General Help and Questions

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Aha! That makes perfect sense. I thought it was previewing what would show, not what did show. Thanks for clarifying.

The preview shows the values for the specific booking you're previewing. Looks like some of your older bookings have a $200 cancellation fee, so those would show $200 in the preview if you pick them.

If they're not supposed to have a $200 cancellation fee, go to Settings > Cancellation Policies and use the Batch Update tool to fix them.

Yes, we've got quite a few clients that use the feature that way. Helps to fill in gaps in the off-season!

You are the man Ken. Thanks! Ironically, this will be to allow smaller places during the off season/heightened rona time period. Thanks, Joe

That sounds very much like our Mutual Block feature:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/combined-properties-blockoff-lockoff

Hello, how can I offer a property that has two homes either separate or together? It would be important that biking one of the two is booked, only the part not booked shows available. What is the best way to deal with this? Anyone have experience or watch outs?

Thanks, I'll have a look.

When I Preview my short-term rental agreements, I get this text when it calls {BCANPOLLEGAL}:
"A cancellation fee of $200.00 will be deducted from any refund amount."

Yet, when I execute the same rental agreement, I get this text on the actual contract:
"A cancellation fee of $300.00 will be deducted from any refund amount."

So it is ultimately printing correctly on the official documents, but the preview is just plain wrong. I can't figure out where the $200 is coming from.

Thanks

Edit: I have quoted only the last line of the paragraph. The Cancelation Policy text works just fine; it's only the amount of the Cancelation Fee that is incorrect.

We have a discussion and example on this page:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/home-page

That's a misunderstanding - configuring a Cancellation Fee doesn't do anything and doesn't automatically appear anywhere. Your Cancellation Policy as displayed in your Rental Agreement reflects what you have configured in your Custom Cancellation Policy settings:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/cancellation-policies-overview

or the cancellation settings for channels like Airbnb where you have to use one of theirs.

I have my Cancellation Fee correctly set under Surcharges & Discounts. This Cancellation Fee has been applied to each of my properties and shows up correctly in the Rules section.

It is not updating correctly to the {BCANPOLLEGAL} field in my legal agreement. Where is this field pulling the Cancellation Fee from?

Some seem to be sized perfectly, while others are too short (gap between the thumbnails under the main photo) or too long (caption doesn't show). I can't seem to find the sweet spot.
Thanks.

Hi Joelle,

Thanks for circling back. This is actually a super old thread, so I'd suggest making a new one and creating it in the Feature Request forum so that you can up-vote it. Other OwnerRez users will be able to see and up-vote it too.

To specifically answer your question, there isn't a way to see or generate a document showing they denied it currently, but it's a great idea and something we'd like to do when we overhaul our guest verification and RA signing process.

I am new to hosted websites as well and wanted a blog. I did some research and found dropinblog.com. I personally think it is quite expensive but they give you a $100.00 credit which makes it not too bad (a bit over 10.00 per month)

It was pretty easy to setup... in OR you basically create a custom page... go to the page and enter HTML mode by clicking on the < >, paste the two pieces of code that they give to you... save

Then go to dropinblog.com and update the posts you want to have and pictures and the like. They even help you get the SEO optimized on the posts.

Like I said, I think it is a bit expensive but it does provide blog functionality with authors, categories, supports images and video, etc...

I am reviving this topic in hopes that someone would have an answer.
Quotes can be generated with options to purchase insurance or waive it. If guest waives or accepts it, where does this 'information' go?
In other words, is there a document I can generate or download in case I deal with a cancellation and the guest claims he didn't know he could purchase insurance for his booking.
All I seem to be able to see is whether the insurance option was presented to the guest but nothing else.
Thanks.

Any update to this topic. Have the same issue where I need to trigger an email to everyone but direct bookings. The only way I see to do it is by selecting "only" then "all". I assume direct bookings would then be excluded?

You might use this for recording data relevant to a property or booking that you got some other way - for instance, the door lock code of a manual lock on the property, so it can be included in emails you send to your guests, but you're the one that sets it.

