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clicking the children option on and off will effect the appearance. The pet option however doesn't do anything, nothing appears on the inquiry widget once selected. Anyone else getting this?

We use Quickbooks payments to collect rent via ACH and credit card payment. OwnerRez does not see these payments. It looks like I need to manually add all the payments I receive to OwnerRez. Also, every time I sync a booking, it turns off the payment options on the Quickbooks invoice. Am I missing something? Thanks!

Click Properties, General Info, click the word "Configure" which is to the right of "Security Deposit" in the top section called "General Info."

This just takes you to "Rules" - which is another way to get there. Click "Change" at the top, scroll down to 'security deposit' and you should be good to change as you like.

Please remind me how to change the security deposit for a property?

Yep, no worries. I just moved it from the Feature Request forum to General Help.

That is good to know. Is there a way to remove this suggestion

For anyone else reading this, just FYI - all changes to your OwnerRez properties, rates, etc are automatically synced to the channel after a period of time.

It depends on the channel how long that period is, and it depends on the content. For channels like Airbnb and TripAdvisor, changes are pushed across in near real time. Some things are done in 15 minute delays to catch multiple changes and avoid thrashing. Other channels like Vrbo have immediate updates for rates and availability, but photos can take half a day.

There is never a time, when changing something in OwnerRez, where manually pressing the Trigger Full Sync button is required or it won't go over. Everything goes over eventually, given enough time.

Provide ability to trigger a full sync for each property defined to a channel.

Reason: For instance, we have 26 properties, I modified a discount which violated some AIRBNB rule. After fixing the discount I had to manually click TRIGGER FULL SYNC for each of the 26 proprties

It would be fine to either merge the customers in QB if they have the same information, or at the very least, allow me to initiate the sync between OR and QB. That way, I can wait until the customer info is fully filled out (ie after the Channel Bridge update) before sending it to QB to create a new customer.

Thanks

Hi Dori,

Not really, no. 😟 I understand your process, and it makes sense that this would be creating new customer records in QB. By default, our system does not delete old customer records because we don't want to possibly delete a customer record that was used elsewhere. However, we could do some additional checking and add some cleanup. Thanks for the suggestion.

I am at the opposite end of the spectrum from PacViewLodging as I am only a ‘little guy’ who is now down to one property. However, I do have a great interest in home automation (for both personal home and my vacation property). I have a Vera Zwave device at the vacation rental that has been working for many years and it nicely controls all my lights, my pool, and the 5 separate outdoor locks.

As per the earlier part of this discussion, I did end up going with RL to manage one of my five locks on the property (the main door one) because of the OR integration with it. Yes, I would have liked all my outdoor locks to be managed, but RL has a crazy scheme (as mentioned by PacView) that charges per lock and it is $6 per lock. So, managing the main door is my tradeoff of $6/month vs $30/month. The convenience of the integration is work the $6/month for me even though I only have the one property.

The integration works the way that PacView says. During an OR booking the code is generated and sent to RL immediately. You can see the booking and code and dates on RL and you can also see that it has not yet downloaded the code to the lock. This is to avoid overloading the lock … which I believe mine has a 50 code limit from Vera… from being overloaded. At the 3-day mark, RL downloads the code to the lock. The integration from OR -> RL -> Vera is impressive. Any changes in OR (even in check-in times) are cascaded down to the lower systems almost immediately. Even if RL has updated Vera (within the three days) changes are cascaded down. If the Vera is down, RL keeps trying and will warn me up update failures. This works out well within my messaging strategy to my guests as I use the OR generated code at certain trigger points. I have little (or no) reason to ever change it.

As I said in another post, I would love to work with OR to develop its own API to update the lock through Vera. The API works flawlessly from RL so it certainly exists and works well. I am just not technical enough to understand it. I know because it is a lock you need to go through the Vera servers with authentication to update it and RL has certainly implemented that well. If OR had an API for Vera it would be nice to avoid the monthly fee to a third party. However, as I can imagine from OR’s perspective, it really depends on how many people have a Vera that controls their locks and if it is worth it.

