General Help and Questions

Sort by

• Newest Reply
• Newest Topic

I understand about being at work and not wanting to talk. But what I do not understand is why would you be delisted for answering guy's questions (by pointing him to your FAQ page)? BDC is not vrbo. They don't care, obviously, since they provide your phone to the guy.

OK, I get how to upload documents. If I want to change an uploaded document, how do I do that, without changing its "URL" and breaking the hyperlink?

Yep, that'll be an option when we do support pushing content for BDC down the road. BDC and Airbnb both will have toggles where you can choose to push rates & availability only or everything. TA and HA require everything to be pushed (there is no way to do a partial rates & availability only push for those, so that's all we offer on those channels).

I am assuming that if I made a lot of selections, ownerez is not going to overwrite them is it?

I put a lot of sweat and getting booking.com set up just right. I want the option of deciding whether not ownerrez overwrites all the check boxes

Setting up booking.com with a bear. I put in 7 properties and I had to repeat some stuff over and over again. But where I want the money deposited and the fact of Summer on the same building etc etc. And sometimes I selected amenities or other features and I go back in and they were unchecked so I had to redo it.

HomeAway, TripAdvisor, CanadaStays we can create listings for automatically. BDC we cannot create listings for automatically (yet) -- you have to configure that on the BDC site first and then connect to the listing in OwnerRez.

Airbnb will be able to create listings for automatically once we complete API integration with them (ETA September).

You can import the listing content using the Import from HomeAway/VRBO button at the top of the Properties area. Make sure to pick "update existing property" if you've already got a property created in OwnerRez so it doesn't duplicate.

You can also import booking details (guest info, charges, payments) using our channel bridge tool: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/channel-bridge

Yep, there's a trigger criteria for gap nights so you can create a template and trigger that will send it out automatically at a given day before arrival: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/fill-gap-hole-nights

This was off my listing site, not my website. Last guy called me six times. And I'm not really comfortable waiting my website at someone you just came from a listing site cuz I don't want to get delisted. Booking.com they both said encouraged them to call me even though the instant book not what I want.

They're calling me while I'm at work and I can't talk to them.

I would suggest creating a "FAQ" and "what is provided and what to bring" pages on your website and refer them there.

Example:
https://smoky-mountains-cabin.com/faq
https://smoky-mountains-cabin.com/suggestions
https://smoky-mountains-cabin.com/rules
Even better, automate your messages (OR welcome email that has all the above info sent to them upon booking). Eliminates 90% of all calls.
P.S. You are the 1st person I come across who does not want to talk to potential renters. I am not thrilled about it, but I view it as a way to dispel potential misconceptions and avoid unmet expectations.

Ok. Would that be the same for ABB/VRBO? Is that all manual set up initially required?

Working on something somewhat similar. We will be purchasing 3 properties that are on VRBO. I will want to import them if possible and then push them to other locations. Is there functionality that would automate any of that? We would have 6 properties on VRBO at that time, if that matters. These are existing listings, if that matters. Appreciate the help!

I think not

Not on BDC yet, but this sounds interesting. Can OR generate the BDC listing using information from ABB or VRBO?

I really like that option. We are a weekend heavy business. I may actually start trying to encourage an additional day manually at a discounted rate. Could I automatically send that request via OR?

Okay, as I may have said, the two people who instant booked, also called me by phone. The guy said booking.com encouraged them to call! So they decided to have a chat! For Heaven's Sake, I'm at work and I can't. Don't these people have jobs?

Is the purpose of instant booking so I don't have to talk to everyone as nauseum? The second guy called me six times and I messaged centered him over and over and over that I only use the booking.com Communication channel.

Anyway, I'm planning to get a Google voice type phone number that answers as follows. I would appreciate any tweaks you might have that could improve it.

"Thanks for calling XYZ Vacation Rentals. For booking questions, contact customer service of the website you booked through. For property questions, we use only their message center; your confirmation email or logged in account with them should allow you to send us a message. Note that the phone number you just called cannot accept voicemail."

Interesting. I was hoping to eventually offer a discount if they took an unbooked day before or after their stay. I don't really want to get into the $15 per hour early or late checkin for people who try to abuse their time. Have you automated the scenario above? I admit that I still do not know how some of your functionality works like that.

If you go to Settings > Widgets you will be able to create additional widgets and copy the embed code. Then go to the hosted site page and use the <> buttons to enter source mode on the Intro or Conclusion section and paste the code in there.

