Latest Activity...
Use either the Seasons or Spot Rates to override the property rules. Spot Rates override everything, then Seasons, then the property default. So if you have a season already set up for the months in question, open that season and put 5 night minimum on that season.
You can't adjust the template itself but you can send a different template using a trigger that only targets certain months of the year. To do that, create a trigger and select where the Arrival Date is > start date and also Arrival Date < end date. That will only send to bookings that have an Arrival inside that date range. Or target the season if you have seasons, however seasons might be "specific date" seasons that end this year and don't work in the future.
I hate to be a wet blanket, but my take on this is that it's yet-another stapled-on Google product in their mission to index everything, and it will grow stale after years of little use and development. Google wants to have flight and hotel data so that their SERPs provide yet another option (without redirecting the guest away). I don't see how it makes them any money to add this, particularly when there are no ads embedded in the process. If they actually spent time to develop hotel results as an ad model - adding to their giant Adwords/Ad Search product - then it might make sense for them and users. The road to hell is paved with all the products/features that Google has staped onto their SERPs over the past decade. This has been sitting since 2015 and I'm skeptical that it's going go anywhere because of the considerable dev money they'd have to invest to really turn it into something.
Hi Monica,
The second quote email is an artifact from years ago, and we've never dropped it. When we started out, users mostly responded to inquiries and there were a lot of question-only ones. We wanted to give a "clean" response where you could offer a message and then also include a link to the quote but also have a quote email that mostly just showed the quote details. Nowadays, there are fewer questions and more direct bookings. The quotes you do send tend to be fine with a single email.
Thanks for offering to help test, cp9293. We will let you know!
Thanks, BlueMtnCabins, for providing answers!
Stacy, as BlueMtnCabins pointed out, make sure that the trigger is only sent for import bookings. On the trigger, set the booking criteria to only go out for Listing Sites = Airbnb, VRBO, HomeAway, etc. That way it will not be sent on direct/personal bookings.
Hi Rich,
You could copy the model we use in integrating with QB, only do it yourself manually with the Desktop version. Basically, each booking is turned into an invoice in QB and then each payment is turned into a QB payment against that invoice. The invoice date is the arrival date of the booking so that the income is not realized until the month of the booking. That allows you to wait to pay the tax until the month of stay has booked in case the booking gets cancelled. I don't know of any tax authority that will give you a refund.
We are going to be changing (or adding) the model to use something that accountants like better which is to have a QB invoice for each payment that occurs with a final "close out" invoice once the booking has arrived to realize the income. There are several benefits to this model and, as I said, the accountants we work with have said this is a better model.
I would recommend talking to Ximplifi Accounting which we have mentioned before on this forum. We can send a recommendation email for you if you'd like. They have helped a bunch of OR users already and understand what OwnerRez and QB can both do.
Airbnb and HomeAway have a chat/text-based communication only with clients thru their system. When using ownerrez hosted websites, is there a way to do that with direct book customers?
I actually prefer to use the instant book model with chat, rather than having people call me whenever they want (I have a day job!)
Hi,
Certain months I have a 7 night minimum stay and others I have 5 nights. What's the best way to enter this in the system? I think I currently have it set to 7 nights always and I can't figure out how to change it.
Thanks
We have free parking in summer, but paid parking during the winter. Is there a way to automatically adjust the template emails we send to correctly indicate based on the booking period?
I look forward to the housekeeping updates! :-)
Yep, Airbnb only gives the phone and platform email for their guests, but physical address and real email address are required on the OwnerRez e-signing process, so you'll have them on file once the guest does complete the signing process.
I don't think you can push offsite reviews to VRBO in bulk, but you can send the guest a link to review on VRBO. Send them a link like this:
https://www.vrbo.com/123456/reviews/write
Where 123456 is your listing number.
Okay, I thought one of my Airbnb guests signed and her info didn't come through. I went back and can see that she didn't. Thanks!
No physical address is coming through on Airbnb bookings and the email is the Airbnb one so I am not getting direct guest emails. -Of course it looks like Airbnb guests don't want to sign contracts either so not sure I'll get much of anything anyway.
Physical address and email address are already required on all contracts automatically, so you're good to go there.
