Latest Activity...
Interesting. I do not miss not having an app in the least. Have too many apps on my phone already. I think what OR has works just fine. JMO.
When you are not using an API connection, but just iCal calendar feeds, OwnerRez creates bookings and blocks based on imported data send to us in the iCal calendar feeds you've imported. When a new event appears in the calendar feed that we haven't seen before, we create a booking; when that event disappears from the feed, we cancel it.
Unfortunately, the various listing channels tend to create events in the calendar feed that aren't really bookings. For example, when a guest starts through the booking process, the dates they've selected will be blocked off, even though they haven't completed the booking process and made a real booking. This makes a certain amount of sense, since you wouldn't want two people booking the same dates at the same time.
However, because of the way the iCal standard works, this leads to the kind of whiplash you're seeing, as "bookings" bounce in and out of existence.
To prevent this, where possible, OwnerRez tries to identify what's a real booking and what isn't. That's why we recommend using the setting to import "Bookings Only", not "All Events". This generally solves this problem.
Unfortunately, we can only do this if the channel provides some sort of status flag in the calendar feed from which we can determine which events really are bookings and which aren't. VRBO does. Airbnb also does, but it's not completely reliable. Currently, it looks like Booking.com does not.
This is one major reason why we recommend to use API connections wherever possible - they don't have this problem.
My calendar for one of my houses keeps blocking and then unblocking itself. People cannot book for one particular house for next May 1-June 29, 2021. I get 40 emails per day saying "calendar blocked" or "calendar dates canceled"
It is really annoying and I cannot fix the calendar to make this go away. What can I do?
Owner Rez says the issue is the Booking.com Calendar and Booking.com says the issue is the Owner Rez calendar. Ahhhhhhh
Please help.
@Lauren: Everyone does it different. Some due impose a cancellation flat fee (call it 100 bucks) or pass the Stripe fee on to the guest.
So how do you handle this with guests? Are you passing the fees on to them? Just got a booking with VRBO API that cancelled a day later. Incurred a $65 fee from Stripe.
Maybe define summer season and set turn over days for summer season only?
During the summer we do Sat-Sat/weekly bookings and then allow for shorter stays and open change over days after Labor day. Can I pick which weeks have change over restrictions ?
Thanks
Is there any update on this to have two different owners to be assigned to one property? I have several homes where there are multiple owners and it is not an LLC. Most software I have used you can input multiples and say how much a % they own so at the end of the year it makes accounting easier.
This would be a great addition. Especially, adding notifications! Now, we have to check periodically. Not ideal as we can miss questions, issues, inquiries, last minute bookings.
Anything in the works?
Thanks,
Claudia
I have had multiple experiences like this. A text feature would help solve a lot of this as guests either don't check their email, or open it and don't read the whole way through the instructions.
I have GA, and I can see people hitting widgets and website pages in real time. However, when inquiry comes into OR, I do not seem to find a way to see where the inquiry has originated. Is there something I need to adjust in GA or in OR to see that? I have same GA tracking ID set up both for my website and OR widgets.
send a triggered email to renters when there is 1 night left before/after their stay offering to take that night with discount.
What are the good ideas on the gap analysis? How are you filling the empty days? I have a 'typically' heavy weekend rental business. Looking for ideas.
I want to make the page with calendar and rates -- send inquiry -- Home Page
of the website -- the first page people see.
Too many call to say they can't find the rates or availability - because they don't use the tab at the top of the screen.
One lady has this as a block on her home page -- but I can't find a way to put it there like she has.
Hi! Are you asking about AirBnB or VRBO? Also, have you done the API integration with either of them?
If AirBnB, and you do NOT have API, then take a look at you listing and click on Booking Settings at the top of the page. Scroll down to "How Guests Can Book" to change your settings.
BUT - if you're asking about AirBnB and you are API integrated, you can not turn off IB. However, you can change to their most restrictive setting which will eliminate a lot of folks. Go to Settings > Channels > API Integrations. Once you're in the AirBnB connection and click on change, the second line lets you pick your policy. It's not foolproof, but it definitely helps.
Hi all. Is there a away to not allow Instant booking? An approval first?
