General Help and Questions

Sort by

• Newest Reply
• Newest Topic

Sorry for the lack of docs around Channel Bridge and our channel management at large. We've been pushing updates faster than writing docs. ….A general problem around here.

Our channel integration varies based on the channel and what is possible (ie. what we've been approved for, partnership wise, or what the channel is technically able to do). Channel work is probably 75% of what we do so it's constantly being updated and worked on.

We have two basic types of channel management - API Integrated channels and Synced channels. Again, this is based on the limits of each channel (either technical limits or them not approving us yet for something more).

"API integrated" channels means we have a partner level agreement with the channel and our servers talk to their servers. The rates, rules, availability are automatically pushed back and forth and there's nothing you need to do manually. Bookings are sent over to our system automatically as well. In the case of TripAdvisor, the listing content (photo, amenities, descriptions) are all pushed across too, so if you change any of that in OR, it will change on the TripAdvisor side. We are finishing up a large API integration with HomeAway where all of that will happen with HomeAway as well. That's in the final stages of testing with a pilot group of users. Currently, we have API Integrated integration for Booking.com, CanadaStays, TripAdvisor and (very soon) VRBO/HomeAway. We're also working on API integrations for Airbnb, ECBYO and some others but those are farther out.

"Synced" channels is where we support calendar integration (iCal) and inquiry parsing where we support standards that all channels adhere to (like iCal) and import/export what we can. We've done a lot of work to make our parsing and iCal support as smart as possible for things like booking cancellations or moved dates but there are natural limitations.

Early on, we realized that:

1) We could not have API Integration with every major channel we wanted (or at least not as fast as possible), and

2) The "Synced" style with iCal and inquiry parsing wasn't going to cut it because bookings only come in with dates and guest name and everything else was left out. Also there are time delays between iCal updates.

So we built an in-house tool called "Channel Bridge" that simulates the user with the goal of copy and pasting data between their channel account and their OwnerRez account. The idea is to find and extract booking data from VRBO and Airbnb so that you can fully flesh out your bookings in OwnerRez and keep them up to date - guest email, phone, charges, payments and more. You want all that in OwnerRez so you can manage bookings directly without logging ina nd out of channel constantly, and you want your down-stream stuff (reports, search, QB integration, etc) to be accurate across all bookings whether channel or not.

Channel Bridge is a work in progress and it will be for a long time. It's a fairly difficult problem area to work in, but there is a lot of potential. At the moment, it involves some manual steps (eg. downloading bookings then importing those into VRBO) but our goal is to make it more automated.

We also recently added rate push to it so that, if Channel Bridge is installed, you can push rates through it from OwnerRez over to the channel.

Look under the top Guests menu. Then click the Reviews menu in the sidebar under that.

I've been reviewing the "Reviews" section and attempting to test it out. I'm looking at the Searching and Exporting Reviews writeup and it says "To get started, click the global Reviews menu". The sample screenshot shows the Reviews button to the right of the PM button. My OwnerRez does not have the Reviews button. Just the PM and then the Tools button to the right of it. How do I get the Reviews button to show up?

1) I looked at channel bridge for the first time. OTAs - in the left hand menu, I see Airbnb & HA/VRBO.

How does this work with FlipKey, Booking.com and other OTAs?

2) Do you ever plan an OR app? :)

OK. In addition to doing VRs, I also plan to have a serious side business doing tours starting late. And of course, I would like to sometimes have people take my tours and stay in my VRs. I plan to use Bokun (owned byTripAdisor) as my tour mgmt software and OR for VR mgmt software.

The problem of course, is that Bokun has crappy/simple-minded accommodations functionality and OR is not really a tour system.

So (only in the case where I sell both to the same group as a package), I wind up splitting the booking for the same group on two different systems. And their data on two different systems of course.

Was thinking maybe doing something with tours and combining the package off my OR hosted website. The tours are on a different website of mine connected to Bokun. But somewhat stuck on how that would work well. Or any clever way to make this work.

Open to ideas?

In VRBO
- Reservation Manager
- Payout Summary
- download spreadsheet

While displayed report shows summarized payout totals, the spreadsheet shows detail by payment.

I took a second look at this and it may depend on your payout schedule with VRBO.

