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We are seriously considering quickbooks online integration. Wondering if anyone is using it that would be open to answering a few questions on setup? We have twenty properties that would each need to come over. I have setup questions.

Personally, I don't charge anything. If my unit can sleep 6, they can book up to 6. I do all my ROI calculations based on the number of nights I expect to rent the property out and the expected rate for those nights (e.g. for a hypothetical 2-bedroom condo in my market: $85 average for 120 nights of off-peak, $140 average for 100 nights of peak). My costs are figured as rounded-off averages per month (e.g. $150 for electric, $50 for water/sewer, $50 for supplies, etc.).

To me, my "cost" to support an extra person is effectively a rounding error. It might cost me 50 cents a day for them to shower. The dishwasher might use an extra 15 cents of electricity for adding a few more plates. Maybe I'll have to get another $50 set of sheets at Sam's Club in 5 months instead of 6. The amount is so trivial that I don't really care whether I have 2 people stay or 6 people stay; I'm just happy my place is occupied and I'm earning $330 on a 3-night stay. Maybe I lose $3 of that to the fact there were a couple extra people in the unit--but honestly, I'd rather earn the $330 than give that group an excuse to not book my unit and book someone else's instead because of the extra guest fee.

(One caveat: my housekeeping service charges me a flat fee per cleaning based on the size of the property. If I paid hourly, or by group size, and larger groups cost me more to clean, I would likely have a different view of this topic. It is true that larger groups do tend to make my housekeepers have to work a little longer, but so far they have absorbed the cost and have not indicated anything about raising rates. This arrangement is pretty standard in my market.)

Now, that said, I fully support the idea that you should charge what the market will bear. If the going rate in your area is $15 per person, charge it! No sense giving away free money. Or slightly undercut your competitors and advertise yourself as cheaper for large groups. But if your competitors don't charge for extra guests, I certainly wouldn't charge for extra guests, either. The cost is inconsequential and you don't want to lose business over it.

A lot of times, questions like these really are market-specific. For example, in my case, I haven't seen any widespread adoption of extra guest fees here in my market, so I couldn't get away with it even if I wanted to. And even though I've heard stories from other owners around the country about charging $100 pet fees or $25 per night pet fees, I can only get away with charging a flat $25 one-time charge because that's all everybody else in my market charges. I did try raising the pet fee once to see if I could get any extra revenue, and what I found is that my pet fee revenue dropped, indicating fewer guests with dogs were booking (and actually my overall occupancy rate dipped slightly, too, because the pet-friendly listing really helps me boost off-season bookings). It's thus probably better to study your own competitors rather than ask questions like this here, because we're not in your market. Or experiment and see what happens to occupancy and revenue--just consider probably _not_ making any major negative adjustments during COVID-19, because your numbers will be skewed by the very random data that the virus is introducing into travel patterns, and you also want to do whatever you can to make your property as attractive as possible to guests and stand out above your competitors.

I've had no issues and good customer service with Lynnbrook, but they don't refund the processing fee on a refunded transaction. (However, they also don't charge an extra fee on a refund, which I have seen some other processors do.)

If you're looking for one that will actually refund the fee on the original transaction if you refund it, that's not easy to do--but they do exist. Someone in another thread here on the OR forums recently mentioned specifically that, but I don't recall who it is. I didn't bother to look into it because I think my total loss on processing fees due to COVID cancellations was only around $50. (I'm now up to like 80% of my business through Airbnb, for better or for worse--well, actually clearly for the worse. :P)

Hey Everyone,

I just wondered if you have had a great experience with your credit card processor? I have been using a company that is now charging for refunds and that will impact business. I would love to hear of another great company.

Thanks

Lindsay

There's a good amount of discussion about this in various social media groups. A number of folks suggest you just figure out how often you have extra people and then calculate that into your base rate. Theory being it's easier on you, guests might lie if they know you're going to charge them more and/or they may not choose your place if they see you're adding more fees. But the beauty of this business is we all get to do it the way we want. :)

I charge $35/person/night for extra people. I have not gotten push back from it.

How much are you all charging per guest over X on your properties ? I'm going to experiment a bit. I'm starting with a base rate for 2 people then $ 8/head/night and see how that works covering my extra wear/tear/cleaning/etc....

Thanks Ken, this is definitely a crazy situation! We had added a new line in the negative so we were able to go back in there and see each one to bring out to a spreadsheet and send them that but there were a whole lot of them so that's why we were asking. Appreciate you guys! Stay well!

Alas - you can't. We didn't think of that before this all happened and now it's too late. :-(

You may be able to dig through your old emails and find the notifications that were sent to you when the bookings were made, which generally include the charges. You could collect all that information in an Excel spreadsheet.