Here is the link for RL pricing. At a minimum you have to have Premium to use the OR lock integration. Sorry this link doesn't show pricing unless you are logged in... Sorry Ignore or admin delete this post.

https://www.remotelock.com/edgestate-pricing

Chris I believe the way that the integration with RL works now (correct me if I am wrong - this has been a gray area for me) is that it will reach out to RL to create the code at the time of the booking creation - Doesn't RL have the booking information at this time? Also from a security standpoint it isn't a big deal because the reality is RL doesn't send it down to the door lock until a few days prior anyway. (Many of the locks have restrictions on the number of holding places for codes and if you send them all down to the lock it overlows the lock.)

As far as I'm aware, there isn't an option to only trigger the email/sms IF the lock code field is not empty. So yes it would be up to the individual to control their triggers and you would likely only need to have the data in the door locks a few days ahead of time. The best solution would be to generate the code at time of booking similar to what you do with BRIVO but hold off sending it to RL until X days prior to arrival - perhaps another triggered event to send the doorlock to the RL API for the booking when the conditions (triggers) are right. Not enough to make me go back to RL for their ZWAVE Integration with VERA. We are migrating all 30 properties to BRIVO after testing with them last week and VRScheduler is adding the door lock guest checkout code capability to their app as I type.

I use Channel Bridge with VRBO. When I get a new booking, an entry is made to OR to block my calendar. The entry uses only the first name of the customer. This syncs with my QuickBooks and creates a customer there with only a first name.

Later, back in OR, I download/upload the booking via Channel Bridge and the customer information gets filled in. This also syncs with my Quickbooks but instead of adding to the customer that was created already, it creates a new customer.

So I have a bunch of orphaned first-name-only customers in QB. Any way to avoid this?

TIA

That's an interesting idea! Could be good for security purposes too -- no need to generate a code now for a booking next year.

We'd need to come up with a way to handle downstream implications though. Right now there's an assumption that if a booking will have a code, it always has it generated. Some folks have triggers on booking create that will send out codes, and it wouldn't be populated at that point with this option.

I suppose we could make this be default to creating codes on booking creation, and then add a new option for "wait until X days before arrival to generate code". If you chose the option, then it's on you to configure your triggers to match.

We're not aware of any issues with the travel insurance. Please send full details to the Helpdesk so we can investigate.

Guess your forum software doesn't allow images/attachments, but I'm on a (grandfathered?) VR Pro plan that's $12/month plus $5 per lock. It allows 200 users+guests.

The Business plan allows 100 users and 300 guests for $9/month+$9/lock.

The Enterprise plan allows unlimited users+guests for $12/month+$12/lock.

I'm not quite at the point of needing to upgrade but if I continue to add properties, it'll be a potential issue for me. OR could help this by making when the guest data is transmitted to RL a configurable option--say, "assign a code 14 days prior to stay," and only send the data to RL at that time.

Hopefully by the time I start getting to where 200 guests is an issue for me, you'll have gotten this implemented... :)

I am not able to access the trip insurance policies for any of my bookings right now. When I have a cancellation, I like to send them a copy of their policy along with their cancellation notice. Currently an error page comes up when trying to access this. Do we know if this is a temporary glitch, just a me glitch, or if I need to contact someone about the problem?

Hmm. Do you know what the enterprise and other pricing levels are?

