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7 ways to promote your vacation rental 16 replies

Villa Serenity
Feb 28, 2017 8:45 AM
Joined Feb, 2017 3 posts

Discounts are appearing as surcharge in the detail field. Is there a way to change this.

Cavel

Year calendar widget released 2 replies

BlueMtnCabins
Feb 27, 2017 12:42 PM
Joined Jun, 2016 1185 posts

Love it, already included in the site!

Year calendar widget released 2 replies

Melissa P
Feb 26, 2017 5:34 PM
Joined Feb, 2017 5 posts

Just want to say "thank you"! The 12 month calendar looks amazing!

7 ways to promote your vacation rental 16 replies

Michelle J
Feb 26, 2017 1:22 PM
OR Team Member Joined Jan, 2011 582 posts

Hi Cavel,

Open a property in OwnerRez, click the Rules tab on the left and then change the rules. There's a rule for "Minimum Nights" and "Minimum Nights During Holidays".

You can also set it on the season which will override what is on the property. To do that go to Setting > Seasons.

-Michelle

PS. You may want to send us a ticket using the Contact Us or by emailing help@ownerreservations.com so that you're answered quickly. Sometimes, forum posts can sit for a day or two.

7 ways to promote your vacation rental 16 replies

Villa Serenity
Feb 26, 2017 1:18 PM
Joined Feb, 2017 3 posts

Hi,

I am trying to add required number of nights can you point me in the right direction.

Thanks

Cavel

Year calendar widget released 2 replies

Chris Hynes
Feb 23, 2017 8:17 PM
OR Team Member Joined Oct, 2012 1404 posts

Hot on the heels of the rates widget, we have released another highly requested widget. Meet the 12 month calendar/year calendar widget:

You can add this to your account in the Settings > Widgets section, by clicking Create Widget and selecting Year Calendar Widget.

We're now up to four different calendar widgets. Here's a refresher on the other three...

Month Calendar

Three Month Calendar

Ribbon Calendar

We've also got several other announcements queued for later this week and next week, so keep your eyes peeled!

Rates, tables everywhere! 8 replies

Chris Hynes
Feb 19, 2017 5:14 PM
OR Team Member Joined Oct, 2012 1404 posts

:-D

Quick Quote enhancements, event triggers, trigger criteria, Blocked-Off Time messages, 'available property' field codes & more 11 replies

Chris Hynes
Feb 19, 2017 5:11 PM
OR Team Member Joined Oct, 2012 1404 posts

Yep! We've got a lot of stuff on the drawing board for triggers. There's so much promise there by adding some additional logic that can let you automate a lot of that manual scheduling.

We'll keep everybody posted as we progress throughout the year.

Quick Quote enhancements, event triggers, trigger criteria, Blocked-Off Time messages, 'available property' field codes & more 11 replies

Glenn Moore
Feb 19, 2017 10:31 AM
Joined Nov, 2012 80 posts

"Triggers now have a new criteria section where you can select adjacent night criteria"

This will be highly useful for me as I like to send a reminder to guests to regarding back to back reservations - either upon arrival so that they know cleaning will not be done until the official check-in AND/OR upon departure so that they know it is critical for cleaning to get in to turn around the house as soon as possible for the next guests. During busy season I have a lot of back-to-backs and I still get a lot of guests asking if they can come early or stay late - I am usually ok with it unless there is a back-to-back situation.

Right now, I have different emails with three different messages depending on the circumstance.
Back to back on check-in - letting them know that cleaning will be in the house right until the official check-in time
Back to back on check-out - letting them know it is critical to be out of the house by checkout time so that cleaning can enter asap
Back to back on both - indicating that both check in and check out are very important on this particular stay

If the trigger was slightly enhanced to also have the option to look at adjacent bookings "before" OR "after" OR "both" OR 'either" then I could fully automate my messages ;-)

Glenn

Rates, tables everywhere! 8 replies

BlueMtnCabins
Feb 18, 2017 6:33 PM
Joined Jun, 2016 1185 posts

still need to do the 2nd property, but this was easy

Rates, tables everywhere! 8 replies

ShenRent
Feb 18, 2017 4:21 PM
Joined Dec, 2009 59 posts

Awesome! Love the turnaround

Rates, tables everywhere! 8 replies

BlueMtnCabins
Feb 18, 2017 1:40 PM
Joined Jun, 2016 1185 posts

Here is is http://smoky-mountains-cabin.com/rates-appalachian-escape

Rates, tables everywhere! 8 replies

BlueMtnCabins
Feb 18, 2017 12:48 PM
Joined Jun, 2016 1185 posts

Yessssss! let me try it out!

