General Help and Questions

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I find your assessment borderline naive. When you start using a complex piece of software, it is your responsibility to research, understand and configure it to your needs. PriceLabs is like OwnerReservations. There was a lot of thought that went into setting OR up.

PriceLabs or any other dynamic pricer may or may not be present in your market. Did you determine that?
How did you determine your base price?
Did you deeply dig into the PriceLabs help and instructionals and use their support to optimize and configure it to your situation?
Do you truly understand prices for your market? Across all seasons and days?
Do you understand all the variables that go into pricing? events in your area or nearby?
Do you really think Airbnb pricing is reliable? It is roundly hated on many other forums, often cheapening listings just to generate commissions.
Do you understand how to use the min night optimization there also?
How do you know "bookings have dropped?" Do you understand yield management? Supply and Demand?
untrustable?? How in the world do you know?
the rates are different? of course they are!!! This is called dynamic pricing!!! This is not a science, sometimes max revenue is achieved at a lower price with higher occupancy or a higher price with a lower occupancy on a razor's edge - and the decision might be applied to similar properties the same day.

The user is going to be totally responsible for using it properly. Right now, heading in the wrong direction... Most people properly using correct dynamic pricing, that works in their market, will see a 5-30+% yield increase. And sometimes they will tweak the pricing if they know of the occasional huge event or anything that creates a surge in their area,

ok, my question above was "hijacked" a bit, so bringing them down again:

The burning question is:
...Realizing that each of these 4 sites have their own processes and methods and ways. Including how they communicate with clients
...Realizing that how or if they provide guest phone number and email can differ...
How does the various email templates (lease agreement/signature, collecting payment, security deposit, etc.) work with Booking.com, TA, VRBO, Airbnb?? Does it not work well or have issues with any of these 4 I might not know about?

Yep, HomeAway and VRBO are the same company and distribute back and forth to eachother. As for distribution to others like Expedia or CanadaStays, you'd have to ask them about the exact criteria for distribution. I found this article with a bit of info on the "Expanded Distribution Network: https://help.vrbo.com/articles/What-is-the-Expanded-Distribution-Network -- "The Expanded Distribution Network includes Expedia Distribution brands (Travelocity, CheapTickets, Orbitz, & Expedia), as well as Trivago, KAYAK, CandaStays, TravelMob and other affiliates that specialize in vacation rentals."

I know that they only distribute to Expedia if you've got instant book enabled. Yep, you'd set the properties in OwnerRez and then start pushing them over.

Also note that "HomeAway sites are meant to offer a "Whole Home" experience to travelers": https://help.vrbo.com/articles/What-types-of-properties-can-I-advertise

Chris, when you say VRBO, does that also mean Homeaway?

Right now I've been having only one property on Homeaway, and I wanted to add my others to add up to five.

Does one have to get the five properties set up in OwnerRez first to be able to have them all ported over to the channels?

I didn't realize that CanadaStays was part of Homeaway, etc., I was about to sign up with them separately. So are there any other channels that the properties get distributed to with the HA/Vrbo group?

I've been getting bookings on my one HA listing from Vrbo and Expedia, but never CanadaStays or Abritel. Is it by chance not being distributed to them because I don't have the 5 property minimum set up yet?

I have not tried price labs, but I did try extensively (1.5 years) Beyondpricing and Wheelhouse. In my market I found Wheelhouse to be more realistic. Unfortunately Wheelhouse works only with airbnb and TA, it does not work with vrbo any longer.

I did ask them last night, and no reply yet. I was interested to see if other PriceLabs users had some of their own thoughts and insights on this.

I didn't realize that CanadaStays was part of Homeaway, etc., I was about to sign up with them separately. So are there any other channels that the properties get distributed to with the HA/Vrbo group?

I've been getting bookings on my one HA listing from Vrbo and Expedia, but never CanadaStays or Abritel. Is it not being distributed to them because I don't have the 5 properties minimum set up yet?

I don't have details on the PriceLabs algorithms and how they work -- I'd recommend contacting their support to see if they can fill you in and look at the differences between rooms. There are a lot of knobs and dials you can configure on their side to nudge the prices in different directions.

VRBO and HomeAway are the same -- a listing on one will be distributed to the other (as well as other places like Expedia, CanadaStays, Abritel etc.). For the API integration we call it the "HomeAway" channel to keep it simple.

Yep, the properties need to be in OwnerRez and then go to Settings > Channel Connections, add the HomeAway channel (the one under the API Integrated section), and contact HomeAway using the instructions and they'll work through the rest of the process with you.

Chris, when you say VRBO, does that also mean Homeaway?

Right now I've been having only one property on Homeaway, and I wanted to add my others to add up to five.

Does one have to get the five properties set up in OwnerRez first to be able to have them all ported over to the channels?

I don’t understand at all what the PriceLabs algorithms are deriving from or how I'm supposed to trust them.

I have two rooms that are the same size and right next to each other in the property. But the rates that Pricelabs set for each of them are totally different from each other.

Also, the rates it sets are totally different between the OwnerRez listing per each room and the airbnb listing per each room.

It comes across to me as totally arbitrary and, frankly, untrustable.

I am working on getting on other platforms and to get my website to where I'm ready to go public and to work to draw traffic to it. Nevertheless, since I started using PriceLabs, my bookings have dropped.

Any light that can be shed on this?

The burning question is:

...Realizing that each of these 4 sites have their own processes and methods and ways. Including how they communicate with clients
...Realizing that how or if they provide guest phone number and email can differ...

