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Sure. What's the iCal URL you are using?
Hi Chris,
I just did this for my property at 202 Dunes. I just booked August 29--Sept 3, and when I attempted to import got an error message. There is not another booking there, can you please check this out and let me know whats going on?
Thanks!
Susan
We've always supported exporting calendars to listing sites via iCal. We've received a lot of recent requests to be able to do the opposite -- import bookings/blocked off time from other listing sites via iCal. Today, we released an update that adds two way sync support!
To set this up, you'll need to set up calendar import and export in each property. Export is already covered in our Hook up iCal availability calendars to update listing sites article.
For calendar import, go to the property Calendar Import section and add a calendar import using the iCal feed from your listing site, like VRBO, HomeAway, AirBNB, etc:
When you create the import for the first time, it'll do an initial pull of items from the calendar, then automatically update every few hours. You can view the last status in the log under the calendar import.
Currently, only AirBNB provides enough information in their iCal feeds for us to create bookings. If you want bookings with guest info and charges from other sites, you'll need to add that information by hand. For other feeds, go into the blocked off time and use the new "Convert to Booking" button to convert the block off to a booking.
If you have any ideas or find iCal feeds that we don't support, let us know and we'll look into it.
Yes, this is an option on the standard Book Now/Inquiry widget.
Create a new Book Now/Inquiry widget. When you go to change the settings on the widget, look for the "Show Property Selector" checkbox under the Fields section (up near the top). If you enable that option on the widget, it'll turn on the property dropdown like I show in my example.
Chris, in your example here I see you have Quote/book widget for multi-property with the drop down. I do not see an option to create a multi-property quote/book widget among my widget options (only multi property calendar) . Does this feature still exist? Thank you
Oh, great point! I sort of glossed over that part in the post didn't I. You can create widgets in your OwnerRez account under Settings > Widgets.
Here's an article with more about widgets: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/widgets
Great news! Cant wait for the hosted website. Let me know if you want a beta tester!
Where would I find the widget HTML from OwnerRez?
Thanks!
Excellent write up! Just note that tabs are not visible in Mobile, but thunderpenny provided a mobile link which you can post for your mobile Facebook page visitors.
Want to add your OwnerRez widgets to your Facebook page? We've had several requests for this, but we don't have our own Facebook app yet. Now you can, courtesy of the Thunderpenny Static Html app. One of our sharp-eyed users turned me on to this method -- Victoria over at Smoky Mountains Vacation Cabins.
This technique doesn't require an OwnerRez Facebook app, but instead lets you embed your vacation rental calendar and book now widgets from OwnerRez into Facebook directly.
Here's what to do. First, go to https://www.facebook.com/StaticHtmlThunderpenny/. That's where the Static Html app is hosted. To install it, hit the Use App button. Select the app for your property or company.
Once you've got the tab set up on your Facebook Page, copy/paste the widget HTML from OwnerRez. If you have existing widgets, you can use them, or create a new one just for Facebook under Settings > Widgets in your OwnerRez account. If you want to learn more about OwnerRez widgets, check out our widget how-to article.
If you know HTML, you can add some descriptive text surrounding the widget. Something like:
Preview the widget. If it looks good, publish it and you'll be ready to go:
A couple of recommendations:
This is AWESOME! Nice job.
We released an update earlier today that was mostly about Property Management stuff, but we slipped in a couple things for emailing that will make your life a lot easier. We have a lot of changes coming for guest communication - responding to inquiries, dealing with guest responses, capturing a timeline/thread of everything - but we wanted to fix a problem that has been frustrating users for awhile.
You can now quickly switch to a different email template when sending an email. No matter what kind of email you're sending, you can tell the email editor to load in a different template.
How do I see it?
Go to any place in the system where you would send a guest email. Sending a quote, responding to an inquiry, sending the renter agreement to be signed, etc...
You'll now see a little "Switch to Template" selector at the top of the email form. If you open the selector, you'll see all system and custom templates that are available for the current record you're on. Upon selecting a different template, the email form will reload with that template loaded.
There are a variety of times when you need to email the guest but a specific event or automation point can't take care of it automatically. This ability to switch to, and prefill, a different template means you can take care of other ad hoc issues quickly right from the booking record.
No need to copy/paste information back and forth between OwnerRez and your email program for boilerplate issues anymore!
New "Send Email" buttons on the booking
As part of this, the other problem was that there was no simple "send email" form where you could just pull up the guest's booking and fire off something. Sending email in the system is always tied to a specific event.
We took care of that problem too. You'll now see buttons on the booking's overview page, yellow header bar and on the booking > email tab for "Email the Guest" which will open an email window where you can send ad hoc messages.
