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We have 1, soon to be 2 large rentals in TX. We have Airbnb, VRBO and our own direct booking website (and recently added booking.com). With there not being a OR integration with TA, is it even worth listing there? Pricelabs doesn't have direct integration with them, so it doesn't even look like we can utilize our dynamic pricing - can just set our weeknight and weekend rate and then everything would have to be managed separately - hopefully there is at least an ical integration.
I haven't heard of anyone booking a vacation rental thru TA, but didn't want to rule it out if other have found it to generate stays.
Thank you,
Brooklyn
In two of our properties we offer only basic cable service (major networks, mostly) and advertise it on the listings. Those properties have all Smart TVs so guests can stream their entertainment by logging into their own streaming apps. My listings say:
"NOTE: This house includes a basic cable package. If you want to watch premium channels or services such as Netflix or Prime Video you will have to stream them on your mobile device."
My guest instructions packet & check-out instructions contain a reminder to the guest to sign out of all of their streaming accounts before they leave.
So glad code can now be seen without opening the message.
As far as I am concerned, this has just been a nuisance.
You can see a video about integrating with Houfy here:
https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/channel-management-api-integrations-houfy-setup-connecting
Houfy is mainly self-directed and self-promoted, by you. It functions as a free website. Houfy does not market their site, promoting the site is up to you. Some host are successful with Houfy bookings.
ABnB is getting thin these days in our area. I'm looking at Houfy and would like to see how others have experienced using their platform.
Do you have any tips on integrating them with Owner Rez? I searched the site and really found nothing.
The Whimstay team is still working on the integration. It should be before year-end at the latest, but probably sooner than that.
Do you know when you expect Whimstay to be connected?
Has anyone left Hostaway to go to Owner Rez? The inbox with OR is a big issue. Impossible to keep track of guest communication. The calendar display on Hostaway and so much for information like blocked times pricing for all properties in one spot, plus Google Vacations. Just curious if there were other reason why people left Hostaway?
Hello Caleb, I read the article and still found it difficult to understand how it really works or how it can be integrated into each other's website. However, thanks for the tips from a colleague. Because of my location it's really not going to be worthwhile for me.
Hi,
First and foremost we have an article on this subject here that I recommend giving a read, let us know if you have any questions about any specific points:
https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/property-sharing
That being said, I also reached out to a colleague who has a property or two in a share for any personal advice they may have and this is what they had to say:
"You should only join a share that is specific to their area and their kind of rental property. we also had a requirement in our share that you had to have a link in your OwnerRez website to the property share to encourage everybody to be cross referencing everybody else."
~Caleb
Hi everyone, I would really like to know how people are using the Property Share feature to get more exposure. I am really quite confused about how it works, so if someone can show me, I would be super grateful!
Unfortunate, but, they aren't talking to us either.
As far as Channel Bridge, it has never fully supported Trip Advisor, but as far as I know, its existing functionality has not changed.
Another fail when contacting customer support. They are not doing new API connections right now.
Alas no - we've tried to reach out to them and not had any useful light shed, and as far as I'm aware, no other clients have succeeded in implementing a net-new API connection.
Would chanel bridge be an option in a situation like this? I've never used the chanel bridge and, if I remember correctly, it is no longer being supported by OR.
My latest email from TripAdvisor....
"Thanks for your email about the calendar synchronization.
I understand how important it is for you to know how the calendar sync and ICAL works. Please be assured, I am here to help you. As per your question that how often the ICAL is synced, the calendar syncs are processed every 20 minutes, so bookings may not appear in their calendar instantly.
To update your calendar, simply follow these steps:
Go to Calendar
Select the first and last dates of the period you want to change
Mark the dates as either available or unavailable
Click Save to confirm your changes
As you wanted to know if you can integrate the Ownerez as a channel manager. Please be advised that we no longer support integrating new channel manager except ITrip.
You can also sync your calendar with other calendars that use iCal technology by clicking on Sync settings on the bottom of the page. Find out more
If you need any further help, take a look at our help section or just reply to this email."
L
I shared the below in both the "Say No to Vrbo Service Fee" and "Unofficial OwnerRez Support" Facebook Groups.