Hello,
I am trying to understand custom fields settings when 'no' is checked under "Show During Quote Acceptance".
Where could these fields be used to collect information if not during the booking process? Where can I find an example of customer fields used in this fashion?

Hi Susie,

Thanks for your feedback, and I'm sorry for your frustration.

The Damage Protection product cannot insure long-term residential-type stays without paying an extra multiple based on the length of stay. We mention this in our FAQ about Damage Protection here:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/damage-protection-common-issues-questions#long

And we mention it on the billing page when you turn on DP.

Every 30 days requires a new policy, so if you have a 12 month booking, it's 12 times the normal cost. It is not reasonable for a long-term residential stay to cover damage for 15 or 20 bucks. The longer a guest stays, the more likely it is that they will accidentally damage something, so there is no carrier who would be willing to do that. Others carriers simply deny coverage entirely. RentalGuardian allows it, but requires the 30 day multiplier.

What happened with your billing is that many long-term stays were not actually being properly charges by OwnerRez. So everyone was getting 60 or 90 day bookings covered for the normal 15 or 20 bucks. We recently corrected this problem, so some historical bookings (ie. your bookings back before July) are now newly catching on the invoicing. OwnerRez already paid RentalGuardian for the policy, but we did not correctly bill you for the longer policy.

We are looking into adding insurance options that are more comprehensive and have fewer restrictions. However, they tend to be more expensive (in some cases, a lot more) than what we offer now.

PS. I have tweaked the title of this forum thread to remove the word scam. RG's products are not scams. We carefully vet the products we advertise and sell. However, they do have limits and restrictions.

I would love to see the portal functionality built into OR... perhaps built using the same platform as the websites so it isn't really an app it's just a bunch of managed web pages that pull booking details and property information. We have started investigating the guest portals that OR does integrate with to see how far we can push it...

Ideally we would like OR to be our system of record for anything and everything related to our bookings. And so while we may have integrations with 3rd party "experts in their field" having information flow both directions is really important for full optimization of revenue stream and guest satisfaction.

I will say we have found the same thing with emails... particularly ABB and Booking.com where you do not have the real guest email address. These seem to be black holes. We always send a text message the day after we send the arrival instructions that basically says "We've sent your arrival instructions to the email we have on file: {that ugly email address}. This email contains important information you will need for your arrival. If you did NOT receive this email please contact us - {our phone nunber}

In order to send text messages we had to come up with a solution outside of the PMS (I know OR is building this so that will be great). The solution we chose to use is called ClickSend. They can basically receive an email from your specific email address and send the contents of that email to a phone number you indicate in the to address. For example - send an email to 15551234567@sms.clicksend.com and it will send a text message to 5551234567 with the content of the email. Has worked great for us for years.

Along the lines of fully integrating solutions with our PMS this is a vision of what our ideal situation would be.

Think of a scenario like this with integrated cleaning app, smartlocks, guest portal, credit card processor, website
1. Bookings are created...from wherever they come from and guest is charged as appropriate to your booking requirements.
2. Door lock codes are sent to a door lock solution (from the booking, not generated by the door lock) - we prefer to use the last 4 digits of their phone number to cut down on the number of "I forgot my PIN phone calls"
3. Communications flow to guest letting them know the basics of their booking and pointing them to the guest portal (webapp) for info about the property as well as their booking.
4. The guest decides to bring their dog or they want an anniversary package - they can request that in the portal and add it to the booking (channels are totally unaware of this) Charges are added, payments are taken, etc.
5. Prior to arrival we send them a text message letting them know their access code and reminding them about the portal for information on the area and the property as well as checkin information, driving directions and the like.
6. They arrive on property - the first time their door lock code is used, OR is notified that the guest has checked in and change a status on the booking/property to occupied or in house
7. The system checks to see if there are "gaps" in the schedule after the checkout date for this booking and if so it sends a message to the guest asking them if they would like to extend their stay with perhaps at a discount..
8. They go to the portal and add the day and pay for it... booking is updated, door lock is updated.
9. On checkout day they are reminded via text message what time checkout is... and we ask them to respond to the text when they have checked out. They respond to the text, status on OR changes to checked-out
10. Cleaning integrated app is notified of the check out so the housekeepers know when they can get in to clean... perhaps it is early?
11. Cleaners finish cleaning the unit and mark the cleaning app as completed, OR is notified the unit is Guest Ready...
12. Next arriving guest wants an early check-in. they are looking at the app and it indicates an early check-in is available and there is an upsell opportunity to give them that early access. They purchase the early access and the booking arrival time changes and the door lock codes are updated.