Our big conversation overhaul will also take care of these problems, but we wanted to slide in an update for this right now as we continue to work on the big picture items.
Good morning, everyone! You can now purchase damage protection for your bookings! A few days ago, we put out a first release and we've been working closely with several early users who have been testing it for us.
Turning on Damage Protection
To get started, go to Settings > Damage Protection. It should be self explanatory from there how to turn it on.
Please read the introduction information when turning on Damage Protection. It's important that you understand how it is applied. For instance, the guest does not optionally choose to buy Damage Protection. Damage Protection is something that is automatically applied to all of your bookings, once turned on.
Wondering how much it costs? Take a look a the turn-on page for Damage Protection for costs.
Applying Damage Protection to already-created bookings
Turning damage protection globally will not affect existing bookings. You'll need to go into your existing (ie. already-created) bookings and turn it on for the ones you want to have it. To do that open any booking and you'll see a new Damage Protection tab. You can pick the coverage level and apply.
Filing Claims
On any booking, you'll see the claim form under the Damage Protection tab. It's a PDF you fill out and email or fax in. We are already working on making that form electronic so that you can fill out a claim online.
Enjoy!
Waiting for updates :) all this sounds exciting!
@Ella: you're right. Ideally these would be triggers and you could set as many of them as you wanted (and when you wanted). I'm going to create a dev ticket for this, though no promises on ETA. ~Sam
It would be great if we could set up on our end WHEN the remainders are sent. For example, I don't want security deposit reminders sent 10, 5 and 1 day before it's due, to me that's too often. I would like them srnt 5 and 1 day before due date only.
Ella
You guys rock!
Yes, Nancy, it's optional. Our features are always optional. We don't force stuff on users - not our style!
Oh Boy! Great ideas. I hope the damage protection insurance thing is optional, though.
Can't wait for everything to roll out. Great job, you guys.
Keep up the great work, Sam and crew! Look forward to seeing these updates. Unlike when HomeAway makes changes. I cringe!
Hi everyone! Happy weekend!
I wanted to take a few minutes to mention several really big things coming to OwnerRez. Here's a really quick taste just to get you salivating!
Property Management
Oh yes. Just what you think it is. Want to use your excellent OwnerRez-backed booking process to help your friends and colleagues manage their properties? Soon you can. From tracking expenses to assigning commission to creating owner statements, property management is coming and it's awesome. First beta will be out in a few days, and we'll have more on that.
Accidental Damage Protection
We are in the final stages of finishing damage protection. Damage protection is just what it sounds like - an insurance policy that covers accidental guest damage which is purchased and applied to every booking automatically. You and the guest don't even need to do anything - it just happens in the background!
Hosted Sites
This project has been on the back burner for awhile, and we're going to be pushing out a first beta fairly soon. Basically, this is a feature that lets you host a website right from your OwnerRez account. Your property photos, amenities, rates, etc? Your OwnerRez website will use them directly so that you only need to change that information in one place.
Call Center
This is a super cool feature we've also been working on in the background for awhile. The first beta is already out in limited release with a few beta users. It will be released for everyone soon. Call Center is the ability for you to buy and use a phone number directly from OwnerRez to talk to guests. The possibilities here are really endless. At the moment, you can buy and provision a phone number, set some voicemail and forwarding settings and use the Dialer screen to make/receive calls through your computer. Tying this to guest information and inquiry logging will evolve over time.
Inquiry Conversation Overhaul
The inquiry answering/quoting process in OwnerRez is awkward and has been for awhile. Not only do you have to click around to much to send an answer, but there's no way track the back-and-forth conversation you have as the guest and you respond over time. We are going through a very large overhaul of the entire inquiry process to greatly simplify the process and centralize messaging.
I'll just leave this picture right here for anyone who's curious... (click on it for a bigger view)
When? WHEN can I have these things?
As with food, good software takes times to make. These things won't be out overnight, but they are coming very very soon and some of them are already out in limited released to some users as I write this. If you have early thoughts, please comment or send us an email!
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Hi Rebecca,
We do have plans for importing review data from listing sites. There was a negotiation for this directly with HomeAway awhile back, but it did not yield fruit. We have other ways though of retrieving the information. Rest assured, our plans for reviews will include bringing over that data so that it doesn't have to be double-entered by hand.
The first iteration is to have a simple collection and display update. Reviews would be collected from public listing sites automatically. And then there would be a basic widget for displaying on your own website with some filtering capability.
There is a lot that review data can add to your automation and reporting. It really needs to be centralized in one place.
