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Thank you, Not confused at all. I had over 14 years of experience working in IT for a CC issuers LOL.

So i will wait till Lynnbrook becomes integrated (meaning not or little monthly fee) b4 considering switching. Not wanting monthly fees was the primary reason for choosing Stripe vs others.

I see what's going on. You're getting their special "Invoice" software rate that it shows on this page:

https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/5068-what-are-square-s-fees#pricing-for-software-products

If you weren't using the Invoice feature, it would be 3.5%. If the customer pays with a "card on file" for a particular invoice, it goes up (strangely) to 3.5% as well.

Generally speaking, "Keyed" means when anyone physically keys it in (you or the customer). There is typically no distinction between you keying it in and the customer keying it on their side. Industry wide, this is know as "card not present" because it's not physically being handed to the merchant for swiping.

I didn't realize that they had a different price for using their Invoice and Online Store tools.

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On the bookings that already paid, the future payments (or security deposit) would be taken on whatever the official credit card merchant account was at the time it is processed. So if you change merchant accounts, any new payments (even on old bookings) will be on the new merchant account.

That being said, we are careful to make sure that refunds and security deposit releases use the OLD merchant account - or specifically, the merchant account that they were originally linked to. This is necessary because the new merchant account won't be able to find the old transaction to refund or release. But our system handles all that for you under the covers.

Confused now? :-p

No, because it is not "keyed" . keyed is when renter gives ME their CC # and I key it in. Higher risk- higher price. When I generate invoice and send to renter, and they enter their CC on their end (I never handle the CC - lower risk) it is 2.9%
I understand using new merchant acct going forward for new bookings, but If I have bookings that already paid the deposit but balance is not due yet (deposit was paid via Stripe), will balance be changed via Stripe or the new merchant account?
I guess i will wait till your suggested merchant account processing gets integrated into OR.

thanks

Maybe you have a grandfathered in rate at Square? Here's the pricing page on their website:
Pricing page: https://squareup.com/pricing

To transition to another merchant account, you just go get the new merchant account set up and add it to OwnerRez in the settings area.

To add another merchant account payment method, go to Settings > Payment Methods > Add Payment Method and add it just like you did for Stripe. Change the "use on properties" field to check off the properties you want the new one to be used for and that's it. From then on, as guests accept quotes/make payments, it will use the new payment method instead of Stripe. That "Used on properties" field dictates which payment method is the official credit card one for the property.

You can add as many credit card payment methods as you want. We have PMs that have dozens of them so that the credit card transactions flow to different bank accounts depending on the property.

I do not know where you get 3.5% for square. it is 2.9% for non swiped non keyed (invoiced).

yes I mean for one off stuff. for example, my AirBnB or VRBO renter who already paid via VRBO or AIRBNB wants to add an extra night to their stay. I do not do that via AirBNB or VRBO, I just invoice them for extra night cost via Square. or sometimes I have VRBO renter who booked via VRBO and paid deposit via VRBO, and now wants to split balance payment 3 ways (between 3 families) - I send them 3 separate invoices for 1/3 of amount each via Square. Granted I do not need all that for bookings that are processed via OR because I can simply send them payment link and they can pay however they want. I have also used Square when there was some issue with VRBO payments and renter could not make their payment of balance - I just invoiced them via Square.

Situations like Renter forgot their jacket in my VR. they want it mailed back. My housekeeper charges shipping/handling to mail it back. I send invoice via Square to cover shipping/handling.

I do not think I process 5K worth of transactions consistently every month via OR ( I use stripe with OR).
Also, if I already have Stripe currently(and prescheduled payments for future rentals), how would I transition to other provider (Lynnbrook)for example?

@BlueMtnCabins:

Give Lynnbrook a call. Their rates should be way lower for you - like 2.3 to 2.5%. We are working on integrating their in-house gateway which should be free (or close to it) so your monthly would be nothing. However, at the moment, they will put you on Authorize.Net for $15/month I believe. When we get their in-house gateway added to OwenrRez, your monthly should be free. Either way, call and at least ask them. Great group over there.

Braintree and Stripe are both 2.9% with no monthlies. Not sure what level of invoicing you're needing but I know that they both handle recurring billing. So you can set up a payment schedule and request payment and that should be built in.

Square is charging you 3.5% which is quite a bit higher. If you can get that 2.5% rate from Lynnbrook, you're talking about a difference of $50 per month which more than covers whatever the gateway is monthly.

When you say invoicing and pre-scheduled, are you talking about outside of VR bookings? For vacation rental stuff, we provide an invoice (quote) for guests and do payment schedules - does that not work for your needs? I guess that's the thing that it comes down to ultimately since it dictates what all processor you can go with. If there's a invoice/software feature you're needing, let us know so we can kick it around on this side!

www.smoky-mountains-cabin.com

where can I find cheaper WITHOUT monthly fees? most want $20 monthly fee. I do not use typed or swiper, obviously, because I am remote to my vacation rental and all transaction take place via invoices.
I think their pricing is about the same as Stripe (2.9%) which I use via OR but stripe does not offer invoicing. I could not find anything cheaper, that has invoicing, prescheduled invoices AND ==does not== have monthly fees.
Monthly fees make no sense for me because there are some months when most or all of my bookings happen to be through VRBO or AirBnB for example, I would not be using my processor/gateway at all. Paying monthly fees makes sense if you consistently process large amounts thru gateway every month. My rental rates I guess are no that high to warrant monthly fees.

