General Help and Questions

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Hi Lydia,

I recently downloaded all of our reviews from both VRBO/Homeaway and Airbnb. I hadn't realised you could see the guest's review on the booking until you mentioned it in your post.

I just checked my reviews, and I see the same thing. I can see Airbnb reviews on the guest's booking, but not the VRBO/Homeaway. So, I don't think this is only happening to your reviews.

I'll be interested in hearing what the OR Support staff has to say about this.

I'm being dumb, again.
I know how to import reviews from OTAs. But, when I look at specific bookings, the only ones which display the guest's review are those who booked thru AirBnB. I know my VRBO reviews have imported to OR because I can see them in the list of reviews. But when I go to that booking, there's nothing under "Reviews." What am I doing wrong?

I'm trying to figure out if it's possible to send a trigger email on a specific date. For instance: Would like to send a Merry Christmas, or maybe a Happy New Year message to all previous guests.

Has anyone had any experience with Lynnbrook or Costco handling chargebacks?
In talking to Costco, the pricing is as follows:
1.99% + $0.25/transaction
Application fee ($25) and monthly stmt fee ($5) are waived for executive members
But to process online requires a gateway, they use Converge, $149 set up and $5/mo
The will connect for free set up to other gateways, but those seem expensive, too.

How does Lynnbrook compare? Do all set ups require the set up fee and monthly fees?

Has anyone used NationalBankCard.com?

Yep, that makes a lot of sense for tracability.

Right now the closest thing for that is to run a booking detail report and look at the ADR column. That'll get you the average rent for the booking at time of booking, but it doesn't track to the level of the individual night rate.

Chris - next September as I set my winter season rates again I'll want to know what nightly rate I booked at for every night of every booking in the season. So that I can better prepare a new spreadsheet of spot rates for the next season. I'm not sure there is a way for me to get back to that granularity by any kind of OR booking report exported to a spreadsheet. And sounds like spot rates won't help me either because they could potentially (probably on accident) be changed by me during the many times I'll update them. Not sure how big of a deal this is, but it's part of why I'm asking to have a history for spot rate changes. And would be really nice for that history to show the rate at which the date was booked, regardless of whether it changed later on.

We don't auto import the descriptions in OwnerRez or via channel bridge -- if it did update that was from running the "import listing" tool at some point.

The overall description sections are used for all API's however each one uses different fields: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/channel-management-api-integrations-property-field-differences

For the description, HomeAway uses the large Description field but Airbnb does not -- they use the Short Description field and then other fields like Guest Access and The Space. So you will actually end up with different areas to set descriptions for each of them.

Yes, OwnerRez pushes all rates regardless of whether they are booked. That's what you want so that if a booking is canceled you have the right rate in place.

Rates pushed won't affect something that has already booked. But if you're trying to reduce rates because you're expecting a booking, I'd recommend making the change in OwnerRez and pushing from there -- that way you won't have to worry about overwrites.

Sure thing, some answers:

1, 2) You should be able to enable professional hosting tools yourself in the account menu -- see screenshot. I don't think it requires a business verification --I just tried this with an account that's not set for a company and it was able to enable the pro tools.

3) If you go to the Local taxes and laws section in Airbnb for your listing, do you see the Custom option? Look at the screenshot here: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/channel-management-api-integrations-airbnb-common-issues-questions#taxes

If you do have Custom available to you, you can configure taxes that way.

If not, you can have OwnerRez factor taxes into rates. To do this, go to the channel bridge or Airbnb API settings and set tax calculation to "included in Airbnb amount". This will cause OwnerRez to add any tax applicable to the Airbnb listing site to rates during pushed and back it out when bookings are imported. So go over to the Tax area and set the listing site criteria on the ones that Airbnb already remits to "Everything but Airbnb". And the ones you want to add rates, set those to All so that they do apply to Airbnb.

You could also do this yourself manually by setting the rate adjuster like you mentioned, but if you do that we won't know to back out the taxes again on the booking import.

Yep, it really depends on your volume. Stripe has a higher percentage rate per transaction, but no monthly fee. While Lynnbrook has a lower rate per transaction but has a monthly fee. If you're doing more than 20k/yr or so it usually pencils out in favor of Lynnbrook even after the monthly fee.

To do this, create a separate Christmas Week season for just that week (12/21-12/27) and set the allowed arrival/departure days on that to not allow arrival/departure for Tue/Wed. Make sure your rates for that period are also associated with that season and you should be good to go. The Arrival/Departure rules will be sent to Airbnb through the API.

Anyone using API and has a way to block people from checking in/out on certain dates? For instance, I am fine with my house being booked over Christmas, but don't want to have people checking in or out on the 24/25th of December as I don't want to scramble for a cleaner. On ABB, I could block that, but now that I am switching to API, I don't see a good way to do that this month and in the future.

My understanding from speaking with Lynnbrook is that they would be more expensive for me than Stripe, based on the monthly fee.

That's the virtue of Stripe - they're a bit more expensive than Lynnbrook, but they're willing to work with low-volume accounts.

I spoke with Lynnbrook recently and they suggested that i NOT go with them based on my low volume. I have one property and currently payments are handled either by my property manager or by the websites themselves. I am in the process of setting up with OR.

So needless to say I am confused by this conversation and which route I should go.

Still working on getting set up with Airbnb for a ski condo in Colorado (town of winter park, Grand county)

Q1 - I can't get Airbnb support to help me enable Professional hosting tools. I'm on my third support person, I keep just getting boilerplate answers. Any suggestions?

Q2 - I see that if you have business verification it can help to enable professional hosting tools, but I'm running my condos in my personal name, not in an LLC. So I don't have an EIN

Q3 - Maybe I can do what I need within OR and their API, I see that in the Airbnb Channel Bridge I can adjust Rates & Surcharges by a percentage which is what I want, do I then choose the "Included in Airbnb amount" option?

hoping someone can guide me here !