I would recommend thinking about it before adding a bunch of more widgets though -- I know a lot of marketing blogs online talk about plastering calls to action everywhere. But vacation rentals are more of a big ticket item in my opinion and people want to see the information, make a decision, and then they'll find the book now button which is there, or right on the property page have the booking widget. They're not going to bounce out of the site if they can't find the widget in .03 seconds like they would for a $5 thingamajig.

For the Smoky Mountains share widget, create the page on the hosted site and then let me know and I'll add the shared widgets for you.

Yep, I've seen a lot of early/late requests with booking.com and also Airbnb. What I do on mine is to allow it provisionally if its under two weeks away but let them know in no uncertain terms that if somebody else books I'll remove that early or late option on their booking.

I also give them the option to block off the entire night before or after for a 50% of a night fee.

So that gives them a choice -- either pay the money and know their time is guaranteed or don't and they may be subject to a last minute chance if another guest is coming in.

I have an OwnerRez hosted web site, which comes with the "Book Now" tab. I want to add "Inquiry" or "Book Now" widgets on other pages of the web site. (Been trying to add it to the bottom of the Availability Page. I realize it's at the top of all pages, but some folks just don't pay attention so I was trying to put it multiple places.) I know how to generate the code to make a widget, but I don't know how to embed it on an OR website page. (Chris - will also be needing to add the widget created for our Smoky Mountains OR group.)

As I had mentioned, I had a Booking.com person requested a check in 5 or 6 hours early. He is from an hour away. I didn't respond, so he used my 4-Hour free cancellation feature. Probably a good thing that he canceled.

Anyway, my second booking.com person who now is in the no cancellation period, texted to see if he could check in two to three hours early. I declined and said I need the time for cleaning. In the future, I would plan to respond with an hourly charge if not same day turn over, and "no" if it is.

Two bookings, too early check-in requests. My check-in is 6 p.m., but with 7 units I need time between check-out and check-in. I just did not anticipate that high a frequency early on.

It seems fine now but I was experiencing on Chrome

Strange. Not happening here. I checked a number of sites, both as logged out/in user. Everything seems fine. What page are you looking at?

Went on website and widgets are not painting. Anyone else?

Well, one thing that may make it easier is our new HomeAway API integration. With that, HomeAway passes across the guest credit cards to us and we run them on your processor, so that should help with the volume.

Lynnbrook Group is our go-to processor: https://app.ownerrez.com/lynnbrookmerchapps/add -- they know vacation rentals, have good support, and will get you a better rate than Stripe. They do have a small monthly fee, but that will be balanced out by the better rate (and better policies like fees on refunds).

Thank you, I would appreciate your recommendations. While I can't anticipate how much direct booking I'll get initially, I do six figures worth of booking through the various platforms and hope to transition a good percentage to direct. A processor who is easy to work with and offers protection against frivolous chargebacks would be appreciated!

Awesome! Yep, booking.com can result in cancellations, but we try to make those as automated and painless as possible.

As long as you've got strict policies set, the bookings that do stick are worth it.

This is an unfortunate limitation of Stripe. They do not allow Void at all, only refund (so the Void button will always be disabled). And they also don't return fees on refunds like most processors do.

We support Stripe and they can be good for small amounts of processing, but given your volume my recommendation would be to switch to a processor with better policies. We support many and can recommend some specific ones if you're interested.

I finally found it - under Transactions then click on the Payment link. But now it's been too long to void, so that just cost me $16.

Please update your documentation to reflect this important and expensive detail, and perhaps also the fact that it's very time-sensitive - a total of about 15 minutes elapsed between booking and my finally finding the correct option, at which point it was too late. It's not something I could have identified beforehand, as I had no existing payments in the system. I am Unhappy.

Hello! As recommended on the Payment Methods section, I have successfully run a test booking using my credit card, woohoo! But now I have a booking and I cannot find the "Void and Delete" option cited on this page. I am not sure if this is the same as canceling the booking (it seems like it is not), and I'd really love to not actually have the $500+ charge go through. :p

"Once [the payment] goes through successfully, open the new booking, open the payment and use the Void & Delete option to void the credit card payment."

I go to Bookings, select the new booking, and I get stuck on "open the payment". There is no Payment tab, and I have been through every available tab and see no sign of a Void & Delete option. Help!