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Or set up a "pay by check" payment type so you can manually "apply a payment".....

So you don't do any predefined triggers as I said in 1) above?

Rich, you're on fire tonight - answering everything for us. Thanks! 🙏

Yes, the forums need a search of their own, no question. But for now the support page does search them as well.

It's a good idea to test - we highly recommend that. TEST, TEST, TEST everything. And there is no better way of doing that then to pretend to be a guest and start sending your inquiries, responding with quotes and/or booking direct. After booking, look at:

- the email(s) you got as both the guest and owner and their language
- the renter agreement you signed
- the charges and amounts you paid
- the rules about when future stuff will be collected
- the trigger emails that are set to go out on the booking

And then adjust what you don't like.

You can always Void & Delete the credit card payment so that it doesn't go to settlement. Then cancel the booking.

@JTVRs

Some additional answers:

2) Some of that (like the BBINFO field code) is an artifact to preserve an old system template and make it say what it said before. The information that BBINFO churns out is highly dynamic. ie. It depends on a lot of if/else logic. Because of that, we decided to make a magic BBINFO field code and cram it all in there. We don't support if/else logic field codes yet, though we plan to later this year. Long story short you cannot change the BBINFO field code. It dumps out what it dumps out. If you don't like it, don't use that field code.

3) The email template/trigger know what property to use because every booking is associated to one and only one property. So the email engine loads the template, then looks at the booking and determines what the field codes should be based on that particular booking (and the property it is associated with).

4) All existing field codes are based off of values or rules in the system. Check-in/out times for instance are on the booking or (if set to "standard" there) then on the property.

Check out this article on field codes:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/field-codes

That is all of them in the system and where they come from.

Rich, it annoys me too! 😉 We're working on it though. We plan to move our entire ticket system to the forum and make some large upgrades (including attaching files, dropping in screenshots and answering from email). Thanks for your patience!

Help docs is another area that is sorely lacking - you're not alone in your frustration. Growing pains.

I mentioned this in the other topic, but the answer is - sort of. You can now assign full access to another user but it's not limited in any way. The other user (ie. if they have full access) can do everything you can do.

Hi Dianne,

Yes, you can use PM > Portal Access to add other users and then assign either limited or full access. Full access gives them exactly what you have. Limited access gives them calendar views with general note/guest information. Limited access is more for housekeepers and third parties. Full access is for internal staff.

Hey guys,

Sorry for the delay on this. I wanted to discuss internally because our RemoteLock support is kind of up in the air right now. We support the "old methods" really well but some of the new stuff we don't. As it happens, we are in the middle of upgrading our RemoteLock support to handle their newer APIs and we are adding Kaba as well.

We would like to support Vera and Zwave but it's more complex because it's not just locks but many other devices. The protocol is must more generic than other "just locks" vendors like eRL, Kaba and RemoteLock.

The RemoteLock API lock should fix this soon. I don't have an ETA yet though.

Hi Chris,

At the moment, no. That's been asked for and it's something we're considering. For the record, it does not matter if the channel imports back in bookings that contain their own booking. It will sometimes show a double stripe under a booking because OwnerRez is blocking the same dates, but it doesn't hurt anything or cause any negative consequences.

Hi Janice,

We currently do not automatically flag guests as repeat based on email, phone or other things. Booking and quote records are only linked to the same guest record if they happen to be linked by you in the interface. It's a big hole in our guest system and we have an update coming to plug it. The update will make it so that - by default - existing guest records are re-used if the email or phone is the same. We will probably do a similarity check on address as well.

You can already merge guest records yourself in the Guests menu by selecting multiple records and clicking the merge button. You can also go the other way and split bookings out to different guests by opening a booking > guest record > associate with different guest.

The repeat label shows if the current guest record (ie. that you are looking at) is associated with another booking in the system.

Was this progressed yet Chris?

JTVR - this forum annoys me that it's impossible to attach screenshots or files. If you like, email me at ownerr@rsiegmund.fastmail.com and I'll send some screenshots of my triggers.

1) I agree, it would help if the help documents had better examples. I have 5 time-based and 2 booking-based triggers.

2) I have NOT had to use any of the premade/Custom templates myself, I created my own for everything I wanted. Those Billing Details would be changed dynamically depending upon the particular booking involved. Meaning this .... if an email is sent about Booking #1 that code will have details for Booking #1. But when an email is sent about a different Booking #27 that code will be different, and have the content from Booking #27.