We used RemoteLock for awhile. Our challenge was in their pricing model for the number of properties that we have. They do charge by lock (the first element of their pricing) but you also need to keep in mind the number of active "guests" (second element of their pricing)that you will have in their system at any given time. Their pricing structure does not link the locks to the guests... and at their lowest price level (with OR integration) you get 150 guest users, next step up is 300 and then Enterprise is unlimited. With each step up in price level you pay that fee per lock even though the issue is tied to the total number of guests that are needed. The important consideration here is guest count this is at the account level not the lock level so in our case with 30 locks it meant we could only have approx 5 future reservations per lock because the booking goes to their system at the time it is created. We have many more than 150 active bookings in our system at any given time and for us to step up to even the next level it would have made our lock management more expensive than our entire OR system. For us it was a surprise, so if you are going to do RemoteLock make sure you understand how many reservations/bookings ("guests") you will have open at any given time. We are currently testing alternatives as electronic door locks are not going away in this world of contactless checkin.

Hi, Chris - Sent you an email with more info. :)

Properties > [Property] > Rules > Change > Booking Window section > Require arrival of at most:

I've read through the attached - but likely because I'm so unfamiliar with OR - I can't get follow along to the instructions on how to add guest names/ages.

Wondering if anyone would be kind enough to do a little more hand holding/basic walk through as to how to set this up for direct bookings and Airbnb. On Airbnb - the guest has to put in the names (no ages) of each guest - but not sure how to get that into the RA. On the direct booking - the # of guests comes through - but there's nothing that forces them to fill in the names of each person - and not sure how to get that into the RA

https://www.ownerrez.com/forums/requests/template-fields-for-agreement-info-guest-needs-to-add

Careful going back.... Credit card processors often don't refund you the fees anymore. On a $300 security deposit, you're going to eat about 10 bucks. That's on each and every booking.

your message right there says "refunded" - I don' think the average renter is going to read beyond that and figure out what category of booking they fall into to determine how the deposit is made (hold verse charge).

Can you send an in BOLD/CAP line during your message, outside of the contract language, to only those that are direct explaining it's a hold?

"Rental Security Deposit of $300 is required; it will be released or refunded within 14 days after check-out if there are no damages, rule violations or excessive cleaning required (See the Rental Agreement for details)."

"REFUNDABLE RENTAL (DAMAGE) DEPOSIT in the amount of $300 is required:
If Rental (Damage) Deposit is included in the booking amount, it will be shown in the quote.
- Alternatively, for Direct bookings or 3rd party site bookings that do (did) not collect Rental (Damage) Deposit, Owners may require a Rental (Damage) Deposit:
--via placing credit card hold authorization $300 prior to the start of stay; or
--by other means of payment (such as bank transfer) $300 prior to the start of stay.

- The Rental (Damage) Deposit must be received by the Owners and cleared by the bank / credit card processor prior to granting access to the Property.
- Owners will return or release your Rental Deposit (as applicable) within two (2) weeks after check-out, less any damages or excessive cleaning fees, provided the following provisions are met:
...........

I'd caution you on going back to the traditional hold - you'll be charged by your CC processor that can add up. What language are using right now to inform? can you copy paste here

I am doing cc sec dep hold on direct bookings. What I have noticed is that about every 3rd renter is expecting a "refund" even though nothing was actually charged as a deposit but it was card hold only. I have it explained in detail in reply-to -inquiry quote email, rental agreement, FAQ etc. yet every week I seem to be getting text/email asking "when will my deposit be refunded". People do not seem to understand the concept of credit card HOLD. I am about to go back to traditional refundable deposit. Anyone has that same issue and how do you deal with that?

Yes, the trigger looks at both Booking and Guest tags (as well as Property tags as well).

So something that applies to the guest in general like "ID received" that should apply to future stays you'd put on the guest. But something that applies to that particular booking like "flight info received" or something like that -- that would go on the booking.

Here's a discussion of how to collect and include guest names and ages:

https://www.ownerrez.com/forums/requests/template-fields-for-agreement-info-guest-needs-to-add

We really don't recommend using initials as you describe, but again, there's a discussion on how to do something like it in this thread:

https://www.ownerrez.com/forums/general-help/rental-agreement--is-there-a-way-to-make-guest-initial-every-pa