General Help and Questions

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Hmm. Are you able to send this in to the Helpdesk, with screenshots to compare? That'll make it easier for us to run down what's going on.

When I enable disallowing one day gaps on OwnerRez, I notice that AirBnb blocks out one of the days in a two day block. For example I have a Wed, Thurs available and have "Disallow gaps of exactly 1 nights" checked in OwnerRez, but on AirBnb the Thursday night shows as unavailable. As soon as I take that rule out, it becomes available. Any reason why this would happen?

This new area is actually not supported by the VRBO API at all yet, so there is no way for you to control it from OwnerRez.

Fortunately, VRBO designed it well - if our API feed doesn't provide updated information for these fields (which it won't, because it can't) then whatever you configure in VRBO will not be overwritten. So you can just go ahead and set up that information in VRBO.

Down the road, when the API is extended to support this area and we add it to OwnerRez, you'll need to configure it there. But that won't be for awhile.

VRBO has launched their new "Health & Safety" area under "Edit Property" that is going to be used as a new "call out" on listings to highlight the information hosts enter for concerned guests. They are also going to use this information to boost search results for listings that contain information in these new fields.

If we have integrated our VRBO listings with OR we know that all changes must be made through OR to be synched over to VRBO.

What fields should we be using in OR to populate those new fields in VRBO?

If we enter information into those fields in VRBO will it be wiped out the next time OR syncs with VRBO?

Hello

Airbnb has a new field: Length of stay discounts. I’m saying it’s new as they have marked it as new.
I have discounts set up on my property in OwnerRez but it does not seem to be updating this field on Airbnb. What am I missing?

Yes, to do that you'd uncheck the "schedule a security deposit using OwnerRez property rules" option on the HomeAway channel settings, so it doesn't follow the normal rules.

Then create a surcharge with the word "Refundable" in it (so it triggers a refundable deposit on VRBO) and set the listing site applicability so it's only applicable to HomeAway and VRBO.

?

***UPDATE***

Apparently there was a blip in the system with ABB. Of course the wonderful folks with OR got it resolved in no time flat. THANK YOU!!!

***********

What am I forgetting? I'm API integrated with AirBnB. Have received two bookings lately (grateful!) with arrival dates within the next three weeks. No matter what I do the total amount paid does not show paid in full. I have run Channel Bridge 3 times, each using different criteria and it doesn't help. With one guest arriving in 4 days, and email triggers set to "paid in full" as a criteria, they won't get the info they need.

FWIW, I've talked with HomeAway Integrated Partner Support about this. I said that the HomeAway app correctly shows guest messages at the top of my inbox, but when I log into the website, I have 2 pages of "Booking Requests" (that are actually confirmed reservations, and they're all in the past) to sort through to find the guest inquiry message.

They told me that the inbox on the website was not designed for use by integrated partners and that I definitely should never be using the HomeAway app as it is not designed to work at all with integrated partners. They explicitly told me to use the messaging function "within my software." When I told them that OR doesn't support messaging (yet), they were stymied. It suddenly became clear to me that the whole experience is designed to happen without ever actually needing to log into the HomeAway website. Hopefully that can happen eventually and the experience can be cleaned up.

Incidentally, those "Booking Requests" that litter my HomeAway inbox appear to be the result of an odd glitch--even though I had selected "Instant Book" in OR, my listings were not showing up as Instant Book listings and instead had a "Request To Book" button. Of course, when a guest submitted a "Request To Book," OR confirmed the booking instantly, but I wanted to appear as an Instant Book listing to try to attract more guests. I emailed Integrated Partner Support and they manually set my listings to Instant Book, but that was kind of an odd one to me.

You can't post screenshots on the forums yet (we're working on it).

It looks like the HTML is close but not quite..

Next to the style attribute it should be:

5574" style=

i.e. the " needs to be next to the 4 with a space between it and the s, not next to the s.

If that doesn't fix it, shoot us an email with a screenshot to help@ownerreservations.com

Not sure why you posted the same thing again. Ken answered your question pretty clearly.

Delete the 5% surcharge from your Surcharges & Discounts area.

Go to the API Connections area for HomeAway and add 5% to the "Rate Adjustment" box.

Voila. (Although it sounds like, from what Ken said, you already have 5% there, so you're actually raising your HomeAway rates by 10% right now.)

Thanks so much for you help, I tried that and got mixed results.

Here is my code

<!-- Test Availability -->
<!-- OwnerRez Availability/Property Search widget -->
<div class="ownerrez-widget" data-widget-type="Test Availability - Availability/Property Search" data-widgetId="2f27ff2d04604f47aa49975bafdf5574 "style="background-color:#fff"></div>
<script src="https://app.ownerrez.com/widget.js"></script>

Now on my page preview the widget shows the narrow box with the dates to select Availability but the calendar drop down is cut in half and the result fill into that same small box rather than filling the space designated for the widget? Not sure you understand my explanation and not sure if there is a way to attach a screen shot.

