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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)
One of the speakers is from wheelhouse, the dynamic pricing company
The wording will now go based on the first payment/second payment rule, so it will show "or any amount in between" only if there is a second payment allowed on the quote. Also fixed the spacing on the "pending for" text.
How's everything look on your end?
@Julie, did you have a look at the sites in the first comment above? That'll give you an idea of the design options you have built in. And then you can also customize it via CSS for further detail.
Any specific questions about what you're looking to do?
Ahh, so lets trace this back. Best way to see what happened is to hit the Search Emails link in the top right of the booking area for that booking.
So looking at the history of the booking, the secdep was automatically scheduled and processed. HOWEVER -- that auto processed secdep had an error during processing: "The bank did not approve this request. Details: D01 - Denied by customer's bank (DECLINED)". So since the hold failed, the system sent out the security deposit fail and reminder emails with links for the guest to update their card. Then they did, and everything's good to go.
In terms of the rule, it's not going to double it from the rule -- that rule simply means whether it creates the scheduled security deposit in the system or not. If the guest goes to the link again and there's a secdep in place they'll get a "A security deposit has already been reserved for this booking." message and not be able to reserve another one (unless you release the existing one).
The reminder emails are a fallback for if you don't have an auto scheduled secdep -- for example you created a booking by hand and forgot to schedule the secdep, or something like that. Or if you have PayPal. But if it's an auto scheduled, that will override the reminder emails.
The only reason it was different in this case was because the auto secdep actually tried and failed.
working now (bookings)
This copied from his email.
I did last year. He brought like 20 VR authors and company leaders online last year, eg, NoiseAware. I did them all. VERY educational.
Honestly, I was not interested in his offerings. But this equivalent to going to a $800-1000 conference, no joking. March 21-24
................
Register here... https://airbnbmasterysummit.com
His email:
the Airbnb Mastery Summit 2.0 is officially OPEN for registration! If you were lucky enough to be one of the 10,000 people to attend last year’s AMS 1.0, you know the wealth of knowledge that it contained so be sure to claim your FREE TICKET HERE once again.
Same great format; brand NEW speakers and interviews. The speaker lineup is not one you will want to miss. We have 17+ of the world’s leading experts in Airbnb, Real Estate and Business to share their knowledge specifically with the AMS 2.0 attendees.
Some of the amazing speakers joining us include Nicole Curtis from HGTV’s ‘Rehab Addict’, Chip Conley - Hotelier & New York Times Best Selling Author, Peter Lorimer from Netflix’s ‘Stay Here’ and many more!
Similar to last year, the AMS 2.0 is a 3-Day Virtual event that can be accessed from anywhere in the world! It will be streaming LIVE online March 21st-24th!
The duplication of reviews should now be fixed. The channel/file name may still show "HomeAway" instead of "VRBO" but the duplication issue should no longer be happening.
If you already have duplicate reviews, this fix did not remove them. You'll need to delete those manually. A fast way would be to filter/sort for the last couple months of VRBO/HomeAway reviews, select them all on the grid and delete. Then go back to VRBO/HomeAway and download the latest 100 reviews again and import them all again.
Let us know if you continue to see duplicates.
PS. We are looking into why the channel/file name is always showing "HomeAway" versus "VRBO" but that's being worked on as a separate issue.
Sorry Paul - I meant that I asked/emailed VRBO/Homeaway about getting access.
I'm about to add a 3rd unit when I get some free time, probably next week. So I was excited to see the comment about having a 'self-service' option for people with <5 properties.
In the meantime, the channel bridge works splendidly, I like the fact that there is an intermediate spreadsheet created because it gives me a place to check before updates get applied.
In any case, I've had no problems whatsoever with BOOKINGS and the issue with duplicated reviews is minor for me. I haven't even bothered to delete them but I imagine that will be easy when I get around to it.
@Rich S - did you email us (OwnerRez) about the 5 unit minimum or the channel (VRBO)? Wondering if that ticket got dropped since you said crickets for 3 weeks. If you emailed the channel, are you sure it wasn't TripAdvisor that you emailed which is already live and working for API? We do tell people to email pmsupport@tripadvisor.com but they tend not to answer quickly if you don't meet the 5+ requirement. TripAdvisor is pretty hard and fast about it. The HomeAway/VRBO side isn't open yet; only pilot users are on that.
The bookings download to excel via CB worked. however when i tried to import downloaded bookings excel, it gave me an error. I cannot recreate now (i am in the office, we do not have chrome) . I will retry when I get home and do a screen shot if error reoccurs and send to support.
@BlueMtnCabins - Are you seeing an error message? What about it isn't working, and is it Channel Bridge side or OR side? If you have a screenshot, send that in as a ticket. We have seen many Channel Bridge booking imports coming in this morning for bookings and they appear fine (no duplicate data, no other errors). Talking about BOOKINGS now, not reviews. If you're getting a Channel Bridge BOOKING problem, send in a ticket on that, but I'm guessing that is unrelated to the reviews issue.
Sure, always good to have resources. Do you have a link?
We've heard from HomeAway that they're working on a "self service" option for the API integration that will allow people with less than 5 properties to sign up for that integration. That's due out later this year, but we don't have any specifics or ETA on it yet.
I have 3.
I meant bookings
and does not seem to be working. gave me error this morning. I am on VRBO
Yes, we've seen that as well - on REVIEWS. Not on bookings. I am reiterating the point because there are many users asking about whether this affects bookings and it should not. We have not seen any evidence of bookings being duplicated, or any thing that is related to them (such as guests data or charges) so there is no need to wait on downloading bookings. REVIEWS - yes, we've seen duplicates and that will be fixed.
MB and I have conducted extensive research already into the issue, and we can confirm reviews *are* duplicating. We are continuing to monitor the situation and are ready to step up and help in whatever way necessary. We'll even bring the team pizza if this ends up being an all-nighter... And once you discover the duplication mechanism, we'd appreciate you applying the same thing to our rental income. Would be really helpful for our bank accounts.
;-)
just kidding, no worries
Quick update - we got delayed with some updates going out the last couple days, but we are looking into this.
@Rich and MB: this would only affect reviews, not bookings. When I said no duplicates, I was talking about bookings. Reviews may be duplicating. We're looking into that part.
I think you need to have 5 units on vrbo (minimum). I have 2 currently and asked for an exception, was told to email somewhere and for past 3 weeks crickets.
MB - I found the same thing, I emailed them about it as well...
"If you get onto the HomeAway API integration,"
This sounds like a shoe is to drop somewhere...
Will it cost extra (such as on OR)?
Are there limitations to get in?
Does it require some kind of Masonic or other secret rituals to get in on this???
Is there something complex or roundabout to "If you get onto..."?
