General Help and Questions

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The amenities in OwnerRez are based on the HomeAway model with some additions, so it should match that pretty close.

We don't have direct integration with Expedia, but if you're on HomeAway with instant book enabled they can distribute those listings over to Expedia automatically.

Currently the only way to do that is if you have an email to SMS gateway and use that in the email TO.

We're working on direct SMS integration which is due out this summer.

Stupid question, but if I already have VRBO set up in channel bridge do I need to set up Homeaway as well? Thought they were basically the same. Thanks!

Is it possible to have templates go to text instead of/as well as email?

Tripz or houfy?

Anyway, I think listing on these gnat sites is mostly a distraction. Just HA, AirBNB, Booking.Com, Craigslist maybe TA should be the focus. Everything else eems like noise.

There were only about 7 listings in my STATE

I have been listed for free a couple of years. 0 inquires or bookings.

OK, maybe stupid question. There are a lot of defined email templates here. Are (many of) these live and will happen as defined, or does each one need to be wired to a trigger? What does the "Using Custom Template" mean on each row?

https://app.ownerrez.com/emailtemplates

I have a few questions related to Email Templates (& Triggers)

The following link is about emailing an Agreement to someone via AirBnB using a real email address
a) is there something unique about AirBnB and not the other OTAs? e.g., if they do not supply the guest email address either?
b) when set up, how exactly does the signing (by all guests as required) + getting this agreement back + having it stored within OR work?
c) how is this supposed to be set up so it gets the agreement back within the right time (like, within 24-48 hours)? And perhaps cancel the booking if they dont?

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/airbnb-request-for-contact-info-real-email-address-and-signed-renter-agreement

I looked for my small town and vacation rentals. Tripz is #17 on the page (last) and then of course, you are listed there along with everyone else. Don't see any value in paying to be there. Probably better spending that money on google or bing adwords for your VRs specifically!

1) I would imagine that it would be pointing to your website rather than being treated like AirBnB or HomeAway. (guessing?) So if you have a website, it shouldn't matter.

2) Why use them? They charge monthly at different levels. If you want a direct-booking type listing site, why not use the free Houfy.com?

Has anyone used Tripz.com? Any issues syncing calendars?? Thanks!

Upon examining a sample Expedia listing (which owns HA/BRBO), I notice these Amenities categories. I tried to copy them here and separate them for clarity.

The Question: Does the Amenities selections map from Ownerrez into Expedia cleanly? There seems to be a somewhat different structure, and a complaint about Expedia is that it is difficult to control/change how they display your listing (even being incorrect)...

Property amenities

Ski:
Close to skiing

Internet:
Internet access

Parking and Transportation:
Onsite parking

Kitchen:
Refrigerator
Stovetop
Microwave
Dishwasher
Toaster
Coffee/tea maker
Cookware/dishes/utensils

Bedrooms:
5 bedrooms
Linens provided

Bathrooms:
2 bathrooms
Hair dryer
Towels provided

Living Spaces:
Living room
Dining room

Entertainment:
Flat-screen TV with cable/satellite service
DVD player
Books

Outdoor Areas:
Garden

Laundry:
Washing machine and dryer

Comfort:
Heating

Pets:
No pets allowed

Suitability/Accessibility:
Smoke-free property

Services and Conveniences:
Iron/ironing board
Phone

Things to do:
Hiking/biking trails, ecotours, and mountain biking nearby

General:
Sleeps 10
Events/parties not allowed
Minimum guest age: 25 years old

Nearby things to do:
Activities
The recreational activities listed below are available either on site or nearby; fees may apply.

I follow a forum with discussions on vrbo/ha hosts who get occasional Expedia bookings. And that it often is not a clear or smooth experience. I get the feeling Expedia (Orbitz, etc) is not exactly seamlessly integrated like the others (vrbo, ha, etc)

How does OR work with Expedia and those other sites? Any setup/tracking advice?

Hi Paul & Chris,
I'm glad this was resolved. Thank you for keeping on top of it.
You guys are working on an API connection with AirBnB, is that correct? How is that looking?
If this occurs in the future the only option will be the channel bridge, which requires the property management module with an additional fee, is that correct?

Thanks again.

There isn't a way to do that currently, but it's something we've kicked around internally. It's difficult to create a scheduled time for that. We'd have to say trigger off of "middle of the stay" and a certain day of week. Other users have use cases for this too, so it's on the radar.

Yes I need this really bad. Anyone figure anything out?

It appears that - at least for the moment - the guest info is showing again in the Airbnb calendar feeds. Maybe they were testing the waters to see what the backlash would be? 😉

Pedro, you can just manually enter the name and contact details to get initial emails sent, like we have to do with VRBO. Talk about a dumb step backwards on ABB!

Hi everyone, we wrote a blog post about this here:

https://www.ownerrez.com/blog/airbnb-bookings-no-longer-showing-guest-name-phone-and-email

Previously I was sending the greeting when the booking was created. If I change (the Airbnb one only) to be triggered on the event "When booking payment is added", will that cause it to be sent when the channel bridge is run?

Randy

We had set up an automated greeting email which went out to Airbnb guest's platform email whenever a booking came in. I just did a test booking to see how it works now. When the booking first syncs with OR, it comes into the OR calendar with just the OR booking number and 0 for the number of guests. The calendar is properly blocked off. I did channel bridge to get the double blind guest email to communicate with. Unfortunately the trigger didn't send out the greeting email automatically after I did channel bridge. Is there a setting which will make that happen or will we have to manually go in and send the greeting message from the booking?

Any plans on automating the Channel Bridge Import process? Would be awesome if it just happened seamlessly then all this would just go away :)

So we MUST now do the channel bridge thing for messages to get sent to AirBnB guests, is that correct?

OwnerRez can still send messages to Airbnb guests via the @guest.airbnb.com email if it's on the booking. The difference is that that email address no longer comes in via the iCal. Now it'll work the same way VRBO does -- once you populate the info via channel bridge, it'll send the create triggers and then any subsequent emails will still go out automatically (since the email will be on file).

Chris, please clarify: AirBnB removed contact info from the iCal export? Is Ownerrez no longer able to send messages to AirBnB guests without the channel bridge?

Earlier today, Airbnb rolled out a change to their calendar feeds that removed all information except for the dates. Name, email, and phone have been removed, which is why OwnerRez interpreted that as missing and sent the notification email.

We rolled out an update to handle the new format a bit ago, so you won't see any new "missing" emails from this issue.

I'd recommend contacting your Airbnb rep to register a complaint -- removal of contact info from iCal is a huge step backward in functionality for Airbnb.

In the meantime, you can populate all of the same contact info and send create triggers as you did via iCal using our channel bridge tool: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/channel-bridge. That uses a direct log-in to your Airbnb account so it's not affected by the missing info in Airbnb's new iCal format.

Yep! You can look in the Emails tab in OwnerRez to see the exact FROM and dates to look for on emails sent to her.

I received a warning OwnerRez email that Airbnb bookings that had previously been synced are now missing (on the Airbnb side.) However, nothing has changed on that calendar and my bookings are still intact. Is there an issue with the API?

Thanks!

Chris, Thanks so much for checking. Good to know they are making it to Gmail.
She has been thru spam etc. and it looks like she has not gotten anything new since January.....!
I have even had her looking for things sent from inquiryspot.com Is that correct?