General Help and Questions

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Setting up a specific time for emails to be sent to guests? 8 replies

BlueMtnCabins
Nov 13, 2019 11:42 AM
Joined Jun, 2016 1159 posts

I think Chris explained before that emails are set to be sent at most convenient time once a day. I think it is early wee hours of the morning. So you can set day but not time.

Setting up a specific time for emails to be sent to guests? 8 replies

Brendan C
Nov 13, 2019 11:39 AM
Joined Nov, 2019 24 posts

Hi Everyone,

Is there a way I can set a specific time for emails to guests to be sent? For instance I would like the arrival email to be sent at 10:00am the day before check in. I only see the option for 1 day before check-in, but I can't see a time. If not, what time do these emails get sent if I choose day before check-in?

Thanks

Can email templates be sent to more than one email address? 2 replies

Chris Hynes
Nov 13, 2019 7:06 AM
OR Team Member Joined Oct, 2012 1403 posts

@BlueMtn - Yep, that's one way.

@Valerie - You can also do a TO on the template itself with a semicolon between each email address if you want to add additional recipients not in a merge field.

Can email templates be sent to more than one email address? 2 replies

BlueMtnCabins
Nov 12, 2019 8:16 PM
Joined Jun, 2016 1159 posts

whomever is entered as your guest contacts (can be multiple emails)_ those will receive templated triggered emails.

Can email templates be sent to more than one email address? 2 replies

Valerie R
Nov 11, 2019 11:58 AM
Joined Sep, 2019 122 posts

I've searched through the documents for Email templates but it does not address my question.....

Can I enter more than one email address in a template to send the message to? If so, how should it be formatted, with a comma between each, a semi-colon or ????

Interesting from homeaway forum ... Expanded network 4 replies

BlueMtnCabins
Nov 11, 2019 8:10 AM
Joined Jun, 2016 1159 posts

this been around for a while. as someone above says, useless. All these expedia-like sites are geared for traveler with exact dates (like a business traveler) who wants to click and book based on availability alone, not property. Traveler will not even see your property if open dates do not match exactly to his search. which is practically useless in VR arena. It is not how people search and choose homes fo vacation. They browse, compare, etc. Made impossible by BDC or expedia. I get maybe 1-2 bookings marked as "expedia" but that is about it.

Owner Rez Website -- about to go live but have a question 1 reply

Ken T
Nov 9, 2019 12:53 PM
OR Team Member Joined Aug, 2019 1704 posts

Mostly, the content of your Hosted Website (live or otherwise) is driven by the information you've entered for your Properties - photos, descriptions, etc. So if you add new photos to a Property in OwnerRez, they'll automatically appear on the page for that property in your Hosted Website without you having to do anything further.

Beyond that, you can add new custom pages and, to some extent, edit and add content to some of the automatically included pages, by clicking on them in the table of pages in your Hosted Website settings.

If you need more specifics, send us a support request to help@ownerreservations.com and we can respond with example screenshots from your account.

Owner Rez Website -- about to go live but have a question 1 reply

Andree M
Nov 8, 2019 6:59 PM
Joined Nov, 2018 13 posts

Working on our website through Owner Rez and getting ready to go live. Getting excited!!
Question, when you go live what is the process to make changes to your live site?

Is there a button or process so you can change a price, picture, etc.?

Don't see any steps for editing a live site

Thanks,
Andree

Interesting from homeaway forum ... Expanded network 4 replies

Erika S
Nov 8, 2019 3:25 AM
Joined Nov, 2019 1 post

Interesting post. I prefer renting houses instead of staying at the hotels. And of course, I use home away services (I was lucky to find a good list on https://travelsites.com/homeaway/). Frankly speaking, I haven't tried HomeAway as I know about several cases when people faced issues. But maybe I should change my mind. Anyway, thanks for this information, I'll check it out!

Is there a report that shows "Fees" charged per booking? 1 reply

Chris Hynes
Nov 7, 2019 8:10 PM
OR Team Member Joined Oct, 2012 1403 posts

There are two reports with this info:

#1 - Listing Site Fees report. That shows both host and guest fees, line by line.

#2 - Line Item Pivot report. That shows the host fees plus all other surcharges and a bunch of other info, one row per booking.

Is there a report that shows "Fees" charged per booking? 1 reply

Val Rogers
Nov 7, 2019 10:29 AM
Joined Oct, 2016 34 posts

I am looking for a report that will show any "fee" entered in the Transactions section of a booking:

Fees
Fees charged to you (not the guest) by the listing site or payment processor. Includes credit card fees, processing fees, host fees, commissions, etc.

Which report should I use?