Yes, the widgets are transparent by default when you embed them because usually you want them to blend into the site. If you've got a busy background, though, it can bleed through.

To set a background behind the widget, you can put a style attribute on the <div> in the embed code. So if you've got:

<div class="ownerrez-widget" data-propertyId="somethingsomething" data-widget-type="Rates" data-widgetId="othersomething"></div>
<script src="https://app.ownerrez.com/widget.js"></script>

Add a style attribute with background-color:#fff (which is white) in that <div> after the last attribute, but before the >. Like:

<div class="ownerrez-widget" data-propertyId="123512351235" data-widget-type="Rates" data-widgetId="123451235" style="background-color:#fff"></div>
<script src="https://app.ownerrez.com/widget.js"></script>

Hi all and especially to the magic person who might be able to help me.

I'm using WIX for my web page and adding widgets. Wix does not have the functionality to open or expand the page for a widget so the space has to be provided on the page for the full widget. When using the Availability search this leave a large blank space on the page until the guests chooses to search for availability.

Right now I can over lay the widget bringing it to the front so it opens on top of other features. The widgets all seem to have a transparent back ground.

Does anyone know if there is a way to select for the widgets to have a white background rather than transparent. Is this a feature I would need to request? It seems to be my best option for a seamless integration on WIX. IF anyone is a coder and would like to charge me to customize the code I'd be happy to pay!!

Any suggestions welcome.

Thanks
Autumn
Park City Adventure Lodging

I have had that special 5% surcharge in place already and was pushing nightly rates via channel bridge that way. Since connecting the API I now see a "call out" of 5% property fees on Homeaway/VRBO website that was never there before. It also shows up as a management fee during checkout on their platform. I only want to make the nightly fees 5% higher and not have a property/management fee. This was never there before I connected the API.

Yes!

It looks like you'd set up a special "VRBO/Homeaway Commissions" surcharge. This works exactly as you've described - the surcharge is applied, but it is specifically called out. We don't recommend doing it this way.

Instead, go to the setting for your HA/VRBO API connection - Settings > API Integrations > click the HomeAway entry > Change button, and scroll down to Rate Adjustment. It looks like you do have the 5% increase here, so your VRBO guests are getting hit twice. Disable the "VRBO/Homeaway Commissions" surcharge, and you should be fine.

I just switched over to the VRBO/Homeaway API. I was previously pushing rates via the channel bridge and had it set to push 5% higher than the rates on my website to make up for commissions VRBO/Homeaway charges. That 5% would automatically increase the nightly rate. Since switching to API it seems the nightly rates doesn't increase by 5%, but instead shows up as a 5% property fee on VRBO/Homeaway. I don't want the guest to think they are getting hit with more fees and would rather have it built into the nightly rate. Is there a way for it to happen this way?

When guest has purchased trip insurance for reservation - and cancels--
has anyone else had a problem with this?
Insurance slow to respond to guest --
then finally refused.

Yes. Generally, using the API does not alter the underlying facts: we don't get real email addresses from potential guests making inquiries. We only get proxy emails, which filter out any links or identifying information. So, while it is possible to set up templates and autoresponders in OwnerRez that will work with these constraints, it's awkward and clumsy.

This may change in the future. We plan to integrate with the Airbnb messaging system, and we're talking with VRBO about theirs.

Hi, Ken: You still recommend using the VRBO and ABB systems even when API integrated?

You can set up OwnerRez to do that for you automatically. You do have to do the initial setup though.

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/airbnb-request-for-contact-info-real-email-address-and-signed-renter-agreement

Yes, we recommend to use the VRBO (and Airbnb) messaging system, not OwnerRez, to reply to inquiries. Use OwnerRez once the guest makes a booking.

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/inquiries-quotes-and-bookings-overview

I have my first booking from airbnb. Do I have to send out all emails for the contract etc manually?

I just integrated with VRBO via API. Last night I received a notice from VRBO of an inquiry. But I've not received a notice from OR of the inquiry nor is it showing up in my Inquiries tab. I'm sure it's operator error. I have checked my VRBO account and edited my "Contacts" to use the unique OR email. Hoping that's the place to fix things. But now how do I go back and get the inquiry into OR so I can respond?

*******RESOLVED*******
I used the HomeAway app on my phone and it still allowed me to respond on the regular VRBO message system.

Yes, as a block. OwnerRez won't push detailed information about your guest out to any of the channels, of course, but it will make sure the calendar is blocked for the booking time.

So far, so good, is all I can say publicly at this time. For more information please reach out to our Helpdesk.

VRBO is testing the API with some owners but not open to everyone. Hopefully those who are in the test will do well and they will let more folks in.

Any news on that?

Any news on that?

Yes, this is fully supported -- just set it that way in the property mapping in the lock settings in OwnerRez and the system will generate the codes appropriately.

You don't just have to map properties to locks one to one. You can map a single lock to multiple properties, or multiple locks to one property, and then when generating the code for a booking the system will look at the associated locks for the property and generate the appropriate code.