If you want to add additional fields to the signing process, here's how: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/capture-additional-fields-on-checkout-quote-acceptance
Why would they let someone transfer non-OTA reviews to an OTA? That seems like it would be ripe for abuse
This is excerpts from someone (2017) that seem to apply to the Google Vac Rental effort. Little dated, but:
"a Google card will be required for each vacation rental. Vacation rental managers can get ahead of the curve by providing business information with unique URLs for each home or unit under management. Becoming an early “owner” of the business information for each property will provide an initial competitive advantage as Google rolls out its vacation rental product.
In addition, working with channel managers who are partnering with Google will make connectivity easier in the coming months."
"potential consequence for OTAs and online marketplaces affects the rates they are able to charge to travelers. Airbnb charges travelers a 6-12 percent “guest service fee” on top of the rental amount, while HomeAway’s “service fees” can add over 15 percent to the rental cost for travelers. Google’s results will display comparative pricing, possibly making it more advantageous for travelers to book directly with the property manager.
"disclosed that the vacation rental beta program has encountered challenges along the way. “The Google platform was not set up for vacation rentals, so they’ve had to make modifications,” For example, only one URL is currently offered for each Google card making it difficult to display key-level inventory. Other challenges include the ability to index each property geographically for search and mapping, connectivity with booking engines, channel limitations, and traffic limitations during the beta period."
Thank you! By the way, when I hit "reply to inquiry" my template is similar to yours wherein it gives info about the house, things to do in the area, etc. and there is a quote at the bottom with the clickable links.
I guess my question was if the "reply to inquiry" automatically includes a quote anyway, why the need for the "quote only" email?
Thank you!
Thank you for taking time to answer (both of you!)
Chris, you said:
"There are two different emails you can do -- one answering just the inquiry, one sending the quote."
Yes I see that, and I always choose "reply to inquiry" which automatically includes the quote box at the bottom of the email. That's what confused me. Because after I send it, the system prompts me to send the quote again. I guess in my mind, I'm thinking I just sent the quote as part of the reply, but now I realize that maybe the system doesn't realize that it already included a quote in the first reply.
I will ignore the prompt to send the quote a second time.
Thank you again for your help!
I thought I knew how to do this but now I can't find the directions. Can someone point me to it? I need to add mandatory address and email to my contract since I just learned that Airbnb doesn't pass those through.
Thanks!
Hi,
is there a way to transfer OwnerRez reviews onto HomeAway/Vrbo Reviews?
Thanks, Claudia
Fantastic! Need help on testing?
Yep, all of the above!
It won't let you delete an owner statement if there's already a payout recorded against it. First delete the payout, then you can delete the statement.
We got delayed on this because our HomeAway API integration took a bit longer than expected. That's in beta now and releasing in a couple weeks, so the SMS stuff will be coming very soon!
Thanks @BlueMtn! Some more details:
1) The comments field is used for any guest comments that they include in their inquiry -- if it comes from a widget or listing site that supports it.
If you don't want to include that field in the response, edit the inquiry response templates and delete that field reference
2) There are two different email you can do -- one answering just the inquiry, one sending the quote. Many people like to do a simple inquiry response and then a detailed quote email to minimize the potentiality that they get blocked out by spam filters. Or maybe they want to respond to the inquiry but not send over the quote yet because they need more details.
If you just want to send one email, the easiest way is to edit the inquiry available response info to include the {QCTAB} quote charges merge field and then don't send the quote response.
Yep, they've got a big process there for signup and certain requirements on the properties they'll allow.
Last I checked, booking.com distributed to those ads, so that may be the easiest way to go for now.
Once they open up the API a bit, we'll investigate -- here's hoping they will go to a full channel process with their tooling.
Thank You! It looks like I created the custom template under the wrong area. Set up a new one under triggered and it looks like I'm set! Appreciate the help!
I would have sworn there was a recent post on Google's new direct booking for hotels, but cannot find. And they are also working on a VR equivalent.
Anyway, this was on a bed and breakfast owners forum about it and PMS integration:
"XXX is working with Google’s advertisement to allow for direct booking, “Google Hotel Ads”. We’re currently waiting on Google at this point. We don’t have an ETA from them but we’re hopeful we will hear back from them soon so that we can continue down the development path to support Google Hotel Ads. It’s been a long drawn-out process for us as we started reaching out to Google about partnering with them back in 2015 when Google Hotel Ads was released. We’ve made some progress with them recently, however!"