Disentangling from BDC 5 replies

BlueMtnCabins
Nov 6, 2019 7:54 PM
Joined Jun, 2016 1159 posts

Ken T said:

We've deactivated the connection on the OR side. It'll show as Pending Activation - and it can just sit there forever, it won't hurt anything and it isn't doing anything. Sorry you had those problems, we do seem to have a lot of complaints about Booking.com. But then, they seem to work fine for other people in other markets, so who knows.

thank you. BDC was a complete dud.

Ribbon calendar still coming up as October 5 replies

Ken T
Nov 6, 2019 4:53 PM
OR Team Member Joined Aug, 2019 1704 posts

Just delete the # and everything after it, and make what's left your bookmark. Thereafter, you will always be taken to "now", whenever that is.

Ribbon calendar still coming up as October 5 replies

Cheryl R.
Nov 6, 2019 4:47 PM
Joined Jan, 2018 23 posts

https://app.ownerrez.com/bookings#month:10/year:2019 Yes, I see now where the month is included in it. How do I switch it to November. Never had to do that before. It always did it automatically.

Possible to push only minimum night rates to VRBO? 10 replies

Ken T
Nov 6, 2019 3:19 PM
OR Team Member Joined Aug, 2019 1704 posts

Actually, we do have the ability to import spot rates from an Excel spreadsheet, which might indeed be a lot easier for you. It's under Tools > Import/Export.

For the rest, I'm opening a ticket for you and we can work through it there.

Ribbon calendar still coming up as October 5 replies

Ken T
Nov 6, 2019 3:17 PM
OR Team Member Joined Aug, 2019 1704 posts

How do you log on to OwnerRez? Do you have a bookmark in your browser, on your desktop, or some such?

If so, then can you copy the URL in your browser and paste it in a message here? That way we can see if the month is included in it.

Disentangling from BDC 5 replies

Ken T
Nov 6, 2019 3:16 PM
OR Team Member Joined Aug, 2019 1704 posts

We've deactivated the connection on the OR side. It'll show as Pending Activation - and it can just sit there forever, it won't hurt anything and it isn't doing anything. Sorry you had those problems, we do seem to have a lot of complaints about Booking.com. But then, they seem to work fine for other people in other markets, so who knows.

Possible to push only minimum night rates to VRBO? 10 replies

Rich S
Nov 6, 2019 10:34 AM
Joined Dec, 2018 302 posts

Ken,

I looked at the Rate Calendar and it looks like a pretty simplistic and maybe dangerous tool. I tried changing a single date's rate and found that it silently replaced my min nights with a default that's probably set somewhere. And then when I tried changing just the min nights and left the rate blank it silently changed the rate to zero. I can't imagine using a software implementation that doesn't alert me to making dumb changes like zeroing out rates.

There also doesn't seem to be any way to do bulk changes. So sure I could change a single date here or there, but I'm generally looking at changing a whole month's rates and that's much easier to do in a spreadsheet where I can still see that old rates while I create new rates, or use a formula to reduce all rates by 30%. Seems to me the Rate Calendar isn't very suitable, at least not from the perspective I'm coming from.

To answer your question, I don't really know if I'm using Channel Bridge to push rates. I don't think I am, I view channel bridge as the chrome extension only, and only for import. Is it used under the covers when I push spot rates back to VRBO?

Some specific questions
Q1. Is the Rate Calendar in any way related to spot rates? I imagine that when I import spot rates they override anything else, and the Rate Calendar will then show my spot rates. Is that correct?

Q2. If I've changed rates in VRBO is there a way to
a) sync rates and min nights from VRBO to OR, so that OR is an exact copy?
(update - I see in spot rates the ability to import from channel, does that overwrite spot rates? And for what period?)
b) and then export rates/min nights from OR to excel so that I have an accurate record in a spreadsheet?


Ultimately I need several things:
- accurate records of rates I've set in the past, so that in future years I have a good starting point.
- ability to bulk change rates and min nights, ideally by doing it with OR and pushing to vrbo and airbnb (at least)
- ability to quickly tweak rates and min nights fully within OR, but to not lose the ability to revert to spreadsheet import to OR then push
- work on varying time ranges. Sometimes I'm focused on just a given month, sometimes a season, and sometimes a year.

Ribbon calendar still coming up as October 5 replies

Cheryl R.
Nov 6, 2019 7:52 AM
Joined Jan, 2018 23 posts

Chris- not 100% sure I understand what you are saying, but I checked my bookmarks and don't see anything with an October date in it. Can you tell me where to look for this?

Ribbon calendar still coming up as October 5 replies

Chris Hynes
Nov 6, 2019 7:40 AM
OR Team Member Joined Oct, 2012 1403 posts

This is likely because you have bookmarked a URL that includes an October date in it. If you're using a bookmark or other saved link, make sure that it reads just:

https://app.ownerrez.com/bookings?view=ribbon

To go directly to the ribbon view for the current month.

