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We successfully tested a RemoteLock model LS-5i smart lock with OR. The code generated for the test booking was 10 digits. I believe that RemoteLock takes a code from between 4 and 10 digits. Can we control the number of digits in the code that OR generates? Suppose we wanted a 6 digit code instead of a 10 digit code?

Randy

I also agree with keeping your website here on owner reservations. You basically get free tech support and your website gets updated when they do work elsewhere. A colleague of mine had their website hacked, which was WordPress. I become less convinced about do-it-yourself as time goes by. There's a lot more to do it yourself then just putting content and pictures on a site. It saves money and it's great until something goes wrong.

There are a lot of places you can get and store a domain name. I use Dynadot.com. Its under $10 for domain name and they give free domain privacy. I have been with them for quite a few years and no problems.

We just came onboard the platform. A big reason was to have a personal website, that's hosted/integrated with OwnerRez so we can start taking direct bookings.

How do we go about setting up our own site through Owner Rez?

For example, the website url we want is available, but we haven't yet purchased it. DO we purchase the website domain separately though something like GoDaddy and then it 's built through Owner Rez, or can we do all that from within the platform?

The website of a colleague of mine was hacked, and his web host moved is file directory and website to a quarantine directory. Apparently a malware scan detected malicious code and triggered this. My question is, does your host do something similar in the presence of malware?

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Just to clarify, OwnerRez will work perfectly fine with lower/cheap tiers of QuickBooks and your invoice/payments will flow across fine. Jim is talking specifically about the location/class tracking. Not all users use that. If you do, then you'll need the more expensive versions . Same with multi-currency support - that is only supported in expensive version. But we do support all versions even the cheap ones.

Sort of. OpenEdge will also work on new payments on the old bookings. So basically any new:

- payment
- security deposit hold
- verification

Will go through OpenEdge whether the booking is old or new. And then refunds will check the payment they are linked to and use the same processor as the payment, whether that's Stripe or OpenEdge.

Hi Cathleen,

We spend a lot of time on email deliverability which means:

- Not getting blocked or banned by rogue users trying to send spam/blasts through us
- Making sure emails hit the inbox (not spam)
- Making sure they hit the inbox fast

We send many hundreds of thousands of emails so it's a constant flow that has to be watched and optimized. We make sure to use only signed/DKIM domain names as our FROM headers to boost deliverabiliy and have a Verified Sender program so users can use their own domain names.

However, it still doesn't work 100% of the time. We tend to see certain networks throw network blocks or spam notifications at us for no reason on a whim. AOL and Comcast are particularly bad. Earthlink is sometimes bad. Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail are better than others but we see spam hits there too.

The other thing is the user's content and FROM header. Your FROM header, believe it or not, can set off spam flags as well. We've dug deep into certain users having problems (where no one else did) and found that they had history in certain spam databases that the ESP/mail exchanges check. Those users had a FROM header of like debby@mycabinrentals.com and had sent out mail lists from that same FROM header over the years that resulted in spam flags because Debby didn't use good list management. SpamAssasin or a different spam database creates a profile for Debby and things get sad for Debby.

Long story short, there's no easy good answer for why you get spam at times, but we hard to avoid it. Send a ticket in when you see one and we'll let you know if we can see why that particular one happened - most of the time they are one-offs that can be reactivated and resent.

so open edge will be going forward and stripe will be still attached to old reservations ?

Actually no, I should have mentioned that. Refunds are "linked" to payments so the original payment has to still be around. However, you can keep Stripe in there and the refund will use the original Stripe Payment when the refund goes out. Just change the "Used On Property" setting on the OpenEdge one to make all the properties use that. Stripe would still be in there and active, just not used for any properties. After a year of that, when you know no refunds were going out of Stripe anymore, you could disable it. Make sense?

Is your heart set against turning off the approximate location setting? I never like how the approximation circles look.

I'm curious. I've had 2 incidents with previous, valued guests with emails that I send through the OwnerRez platform going to their spam. These are guests who respond to communication in a timely manner. In both situations, I reached out to them via another email and they confirmed the email sent through OwnerRez went to their spam. Why is this happening and any suggestions on what to do? Thanks.

Yikes, Thanks for the heads up Jim!