How does the various email templates (lease agreement/signature, collecting payment, security deposit, etc.) work with Booking.com, TA, VRBO, Airbnb?? Does it not work well or have issues with any of these 4 I might not know about?

Yep, it's a process. Let us know if you have further questions once you add those channels in OwnerRez and start working on the instructions procedure.

Thx, Chris

It is a bit confusing what to do where for each channel at this point. You are building a great service, I know it's complex.

Yes, the procedure is to open an account with each channel. For booking.com and Airbnb, you have to build out the listings on those channels and then you can connect to them in OwnerRez and push rates.

For TripAdvisor and VRBO, the content is populated from what's in OwnerRez -- photos, descriptions, amenities, rates etc. -- so you don't need to build out the listings on those channels, just initiate the connection process with them for a PM account, hook up to API, and we will start pushing out to them. The first step is to run the Listing Quality Analyzer in the Tools menu to make sure all of the content is compatible.

Then go to Settings > Channel Connections and look at the top under the API Integrated section. Add the channels you want, and the instructions tab of each channel will get you started with the connection.

For booking.com, TA, VRBO, calendar updates and rates are all automatically pushed.

For Airbnb, we don't have API yet so you get calendar updates via our 2 way iCal sync and you can push rates using channel bridge or use PriceLabs which can push rates to Airbnb automatically.

OK, I am at the point where I am to set up all the properties at each of Booking.com, TripAdvisor, AirBnB, VRBO

I have skimmed some of the help topics you have, but I am not 100% clear on best procedure is:

- to open up a partner account with each (obviously)

- have all my OwnerRez property descriptions complete

But not really sure the optimal way to get the OwnerRez topics and other machinery functioning on the major listing sites

I see this: https://app.ownerrez.com/settings/channels

But I realize there have been changes, such as recent HomeAway API

So, is doing this going to port over my OwnerRez content for each property? Is the calendar and other stuff automatic? Do the Amenities I selected get picked up automatically? What about the Owner information, short description, and other fields on the Description page?

I want to do this right once, not wrong and flail a couple times.

[should start having pictures within a week.]

It is very possible that the person who buys merchandise off a website has a different mindset than someone booking a hotel/vac rental.

I don't have experience in this yet, so I am just trying to get my arms around all the process steps that seem applicable.

OK. I understand. People at several different properties might be interested in the same tour at the same time for or greater. But that seems unlikely. So I prefer to stick to one booked group, 4+ people, I can offer a tour.

I have a complex, rich website for tours, but it is intended to start next year. MountainManJourneys.com. It will be using an Icelandic PMS owned by TripAdvisor. .

I wish there were a way to do real packages: vacation rental + tours + other services.

For this year, I am just intending to offer local tours to people as a vac rental add-on.

In that sense, no payment is guaranteed. Even if the guest hands you cash, they can sue you in small claims court and get the court to side with them in which case you're going to end up handing the cash back. With credit cards, you are guaranteed (on an approval) that the funds are available and the bank really will transfer them to you. ACH doesn't return any approval on funds.

Hi Stephanie,

There are several reasons why a booking isn't showing up on a statement. Here are several reasons:

- The booking may be outside the range of the statement.

- The booking may not have any commission generated. Check the booking's PM tab.

- The guest may not have paid anything. If the booking has no recorded payments, the booking won't be picked up for a statement because you were never actually paid any money by the guest. You can't remit money to an owner that you were never paid.

- The payments on the booking may be "in the future" mean that the date of payment is beyond the date of the statement. If this is the case, the booking won't be picked up for statements since you haven't been paid yet.

If none of those are the reason, give me the booking # in question and the statement date you're running.

Remember that each of the combinations has its own calendar syncing. So you're still syncing calendars between OR property (eg. Duplex Right Side) and the Airbnb listing for that.

Yes it will. Many owners/hosts do this. Just add a listing for each combination:

Duplex Left Side - sleeps 3
Duplex Right Side - sleeps 3
Duplex Upstairs - sleeps 4
Upstairs and Left Side - sleeps 7
Upstairs and Right Side - sleeps 7
Whole House - sleeps 10!

That's 6 listings. And with the calendars properly working, and the mutual block-off in place in OwnerRez, the entire thing will work seamlessly.

At the moment, no. The field is empty until something is manually entered.

Then the booking criteria should work for that. Set booking criteria to number of guests >= 4 on the surcharge.

Yes, but if PayPal is not offered as an option, would you refuse to buy from that vendor rather than use a credit card? Unlikely, particularly with a vacation rental that you want that is available and covers the amenities you're looking for.

Thank you, Chris. I've been out of the loop for too long and will try to catch up. Thank you very much! It's great to know that I have alternatives to WorldPay (and pay and pay and pay!)

Nancy

There does seem to be a question. Apparently however a wire transfer cannot be reversed easily. But they are not so easy.

https://www.thebalance.com/tips-on-ach-reversals-315439

"Wire Transfers
Wire transfers are different from ACH payments, and they generally cannot be reversed. Wire transfers happen more or less immediately, with the funds leaving your account and arriving at their destination on the same day. They are often available for withdrawal immediately, which makes it even harder to recover funds."

FYI, ACH has a 60 day period where guests can do a chargeback (for ACH it's called "reversal" and there is no dispute process -- the money will simply be yanked from your account and you'll have to take the guest to small claims court to recover), so it's not a panacea unless you're only allowing it for far futures bookings.

understood, but I find ACH preferable when possible, as credit cards are not guaranteed if an unscrupulous person tries a flippant chargeback. If someone's cash payment doesn't clear, then they lose their booking!