Ribbon calendar still coming up as October 5 replies

Cheryl R.
Nov 6, 2019 6:51 AM
Joined Jan, 2018 23 posts

Morning- since November 1, when I log on to Owner Rez, my ribbon calendar is still opening in October instead of November. Not a huge deal, but I would prefer it to open to November. Anyone out there know an easy fix?

Possible to push only minimum night rates to VRBO? 10 replies

Ken T
Nov 4, 2019 1:40 PM
OR Team Member Joined Aug, 2019 1704 posts

If you are using Channel Bridge to push rates, it's all or nothing. There isn't a way to selectively push rates. Given that, your suggested approach is the best one - import spots, update your min nights, push out.

You might also find this easier using the Rate Calendar, under Tools. Generally it's best to make changes in OwnerRez, and then push from there.

Possible to push only minimum night rates to VRBO? 10 replies

Rich S
Nov 4, 2019 10:33 AM
Joined Dec, 2018 302 posts

I only want to update min nights, and I think I've manually changed some rates on VRBO, what's my best approach here? Do I first need to update the spot rates (nightly) to whatever is on vrbo and then overwrite them while adding in the min nights column?

Disentangling from BDC 5 replies

BlueMtnCabins
Nov 3, 2019 12:55 PM
Joined Jun, 2016 1159 posts

After a 1+ year and 3 properties (initially 2), that platform is a total dud. I used channel manager, and even with that was exceedingly hard.
1)One of my properties was on my own (ownerrez ) payments. My settings were 60 days no cancellation.
Initially BDC would pass CC info to channel manager at time of booking, channel manager validates and stores card on file.
If card not valid it would send guest email to update card.
If not done, it would cancel within 24 hrs.

Well BDC decided to change rules mid flight on my already existing property. They STOPPED sending CC info to channel .. channel expects card due to settings.. I am emailing and calling BDC.. mess goes on for 2 weeks. Until finally someone at BDC says that oh yeah, they will NOW only provide cc info 2 WEEKS prior to arrival. Great idea (NOT!). So if the card is bad, the reservation would have occupied my calendar all that time till 2 weeks prior to arrival??? Then CS says you can switch to BDC payments and they will validate the card. Great, but I am not able to - the dashboard says I am <<already>> on BDC payments (which I am not - I am on channel payments). They say they are looking into it (I guess still looking to this day). So property stuck neither here nor there and cannot be corrected.
2) My property 2 is on channel payments.
3) property 3 is on BDC payments.

I ask BDC - can we make it all the same, one way or another? apparently not with BDC. Coz there is some glitch. and they change settings on the fly do everything conflicts with everything now.

With all that torture, I maybe had 4 bookings that actually stayed in 1+ years among 3 properties. Not much for all that trouble. Add to that one bogus chargeback (renter claimed it was "fraud" after booking, sending me her ID and signing rental agreement - I guess she did not realize she could not cancel) and overly "slow" renters. The platform is HORRENDOUS, buggy, ever changing and UTTERLY unsuitable for vacation rentals. I cannot fathom how they can be #1 anywhere. FWIW

Disentangling from BDC 5 replies

BlueMtnCabins
Nov 3, 2019 12:39 PM
Joined Jun, 2016 1159 posts

I have disconnected on Bdc side, how do I disable on OR side? thnaks

Additional Charges 1 reply

Stacie S
Nov 3, 2019 9:58 AM
Joined Mar, 2019 24 posts

Found the answer!

Additional Charges 1 reply

Stacie S
Nov 2, 2019 8:51 PM
Joined Mar, 2019 24 posts

I want to be able to offer things like beach chair rentals and late check out as options for my guest. I know how to set that up as a surcharge where I can add it to their reservation...but is there a way that they can see it as an option they can chose to add when they are booking directly on the website?

chrome plugin for channel bridge is erratic 2 replies

Chris Hynes
Nov 2, 2019 6:06 PM
OR Team Member Joined Oct, 2012 1403 posts

This was caused by an update on VRBO's site and solved in Channel Bridge v 10.15.

default rental agreement 3 replies

Chris Hynes
Nov 2, 2019 6:05 PM
OR Team Member Joined Oct, 2012 1403 posts

Right now you've got a renter agreement template but the criteria is set to Listing Sites: None so it will never be applicable.

If you want to use that instead of the default, set it to Listing Sites: All on the criteria.

If you don't want an agreement signed at all, go to the Rules section of the property and set the Legal Agreement rule to "No agreement will be signed" -- looks like you already found this one.

Brief Overview of Spot Rates (import/view/manage/push to VRBO) 7 replies

Chris Hynes
Nov 2, 2019 6:03 PM
OR Team Member Joined Oct, 2012 1403 posts

VRBO no longer supports month rates -- instead they do length of stay discounts. Here's how to set that up: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/length-of-stay-discounts

When you're API connected, the updates will go over to VRBO within 15 minutes or so.