General Help and Questions

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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 ?

Thank you. It works now with 10.37. I did need to remove the 'ha' from the end of the property ID for it to work.

It doesn't make any difference - guests use the same OwnerRez system for signing agreements, regardless of how you get them.

Hi Ken,

How does this work with integrated API, regarding Vrbo?

There's a workaround that has been covered pretty extensively in the Facebook group "Unofficial Ownerrez Support Group." Basically, you have to go in and set up Custom Field Definitions. Those fields need to be marked as a "Required Entry" during quote acceptance so they will show up when the guest is sent the form to sign the Rental Agreement. You set up a Custom Field for each clause. Give the Facebook group a look and then let everyone know what we can do to help. Also, this Forum exchange might help: https://www.ownerrez.com/forums/general-help/help-with-required-fields-in-rental-agreement

We've released a new version with some better calibration for the listing numbers. Make sure you've got version 10.37: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/channel-bridge-updating-to-latest-version

And give it another whirl.

If that doesn't work, send in a support ticket and we'll schedule a screenshare to debug.

RE safari chrome, that's referring to the fact that on iOS devices Chrome is really actually just Safari under the covers as Apple don't allow any other browsers on their platform. Sounds like that's not the issue in your case, though, you're probably on desktop or laptop since you can channel bridge and it used to work.

I am the owner referenced in the first message who had to file an FED against an AirBnB guest who refused to leave the property and was staying with unauthorized and unidentified additional occupant in my unit as non-paying guests.
Luckily, I had a full signed contract with initials on each page as well next to important clauses. This established without a doubt that I had a contract with the individual who rented my property and that all information and rules were disclosed prior to checking-in.
The judge pointed the initials out in his ruling. I therefore really want to be able to continue this practice since I tested it in a court of law and know that it helped me win my case.
Now that I am using Owerrez for my bookings, how do you suggest I proceed to still obtain a similar signed contract from my guest? Continue using my 'external' option or is there a way to format the contract in a similar fashion through this software?
I also really need my guests to be able to type information themselves in the contract.
Thank you for your advice.

I tried again earlier today - same error.

When did this change? It worked up until maybe a month ago and I don't recall being prompted to change anything on HA/VRBO, but I did switch to the new rates system on OR.

I don't really do much business on VRBO so I didn't worry too much about it, but I've changed my rates a bunch since then, so it's time to get them to match current rates in the off chance someone finds me on VRBO and tries to book.

I'm not sure what you mean by Safari Chrome...Safari and Chrome are two different browsers. I currently use Google Chrome on a Mac with the OR Channel Bridge extension (and yes, I was signed into VRBO, as OR's website directed me to on the Channel Bridge page).

So in the meantime, what are your recommendations for those of us who are facing added restrictions, regulation, and community intimidation suggesting that our guests are oblivious to the contract which must have specific items related to noise and pets included? If you are unable to manage this within your system is there an API that allows us to send through DocuSign or others a separate more involved contract that you are able to host at the moment?

You'd probably want to do that with our new Tags feature - you'd create a tag that you manually add to a booking once the guest has done whatever it is that you want them to do, and then set having that tag as a criteria on the trigger.

No. I mean something that they need to fill out for me and I would have to manually enter as a trigger stating YES, before send the last email with the Keyless entry code.

Right now there's not a way to do signatures on SMS. You've only got a couple hundred chars so it'd be easy to eat that up -- and you can't put in logos etc like normally go in footers.

If you want to hack it:
- Add an account level custom field (text type, not rich text)
- Enter your footer info there
- Reference that field at the end of each SMS template