Rates, tables everywhere! 8 replies

Chris Hynes
Feb 18, 2017 12:35 PM
OR Team Member Joined Oct, 2012 1404 posts

Folks have been asking for a rates widget for a long, long time. Now it is finally here. Go into Settings > Widgets (under the Integrations section). Click "Create Widget" and pick "Rates (Single Property)" at the bottom of the menu. Voila:

This is based on rates we added in other locations during the last release. First, we added rates (and other rollup info based on your listing data) inside each property on the info page:

We also added a rates table to hosted websites:


Initially, this shows rates only -- no surcharges, taxes, addons etc. We will be adding those in future.

If there's anything else you'd like to see in the rates widget, let us know!

Create quotes (or check rates) quickly right from the ribbon! 4 replies

Michelle J
Feb 15, 2017 7:46 AM
OR Team Member Joined Jan, 2011 582 posts

Hi Jeanna, It is not yet available on the guest side. We will announce that when it becomes available.

7 ways to promote your vacation rental 16 replies

BlueMtnCabins
Feb 14, 2017 9:44 AM
Joined Jun, 2016 1185 posts

Google told me that vacation rentals cannot be listed.

7 ways to promote your vacation rental 16 replies

Jane G
Feb 13, 2017 7:22 AM
Joined Feb, 2017 1 post

Thank you for this list. Very helpful for landlords.

I would like add that no matter where property owner decides to advertise the vacancy, they need to include high-quality photos listing. Good pictures of property are essential if landlord wants to find applicants fast. Bad photos will diminish interest in even the greatest of properties.

I read a lot of articles concerning making good pictures of the property. I like this one very much https://rentberry.com/blog/real-estate-photography-tips. It has tips from professional photographer, who has a great beginner advice on taking photos of homes. The topic also contains information about equipment property owners need to have in order to make great photos.

Quick Quote enhancements, event triggers, trigger criteria, Blocked-Off Time messages, 'available property' field codes & more 11 replies

Groome Vacation
Feb 12, 2017 8:55 PM
Joined Feb, 2017 9 posts

wil the quick quote be available on guest end soon?

Create quotes (or check rates) quickly right from the ribbon! 4 replies

Groome Vacation
Feb 11, 2017 12:48 PM
Joined Feb, 2017 9 posts

i really want this hover over option for guest end. is it available yet? I am doing a trial now so its all new to me

Add-Ons are here! (Also known as "Optional Surcharges") 6 replies

Ella
Feb 2, 2017 12:01 PM
Joined May, 2014 139 posts

Awesome!!!! :)

Add-Ons are here! (Also known as "Optional Surcharges") 6 replies

Sam Westcott
Feb 2, 2017 11:55 AM
OR Team Member Joined Dec, 2009 240 posts

Hey everyone, been awhile since we've chatted!  We've been pushing out release after release, working with users on quality-of-life enhancements all over the app, as well as continuing to develop some of our big upcoming changes.  However, I wanted to take a quick second to show something that a lot of users have asked for: Add-Ons (sometimes called "optional surcharges").  This is something you're going to want to take a look at.

Let's get right to the fun part of it, and then I'll back up and show how the linkage works under the hood.

Imagine that you've sent a quote to a guest (or they came through your Book Now widget on your website).  You want them to be able to "add on" some optional thing - pool heat, linen service, flowers, whatever.  Now you can.  Here's a live quote I just created:

(click images for full-size view)

Next to each of those Add-Ons, you can place a "What is this?" link.  When clicked, the Add-On expands to show a large rich-text explanation.

In the following picture, I've just clicked "What is this?" link next to the Bounce House Add-On.

Not only can you include a rich-text explanation with picture and formatting, but you can also insert field codes.

Field codes allow you to merge in information about your account or property so that the Add-On explanation is customized to talk about the current property the guest is looking at.

Notice the property name "Acme Retreat" in this explanation.  That's coming from a field code which changes the output based on which quote the guest is looking at.

Pretty cool, right?  I know!

Now how does this thing work?

At the moment, we've placed Add-Ons in the Surcharges area and used an "Optional" flag on the Surcharge to denote that it's an Add-On.  We will be creating a separate settings area for Add-Ons soon, but for now it lives as an "Optional" Surcharge.

So head over to Settings > Surcharges and create a new Surcharge.  Set the Applied field to Optional.  You'll notice an Explanation field appear with a rich-text editor.  The Explanation field is optional.  If you don't enter anything, the "What is this?" link won't be shown to guests.

Some items are self explanatory and don't require an explanation.  Others, like pricier options, should get an explanation with pictures and formatting so that you can draw the guest in.

Use the Property criteria to decide which properties get the Add-On, and that's pretty much it.  At the moment, the Seasons and Bookings criteria do not affect Add-Ons.  Only the Property criteria determines whether the Add-On will be displayed.

