General Help and Questions

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Thanks Paul ...

My period of interest is the upcoming ski season - mid November 2019 until mid April 2020

I want the ability to set each day in that period to it's own rate, and hopefully req'd min nights.
I expect I will revisit rates about every 4-6 weeks, update my spreadsheet and then import to OR and push to VRBO.

I don't use a dynamic pricing service, but in effect that's what I would be doing. My situation might be unique, I have 3 units out of about 200 very similar units in a resort. Many of those units are managed professionally by two major companies. So to compete I need to monitor their pricing and adjust mine to remain consistent. At the resort it's common to price higher than market for months ahead of a date, and then reduce rates based on vacancies.

Am I completely out of luck here? Or can I use Seasonal Rates in a way that they maybe weren't intended?

Right.

Not naive. Seems right to me. PriceLabs should factor in last minute rate drops on their side already. They may have settings now that help you raise/lower that too, or at least put your finger on the scale a bit.

That will work, Joe. You can create as many triggers as you want. You need to create the email template (for what the trigger will send) prior to creating the trigger.

We only currently support door locks that have their own API system built-in. Most of the Schlage locks use a "gateway" like Vera to operate. Some work directly but it's a moving target. We also tend to support (first) the lock types that most users have asked about. eRL, ResortLock, PointCentral and Kaba are now supported.

Hi Lydia,

Not possible to do that based on the current fields and what our Airbnb/Channel Bridge process would create. You could use a custom field (at the booking level) to manually define this on every booking. So you would open the booking, crunch the numbers and write "$485" (for instance) in that field for the booking. Then when sending the email for what you need to collect, the email template could reference the custom field code so that it shows the manually entered amount correctly.

Go to the booking > Legal tab > Request button and you there you can send them a booking-specific link for what they need to sign.

Can you share the link of the report you're on? That won't show any data publicly. But it will let me see what you're seeing after I go into your account.

Yep, I just answered you on the other forum post about this.

Yes, you are exactly right. Our spreadsheet import is for seasonal rates. The built-in VRBO import creates spot rates. This is because VRBO's entire new rate system runs on spot (or nightly) rates, not periods.

Both seasonal and spot rates have their place. The difference is in the variance - how often do you change them?

Do they go up and down constantly based on market/demand factors? Do you have an algorithim or service (eg. PriceLabs) that is constantly adjusting them for you? If so, use spot rates.

Most users have seasonal periods (high, low, holidays, etc) that they define the nightly rate and weekly rate for. Then they come back and layer spot rates on top of that for different days during the year or create specific date seasons for certain hot periods.

There is a column for min nights. It's the one called Season Min Nights. See pic below.

If you're going to change the rate every day, you should use Spot Rates. They are designed for that and you can set min. nights on those too. I guess you're looking for an Excel import which we don't have, so that might be the sticking point here?

Here's an example of what many users have in their House Rules on Airbnb:

"We supply our own renter agreement and waiver that you must sign after booking on Airbnb. We're happy to provide a copy prior to booking. You must provide a real email address and phone after booking, so that we can contact you directly without messaging through Airbnb for important/emergency matters."

So that satisfies the Airbnb rules of notification. Once a guest books, you send them the signing link from OwnerRez (automatically by trigger) which collects their contact info and gets a signed renter agreement all in one go.

We don't have the identify side yet, but you can certainly ask the guest for a card on file which is encrypted and stored in a way that you can't get human-readable access to. We are fully PCI compliant for storing and managing cards. As long as your House Rules on the channel tell the guest that you are going to do - ask for a card on file and place a hold before arrival - it should be fine. Many others do that.

Those are channel settings that govern how our system will interact with HomeAway based on the couple differences that HomeAway requires.

For payments, there is only automatic because that's the only way to it works for HomeAway. They push us the booking live, along with the guest's card info, and we process it internally using your own merchant account (eg. Stripe, Lynnbrook).

Ignore the rest of those settings for now. Just save and add the channel. Then you'll see an Instructions tab with what to do on the HomeAway side. What to fill out and who to contact. That's the important part to get this started. They will work with you on what all needs to be cleaned up or finished.

Take a look at Tools > Listing Quality Analyzer which will run through your properties and tell you what needs to be fleshed out more. This helps a lot when getting ready for API integration. Otherwise, your HomeAway integration specialist will keep emailing you things that need to be fixed first.