You can also get a list of all your cancelled bookings so you know what to look for - go to the main Bookings screen, List view, and Filter by Booking Status - Cancelled.

We're thinking about what we may be able to do to preserve this information for the future, but that's not going to be much help to you right now I'm afraid.

When you manually do a cancellation, rather than removing the charge line, we recommend you instead add a new line, in the negative, for the same amount and charge type. That has the same accounting result - a balance of $0 - but still preserves the original charges.

Hi guys,
So now that we have this crazy situation and have had to cancel a lot of bookings, and remove all the charge line items so as not to have it show up on owner statements. How do we run a report that shows each owner how much lost revenue they have? We've looked under List View with cancellations ticked but the amount shows as $00 because we did back everything out. What's the easiest way to find what we need to give owners what they need for loss of revenue?

Any help appreciated...

Thanks!

A lot of folks use https://resortcleaning.com/ which is API integrated with OwnerRez so that bookings go over into ResortCleaning automatically.

Looking for input from this awesome group.....we just went live - switched from a PM system that had a way to track work orders (cleaning, inspections, and maintenance) and tie them to a reservation. What are others (PMs or owners with multiple properties) doing for track these task?

Adria! So glad you mentioned the changes with guest info from AirBnB. I am a newbie - only been at this since August. If you have time, could you give me the step-by-step on what you're doing since the changes? I am API integrated with AirBnB. (Not with VRBO because I only have 1 property.) THANK YOU!

Also - did you know there is a fairly new Facebook group called "Unofficial Ownerrez Support Group"? There's an Adria in the group, but don't know if that's you. :)

It is a steep learning curve. I definitely could not evaluate the value after the two week trial, there is just a lot to set up. But I love it now. I am going on two years and perpetually learning more about what it offered.

I say break it down into stages and master each one. For example, I began with calendar sync, I worked my way though all the syncing on the assorted sites I use for three listings. Once that was done, I then began to tackle correspondence, first the initial set up, then tinkering with the details until I got things just right for me. I absolutely love not having to send all my notes right when a booking happens and instead having missives timed to go out at the right times for guests so they are not inundated.

AirBnB just went to not allowing guest details so now I have to go to the personal step of logging in and manually setting up reservation contact info and manually sending my first couple of emails. I am so spoiled by having it be automatic the last couple of years that I am now jumping into API, I want it to run automatically. I want the guest from China who books at 3AM my time to get professional sounding correspondence immediately.

I've added e-locks with door codes and love that, too.

Each step, just one at a time, step by step, get it properly set up and only then do I move on to the next one.

The other change to my technique is that I set aside a time to work on my OR stuff (I have a real job), I open an email and as I go through my project I type up all my questions and when I am done for the evening, I send the email and know I will likely have my answers within 24 hours. Adjust your expectations to how it works with C/S and you will no longer feel impatient, but just change your routine and be less stressed.

great post, this kind of thing really helps others avoid issues !

Special items I didnt do when I did my API Integration and it cost me some $ on rentals that I am trying to recover after the fact from customers. Keep in mind almost all of your setting in Airbnb will be overwritten and if you dont have them set up in OR, they will not appear on the Airbnb platform, including surcharges, which is where I got caught off guard. Having said that, I thought I had read all the OR documents thoroughly.
1. Charge for extra guest per night. I had this only set up for OR bookings only and used the AIrbnb platform for this fee. Therefore when we switched there was no extra guest fee when several of our guest booked. FIX: In surcharges set sites to ALL. Easy enough, but this was not something that is specifically mentioned to do when preparing for the transition. No fault of OR, some folks may have already been pushing fees to Airbnb, but we were not, and only used the platform fee input fields, which all get overwritten.
2. Cleaning fee, same as above.
All in all we love the Airbnb API and appreciate all the hard work that had to of gone into this upgrade! Thanks OR Team.
Just want to give other OR users the heads up in case they have there system set up like ours.

If you're talking about a website template - the website has already applied it. It just doesn't look that great because you're missing a few things yet.

- Finish adding the data for your properties. I see you've got a couple in there already, you can import your listing descriptions and photos directly from Airbnb and HA/VRBO using the Import buttons on top of the Properties screen if they're listed there. That'll save you a ton of time, and the more you have complete, the better your website will look.

- If you have a company logo, add that to your account in your Profile, which is under the little arrow dropdown in the upper right corner of the screen. That'll appear on your website too.

- You can change some of the basic thematic elements of your website, like colors. Go to Settings > Hosted Website > click on your website > click the Edit Theme/Layout button.

