General Help and Questions

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Hi Renee,

You should be able to click into the Template and corresponding Trigger from the columns in the Trigger Forecast. Can you take a look at those, as well as any bookings in question, and see if those specific Triggers on the Forecast actually apply to those bookings?

For example, I clicked into one of those bookings and noticed it was a Vrbo booking. The Trigger in question was an email Trigger that excludes Airbnb and Vrbo from the listing site applicability. Looks like you have some similarly named email and channel Templates that are both set to fire off around the same time. I believe the "will not run" you're seeing on the forecast may be emails whose Triggers do not apply to the channel your guest booked on, while the ones that sent successfully on the booking were channel messages that did apply.

If you notice any that really don't make sense, please write us an email at help@ownerrez.com so we can take a closer look. Providing ORB#s and screenshots is always helpful!

I have in my trigger forecast, messages that say they're not going to send, but are actually being sent and when I go to the profiles messages, the system says they will send.

Why is the forecast not showing accurately?

Hi Amy,

I'd recommend emailing in to our helpdesk via help@OwnerRez.com with example bookings of this occurring so we can take a look at your specific situation together.

~Caleb

We released a Listing Site filter on custom export iCals today that can be used to get around this for Vrbo (and if needed for other channels).

Katie, did you ever figure out why your security deposits are showing up as $0.00 in your rental contracts? Mine are doing the same thing and I have security deposits entered for every property.

Perhaps we should keep this conversation focused on OwnerRez and not veer off into political talking points. Just a thought.

As Ken said, OwnerRez won't be canceling anything for you.  It's up to you to figure out what the laws are, whether you are obliged to comply, and whether enforcement is a thing or not.

Or, you could talk to a lawyer, who would actually know whether you even have a nexus with visitors from California, either from a legal and a practical point of view. I certainly don't comply with all the European, Japanese, or Korean rules, if there are any, even though I have plenty of visitors from those regions.  Why? Because I don't care, and the reason I don't care is that the Belgians aren't going to sent their police to the Mojave Desert to enforce whatever rules they have. I just don't care about them because they have no teeth, and it therefore doesn't matter in the least to me whether the Belgians think I have a nexus or not.

I'm fairly certain (though talk to a lawyer) that California considers its nexus to be those people who come to visit California, not Californians who visit other states -- where their laws apply. Ken isn't going to give you that answer because he doesn't want to get the OwnerRez legal department involved -- he's giving you the only answer he can that doesn't introduce OwnerRez to potential liability for answering questions that you should be asking your lawyer.

More to the point is what your OTAs are going to do. They're going to have their lawyers opine, and then they'll implement a system that protects them. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that if you're a host in California, Airbnb is going to allow guests to cancel within the first 24 hours of their booking, and if you're not from California, they're not. Same for Vrbo and the rest of them.

I have had many thousands of bookings, mostly very short. I've had very few cancelations within the first 24 hours, so it just isn't going to be much of an issue.  Also, I appreciate this policy when I have made a mistake booking a flight, or a hotel. It's common throughout the hospitality industry and I don't mind it, if it's that quick my calendar really isn't compromised at all, and I'm fairly certain to get another booking to make up for it.

From a practical perspective this law really isn't significant and all the notifications from Vrbo and others are just CYA behavior from their lawyers.

Kevin,  Thank you for your response.  Should OwnerRez decide to implement this structure no damage billing is billing or CA try to extend this mandate to those renting to Californians, I'd prefer not renting to Californians over complying with CA bill 537.  The 24-hour, free cancelation doesn't work we are not motel operators that book 50% of their stays the same day.

Perhaps CA legislators should concentrate on homelessness, businesses, and people fleeing their state instead of how to format an invoice.  

Is Ownerrz going to change how they display and manage pricing our hosted wesbites to comply with AB 537 to ensure all fees are transparent and included in advertised prices? 

Sure, these SMS Overview docs and video should provide a lot of that:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/sms-overview

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/sms-messaging-overview

Please feel free to ask any remaining specific questions you may have.

Hello, I can only seem to find pricing on the texting module, but want to find more about what features it offers before signing up for it.  Is there a tutorial or some other description of that service and benefits.  Thanks

Yes, you are correct - the card is tied to the booking, not to the guest.

OK - it's not between guests, same guest different property.

I thought the card would be tied to the guest's profile so if they book a different property it follows them.

But that is NOT the case, correct?

Yes, that's correct - for security reasons, credit card information cannot be ported between guests or bookings.

Hello

I have 2 properties, one is our vacation rental and the other I use for a car rental that is offered with our VR. If a guest pays us directly for one property and then we create a booking in the other property, why doesn't the CC stay connected?

I cannot use the CC linked to property A with their booking on property B

Ken,

Regarding question #1 ad-hoc responses.  When i go to email history, OwnerRez shows all forms of communication, email, channel, SMS and even other channels.   when I go to a conversation my options are limited. 

