graphic design
  • Best practices
  • Workflow
  • Guest experience
  • Hospitality skills
  • Headlines and descriptions
  • Email newsletters
  • Facebook pages
  • Facebook ads
  • Instagram
  • And much more

The four experts are names you have seen everywhere:

  • Alanna Schroeder of The Distinguished Guest
  • Tyann Marcink of Marcink Designs (and The Bank Haus)
  • Conrad O'Connell of Build Up Bookings
  • Jessica Vozel of Guest Hook

See the full agenda on VRMastered.com

VR Mastered Santa Cruz

Dates:
October 4-8, 2018

Location:
Paradox Hotel
Santa Cruz, California

Price includes instruction, several meals, flash drive of templates and goodies, hands-on help, and more.

Does not include transportation, lodging, some meals, and the optional tour. We do have special pre-negotiated room rates for VR Mastered attendees at the host hotel.

Pack your flip flops and sunglasses - we will see you soon!

Alanna & Tyann
VR Mastered | #vacationrentalbootcamp
Follow on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

OwnerRez now supports 11 new payment gateways 3 replies

Glenn Moore
May 10, 2018 1:02 PM
Member for 13 years 80 posts

So... this might be a sensitive question ... but what is the consensus of the best gateway to use? Does anyone have any favorites? Right now I am using Sage (I think a long time ago when I joined Ownerrez I was able to use it free if I used Sage payments). if you go on their 'virtual terminal', it is pretty much that... a old terminal dump bolted onto a web page ... it seems like. I want to change my bank account that receives $ but the interface is so poor, there is no guidance on how to do that. I am wondering if there is a better gateway out there? Maybe one that has an interface that is not 1980's style? Anyone have any preferences?

OwnerRez now supports 11 new payment gateways 3 replies

Chris Hynes
May 10, 2018 11:51 AM
OR Team Member Member for 13 years 1405 posts

This post is pretty old -- we're up to 20 gateways now: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/payment-methods -- is yours any of those?

If not, which gateway is it? Sometimes a processor will support other gateways like Authorize.Net or eProcessing Network and/or they have different named gateways.