ISSUE:
*** I need to collect 3% from each AirBnB guest to pay my local county lodging tax. The 3% is assessed against the total of: the total rent, plus the cleaning fee plus the admin fee (all of which ABB collects, and each of which are listed separately in my ABB listing).
*** I live in Tennessee, where ABB automatically collects/pays our state and local sales taxes (9.75%). Those taxes are calculated based on the three charges mentioned above.
*** I am trying to see if there is a way to create a Custom Email Template that will pull the three amounts against which my local lodging tax needs to be assessed. I am not active on ABB yet so I don't know what fields OR pulls. I also don't know the specific definitions of many of the "field inserts" OR offers.
*** When writing a custom email it would be great if I could use a field insert like {BTGUESTFEE}. But that specific field won't work if it includes the 9.75% sales tax ABB is assessing. (Because I obviously don't want to charge 3% against ABB taxes.)
*** So, need to know if pulling those three fees is possible and which field insert it would be.

THEN, IF ABLE TO DO THE ABOVE:
*** Is there a way to calculate a 3% against those three fees using something like {BFPPOA}? (I know that's not what that was intended for, but trying to think outside the box here.)

Hahahaaa! Hope I explained that properly. Trying to work smarter, not harder, so setting up something like this thru a trigger email would be amazing. Thanks for any/all ideas!

I found an error in a security deposit amount (I had $200 in OR, should have been $100) but can't see a way to generate a new agreement for the guest to sign.

In my first year I have months with zero bookings. The Booking Statistics report showing cumulatives (ie: annual) nights per booking clearly includes months with zero bookings.

The report shows my annual at about 1 booking/night for the year, when every month with bookings is 2 or 3 nights.

Can y'all fix this? Would be best to calculate the annual across the full year, same as I imagine is being done for each month. Using an averages of averages isn't the right approach here.

The report I'm

from what I've read, it seems that Spot Rates are used to update Seasonal Rates. In the sense that the base rate is set using Seasonal Rates and then a Spot Rate will affect just the given date.

But when importing from a spreadsheet vs VRBO it seems rates are handled differently

a) importing from VRBO (via OR page) rates end up as spot rates
b) importing from a spreadsheet rates end up as seasonal

Can y'all give some insight into the best approach here? My goal is to maintain a permanent spreadsheet with dates per night.

From reviewing the import rates template (rate-import.xlsx) I think I could set individual dates like this:

Season Name = On Season
Start Date = 11/1/2019
End Date = 11/2/2019
Type = Night
Amount = $299

But I don't see a way to simultaneously set the minimum nights, unless it's in the 'Rate Nights' column perhaps?

I like having daily granular rates in a spreadsheet so I can have a permanent record of the initial (and reduced as dates get closer) rates.

To date I've been manually setting in VRBO, but I'd prefer to have a master spreadsheet which I import to OR and then push to VRBO.

Email gets to them. I set up trigger when booking arrives, to send them "please sign rental agreement" email. In the process of e-signing RA, OR collects their actual email, phone, address etc

That worked - makes sense, and thanks for the quick response !!

To put a value in there always, go to the Rules section of the property and set the default check-in and check-out times.

Those merge fields look at the times set on booking, and if a time isn't set on the booking they fall back to the property. If no time is set on the property, then it'll say "Standard". As long as you've got a time on the property it will show that instead of "Standard".

Also note the field you're using does include the "early check-in" language if applicable where the booking time is different from the property time. If you're using that field you may want to rearrange it a bit so the sentence reads better, like:

{BCHECKIN} on {BARRDAY} {BARR}

which would show

Early Check-in at 12:00 PM on Thursday Jul 11, 2019

Or else if you always want the time and don't want to denote early/late here use the {BCHECKINTIME} and {BCHECKOUTTIME} fields which only show the time.

I've seen various results using this custom field, sometimes with the at xx:yy PM and sometimes without.

Am I using the wrong field? I would like the actual time to always be presented in the email.

My template:
Arrival:            {BARRDAY}  {BARR} at {BCHECKIN}
Departure:      {BDEPDAY}  {BDEP}  at {BCHECKOUT}

Results from the last three time the automated email was sent
Arrival:            Thursday  Jul 11, 2019 at Standard Check-in
Departure:      Monday  Jul 15, 2019  at Standard Check-out

Arrival:            Thursday  Jul 11, 2019 at Early Check-in at 12:00 PM
Departure:      Monday  Jul 15, 2019  at Standard Check-out

Arrival:            Saturday  Jul 13, 2019 at Standard Check-in at 4:00 PM
Departure:      Wednesday  Jul 17, 2019  at Standard Check-out at 10:00 AM

I didn't realize airbnb didn't provide an email. The triggers are sent to the '@airbnb' email then right? Is it recommended to request a real email address? Is that possible?