-Michelle
My trial is also about to run out. Like so many other owners the VRBO/HomeAway changes have decimated our revenues. I'm thrilled with Owner Rez. I do have a couple of questions though:
1) I saw mention of Owner Rez in talks with VRBO to allow import of guest reviews. Is there any chance this will ever happen? We have great reviews and would love to be able to bring them over
2) Does Owner Rez have any plans to introduce a review widget. I am in the process of trying to enable reviews on my site and would love to be able to do it through owner res.
Like FirstData and the Payeezy gateway? OwnerRez now fully integrates with the FirstData/Payeezy gateway for credit card processing. All transaction types (payments, security deposits, refunds, voids) fully work.
Like the other credit card gateways we support, head over to Settings > Payment Methods to get started. Select "Add Payeezy" and then fill in the details.
We've written up a quick support article on how to find your API credentials for Payeezy. If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask.
Very interesting post for Intuit Quickbooks.
Have you ever noticed that your holiday settings and rules don't kick in right because someone left the day before a holiday? For instance, the guest books Memorial Day weekend but they depart on Sunday (not Monday) so OwnerRez doesn't think it's a holiday booking. You and I know that it is, but the software lets it go by.
You can now configure your holiday settings to stretch across weekends depending on which day the holiday falls on.
Go to Settings > Holidays and click the top Change button. You'll notice that a section for Friday and Monday has been added.
But notice the options available. You can now select this little guy:
To be clear, this does not mean that the guest will be charged multiple times for the same holiday. It's still just one holiday even if the booking hits on all four days.
Notice on your calendar, that the holiday now shows across the holiday.
We encourage users to set the "all weekend" option on all four day types: Fri, Sat, Sun and Mon. Holiday weekends always have a lot more demand than normal weekends. Anyone booking on those weekends should be subject to your holiday rules and fees, even if the guest leaves before the actual holiday.
Thanks for all the great feedback on our new QuickBooks Online integration.
This morning, we released another update that expands that integration by adding more options.
Guest Contact Info → Customer Contact Info
The single most resounding request was for Customer records in QuickBooks to have contact information such as phone number, email address and address information. We did that.
The QuickBooks customer now shows those items when the booking syncs across. Every time our sync runs, the system checks and updates the customer information. So if the email or phone number changes in OwnerRez, the customer record will update on the QuickBooks side as well.
Please note that only the default email address, default phone number and default address are sent to QuickBooks. If you have multiple emails or phone numbers, only the top one is sent across. If you have need of more than that, please contact us and let us know.
Location Tracking
Several users requested location tracking. While we already supported class tracking, QuickBooks also has department level tracking which is also called "location" tracking for some business types. This allows you to track invoices to a location or region, even if you're already tracking line items to classes.
To flip this on, go to your Settings > QuickBooks and adjust the settings to start tracking Locations.
You will need to use the "Refresh Account Info" button at the top of your settings to bring in your QuickBooks Locations since our system has never retrieved those in the past.
After you do that, the Location to Property mapping can be completed, where you will set a property to the specific location that you want its invoices to go to.
Multiple Currencies
We found working with non-US QuickBooks users that non-US accounts are different than US accounts. QuickBooks requires a wider array of currency settings for non-US accounts that can make multi-currency users a bit tricky.
If you have properties in different countries, where each property accepts a different form of currency, you can now configure your QuickBooks settings in OwnerRez to support that. Simply check the Multi-Currency option and then set each property to the currency you want it to use.
Please note that this will not change the currency for any other part of OwnerRez such as reporting, taxes or credit card payments. This currency setting is only used for QuickBooks syncing so that new customers and invoices are created in QuickBooks with the correct currency flagged.
Please continue sharing your problems or preferences with the QuickBooks integration feature. We have some other ideas already pending. As always, we prioritize new development based on user feedback.
On the 2nd part... there are several ways you can tell them about the security deposit ahead of time. You can use the email responses (either when responding to the inquiry or later sending the quote email). There are email templates you can amend to change the default messages that out for those responses. So, for instance, you could include a paragraph that warns them about the security deposit.
-Michelle
Nancy, the reminder emails (that this blog post talks about) is exactly for the situation you're talking about.
If no scheduled payment is entered, the system will send this reminder email WITH A LINK to the guest for payment. So no need to do anything on your part - the reminder email (if you have it turned on) will ask the guest at the appropriate time automatically.
Whether they pay by check or credit card depends on which payment methods you have configured. Go to Settings > Payment Methods and add credit card type (like the SecureNet one you mentioned) and a check type too. If you add a check payment method, guests will see information about where they should send checks to.
-Michelle