UPDATE: Only the top tier version of online QB, $60 per month, will work with OR importation. I discovered this after spending a couple of hours getting all this set up on both sites. Live and learn. Reason being: it is the only version that supports classes and locations, which the OR interface uses to map your income and expenses to each property. Exception could be if you only have ONE location, the lowest "small business" version would probably work.

Thank you! So if I do a refund post-stay of a transaction that was originally by stripe, will the refund be performed by OE?

I am using the Approximate Location for maps - this is terrible! Giant blue circles, not useful. Can I control the size?

This is what I see (Chrome):
https://www.jimthorpevacationrentals.com/map

@Ross - Good suggestion on the hunting nearby field. Makes sense. No promises, but noted down.

@Linda - We have plans for that (quantity on add-ons and more) but no ETA yet.

I highly recommend talking to Ximplify who we started partnering with for accounting stuff awhile back. We push PMs, large and small, in their direction. Good folks over there who know how to use OwnerRez, QuickBooks and a lot more . We are working with them a lot on expanding our QB integration to many more things and change accounting models to be more correct in general.

Very simple. Just connect OpenEdge as a payment method and start using it. No need to do anything on Stripe from that point forward. The cards on file will continue working, only now on OpenEdge instead of Stripe. So any future payments/security deposits will process fine.

Incidentally, this is exactly why we went through the trouble to store cards on file and go through the PCI headache that is required to make that possible. We didn't want to lock you to one payment processor if you started hating them. Stripe and others have tried doing that by forcing tokenization (which only works on their gateway) but we've refused to play ball.

You can switch to any other processor/gateway at any time and your bookings will continue working seamlessly. 🏋😉

And what happens to bookings for which deposit was payed via stripe? And how to handle post-stay refunds on those once I have switched? TIA

I was reading a couple of Yapstone / 1099 threads on the Homeaway forum, below. Needless to say, the complexity discussed was somewhat bewildering.

Anyone have an idea of a good CPA/tax software that is REALLY proficient for the first time VR owner in dealing with planning/setting up their VR tax reporting, the first year?

https://community.homeaway.com/thread/59223

https://community.homeaway.com/thread/58016

Thanks Chris. My test should complete tomorrow with the money being deposited into the bank account.

I came across another question. I added a damage deposit to be included with my quotes so that a renter that pays by check see the $500 damage deposit as well. I think if the person ends up paying via credit card, they will be charged the $500 damage deposit and an additional $500 hold will be placed on their credit card. Is there a way to only include the $500 damage deposit in the charges area if they are paying via check?

Hi, would it be possible to put in an extra this way: '1 x 3 course meal @ £10 per head' and then add up the number of people wanting it and put the total in the box? That way, I could get the accurate figures for diners in the total.

Can you add the following option to the Property Type dropdown: Event Center/Conference Room

People very much are interested in holding events at a VR, and most don't allow it I have a separately bookable 1,000 foot space (former studio) in my building, and can offer it separately or in concert with booking a vacation rental(s). Even if OTAs don't do that, it could be done from my hosted website...

Does "Minimum Age Limit for Renters" mean the youngest allowed in the unit or the youngest age of the responsible party (Payer/Booker)?

What duration is "Long Term Renters" mean?

what is the difference between internet and wifi?

For washer and dryer(and other) boxes If the checkbox not selected, does comment text appear anywhere?

What is a "Holiday Complex"? anything like an Inferiority Complex :) Seriously, though...

Why is there HomeAway and TripAdvisor columns at the top of amenities and not AirBnB?

FWIW, having a bunkbed is frowned on by some insurance companies, including the VR companies. I am shopping around, and they ask "do you have a bunk bed (ladders, etc)?" I have one, so I am calling it a modular kids bed! And not putting pictures of any bink bed in the listing photos. I am sure the insurance companies occasionally eye our listings for compliance!

Can you consider the "Hunting Nearby" Amenity above? You have an open space next to Fishing Nearby

@Linda you can do optional surcharges based on number of guests on the booking, but not with a separate number of guests. For that you'd need to edit the charges.

@Ross I'd recommend doing a trundle as two singles -- that's what it ends up being, right? Just a specific storage method for a single bed. Then put that it's a trundle in the notes. The reason for this specific list of types is based on what the channels support.

"Hunting Nearby" in the blank area to the right of "Fishing Nearby". We have many seasons - antlerless deer, black powder/flintlock, turkey, bear, deer season, etc. State Gamelands are nearby. Mostly late autumn. It is a good way to fill spaces during a shoulder season.