General Help and Questions

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Yep, you can do this with an optional surcharge that the guest can choose during the reservation process. More on that:

https://www.ownerrez.com/blog/add-ons-are-here--also-known-as-optional-surcharges
https://www.ownerrez.com/blog/enhanced-surcharges-discounts-and-add-ons

If they want something during their stay, there's no guest form for that currently. Instead, you'd edit the charges of the booking and then run a payment on the booking.

Yep, iCal is what you want here -- that will auto block off the calendars. We update every 30 minutes, channels tend to update several times a day but don't publish their schedules.

Each channel API integration also has its own separate method of updating calendars automatically, and those are up to the minute.

The limitation on Kaba is that you have to have your own Kaba account vs using an aggregator like A-Z Live or Secure Lodging Systems.

This is a limitation on the Kaba end. They don't provide accounts to smaller users but direct them to aggregators/resellers. And they are only able to grant access to an entire account, not to individual locks within it. So if you're sharing an account with others then you would have access to all of the locks in your account. If you have 10 or more locks they will help you break them out to your own account, but otherwise it's a sharing situation.

We're in talks with Kaba to see if there's a way round this -- either by them adding more permissioning or by us becoming a Kaba reseller and doing the permissions on our side, but no ETA on that yet.

We have 6 units not sure what PM mode means, will 6 be eligible?

Looks like the Kaba interface is only in PM mode with 10+ units? Any chance those of us with only 1 or 2 units will be able to get in on the act? Would make life so much easier. Thanks!

I'd like to offer my guests the option to buy extra items (t-shirt or coffee mug, for example) and/or an extra experience (the romance basket, for ex) during their booking process. Is it possible to "upsell" items during their booking?

there is a setting on these sites that allows you to sync with other sites to avoid this. But it might be iCal, but should eliminate most problems. I think Booking.com has it too.

I only have three units, so I need to use the channel bridge for syncing with vrbo.

I'm ready to add one of my units on airbnb, will the ical links that do the calendar syncing allow me to somehow block vrbo if a new rental happens on airbnb, or the reverse where I block airbnb if one rents on vrbo?

Or am I stuck needing to do this manually, which means if a booking happens when I'm on a plane or away from a computer I can get double booked?

Hey Chris Thanks for the quick response. I was getting Error Importing Payments. After trying a few times, and relogging into VRBO it looks like that fixed the issue.

Hello,

Is there a way to set it up so the owner statement is emailed to two owners (two different email addresses)?

Thank you!

Daniel

Yep, that field is built for telling guests which days are available to be booked, not for staff to see days that are blocked.

Have you considered giving the cleaners portal access accounts so they can see the calendar directly? https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/portal-access -- that may solve a lot of these problems by letting them view exactly what's going on, and let you send a bit less on the notification email, perhaps just one a few days before arrival that says "hey be careful there's a same day turn here."

Not currently, quotes are first come first served. It is on our list.

What is the error you're getting? If you log out of VRBO and clear your browser cookies/cache, then log back in and run channel bridge, does it work?

I was able to use channel bridge import from VRBO successfully in the past. However, I am getting Error today. I have multiple properties as well.

Good Day,

I have several listings on VRBO/Airbnb - when i do the Channel Bridge connection and pull in bookings from a certain date, it doesn't look like all of them are coming through. Is there a place I may have missed the link for each property?

Also, it wasn't clear to me, but it states I should go in weekly and download bookings. Isn't that being done automatically?

Once I get API set up, is this all a moot point?

Lots of questions... newbie!

My new cleaner wants to be alerted when a new booking creates "back to back" cleanings.

I don't think I can do this with existing OR custom fields in my normal new booking alert email, because the "Available Adjacent Nights" field does the opposite of what I need. That field has no content when there is no gap, it only has content when there are >0 adjacent nights.