- That same area also has a CSS tab. If you're good with CSS, you can customize quite a lot by examining the tags in your generated website and then putting CSS statements in that area. That's actual coding work though, so most people leave it alone.

Just signed up for the trial and want to use a turnkey template. Where do I see these and how do I edit and use for my properties. I have the hosted site turned on. Sorry, if the info is out there. Just need help locating in.

We hear ya, really we do... We're trying to ramp up our support, and we'd like to make it possible for you to pay for personal training and setup assistance beyond what our Concierge service offers. We just don't have the staff availability to do that quite yet.

Hang in there! The learning curve is SO FRUSTRATING, but the long term results are great. I only have 1 property. I am on AirBnB and VRBO and have an OwnerRez website. Take it one step at a time. Try to get the OR guys on the phone with you. I probably don't use the OR functions as well as I could. I do not let OR respond to inquiries or bookings because I like to do that myself through the ABB & VRBO messaging systems. I like to add something personal in my response rather than sending a generic response. Beyond that, I have 12 trigger emails that go out depending on the circumstances of each reservation. You should feel free to post any/all questions on here - no matter how trivial you think they are. We will all help!

I am right there with you Monica!!! I have sooooo many questions that could simply be answed if I could talk to support staff to walk me thru a few last items so I can actually start my free trial. I know in the end it will be good.... it's just getting there! I don't like talking thru problems and issues on email... need a real person and have called several times and left a message. Feeling completely overwhelmed.

Aletha, how long ago did you talk to Lynnwood? They are not longer saying that and are creating merchant accounts for all users regardless of volume. You may not save any money necessarily, but there are other advantages in going with them, as I wrote here:

https://www.ownerrez.com/forums/general-help/how-does-the-pricing-between-stripe-and-lynbrook-compare#62729

I'm curious if you talked to them awhile back or just recently?

I spoke with Lynnwood Group. They advised unless we'd be getting charges of 50K or more, it doesn't pencil to go with them. Since we only have one listing and expect to get only a small percentage of our guest on the Hosted Web-site what do you recommend? I'm considering PayPal, Stripe or Square. If Square is only for U.S. then that's out, it seems.

Look at the charges and payments on the booking. Even if the booking is cancelled, there still may be charges showing which will remit earnings to the owner (and commission to you the PM). There are legitimate use cases where cancelled bookings still collect revenue from the guest. Just because the booking is cancelled does not mean it will be dropped from PM. If you want all the money reversed, remove all the charge line items or add additional line items that negate what is there (ie. use negative amounts) so that th etotal balance is $0. Check the booking > PM tab to see the breakdown of charges, payments, etc that is being remitted to the owner and PM. As you adjust the booking's charges, those PM numbers will change.

I have a cancelled booking on my owner statement and its' paying the owner on the cancelled reservation? How do I remove?
The booking was entered in May and a cancellation was end of May but the refund went out in June. It was a direct booking.
Anyone ever have this issue?

It is also useful to learn how to identify fake service dogs. I watched a couple Youtubes on how to identify a fake service animal. Every VR owner should do that once. There is a huge difference between service animals and others. The 2 questions are one thing. Picking out fakes is another. My lease agreement also states that people with fake service animals can lose their booking without refund.

Hi, I am a happy OR user from SC, managing 14 properties at Isle of Palms and a couple elsewhere in the state.

I'm just taking a tour through these messages and spotted this.

We have pet friendly properties and used to get requests ALL. THE. TIME. for pet fee to be waived for a service animal. We finally put the note below at the bottom of our pet policy. We also have a policy for Service Animals that we provide to "remind" guests that their animal should never ever be left alone in the property, as well as the other typical things they forget. Haven't had a request to waive the fee since.

A NOTE REGARDING SERVICE ANIMALS AND EMOTIONAL SUPPORT OR THERAPY ANIMALS:

We welcome all Service Animals in all properties.   
While we recognize the value of emotional support animals and therapy dogs, according to the ADA laws, emotional support animals and therapy dogs are not considered SERVICE ANIMALS and therefore are not afforded the same rights as animals that are working dogs, trained to do a specific task to assist an individual with a disability.  If you have questions about SERVICE ANIMALS please see the Americans with Disabilities Act website:    https://www.ada.gov/regs2010/service_animal_qa.html.

Good catch, we will get those fixed.

Under Properties in Booking Area - errors

Under Sports & Adventure:
Ski Lift Privileges is there twice,Bay/Sound Fihising is misspelled.

Emma, thanks for reaching out about your product. However, OwnerRez does not currently integrate with Paycron so it would not be possible to use within OwnerRez as a payment processing alternative. If you are interested in integrating, please send an email to our ticket system with integration information and someone will take a look at it.