I'd like to pay my channels their finding fees and start to treat guests as my guests and not Booking.com guests as soon as possible.   Thus once provided the email after the renters rental agreement is assigned.  I'd communicate with the guest directly.

I'm anxious to see your upcoming new and improved email support package.

Ken,  

Thank you.   That begins to make for a bit of a massive trigger library.  When I have to build separate triggers to schedule delivery of materials for last-minute bookings and those that have booked long in advance, and possibly those falling in the middle.   It would be nice to have more of an "if then else" structure.  However, while not eloquent your solution will work.

thanks again,

ed

would this address have changed when OR took over the sync or would it have always been like this?

This would have not changed with an active API connection and would have stayed the same, for two reasons:

1. The OwnerRez API integration with Booking.com is not as comprehensive as most of our other API connections, so, there are a great many data elements that would be controlled by OwnerRez on other API connections with other channels, but not with Booking.com at the moment.  This is planned for the future.

2. However, in the specific case of property addresses, generally the listing channels do not allow OwnerRez to make changes to address information after the property has been initially set up by whatever means.  So even with Airbnb and Vrbo, you have to reach out to their own tech support to get addresses updated if necessary.

Hi

A quick question about location to the experts on here.

I recently took on a new client who had a property already listed on Airbnb, Booking.com and VRBO (through uplisting). I imported the listing from Airbnb and then set up the account on OR. Then I connected to Booking.com and VRBO.

They have complained that the address on Booking.com showed the property in the wrong location. The address was correct in OR and the geolocation was correct. The address was correct in Booking.com, but in the description text it said 'located in London' (it's located in Windsor).

When they mentioned it I got it changed by booking.com within 6 hours.

What I want to know is would this address have changed when OR took over the sync or would it have always been like this?

Thanks for any info.

1) After a guest supplies their email, why am I often limited to Channel and SMS for a response?  In the example below I would expect 3 options:  email, channel or SMS. 

Normally OwnerRez is not used to send ad-hoc emails directly to guests - you'd customarily do that from your own email client.  OwnerRez generally sends automatic emails from templates.  We are working towards a unified inbox system that will add more functionality in this area.

2) I send a welcome letter to guests at booking.   Since some people book months in advance, I also send that same letter out again 5 days before arrival so that the guest doesn't call me asking the multitude of questions that are all covered in the welcome document that they forgot they were sent 3 months ago.   A same-day booking is subject to receiving duplicate emails.   Is it possible to restrict the trigger such that if there arent 5 days until the stay that trigger is not activated?  

Sure, you can add that as a condition to the trigger:

3) I'd like to delay some communications so that the guest doesn't get clobbered with several emails at once.  I send:  a) Request for signature on OR T&C condition form which also captures the guest's direct email, b) A plain text welcome letter, c) A very pretty PDF welcome letter d) a note informing them this is contactless entry and confirm their entry code.  I was sending items after the plain welcome letter with a day or 2 delay; HOWEVER, that doesn't work for same-day bookings.  How can I accelerate the delivery if the arrival is going to happen before a delay would occur?      THIS QUESTION is similar to Question 2 except instead of wanting to cancel an email due to lack of time, I'd like to assure that an email is sent.

1. Using the condition similar to what I described above, set your current triggers to not send for last-minute bookings.

2. Set up a separate set of triggers only for last minute bookings, sending the appropriate templates as needed.

I have a few questions   

1) After a guest supplies their email, why am I often limited to Channel and SMS for a response?  In the example below I would expect 3 options:  email, channel or SMS. 

2) I send a welcome letter to guests at booking.   Since some people book months in advance, I also send that same letter out again 5 days before arrival so that the guest doesn't call me asking the multitude of questions that are all covered in the welcome document that they forgot they were sent 3 months ago.   A same-day booking is subject to receiving duplicate emails.   Is it possible to restrict the trigger such that if there arent 5 days until the stay that trigger is not activated?  

3) I'd like to delay some communications so that the guest doesn't get clobbered with several emails at once.  I send:  a) Request for signature on OR T&C condition form which also captures the guest's direct email, b) A plain text welcome letter, c) A very pretty PDF welcome letter d) a note informing them this is contactless entry and confirm their entry code.  I was sending items after the plain welcome letter with a day or 2 delay; HOWEVER, that doesn't work for same-day bookings.  How can I accelerate the delivery if the arrival is going to happen before a delay would occur?      THIS QUESTION is similar to Question 2 except instead of wanting to cancel an email due to lack of time, I'd like to assure that an email is sent.

thanks

ed

Hi Ken!

UPDATE: Thank you so much for assisting with this situation! 

The syncing issue is resolved and all looks great (with ABB) now that my listing has been reinstated. (still waiting for the Guest Favorite designation tho)... that went away once ABB reinstated and resisted the property. 

At any rate, the calendar is sync'd up and all is good. RESOLVED! 