I'm just not sure how many "points" an average user accumulates (or will accumulate) from their use of hotels.com, Expedia, and/or Vrbo. In 20+ years of business and leisure travel I've used only 2 of those brands and only twice... twice! Thousands of nights in hotels, multiple hundreds of flight segments, years worth of car rentals.... only used them twice! I think the program is going to struggle to bring the value to guests... and value is what drives loyalty.
Expedia will be converting profit into cash when loyalty points are redeemed, so a point won't go very far. Just like with any other loyalty program there are blackout dates, or sometimes a franchisee of the brand opts out of accepting the cash (converted from points) amount which is dictated by the program.
I'm not necessarily predicting failure of the program, but I don't think it will be lighting up the sky anytime soon so I don't think those of us who are software connected will be missing out on much.
By way of an update, we have spoken to our Vrbo friends, and received the following clarifications:
A guest can earn OneKey credit on any North American listing, API or not. But, OneKey credits earned can only be redeemed on platform (non-API) properties.
So in other words, the existence of OneKey does not harm the appeal of your API-connected properties - guests will still earn their OneKey credits when they stay with you. They just can’t redeem those credits on an API-connected property yet, though that is planned for the future.
Alas no - we've tried to reach out to them and not had any useful light shed, and as far as I'm aware, no other clients have succeeded in implementing a net-new API connection.
Any updates on this?
Your observations are correct, depending on how you use Turno.
If you are just using it to communicate with your own cleaners, then, yes, Turno has no control or financial involvement with them or your business. As with any other employee, contractor, or vendor you might use, you're in complete control and charge of making sure they actually do the work assigned.
However, I believe Turno also has a vendor marketplace. If you use those resources, there are extra fees, commissions, etc. to Turno, but, I think in exchange, they do have some sort of involvement for guarantees of some kind. You'd need to reach out to them for the details of course.
I took a spin through Turno, giving cleaners in the area where our beach condo is a chance to bid and become part of a cleaning "team" for our unit. Interesting concept ... it's like Uber for cleaners. But there seems to be an inherent risk that I'm not sure Turno has a solution for. If I'm missing something, let me know.
Let's say you post a project for a departure clean on July 30, and your primary team member picks it up. If for some reason they have to cancel closer to the date, and no backups pick up the project, it seems you'd be stuck. Turno confirmed to me in a chat that seeing as they are not an employer, they have no authority to guarantee a clean.
Another scenario ... if your primary has exhausted their resources during peak season and all your backups pass as well, what would you do? I guess that's the one thing about having a dedicated cleaner ... it's their responsibility to ensure they get the unit cleaned, or it's on them to try and make it right.
Again, did I overlook something in the process? Thanks!
Very sharp site @Nick F
We use OR Widgets and plugins in our WordPress site, www.Haustay.com.
www.hostfolio.co uses OR's WP plug-in and other custom WP apps.
I created my website for one property using OwnerRez: taketothelake.com
I see. Thanks for that explanation. Makes sense.
I know you guys are doing your best!
While we generally do try to answer tickets from oldest to newest, that's not a hard-and-fast rule, because, since we're growing the team and they are all at various different stages of knowledge, "newbies" are instructed to skip tickets they don't know how to handle, or ask for help when available, and continue moving down the list until they find one they do. The more experienced people come behind to deal with the more complex ones, but naturally that takes more time.
For that reason, it is quite possible for a newer ticket to be answered before an older one, if for whatever reason whoever happened to be reading them could handle the one but not the other, or, needed to ask for help on the harder one.
Thanks, Ken. I suspected it had to do with as you describe.
I do wonder, however, why I got a reply (but not answer resolving the question) to a ticket I created yesterday afternoon, but not to my previous ticket created morning on the day before.
The reason is very simple: we are getting more than 5x as much ticket traffic as we did back when it was just me, and, the other folks on the team are not yet as experienced and fast as I am. On the other hand, they (intentionally) lean towards longer, more thorough replies, which naturally take longer.
Basically - we're growing the team as fast as we can, and also training and learning as quickly as possible, but the growth of the business is such that it is difficult to keep up.
Our objective is to answer all initial inquiries within a few hours, but as you rightly note, we are not currently meeting that standard. Of course, Monday will always be by far the worst day for this, because we have to dig out from whatever's come in over the weekend. We are working towards providing fuller weekend support, and ultimately 24/7, but that'll be a bit yet I expect.