@BlueMtn: But it's expensive! 3.5% for typed in or 2.75% for in person... ouch. You should be getting a rate closer to 2% for in person. I agree that Square is easy and simple though. Square exploded in use awhile back because of that. PayPal tried to copy their mobile swipe reader but has't managed to catch up. Don't use them for online though - you'll pay way too much for that. Other groups will get you down around 2.5%. Another thing - better to pay a small monthly gateway fee ($15-20) and get a cheaper transaction rate then have no monthly fees. The difference in, say, 2.3% and 3% is dramatic when you process $5k or more per month. You're doubling or tripling that gateway fee

square does not integrate with OQ but is is good for standalone or one off transactions.

Square. Allows to preschedule invoices, produces beautiful receipts. Only works for US transactions. Deposits into your account within 3 days or so. NO MONTHLY FEES, no set up fees. You can get $1000 worth of processing for free https://squareup.com/i/66953894

Jamzseid, definitely go with Lynnbrook Group. Tell them you use OwnerRez. You'll never look back.

We suggest getting a merchant account. Fees should be lower than PayPal and you can do schedule credit card processing for second payments automatically rather than a manual process the guest must do with PayPal.

Do you already have a merchant account? If not, we recommend a company called Lynnbrook Group which is a purpose built credit card processor for vacation rentals. They are excellent and have great rates. Check them out here: http://www.lynnbrookgroup.com/

Hi,

can you suggest alternative to PayPal Payment processing


Thank you.

I was able to easily integrate OR widgets into my site.

www.wmvacationhomes.com

Thanks for the reply and example sites!

Not being a developer, I'm not sure what creative things can be done using the API and wanted to snoop around to get ideas.

My initial thought was filtering the response/wording on a generated quote. As I mentioned in my "feature request" thread, the quotes can look daunting and confusing to a customer.

Again, thanks for providing sites of different measures using OwnerRez. Love what your doing. Cheers

We don't have an example page yet, but that's a great idea. Here's a list with a few examples of various types of hosting, from custom coded, to ASP.NET, to WordPress, to Webchalet...

Large/property manager companies:
http://www.villasinjamaica.com
http://marbellaskol.com

Medium size operations:
http://www.riversideproperties.org
http://cardigancabins.com
http://galvestonbeachcondos.com

Small one or two properties:
http://www.marinasedge.com
http://eastforkfarm.net
http://www.natapoclodge.com
http://www.massanuttensprings.com

I believe those all use widgets right now. There were a few using API awhile ago, but as our widgets have become more powerful they've switched to widget mode.

Are you looking to do anything in particular with the widgets and/or API? I can make some recommendations or suggestions about what's possible. If you're looking for development, OwnerRez has resources for that or I may be able to recommend other developers that could help depending on what's needed.

Would love to see a thread or page that list's examples websites in which OwnerReservations has been implemented both using API and/or with widgets.

The page or thread could also have a list of developers who work with the API and want work. :))

Maybe that's already available and I've missed it?

Cheers

Hi Patrick,

Under the Settings menu, you can find Listing Sites. There, you are able to add new hosts, like Airbnb, so that you can track your bookings, quotes and inquiries from those sites.

You can also have your inquiries from other listing sites be sent to OwnerRez by following the instructions on the Inquiries page.

In terms of seamless of inquiries - flowing directly from those listing sites into OwnerRez - we are working on a tool that will do this for a wide variety of sites including walled gardens like Airbnb that restrict guest information.

-Michelle

i would love to see if i can other hosts in to this website like airbnb has it as well that would be sweet, if this can be done , i will pay you even more for your pricing , because that would solve all my problems .

I had been searching for few months , and i had bad luck every time i would ask everyone else for it .

Thanks! I guess it's actually bad news that everyone is low, since they'll be competing with me with their vacancies, but seems comforting that it isn't my property that now seems unappealing...

I'll spend some time and light up some more local ads and turn vacationhomerentals.com back on.

I feel like I should get more traffic from being pet-friendly. I see there's a site called "bringfido.com" with a free trial period, maybe that'll help. Time to get to work, I guess...

thanks,
-JJ

This listing site is pretty good for the money: VacationHomeRentals.com. They always send a bunch our way. I think this year is just a down year. All the VR owners I know aren't doing well this year. I'd also recommend getting on small regional websites. For instance, if you're in the Shenandoah Valley in VA, you could get on ShenandoahCabinRentals.com I've found that the small regional websites send quite a bit of traffic and can be cheap (or free!) to get on.

I filled up pretty well last year with vacationrentals.com listings and a little bit of Craigslist, mass emailing to old customers, and Facebook work. I have quite a few more summer gaps this year (even though Spring was better than last year), and vacationrentals.com inquiries are way down. I actually paid for a homeaway.com listing for my most expensive property, and that doesn't seem to be doing much, either. Anything working particularly well this year?

Hmm, it's possible that webchalet will change the format for you if you ask. They claim to offer flexible customer service, you'd have to ask them. Failing that, you could substitute their email forms for some other generic ones like what Wufoo offers. But that would also depend on webchalet being willing to allow you to embed HTML forms into their templates. I don't know if webchalet allows that or has rigid templates.

Thanks. I use webchalet so I can't modify my email (it is their template). Any other ideas?

Thanks for the feedback! I'm so glad we're able to make your management easier.

FYI - on the inquiry wizard screen, you can actually bypass that for emails that come from your personal website. We have a custom inquiry parsing format that you can use so that emails from your website can be turned directly into inquiries. You don't have to fill out the What Is This email screen for those.

This support article shows the format to follow:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/inquiry-parsing-for-custom-emails

I discovered some things this weekend that I didn't know existed but I love:

--Google calendar sync. Awesome. If u included phone number in the sync and enabled reminders I would get a notification on my phone when they arrive, open it and with 1 click call my guest and welcome them.

---Wizard for integrating queries from different sites. AWESOME. Now I have everything in one place.

--Refunds. Worked perfectly and sent a professional email confirming to guest

--Third party notifications. Cool and simple

Looking forward to new features!