I'm looking for a way to verify a guest's identity that doesn't require me to physically (or electronically) maintain a copy of their credit card or driver's license.

I'm uncomfortable maintaining such guest personal infomation because of potential ramifications should that data be compromised. In the state of Colorado where my units are located, there is legislation addressing this (see link below) which requires me to create and adhere to a data privacy policy. As an an individual that's burdensome and a risk I don't want.

I found that Docusign has an identity product that matches up with their e-sign product. I'm not a fan of Docusign ($$$) but it could be a solution, perhaps something that could be included with OR's e-sign process.

Alternatively I could require a credit card authorization through a processing company (eg: Lynnbrook) for both direct and VRBO guests which would allow me to charge damages that exceed my allowance.

Ultimately my problem is this - I'm relying upon my signed rental agreement to help in an unlikely/extreme situation, but if the agreement were fraudulently signed by a person other than the guest I might be out of luck trying to pursue legal recourse.

So two questions ....

1) Is there some other approach I haven't thought of?
2) Could OR add this kind of identity verification in some manner?

(2018 CO legislation)
https://www.lrrc.com/colorado-makes-sweeping-changes-to-protect-consumer-data-privacy

I am looking at setting up HA/VRBO channel on https://app.ownerrez.com/settings/channels/edit?listingSiteType=HomeAway

I admit to being a little baffled by this screen. ABB channel connect has an Instructions tab, that would be useful here
1) If I already set up triggers and templates on OwnerRez, are they completely nonapplicable on this screen, just for direct booking?

2) SEE MY COMMENTS/QUESTIONS INTERPOLATED BELOW

Credit Card Payments
Credit cards will always be put on file if they exist.

Mode
Automatic THERE IS ONLY ONE RADIO BUTTON? WHAT IS THE OTHER CHOICE?

HomeAway integration requires a credit card and a direct processor account. Payments will be processed automatically upon booking.
ARE WE NOW ABLE TO TOTALLY USE LYNNBROOK AND NOT THEIR ANNOYING YAPSTONE? I SET UP BOOKING.COM TO COLLECT PAYMENTS, BECAUSE IF I DID MY OWN, BDC WAITED UNTIL GUEST ARRIVES TO COLLECT. IF I USE LYNNBROOK, IS MY GUEST BILLED AT TIME OF BOOKING, IN BETWEEN, OR WHILE THEY ARE STAYING AT PROPERTY?

Schedule a security deposit using OwnerRez property rules WHERE IS THIS PULLING FROM? WHAT PROPERTY RULES? OWNERREZ DEFAULTS? CAN I MODIFY THIS (HOW)? IF I DONT CHECK THIS BOX, THAT MEANS NO SECDEP OF ANY KIND, CORRECT?

If Card Fails
Make the booking pending for
1
days
Send template: WHICH TEMPLATE? WHAT IS SYSTEM DEFAULT TEMPLATE?
The pending booking will send the guest a daily notification that a card is required. If the deadline passes without a valid card being applied, the action below will be performed.
If Pending Expires
Automatically cancel the booking
Send me a warning notification
What action should be taken if the pending deadline is reached without the requested item?
Channel Rules

House Rules WHAT GOES HERE? - SIMILAR TO ABB, WHERE YOU CAN TYPE IN FREEFORM TEXT AS RULES? LIMITED TO THE THREE ROWS HERE OR DO WE COMBINE MULTIPLE INTO ONE IF NEEDED?

Rental Agreement Example:

I ASSUME THIS INTENDS TO BE THE LEGAL AGREEMENT UNDER https://app.ownerrez.com/settings ?? WOULDNT IT BE EASIER IF THAT APPEARED IN THE DROPDOWN AS A SELECTION, NOT JUST UPLOAD A FILE FROM OUR PC?

Wanted because it is available at home depot, but I will probably use ResorLock due to the integration.

I dont think so. OR seems to only integrate with certain locks that allow ResortLock (I think), errentallock, etc

In other words, it can control checkin/checkout time functionality.

Likely needs an API

errentallock uses a schlage.

why do you want this one?

Is the Schlage Encode WiFi lock set up for automation with owner res?

Great question Chris. I am trying to send that "7" day out email automatically. I typically send a note the day prior that includes the door code. I would like to send a note to remind of checkout.

The only thing I plan to do, is set up all prices within PriceLabs per my various specifications and have it determine all prices entering OR and then onto BDC, TA, BDC, ABB.

No seasonal, special, discount, events or other rates on OR or listing sites. I don't want to add the chances of confusion or dissonance.

Perhaps this is naive?