I think a new field is needed that will have text like this:
- This booking DOES NOT require back to back cleaning.
- This booking requires back to back cleaning on arrival 7/4/2018
- This booking requires back to back cleaning on departure 7/8/2018
- This booking requires back to back cleanings on arrival 7/4/2018 and departure 7/8/2018

I see that I could create a trigger based on no gap, but that means I have to send up to three emails to my cleaner for new bookings
1) the new booking created alert that states the dates
2) if no gap prior to booking
3) if no gap following booking

I don't think I can combine 2 & 3 into a single email because the cleaner wouldn't be told where the no gap exists (prior or following or both)

Am I missing some easier way to implement this with existing OR triggers/custom fields?

Is there any way to have a choice to block calendar dates when you send out a quote??

Depending on where you are, you may be allowed to charge a fee for credit card payments (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma and Texas—and Puerto Rico prohibit passing these fees on to customers). My guests are mostly check payments but I offer credit card at an additional 3%. Owner Rez let's you automatically add a surcharge if the guest chooses credit card as the payment option. On the flip side, if you are in one of those states you are still allowed to offer a discount for other payment methods. In this case you could raise your rates about 3% and then offer a 3% discount for check payments.

Thank you so much!! Very helpful.

Airbnb's built-in "smart pricing" is pretty bad. I do not recommend using it. If you do use it, make sure your minimum amount is set pretty high or they will end up hitting it frequently.

FYI - on those "rule sets"... If you use Channel Bridge to push rates, we create those rule sets for you on the fly so that min. night rules are set to match OwnerRez over the course of the year. This includes where rules change for seasons or gaps.

Our upcoming API integration with Airbnb will do this automatically. No need for Channel Bridge pushes at that point.

RemoteLock themselves also have a time-based lock that does not require internet access or paying the monthly subscription. However... be careful. I've been burned personally on one of their models and started switching back to eRL.

Yep, it's built in to watch and check for the live key on purpose. We've talked about allowing test keys but it creates foot-guns where the user might accidentally keep test mode on after taking bookings. Then, because test mode is on, the booking money would not actually flow to your account. So we've stopped it from doing that.

So how to test? We recommend using your real credit card to do a booking. Create a quote and send it to yourself as a pretend guest, open it online, read every page as you proceed, see what needs to be changed and then actually book it. After booking, go into the booking on the control panel side > Transactions > Payment > Void and Delete to stop the payment from settling. Then cancel the booking.

Great job! Love to hear it. 🏋❤️️

Yes, you can accept checks and you can also surface that as an option online for quotes or Book Now on your website. Go to Settings > Payment Methods and scroll down to the bottom and connect a Check method. This will let you fill in where to send the check, instructions, etc. Then notice on the property rules, that you set how many days in advance the booking has to be to accept checks. This is important because if it's a last minute booking, you may not want to accept checks.

Thanks for helping with great information, BlueMtnCabin!

Tracy, here is a support article that was specifically written for this issue:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/capture-additional-fields-on-checkout-quote-acceptance

You create custom fields that are applicable to "Booking" and they are shown on check out form. Like I have custom fields with instructions to enter guest's initials to agree to something, or to enter their age. These are shown on checkout form before they proceed to sign the rental agreement. They must be filled in or they cannot proceed.

Good Day,

I am old school and have lots of guests who pay by check thus keeping my payment processing fees down. I would still like to encourage all guests to pay via check and don't know if there is a way to do this since i also accept paypal. Any tips on how to handle this?

Thank you.

Good day,

I need to get certain non standard information from every guest and prior to using OR it was on my emailed rental agreement. Is there a place on the Rental Agreement where I can have the guest answer some questions - for example, whether they will be renting a vehicle and need a parking pass plus a few others?

I have searched but can not find this answer. Thanks in advance.

I have been trying to use the stripe test key to ensure pricing and functionality is working properly, but the system knows I am trying to use the test key and won't let me do it :-( Any help would be great! Thank you.