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Thank you.
I see that I can text my guests but what I meant was SMS notifications. When a message comes in (a message from a guest, an inquiry, a booking, anything) on Airbnb & VRBO, I get a text on my phone to alert me that there's something to go check.
Does OwnerRez have this?
I'm brand new here. So far I've found that I have to go into the OR website & then to CRM and then Inbox, there I can see messages. This means that if someone can't get into their house (door code issue or whatever) they would be stuck outside waiting until I happen to check for messages. I need a notification when something comes in. Does OR provide an SMS notification that something new arrived into the Inbox?
Thank You!

Thank you.
I see that I can text my guests but what I meant was SMS notifications. When a message comes in (a message from a guest, an inquiry, a booking, anything) on Airbnb & VRBO, I get a text on my phone to alert me that there's something to go check.
Does OwnerRez have this?
I'm brand new here. So far I've found that I have to go into the OR website & then to CRM and then Inbox, there I can see messages. This means that if someone can't get into their house (door code issue or whatever) they would be stuck outside waiting until I happen to check for messages. I need a notification when something comes in. Does OR provide an SMS notification that something new arrived into the Inbox?
Thank You!

We've had SMS for quite some time now actually:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/sms-messaging-setup-usage-video

In 2018 you said sms notifications are coming soon. Do we have this yet? Can you tell me where to find it?
Thank You!

Got some weird things happening with airbnb conversations.

We have some airbnb bookings where when you click on the conversations tab it shows nothing. However ownerrez has got those messages in the CRM inbox, but appears to have created 2 guest files for one person.

So you see say...
'Joe'
then another record for
'Joe Bloggs'

The booking is in Joe Bloggs name but it doesn't realise that the 'Joe' guest is the same person and hasn't attributed those messages/conversations the booking.

But this is only for some bookings and not all.

After doing some digging there seems to be a common theme, in that all have had the booking changed in some way. Either we have manually changed the check-in or check-out time (in ownerrez). Or the financials have changed, say we have changed the price (which we have done in airbnb portal, not ownerrez) but this appears to have put these bookings in 'manual financial mode'.

Interestingly I did wonder if merging the guest records would work, but when I tried that it comes up with "Please correct the errors below. Can't merge guests from different Airbnb channels"... Yet we don't have different airbnb channels!

ALSO!

On one of these bookings it has got odd financials in that it is showing 2 future payouts from airbnb, which effectively means the it looks like the guest is going to be pay nearly twice for the same booking.
i.e. on the booking overview on the Guest Balance it shows
Total Charged: £1,825.00
Total Paid: £3512.03
Total Refunded: £0.00
Total Owed: -£1687.03

Then down the bottom under activity it says
Jul 31, 21 - Collected a payment of £1,825.00 from a credit card, processed elsewhere.
Jul 31, 21 - Collected a payment of £1,687.03 from a credit card, processed elsewhere.

Really can't get my head around what is going on and why

Doesn't look like it no. It's a pretty long list but doesn't have that. We get the list from Airbnb, so, you could maybe suggest it to them to add. :-)

Looking for A frame. Anything like that?

For Airbnb, yes - they are options under Type in Properties > Amenities.

Try Giftup.com easy to integrate. Seems like a great idea but in reality no one really buys them despite heavy promotion. With thes guys it's easy to set up and PAYG so no real loss if it doesn't get used.

Is there a 'flag' for Unique properties for AirBNB or VRBO.

This should probably be moved to the Feature Request forum and made into a feature request.

I like the idea and would vote for it. Although I probably wouldn't sell gift cards, I might donate them to charities on occasion, and it would also be a great option to handle guest changes/cancellations when you don't want to refund charges back to their card but you are willing to give them credit towards a future stay.

Yep! Certified by Vrbo and live!

Has this feature been released yet?

Hi John, all of the items you listed would normally display on the widget when your listing details are complete. Since they are not showing in your test case, I'm guessing your listing details are incomplete. I can take a look at your specific account details if you send in a ticket to our support desk (help@ownerreservations.com).

The "Sorted Featured" select is the default external display order which you configure on your property list at https://app.ownerrez.com/properties/order#tab-external This allows you to "feature" specific properties you want near the top of your results. You can specify a different initial sorting method (alphabetical or random) on the widget options.

OwnerRez supports quite a few different payment processors. They all have their own underwriting standards, so if you are not satisfied with the terms you are receiving from one, you are free to seek out a better deal elsewhere, and you can easily change your OwnerRez account to use that new processor account once you've got it.

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/payment-processing-gateways-recommended

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/payment-processing-gateways-changing

We have had a number of requests recently about gift cards. We had this a bit in the past and we would just create a unique discount code with a specific dollar amount. (It was not an elegant solution in any way and created a bunch of manual work.) We get a lot of requests from civic organizations, schools, etc... and would love to be able to give them a gift cards for specific amounts their auctions, promotions, etc.

If anyone is doing gift cards we would love to get an idea of what you are doing? Are you using a 3rd party processor (kind of like the Booking.com virtual card concept)? Are you doing something in Owner Rez?

Inquiring minds would like to know.

