General Help and Questions

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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.

Hello,

When entering spot rates to override the seasonal or recurring rates set for a property, I see that we are able to choose the number of minimum nights required for that spot rate.

My question is if this spot rate is during a season when we have a limitation on the arrival & departure days, what happens to the dates that use the spot rates? Are the arrival/departure limitations still in force or not, since we are not able to select those options when creating the spot rate?

For example, for three of our properties we have a "Spring Break" season (March 1, 2020 - April 17, 2020) we have a Saturday - Saturday (7 night) requirement. Guests must arrive on Saturdays and depart on Saturdays.

When I enter spot rates during this season, I am able to enter 7 nights as the minimum night requirement, but not the Sat-Sat requirement. Will that requirement remain since these dates fall within the season that requires it?

If you use a windows computer you can hit win-shift-s (in order, holding them all down) and it should give you a way to create a screen shot of the calendar. Then you should be able to paste it into an email. Will be faster than creating a pdf file.

I am very new to this system. So far I just made PDF of each month for the property in question and sent the PDF to my cleaners. I guess I can keep doing this. Still better than texting the dates.

I sent the iCal links just today to my two different cleaners and I suspect the same results that you mention. Some people keep their lives simple and don't want everything electronically. We'll see how they do.

None of those options work well in my opinion. It’s too hard to explain to people to use an iCal link. I did it with 4 different people and exactly zero figured it out from my excellent ;-) instructions.

What cleaners typically appreciate is a table listing all upcoming and future booked dates in a calendar format, and a table of cleaning dates plus an indication about whether it’s going to be a back to back, or same day turnover where time is limited.

There are other desirable details such a length of upcoming stay and person count but that’s just a bonus.

Currently OR doesn’t give any way to create such a report. Which in my opinion leads to a risk of missed cleanings. OR has no way to aggregate multiple bookings into a triggerable email template.

I currently use a cleaner who refuses to use a cleaning app like resortclean. So as a workaround I have to manually maintain such a table and keep resending it along with screenshots of the ribbon calendar.

In the past I’ve had a cleaner who maintained her own calendar and all I needed to do was send her triggered emails at booking create and also at change or cancel. But she was very technically astute.

Thank you.

No, only the Portal Access requires the premium Property Manager feature.

You can read more about the various options for communicating with cleaners here:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/bookings-display-for-cleaners

Do I need a premium Property Manager account to share calendars and bookings with my cleaners?

Perfect. At least I know I am doing the right thing with that process. If I need modifications, I will need to let the guests know that modifications occur after booking.

If you're API integrated, VRBO doesn't currently support quoting. Instead, have the guest book at the current prices and then alter the charges afterward. Since it's a VRBO API integrated booking, you'll be able to manage the charges and payments directly in OwnerRez.

Quoting is one of the biggest requested features for API and VRBO is working on it, but we don't have an ETA on that yet.

Hi, Joe:

You can modify a quote in VRBO. See if this helps - https://help.vrbo.com/articles/How-do-I-edit-a-quote

The VRBO is not yet visible in OwnerRez because it has not been booked. It has not been booked because I need to add a $50 early arrival option. I can't add to the quote in VRBO or OwnerRez. What is the best way to deal with this?

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/expedia-ceo-and-cfo-ousted-amid-disagreement-with-board-on-strategy-stock-rallies-2019-12-04

I would guess it has some similar feature, but I do not think eco setting is what I want. Also nests do not work with zoned systems, to my knowledge - Honeywell does (zoned system is when there is one unit but it is zoned with separate thermostats for different floors). I have 3 stories in one of my cabins, and one of the units is zoned across 2 floors (the other unit is dedicated to the 3rd floor). I do not think nests do that.

I am not familiar with the Honeywell. We use Nest and can set it so that when no one is in the house the thermostat knows and reverts to an Eco mode that keeps the temperature within whatever bounds you set. No need to monitor. It happens automatically. It's also nice for those days when the guests leave at 10 in the morning and don't come back until 8 that night. The thermostat knows there's no activity and switches to Eco. Does Honeywell have a product that will do that?

The headline is used on the hosted website as a headline if it is set.

The short description is used for multi property websites in search results, and for Airbnb listings with API channel integrations, but the short description isn't used anywhere on the single property hosted website.

Well, it's a matter of whether the triggering event has the information for that type of fields. If you have a Refund type template, say, then you can't fire it on a Booking type trigger like "booking created". Because there would be no Refund available in that context to render into the template.

Booking is the standard type with most of the fields you'll use and then the others are relevant to specific items like payments/refunds etc. and add fields related to those specific things.

I haven't seen this discussion before, but I'll add some thoughts.

First off, I think Valerie's approach is probably going to work the best (ignoring the human husband part) for most folks. Fully automating this in a reliable way will be rather complicated, and worst of all will not be "set and forget", you'll have to monitor it and deal with issues when things stop working.

The original post was about a Honeywell 9000 thermostat, and it seems that they have an ability to register the thermostat (meaning make it connect to the internet using wifi) and then an app that should show current settings of all registered thermostats. So Valerie's approach of sending an email to someone can actually work... Send the email to yourself, and then at your convenience bring up the app on your phone and adjust the settings. This should be as reliable as the manufacturer's app, and not a huge inconvenience to the owner unless we're talking more than just a few units. Obviously if you manage 10 units this will quickly become a huge annoyance and you'd want a more fully automated solution.

I don't have specific suggestions about a thermostat manufacturer, but for anyone wanting to fully automate this you'll want to start by finding a thermostat that allows remote programming through something called webhooks. Or through a dedicated API, but in general webhooks should be much easier to get working if you don't have the software skill to write software to an API. I really don't know if there are many options (maybe zero) that would be accessible to anyone except for somebody with fairly deep software skills. I've done some quick searching online and there definitely are groups of people talking about how to do this, but they are all very technical approaches, some using plugins and special software.

Lastly, I think I've posted elsewhere in this forum about door sensors where I've described how to use IFTTT and webhooks, but if anyone is interested in more details I recently wrote up a word document that I could send. Just text your email and ask for it to 512 913 8609 (my cell) and I'll send it along. Or ask questions here... My document doesn't address remotely controlling thermostats, but it does show how you can install cheap door sensors (<$20) which will send you an email (or a webhook) using IFTTT. And they run off of batteries that should last >6 months and do not require any kind of a hub. They directly connect to the manufacturer's website, and from there you can access open/close history and do other interesting things.

You'll find this table useful:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/channel-management-api-integrations-property-field-differences