What report inside VRBO is showing the actual disbursement dates to you? I'll have a look and see if we can pick up that data as well.

To enable the channel, go to Settings > Channel Connections, click on the CanadaStays channel in the list, then use the Change button at the top to edit it. Check the "Active" box and save it to enable it.

That'll activate it on our side, but you also need to create an account on CanadaStays and contact their PM support to get the sync enabled on their end (for this connection, they pull from us). Have you done that yet? If not, email chloe.nielsen@canadastays.com and get the ball rolling on that end.

yes, we want it online now. First to test and understand what the channel offers (with test bookings and the calendar blocked out). Then we'll want to open the calendar and take future bookings once we get a little closer and are sure of the open date.

I am using Channel Bridge. I'm not seeing any dates related to when VRBO pays me .... I'll dig deeper, but the payment report seemed to only show the date the guest paid VRBO

How are you populating the data into OwnerRez?

If you use our channel bridge tool it will record the dates of payments made to you vs. by the guest, and it will also track the payment fees and other things taken out of the payments.

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/channel-bridge

Yep, this is a good idea. We have a concept we're working on for tasks in general that could encompass things from responding to an inquiry to a guest card payment failed to making sure a listing site guest signs the renter agreement. Periodic tasks could be another part of that as well.

It's purely conceptual stages now, so I'd recommend tracking this in your normal calendar app for the time being.

If you're using MailChimp, they have a form tool you can add to your website: https://mailchimp.com/features/custom-forms/

If not, there are many tools that have similar email capture forms.

However, I'd also be careful with paid ads -- it's very easy to spend a lot and get no results, unless you're working with a very targeted set of ads. And even if you do convert some of those to email addresses and start emailing them, it's still a pretty low conversion rate to bookings. Just my experience with my own properties and the ad buys I've tried.

I am looking for a pop up form or way to capture visitors email on owner res website. i have spent $$ sending traffic to website via paid facebook, IG and google ads but no luck getting any reservations and very few quote requests? And i can understand this is after christmas/holidays and school year too ...

however that said is there a way to prompt the visitor to tell them - not ready to vacation right now? ok. provide your email so we can keep you updated about discounts and specials etc?

thanks for your help

I just realized while working Quickbooks that the very nice payment detail report isn't too useful, because it shows the date the guest paid VRBO but not the date the payment arrived in my account.

Is there any possibility of having OR become aware of the date that Homeaway initiates the deposit to my bank? That's the date that I really care about with regard to accounting and payment of taxes.

I'm considering not tracking guest payments per property in Quickbooks, but that means giving up on ever really knowing the long term profit/loss because QB is where expenses are tracked.

(update)
I found a report on VRBO which when downloaded lists all payments made to my account. The amounts are frequently different, due to (i believe) the security deposit and adjustments made to fees after it's returned. Question - Is there any way for the payment report in OR to include the booking ID from VRBO? eg: HA-GSPQ1Y That's the only booking ID that VRBO includes in the report.

I can clearly do this outside of OR in a google calendar, but would be nicer to keep contained in OR.

Is there any kind of calendar based reminder system possible? Or any workaround?

A good reminder system would treat each tax date/item as a repeating task which can be marked 'done' when complete. Would be nice to have a weekly reminder report about upcoming or overdue tasks.

As I type this I'm thinking there are many other uses for a task system too, like annual maintenance/cleanings/repairs etc.

Example Dates:

April 30 Annual Property Taxes Grand County (look for mailed letter)

Jan 31 HOA Dues (ACH autodraft)
Apr 30 HOA Dues
Jul 30 HOA Dues
Oct 30 HOA Dues

Jan 20 State + County Sales Tax (colorado.gov/revenueonline) Quarterly if <$300 monthly tax owed
Apr 20 State+ County Sales Tax
Jul 20 State+ County Sales Tax
Oct 20 State+ County Sales Tax

Jan 20 WP Town Sales Tax
Apr 20 WP Town Sales Tax
Jul 20 WP Town Sales Tax
Oct 20 WP Town Sales Tax

Jan 20 WP Village Sales Tax
Apr 20 WP Village Sales Tax
Jul 20 WP Village Sales Tax
Oct 20 WP Village Sales Tax

Thanks for the suggestion. That kind of list of ones to end to doesn't exist yet, as you already know, but something like that would be good. The problem here is that create triggers can be sent at many other points in the system too, so it's not always possible to through up a warning on the email going out.