3) You don't edit field codes for checkin/out times. Click on a booking, then Dates, then Change Dates and you can change them there.
If you want to see all of the field codes, just create a new template email and insert whichever ones you like and then click on preview. There are hundreds of codes, some about the booking, some about the property, etc. It's all super flexible, especially the custom codes, but they are a tiny bit awkward to setup the first time because first you create the code (where you have to pick the correct type of code) and then you have to update the code (in different places depending on the type). Again, if you (or anyone else) emails me I don't mind sending a couple quick screenshots or getting on the phone to talk.

JTVR - if you have a different email address you can book using that address as a test. I did that myself on VRBO with a small fee that they took a small amount out of, but it worked to satisfy me. If you don't have another email address I guess do it from a friend's email?

For testing triggers you can create fake bookings directly in the same manner (not using your hosted website)

Remember to look at emails on phones, tablets and computers. I found oddities on my android phone where I needed to eliminate long links and tables.

Glenn, try going to the support tab and searching there... it will find forum posts and bookings (based on last name and maybe booking ID)

https://www.ownerrez.com/support

I did the same search previously though and got the answer that webhooks are not generally supported, only in special cases.

Hi
Is there a way I can have 2 user log ins into my OR account - with separate log ins?

I am mostly interested in using Email Templates & Triggers to handle bookings from OTAs, and from my hosted website. Not planning to do quotes (as of this time). Questions:

1) I am in Settings > Triggers and it is empty. Are there no suggested defaults or is there an article somewhere on a good set of representative triggers that should be considered for the major OTAs? Is this supposed to be empty?

2) A little baffled by the Custom Email Templates. For example, the first is "Send Confirmation To Guest" and the Billing Details is represented by the variable/field code? {BBINFO} which defaults to

"The total charge for this booking is $1,234.00 of which $123.00 has been paid. A separate email is sent for each payment that is made, listing the details. Any payments made by credit card will appear on your bank statement as Acme Vacation Rentals."

How do I change these Billing Details? Say to add my own text or modify what appears? Update the variable {BBINFO} ? Where do I update it?

3) When a booking comes in - say from AirBnB, how exactly is the email template/trigger know which property was booked so the field codes/custom field codes are populated?

4) How do we edit existing field codes - not custom field codes - such as Check In or Check Out time?

And how can I see ALL the existing field codes - again, not custom field codes.

OK

I would like to test everything I have set up, to see what clients see, etc. I realize I cannot really test something like airbnb/HA yet, but I would like to do a complete booking cycle for one client using my (or any sample) hosted website

All the actual emails, set up triggers, their deposit & payment, sending/accepting agreement - signing it, etc. etc.

?

There's a batch delete button on the calendar import now. Go to the property, then calendars, then open the calendar import you want to delete bookings for, look down where it shows the log of syncs. There's a delete button above it. There's also a batch delete on the main bookings list view.

Is their a delete function for bookings yet? I have duplicates and blocked imported dates I would like to clean up.

Is there a way to search these forums? It might help with a lot of repeat questions.

For example, I am curious if there is any mention of webhooks with OR. Rather than pester with a question that might have already been answered, I would like to see if there are any discusions on it.

Glenn

I talked to the Remotelock team and apparently Zwave is not a lock that they can send through the API yet. Not sure if they will resolve this or not.

On a side note, I have a number of locks on my vera zwave. It grabbed all the locks and therefore I got a large charge as they charge for lock requested. I canceled my account with them (for the reason mentioned above and the fact I was charged a lot). I put in a request to refund my money. After several requests (and responses saying "sure we will refund") it is not going on three months and my account is still gone and no refund. I am still working on it. The remotelock people are friendly, but do not seem to be able to deliver.

It would be great if OR natively allowed us to program the lock through an api directly. I think it can be done with Vera and Zwave, but I would think the API would be complex. Of course I would be willing to be a tester if OR ever wanted to do that. I just don't think a lot of people have Vera/Zwave, (which is admittedly a more techie lock solution than the pre-packaged - simple-to-use stuff you get from August lock, and other home depot / Rona purchased hardware).

Gelnn

Hmmm....

Encountering the same. Any ideas from the OwnerRez team?

(Maybe there's just a delay in syncing info over; I'll try again in a few hours or tomorrow and see if it works then.)

Hi, is there any way to export an iCal feed that *only* contains my direct bookings through OwnerRez?

