General Help and Questions

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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!

What he means is that OR/ Lynnbrook can authorize card transactions virtually instantly - you will know right away whether it approved or declined. By contrast, ACH may take days to finally clear or it may come back with NSF 2-3 days later.

When we are running our owner statements there are a few properties where commission isn't calculating in the statement. I can pull a summary and it's there, it's just not showing. I looked at all of the settings and I cannot figure out why this is happening.

A question though, will an AB/Compound Property also work on Airbnb, Booking.com. VRBO and TripAdvisor if I set up on the OR calendar, or is it only for direct bookings?

Never mind - I remembered "AB" and found article

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/combined-properties-blockoff-lockoff

Sorry to reask, I looked at subject lines of many forum threads and cannot find it

I have a duplex - can be rented together or as two individual units.

Where is that set up again?

Credit cards are not "guaranteed". There is a growing incidence of chargebacks - friendly fraud - where people stay and claim that it wasn't their card or the VR was deficient for one of a variety of reasons. They chargeback, which of course can cost you everything. And ding your business and cause you grief trying to fight it.

And of course, the credit card fee.

Yep, we've added a lot more over the years. Here's the full list: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/payment-methods

Paul, can I connect these (or any others I might find) with my website quote and booking form like I did with Worldpay?

JTVRs, I know about all of these of course, I’ve been renting my place out for 21 years. This wasn’t my question. I need to integrate whatever alternative payment system with the OwnerRez quote and booking form on my website, and when I signed up for Ownerrez a number of years ago, we only had a couple of bank choices to select from. None of these other options were possible.