Tracy :) 

Thank you Ken. I sent an email already to the Help Desk... just unsure which avenue would get a fast response (or something easy that I can take care of...) I'll send the screenshots over on my original ticket. 

Please write in to the Helpdesk with screenshots of what isn't syncing correctly, so we can investigate further.  A full resync should not be necessary, but won't hurt and might help.

Under API channel, it's showing this: Disabled, yet active. 

Forgive me, I'm a relatively new OwnerRez user, and this ABB delisting comes as a complete surprise, and just want to make sure all is back to functioning normally after being "offline" for 4 days. 

(so if you could direct me on how to fix this, that would be amazing). 

Hi Ken, 

Already checked API connection... says it's valid. Did LQI as well, no errors (except for photo quality). 

Any other suggestions?!? Should I choose to "trigger full sync" to get all back in line? 

Tracy

If Airbnb disabled your account, that likely also deauthorized the connection in OwnerRez.  When they re-enabled the Airbnb account, that woudn't necessarily also reauthorize the OwnerRez connection.  I'd suggest checking your OwnerRez account, and your Airbnb API connection, for errors.

**Update: ABB finally reinstated our listing** but now, calendar is not syncing with OR... I've turned off Instant Booking for the moment in ABB, since during this ABB delisting, we received (2) VRBO reservations (it's been over 1 hour as reactivated ABB listing, calendar still not syncing with the (2) new Rez's). 

Please take a look at this related Forum thread:

https://www.ownerrez.com/forums/general-help/how-to-set-up-template-to-be-sent-from-another-member-of-our-team

I think you'll find useful solutions there.  If not, please write in to our Helpdesk with specific details for assistance.

Hi, 

I have a trigger sending guests our Check-In Instructions email a couple weeks before arrival.  I want the message to come from the email of our Guest Host, however, not from our standard Reservations email, so that if a guest replies to the email it goes to our Guest Host and not to our reservations team.   (The guest host email is on the same verified domain as our reservations email.)

Does OR support using a second email address or is there a workaround?

Thanks. 

Hello everyone, 

On Saturday night, I received an email from AirBnB, titled "Your listing will be removed" stating "This listing appears to be a duplicate of "James McCool House" which had recent issues. Because creating a duplicate of a listing with reported issues goes against our policies, your listing will be removed from AirBnB on July 15th, 2024". 

I immediately contacted ABB customer service line for clarification as to where this message is coming from, and what "duplicate listing" they are referring to. As of today, after speaking with 6 customer service representatives (the latest one, today, is supposedly part of the "escalation team"), my listing has now been "paused" since Sunday and we are not showing in the guest search, and cannot take any new reservations from new guests (I currently have 4 upcoming booked reservations with ABB, the soonest is this coming Friday, which ABB states they will "allow" me to keep and honor those reservations!)

The current ABB listing for my home has (5) 5-star reviews, and "Guest Favorite" badge, earned since listing in January 2024. The old listing (previous property manager, who we fired in January 2024, which is when I, as the owner of the home, started managing my own property and created the new ABB listing), also had Guest Favorite badge, and had and currently still has, Superhost status. 

ABB is claiming we have negative guest reviews (1-star reviews) which we don't, and even the old listing, we had 70+ reviews, and I believe there was (1) review from over 1 year ago that complained about 4th of July fireworks, and gave us 1-star for the noise... Again, we had Guest Favorite badge as of January 2024 at time of transition between old mgr and myself starting the new listing. (ABB refused to remove the 1-star review for 4th of July noise).

ABB then shifted gears and was claiming we have been associated with the duplicate listing that has many cancelations!  Under the previous manager, as she has Superhost status (and still does) and if she had too many Host-instigated cancelations, she wouldn't have "Superhost" status. 

I've had the run around from 6 of their customer service representatives, 2 so far have told me "there's nothing they can do, as we see you associated with this duplicate listing". 

I've asked each of them to send PROOF of what they are telling me (1-star reviews, reported issues, excessive cancelation, duplicate listing), and none of them can see any of this on their end, or send me anything that supports this claim. 

All the while, my property is officially "paused" from taking any new reservations (which hurts me as Host, and ABB as the host website!). Our home receives about 50% of our bookings from ABB, and the other 50% from VRBO. We currently have a hosted website thru OR, but yet to receive any direct bookings (we are working on this actively). 

A few online STR forums state similar experiences from other hosts with ABB, including a few that are going thru this same situation, completely unfounded. One fellow Host said the only way their properties were reinstated after similar situation, is they had a "friend of a friend" that held a higher level position at ABB and was able to correct, after SEVERAL weeks of being "paused" and lost revenue. 

Does anyone have a higher level contact at ABB? I'm just getting started with my hosting career (self managing my own property) and have 2 more properties that are coming on board later this year after our busy season is finished. I don't want this issue to plague any of the new houses coming on board (both of which are currently with this old property manager we fired...)

Any assistance or feedback would be greatly appreciated! Frustrated, upset and feeling helpless, in Walla Walla, WA.