Charge Linkage

There's another important part of this, and that's how surcharges are now linked to charges.  Previously, there was no strict linkage between surcharges and charges.  When a surcharge was entered into a quote or booking's charges, only the description and amount were entered.  There was no way of knowing which bookings had which surcharges.

We've changed that.  Surcharges are now similar to Taxes in that you can see them in the charges grid directly, select the one you want and it creates linkage that can be reported on later.

If all that sounds confusing, take a look at this picture.  Notice that instead of just "Surcharge" in the drop-down, you can now see a specific list of surcharges.

When saving a surcharge, the charges grid now makes sure that the row is linked, under the covers, with your list of surcharges.

Why is this important?  This might sound like just a bunch of technical mumbo-jumbo, but it's actually quite important.  As we continue iterating on Add-Ons, and other charge types, it's important that you know which bookings have paid for which surcharges.  Reporting and fulfillment will require it.  Imagine if there was no way of knowing "how many guests have rented bounce houses this month?".  It would also mean no way of triggering off that logic.  If a guest rents a bounce house, you might want a special trigger email sent to your staff so that they know to get it ready.

Happy February, everyone!

Email addresses are no longer required 12 replies

BlueMtnCabins
Jan 20, 2017 1:38 PM
Joined Jun, 2016 1185 posts

I was able to create quote and email saved yesterday. So maybe it has gone away.

Email addresses are no longer required 12 replies

Sam Westcott
Jan 20, 2017 1:35 PM
OR Team Member Joined Dec, 2009 240 posts

@BlueMtnCabins: have you seen this happen since then? Can't reproduce that on this side. Wondering if it was type of email address maybe? ~Sam

Email addresses are no longer required 12 replies

BlueMtnCabins
Jan 19, 2017 4:57 PM
Joined Jun, 2016 1185 posts

I created a manual quote, and entered person's email, and clicked the box However system did not seem to have saved the email. I had to open saved quote, edit info, and add email again.

Email addresses are no longer required 12 replies

Chris Hynes
Jan 13, 2017 2:47 PM
OR Team Member Joined Oct, 2012 1404 posts

To set up communication between FlipKey and AirBnb, or more precisely calendar sharing, the best way is to set up calendar imports for both (https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/calendar-import) and then calendar exports to update their calendars (https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/ical-availability-calendar-listing-sites).

That way, your OwnerRez calendar becomes the central calendar and the others are updated automatically from it.

Email addresses are no longer required 12 replies

Chris Hynes
Jan 13, 2017 1:46 PM
OR Team Member Joined Oct, 2012 1404 posts

There should be a cc option in there, if you're looking in the Contact settings section. If you look at our support article for inquiry import, it walks you through: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/inquiry-import#flipkey

Does that help?

Email addresses are no longer required 12 replies

Diane F
Jan 13, 2017 1:15 PM
Joined Jan, 2017 1 post

Hello--I am new to this only because calendar sync between Airbnb and Flipkay was dropped, and this is the only way to re establish the syncing feature...I was given a new email from OwnerRez, but I do not see where FlipKey allows another email, besides my primary email..I am only given the option to change my email, which I do not wish to do..I am not especially tekkie, as I am older and basically like to keep things simple,anyone else experience this with Flipkey?

Hey, did you know that we...? 7 replies

Jackie N
Jan 9, 2017 12:50 PM
Joined Sep, 2016 13 posts

Sorry I wasn't' specific but you answered it! I'm learning the ins and outs of OwnerRez very by "trial and error" but all is good!

Jackie

Hey, did you know that we...? 7 replies

Michelle J
Jan 9, 2017 12:14 PM
OR Team Member Joined Jan, 2011 582 posts

Hi Jackie,

I'm not entirely sure what you mean when you say "does this work for" since this post covered a lot of different topics.

However, you can definitely select smaller down payments than 50%. You can set it to be $100 or $250 flat just as you described.

To do that for ONE PERSON ONLY, open their quote and click the Billing tab and set their 1st payment to that. This will ensure that it only affects their quote only. From that point forward, it will show what you set when they got to accept or on their booking information and emails.

To set it that way for everyone, you have to change it on the property rules. Then all new quotes from that point forward will have that 1st payment amount set.

Does that make sense?

Hey, did you know that we...? 7 replies

Jackie N
Jan 9, 2017 11:44 AM
Joined Sep, 2016 13 posts

Does this work for an initial payment that is less than 50%? I often allow guests who book far in advance to make a small initial down payment ($100-250) to hold the dates, then they make their bigger payment at some later point. I tried this with a guest this weekend but she said it wouldn't allow her to enter the $250, it only gave her the option to make the 50% payment.

Perhaps my guest did something wrong or misunderstood? Or did I need to modify something in her reservation?

Thanks,
Jackie Noble
noblebeachhomes@outlook.com