All of this is visible in OR... single system of truth.

I am told that after COVID getting banks or anyone to underwrite lodging businesses is much more difficult. As you mentioned for STRIPE you actually process under their "blanket" and they get to set a lot of the rules...and get to charge a premium price for allowing you to use process through them.

I would suggest you check with your local bank where you have an established relationship as they are more apt to work with you. You could then connect with a payment gateway like Authorize.net (they work with tons of the processors) and still have integrated OR credit card processing and likely at a less rate that the 2.9% and per transaction fee that Stripe charges... (I also think I just heard that they (Stripe) are now going to hold your money for 14 days before they pay you because of the increase in chargebacks.)

Taxes on that Pet Fee are another issue... The fee in our state is actually taxable just as any other rent for Lodging Taxes... so we have to request from the guest the total including state and local taxes. Since ABB remits these taxes on rent but not on the resolution requests, we then have to file with the state a return for the added pet fees basically doubling the efforts..

We've been doing the resolution request thing and it is just a bear to manage as the guests will not always pay it either so then it has to be escalated to ABB to resolve and many times the guest just refuses.

We've been actually toying with the idea of doing it direct via concierge services via a guest portal type app. We are currently researching those that have integrations to OR to see what options we might have there.

Be careful everyone - I think this is a total scam.
Hard to actually get a penny out of rental guardian and today, I learned the hard way they have been charging me a multiplier on long term rentals. Suddenly hit with $1000 bill where they multiply it every month. Of course it is there when I go to look at the details, but I did not see that. Even more annoying, is that I canceled the insurance in July and they are still dragging on. Hard to get rid of it once committed. Super upset.
If you do the math, and self insure, you are FAR BETTER OFF. Taking a small amount on each booking soon adds up - then you have the nominal amount they are covering, but don't have to fight with insurance company to get damages paid out.
rally unhappy - and I am usually happy with these guys, but this is robbery.

How were you able to add all of those additional pages? Did you have someone through OR assist you?

Hello:
I love your vacation guide. i'm trying to create something like this on my ownerrez hosted website.

How did you add the photos with text below? I cannot seem to do that when i add a new "page" to my site.

Any help is appreciated

Thank you,
Steve
www.hightidevacationhomes.com (still a work in process)

Yes, PriceLabs will override whatever is in OwnerRez. So you should control both your rates and your min nights there.

oh yeah another question i had was how to get the holiday calendar to reflect i have a 3night min on holidays? i have the US holiday selected but do i need to then create those as custom season ?

Thanks Ken.

question. it appears i dont actually have to set rates using this feature. is this true as i currently use pricelabs to set up my pricing. maybe i can play with pricelabs and set min nights.

will price labs override OR with respect to rules on min nights?

The simplest way to come close to what you want, is by using our Rate Calendar and Spot Rates:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/rates-using-the-rate-calendar-video

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/spot-rates

Note that, for min-night settings, a booking will be controlled by the min-nights on the arrival day. Any other min-nights later in the stay will be ignored.

I am wanting to set up a booking requirement during our high season of ski season where during these months, if a booking is wanting Wednesday they would need a min of 4 nights, on Thursday it would be 3 nights, same on Friday 3 nights, and Saturday 3 nights, and then Sunday / Monday / Tuesday are 2 nights.

I'd also like all holiday (US holiday) weekends to require 3 night stays ....I subscribed to the holiday US list but perhaps I still need to set a "seasons" of holidays ?