On a third-party service I'm syncing my listings to, this would let me add OwnerRez bookings to the service without ending up with a bunch of duplicated stays.

What is the criteria OR uses to label a guest as a Repeat? I've not been able to figure out the pattern on my own. For example, below is a screenshot of a guest who booked direct for her 1st stay, and now has 2 future stays booked but doesn't have the repeat label on her info.

Also with Channel Bridge, will the system label as repeat guests those who booked via an OTA for their first stay and then book direct for subsequent stays?

I send a different email template to repeat guests than I do for first-time direct bookings, so it would help to know this when they request a quote/booking. I'm probably going to add a custom field definition asking if the person has stayed with us before. But since the repeat guest label already exists I thought I should find out how it works.

https://ibb.co/jRmf2Fk

Awesome THANK YOU! That makes perfect sense!

Julie, I have built my site on sitelio using OR widgets and sitelio template . the plus is, that sitelio is simplified ( I personally hated when i had WP site), while at the same time allowing SEO, schema code , blog, etc . You can take a look at smoky-mountains-cabin.com

Julie - the fact that you know what html and css are means you have much more knowledge about website building than the average person, and
I could have written your last post myself. You have the same questions and background as I do it seems.

In my opinion, getting a beautiful and modern looking website is going to have two essential parts. Professionally shot/edited photos and a modern/responsive platform.

I can't offer any suggestions about how to interact with the OwnerRez website, but I'm sure the OR support team or maybe other owners can answer your questions.

A few thoughts for you and anyone reading this...

1) I can't tell from your post whether you are still deciding whether to adopt the OR platform. If you are, I can share my experience as a new user (about 4 months) that it's been a terrific tool for me. Has taken a little learning curve, but I'm finding that all of the infrastructure is quite well done. I love the email Templates - this morning 5 different automated emails were sent to guests who are about to come, have just arrived, are leaving today or continuing their stay. No way could I do this manually, would take way too much time each day. All of these emails are detailed and personalized to the particular unit they are renting. Took me a lot of time to develop my email content, but now it's essential set in place and I don't have to think about it. Huge time saver. And the fact that my bookings/past guests are all safely in a system outside of VRBO and AirBnb means I will eventually have a large database for marketing. In any case, without being too pompous, I have a lot of experience developing systems like these and OR's is well done. And the team supporting it is responsive and I think headed in a great direction. So feel safe jumping in if you haven't already.

2) About the website, feel free to call me 512-913-8609 if you want to talk about alternatives. I'd say for 80-90% of new users they probably should use the OR provided website, because doing your own in another system is like the wild-wild west, there are lots of pitfalls related to *who* does the hosting and *which* platform you pick and there are no guarantees about key things like SEO, page response time, and suitability for viewing your page on phones, tablets or computers. I'm happy to talk about the various other platforms that are out there since I recently looked at them and picked one, and I find that I usually learn myself from talking with others.

Julie - Can you just use a Lodgify template and add OwnerRez widgets with it? I use Wix with OR and enjoy having the flexibility of design. You can see the OR widgets on my site at HighviewCabins.com. I'm always tweaking my site as I learn more about Wix. They have great video tutorials, too.

Thank you all for the responses. The example sites above all seem to be built off the same template, with only basic modifications. Are there any other layout choices? Is it based on a WordPress platform? If not, how does the owner interact with the template? Website building has changed a lot from the days when I was hand-coding with HTML and CSS, so I want to know what the guts look like and what my learning curve is going to be.

But mostly I'm interested in the design element. For example, Lodgify offers 19 different templates, with 4 different layouts, all of which are beautifully modern. https://www.lodgify.com/vacation-rental-website-templates/ (make sure you click "load more") They're clear about what they offer, they have visual representations, and it's attractive to me as an owner because I feel like I know what I'm going to get, and I know it's going to be attractive to my potential guests.

Now, there are features in OwnerRez that I want that Lodgify doesn't have, so it would be a no brainer EXCEPT the main point of me choosing a software is to market my property via my website, and encourage direct bookings. A gorgeous website *is a must* or the whole thing is a wasted effort to me. And ideally, working with that website will be relatively easy - but right now I'm finding it difficult to even learn HOW to interact with that website if I use OwnerRez, and that's a real bummer. (yes, I've seen the support page. Text-only walking me through links I don't have access to yet is not very informative. Screenshots of the interface of the website builder - or whatever it is - would at least provide a clue)