Thanks,
Claudia
Jamie M said:
I'm getting our domain through godaddy and plan to create a website on OwnerRez. Do you suggest I get the domain privacy and protection plan for an extra $10 per year or is that not necessary? And can I just use a regular gmaill account or do I need a special one that I have to pay extra for? Sorry, I've searched and searched and can't find any info on any of this and I'm completely clueless with this part!Jamie - I have my domain through godaddy, my website is not with them (and also not with OwnerRez) but for email I just use godaddy's "Email Forwarding - 100 PackFree Account forwarding with domain" to have emails sent towards the domain get redirected to my own email acct.
Example:
your website = www.jamierentals.com
your email redirect: owner@jamierentals.com can get redirected to jamie.lastname@gmail.com
You can set up multiple emails like this and give some out generically and keep others more private if you like. That might help you if you like to have emails automatically routed to certain folders, for instance info@jamierentals.com and help@jamierentals.com and marketing@jamierentals.com could all be different emails that end up at your jamie.lastname@gmail.com
The email forwarding has been free forever, but it could always change I suppose.
I want to put the availability/rate block on my home page --
so that travelers can use that chart --
to check for dates/cost -- send info
rather than go to another page -- a lot call saying they don't see a calendar --
Hi! I did the same - registered for a name on GoDaddy and site is thru OR. The privacy thing is totally your decision. I would suggest you think about getting an email that's affiliated with your web site. Makes it look more professional. You can even do info@nameofproperty.com or something similar. Just make sure to get OR to "Verify" your email address. What that means is when you send correspondence from within OR it will go out from YOUR email rather than from a randomized OR address.
There is another way of doing it. You create a trigger X days before guest's arrival if you have orphan night before/after their reservation. And trigger will send them email like this:
Hi {CFIRST},
I just noticed that the {BADJOPEN} your reservation is still open.
Would you like to stay an additional night for 25% off? (plus applicable tax). If you are interested, please reply to this email.
Thank you for choosing {PDISPNAME}!
If they agree, you just do manual calculation of how much it will be.
I'm getting our domain through godaddy and plan to create a website on OwnerRez. Do you suggest I get the domain privacy and protection plan for an extra $10 per year or is that not necessary? And can I just use a regular gmaill account or do I need a special one that I have to pay extra for? Sorry, I've searched and searched and can't find any info on any of this and I'm completely clueless with this part!
Just wondering if the html will do calculations like
{BTRENT} / {BNNGHTS} * .80
I tried a few things but it doesn't seem to recognize any of the html code for calculations that are suggested in web searches I found.
Trying to automate my discount offered to booked guests for orphan nights adjacent to their stay to reduce the number of emails back and forth. Thanks for your help!
Not yet. It's not scheduled for dev yet, but we know the program we want to offer. So much to do.
Yes, an important change. Thanks for the nudge.
There was a talk before about offering guest choice damage insurance (either deposit OR insurance) that they can self select. Any news?
I went from stripe with 2.9% straightforward flat fee per transaction to Lynnbrook which to me seems very convoluted. And that comes from someone working on acquirer side in merchant services for a major bank LOL. So I am not completely unfamiliar with credit card processing.
I got a statement for May and I saw this:
Discount Due 207.39
Fees Due 821.48
Amount Deducted 1,028.87
"Discount" is actually a fee.
All in all according my calculation, the fees (that include this discount that I am somehow obligated to pay came to over 3% per transaction. Second guessing my move from Stripe to Lynnbrook.
Agree on the suggested change of "7%-10%" (I think it's 9.8% but close enough).
Would also point out that, depending on how far in advance the reservation is made, it will not say "the day of initial booking". If arrival is more than 30 days away, it will give a date which is 30 days before arrival - but, this is only for regular travel insurance. If the booking was made > 30 days before arrival, but you insert that BBINFO field in something sent within 30 days, it will not mention insurance at all.
Unfortunately, CFAR can only be purchased during the first 14 days after a booking so we might need to change the wording to include something about that, too.
Hello!
Since all works great I don't always pay attention to these things. But, noticed that the text in BBINO refers to travel insurance and says:
"If you'd like to purchase travel insurance for your booking, you must do so today (the day of initial booking). Travel insurance costs 7% of the total trip cost. You can read more about it or purchase a policy here."
With the addition of a more costly CFAR option, this should be updated to at least say something like:
"If you'd like to purchase travel insurance for your booking, you must do so today (the day of initial booking). Travel insurance costs 7% - 9% of the total trip cost, depending on the policy selected. You can read more about it or purchase a policy here."
Chuck
Thank you so much! I never searched on "2nd Legal Agreement" - my bad. I just added that to the System Message instead of having to do a follow-up email via trigger. SO COOOOOL!!!