Hi Richard,

We can do that for you on this side. Do you want us to do that now or wait until the 2-3 month period is over and the property is fully online? I assume you want it online now so that you can take bookings for the future, but I'll let you confirm

Chris,

I'll do as you suggest (disable all triggers based on booking create, then reimport all bookings I have so far with the check box for 'send create')

I find this awkward though, and a little scary to potentially *ever* send emails in bulk without intending to do so.

Is there any possibility to put some kind of interlock in place, for instance presenting the user with a list of emails about to be sent with an option to cancel all?

Personally I'd prefer that after the initial import it not be easy to trigger the send create triggers. Should require extra steps such as clicking a box to send to "previously unsent create triggers" or something similar.

Just my $.02

SUPER helpful way to explain the workaround! Thanks Chris!

We have a property set up and published in Canada Stays for testing, property id 637166. The property will not be coming online for another 2-3 months but we want to have all of our systems and processes in place before then. Under Channel Connections, the Canada Stays link is showing Disabled. I've included the Moon Valley Retreat property in our OwnerRez account but not the Mother in Law suite since we will not be converting the Mother in Law suite over to OwnerRez until we have everything fully operating and tested for Moon Valley. How do I enable the Canada Stays API channel?

Sure can! Just create a trigger and mark it go be sent "as soon as" the booking "is created". Now that will only happen if the booking is created with an email address of course, so if it's a channel booking, you may need to bring in the guest's email address before the trigger can be sent. Channel Bridge can download guest email addresses (along with a lot of other things) for you after the VRBO or Airbnb booking is imported.

Hi Christina,

It's not impossible to do - you can always change your Airbnb profile email address to one of our @inquiryspot email addresses - but we don't recommend doing that as it doesn't provide you any advantage. Answer inquiries in VRBO or Airbnb in the channel and then when they convert to bookings, that's where OwnerRez steps in and imports that and bring that information in. You then want to flesh out the booking in OwnerRez (using Channel Bridge) and manage the booking directly.

Hi Rich,

We've got you covered on that. First, our booking/guest exports can target (and remove) records that have fake/proxy email addresses. We also have a special report and export for mailing lists that will also remove certain email addresses.

You can use Guests > Merge feature to merge guest records as well. Filter to the ones you want to include, then select using the check boxes on each row and click the Merge button up top.

Is this expected? A guest first inquires, then books, and I import using channel bridge.

I see one guest entry with the fake vrbo email and one with the real email. I imagine this is expected, and the OR either cannot or isn't recognizing a guest with same name as a recent inquiry.

Doesn't seem to be a problem at the moment, but I imagine when I start sending marketing emails I'll need to somehow filter out the unwanted guest entry.

I called Airbnb and they are telling me this is impossible to do? I don't really think the CR I spoke to understood what I was asking. Is this possible with Airbnb or no?

Speicifically I said I wanted to use a push process to send the inquiries to the software I use to manage my rental.

Good morning!

Can you set up a trigger that automatically sends out the rental agreement after a booking is entered?

Marcy

@Mike M

There's two approaches here .... push the information to your cleaner, or have them pull it.

For them to pull it
- I'm interested in the property mgmt module but didn't want the extra cost just for a single cleaner on 2 units
- another approach, you can use an iCal link that they can put into their calendar (I've tried Outlook and Google, both work but I think Google looks better for the display)

For you to push it to them
- you can set up an email to trigger/be sent at booking creation. Easy to do, and let's cleaner add to the calendar they must have already unless the only cleanings they do are for you
- you can set up another email to be sent N days before arrival, or maybe better N days before departure.

None of these are perfect. It's easy for the cleaner to overlook a single email, which is why I'd prefer an automated 1x weekly email report showing all listing arrival/departure dates to be sent. In the meantime I'm supplementing the 'push' items myself by doing a screen capture of the current and next month's ribbon display and just emailing them. Hopefully the combination of all these will help the cleaner avoid missing a cleaning... Thinking about this, might be good to add a day of departure email too.

@Mike M - I would also like this capability... I added a feature request on Jan 8 for this.

THANK YOU CHRIS for your help. :)

M.