Using the Wordpress Plugin, I created a Search Widget, executed it on a page and it found one property. The following link will take you to the information that was returned. I have a few issues....

http://vacationrentalsatfloridabeaches.com/content/SearchWidgetResultsReturned.jpg

As you can see the Search Widget didn't return much information about the property. In fact, the information the widget is returning will not be very impressive to someone looking for a vacation rental. How can I tell the widget to return more information? I did create a separate Page for this property and the results did include a link to the Page.

I want the Search Widget to return more information such as:
1. What the cost is for staying at this property for the specified time period
2. A photo of the property. This is very important. Without it why would they take the time to get the details?
3. etc...

Basically is there any flexibility in what information the Search Widget will return? I know clicking on the link will bring the visitor to a page dedicated to this property but it needs to show more information initially.

What is that "Sorted Feature" button for that is being returned?

The guests field in the Search Widget shows that it is a down arrow but there is nothing there. No way to enter the number of guests. How can I make this field an enterable one?

Thank you in advance for your help.

John Pizzolato

Thanks Joel for your input and suggestions. I'll work on putting together this approach.

Hi John,

The plugin is for rendering static property content on your WordPress site. It does not have support for searching, availability, or booking. To do those dynamic types of things, you will need to use widgets.

The recommended approach for what you want to do is:

1. Setup a page for each property on your site. Each property needs a unique page. On each page you can use the plugin shortcodes to display information about the property which is pulled out of your OwnerRez data, and widgets to display availability to booking / inquiry forms.
2. Set the unique URL for each property in OwnerRez. Each property should have a URL that points to its page on your WordPress site.
3. Setup a search page on your site and add a search widget from OwnerRez. Visitors to your site can then use the search page and widget to find available properties. When they click on a property it will open the unique page for that property on your site, where they can complete their booking or inquiry.

For a complete list of widgets see: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/widgets

Shortcodes start with "[ownerrez type=", and should also have an "id=" before the closing "]" to identify the property you want to display. For a complete list shortcode types see: https://github.com/ownerrez/orez-wp#shortcodes Also, you can view some example shortcodes for any particular property here: https://app.ownerrez.com/settings/externalsites#tab-code

Note that there are some shortcodes that are called "widgets" but these are different than the OwnerRez widgets. The shortcode widgets are simply complex bits of HTML which render larger blocks such as picture slideshows or amenity lists. The naming is confusing, so we'll probably change that in a future release.

Hey all,

I currently use Stripe, which has a 14 day hold time on all funds before disbursement. I want to add a second and third processing company so that I can get payouts directly in to those accounts, instead of it all going in to one account then me manually having to split them up.

My question is, what hold times do you guys have with your CC processors? Has anyone successfully negotiated a shorter hold time?

There doesn't seem to be too much documentation on the Wordpress Plugin. I just installed and activated the Plugin on the site. I thought it would be simple and straightforward to use but, I have to truthfully say it is all a bit overwhelming the way the documentation is presented.

The website will have multiple properties on it for several vacation destinations. The first thing a visitor should see when they come to the site is a search box where they will enter their destination, check in date, check out date and number of guests (just like you see on VRBO and Airbnb)

The Plugin should return all properties that meet that criteria. Just like VRBO and Airbnb does.

Then the visitor needs to be able to select a property where they will see all the information that goes with that property, such as the price, security deposit, if pets are accepted, etc...

I want to start with that. Can anyone tell me how I would go about using the Plugin this way? How do I even invoke the plugin? I can't seem to find any documentation on the Plugin other than how to install and activate it on the website.

Any help would be appreciated.

That seems wrong - can you write in to the Helpdesk with a specific example we can investigate?

Also, with the VRBO API, since the booking always shows pending, even on the guest side, after it's been booked, I'm assuming they can never leave a review?

Unfortunately, no, this is a known clunky bit and limitation of the Vrbo API:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/channel-management-api-integrations-vrbo

We're actively pursuing a better solution with Vrbo, but it's complicated and may be awhile.

I'm finding the whole VRBO API a bit awkward. I'm wondering what the best way is to send a "special offer", much like AirBnb, when someone has sent just an inquiry via VRBO. Right now, I am having them send in an actual request to book, then I can send them back an updated quote. I think that's a little weird for the guest, because it looks to them as if they are booking at the higher price than negotiated. Is there an easier way?

Our process is to send the guest check-in instructions 10 days before their arrival date as long as the booking is paid in full, a rental agreement is signed & we have an ID on file.

Currently I'm sending a manual email when the guest's final payment is received (45 days in advance of arrival) letting them know that their check-in instructions will be emailed on "this date" (10 days before the arrival date).

I'd like to automate that email confirmation but I would prefer it to have the specific date in the email instead of just saying "10 days before your arrival date".

Is it possible to create a Custom field for Arrival date + 10 days?

And, you'll probably want to set up Manual door locks.

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/integration-manual-door-locks

easy. You schedule a trigger to be sent X days before check in at Y hour.

Hi all -

I couldn't find an answer to this exact question in the forum. I'd like to pre schedule a manual email (with unique door code) to be sent for the check in message. Is there a way to do this?

My ideal is to set up the unique door code earlier and then have the email scheduled to go at a specified time.

At this point I'm not interested in paying for RemoteLock or anything like that, I can set the code myself but would like to have the email go at a scheduled time.

Thank you!
Kate

Please submit this question to the Helpdesk, and we'll look into your specific account to see what's going on.