I was told by CSA that we, in Texas by law and per TDI, could not force travel insurance or damage protection. Guests have to be offered as a choice. We used to build travel insurance into rate with a note to contact us if guest wants it removed - we were told, guests have to specifically choose to add travel and not just decline it. If guest declines damage protection then we can hold a refundable security deposit. We hold anywhere from $800-$1500 as a option to damage of $49. Anyone rarely chooses security deposit. Please let me know if someone knows differently.

Hey there MB & fellow ORs, we are new to OR and still in the process of migrating from our current PMS. A few thoughts.....would love to have your thoughts in return........We WERE ready to move with Lynnbrook BUT found out they were bought out by GSV. GSV Investments who has branded their vacation portfolio as Inhabit IQ bought Streamline, Liverez, VRM, iTrips (many of the larger PMS software companies), LSI Tools (data aggregator), Bluetent (a website design company), Rental Gaurdian (an insurance company), Bizcor (Marketing Company). See: https://www.vrmintel.com/inside-look-at-gsv-led-inhabit-iq/. GSV, I'm afraid, will become the bigger elephant in the room than HomeAway. I am worried about giving them my guest data and them re-marketing other places to my guests. So....the prospect of Costco sounds intriguing. I have not been able to find further discussion on payment options on the Forums so would like to revive this thread by getting input for MB - how’s the process going with Costco? Have you had any chargebacks? If so, how was your experience with support? Paul/Chris/Ken at OR – would love to get your thoughts as well. Thanks in advance!

Good news, folks: the RemoteLock API now does support z-wave locks!

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/integration-remotelock-door-locks

I recently updated my VRBO property descriptions in CO to include a paragraph addressing the need for me to collect an additional 8.5% tax (sigh). I don't recall doing anything to import these changes back to OR, however I see they are present in OR. I do use the channel bridge regularly.

This isn't a problem per se, however I believe that as I (soon) begin using Airbnb with their API I will want the description to be silent regarding taxes.

Will I be able to maintain different property descriptions in Airbnb and VRBO? Obviously it's useful to have OR be the trusted version of the description, but seems like I can't do that directly unless I wish to make the blurb be specific about VRBO which wouldn't fly probably with Airbnb.

Wondering what happens... I guess it maybe doesn't matter if the rate in VRBO calendar for a previously booked night gets changed, just curious.

The scenario might be that I reduced a rate in vrbo for a specific booking, maybe at last minute, and then my spot rate pushing rewrites it to the original nightly rate. Would that happen?

I'd rather that OR doesn't overwrite booked dates, hopefully that's how it works

Thanks much. They (provider) have canned objects such as html embed into which i insert widget code. i think that one may be absolute. I cant try to write iframe directly on page but dont think it is possible. This is not so much an issue with desktop but on mobile looks strange as I have to allocate a lot of blank space (stretch the container down) in case widget has many lines (like discount codes etc) else the book buttons become hidden if the container is too small.

I used the Widgets and created a "Multiple Month Calendar" for my properties and then shared the URL ("Share with the Hosted Widget Link") with the housekeepers.

It looks like this:

https://app.ownerrez.com/widgets/e0ca75c8d54d4abe826190a69883fb5e?view=form&propertyKey=5857942b60aa42849c6821e49f19bcaf

I like that it is dynamic with arrows that allows the user to advance the calendar to future months if they desire.

I include a link to this calendar in all of my emails to the housekeeper, kind of like a "footer":

To view the calendar for this property CLICK HERE.

Usually in web design containers resize automatically -- normal inline or relative positioned ones. You have to specially absolutely position to make it clip the content. The widgets are designed to expand to fit the width available and resize as needed vertically. But if your outer website is absolutely positioned, then the resize won't work and you'll have to reserve enough space for it as you've seen.

The other potential issue is that the widget is itself an iframe, but sometimes site builders like to surround the widget iframe with a second iframe. I had a look at your site design and it looks like that's what's happening here -- there's an absolutely positioned iframe that's wrapping the widget code, so nothing really has a chance to resize (see screenshot).

Is there a way to write the widget embed HTML directly on the page instead of having it nested inside another iframe?

By default, the second payment is scheduled for "remaining balance due" so it will automatically update as long as the second payment hasn't executed yet. Go to the Transactions tab of the booking and look at the status.

If the scheduled payment hasn't processed yet you're good to go.

If it has been processed (or if you want to take an additional payment now), use the Payment -> Collect Payment option to run the card for the additional amount.

Yes, the arrival/departure limitations are in force even with spot rates. Spot rates only override the elements you set on them -- currently you can do rate and min nights. If you set rate but leave min nights blank, for example, you'll get the min nights of the property or season applicable to that time, and vice versa.

We'll probably add overrides so you can do specific arrival/departure limitations on a spot rate but none of that is in place yet so you'll just get the underlying rule set on the property or season for arrival/departure days

I do not know how to make the container that has the container that houses the quote widget on my site re sizable based on content (if you have discounts, widget display grows vertically). I have been making the container max height to accommodate all possible line items, but I am thinking there should be a better way. I know it is site specific question, but maybe there is some CSS property I can add that makes widget resize the container that houses it? tx

One other note... I have a modified request for an additional day for a HomeAway reservation. I have modified the dates to include the extra day. I have updated the 'charges.' Will that automatically trigger the additional expense to be charged to the guest, or do I have other required actions?

I have a summer season with specific days of the week allowed for check-in/check-out. I always set spot rates or use the rate calendar. When I've checked my OR web site, VRBO and AirBnB the check-in/check-out days are correct. Easiest thing to do is test it like crazy by trying to make reservations on whatever sites you use.