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I checked with Lynnbrook about 3 months ago and got a call from a very knowledgeable person. He was surprisingly open about how their system works, costs, etc, spent about 15 mins on the phone with me. I was impressed at least with that call, but haven't activated them yet (awaiting my website)
I filled out the lynnbrook form like 3 weeks ago, and they never got back to me!
So 3 weeks of dragging me through 3rd degree. I had to send proof of paid property taxes (they could have looked themselves online - it is publicly available) as they could not "verify ownership". I had to give statistics on how far in advance each cabin books, with percentage breakdowns of 1-5 days, 5-14 days, 14-30, 30-60 days etc. I had to give data on how much down booking deposit is. Now they are asking for last 2 years of tax returns saying this is "high risk". WUT? I have over 800 credit score and I am not even applying for a loan, mind you. All this nuisance is not worth to save .025 over stripe. I have been with stripe for over 2 years and NEVER had to go through such nuisance, I simply signed up online. I work for a major bank IT for Pete's sake, and they can see it by my email. All this for me to receive my own money? pass.
Hi everyone. Are any other VRBO customers noticing that downloads are labeled "HomeAway" rather than VRBO? And because of that are duplicating data that has already been downloaded? I download bookings and reviews every Monday (and sometimes again on Thursdays). My downloads today are filenamed HomeAway rather than VRBO and all data is importing in duplicate.
Hi All!
I have done a good search on this topic but can't find the answer to this scenario. I hope someone can clarify.
Here's my current secdep setup:
A few months ago I set up my property rules so the system does an automatic security deposit *hold* that happens three days prior to a guest's arrival. Just below where you choose that, in the next section on the page, you have to choose to either SEND an email reminder or NOT send. I didn't know which one to choose, so I selected the "recommended" option which is "An email reminder will be sent to the guest *IF* a security deposit is "NOT* scheduled to be automatically collected."
That language was a little confusing but because it said "recommended" next to it, I went ahead and selected it even though it felt in contradiction to prior setting. Honestly, I figured that because the secdep was going to be automatically collected, the email just wouldn't get sent except in specific cases.
Fast forward to today... I have a guest arriving on the 14th (three days from now) and my guest received an email (which I was CC'd on) asking her to "click here to submit your security deposit." That confused me, because I expected that the secdep was going to be held automatically, as per my property rules selections.
Are you still with me? LOL... :-)
She DID click through the link provided and submit her $500 deposit, but then I got worried that the OwnerRez system would ALSO do the automatic collection, so she would end up with a $1000 hold on her card. To prevent a double hold, I went immediately into her booking, clicked on TRANSACTIONS, clicked on the security deposit transaction, and switched the automated secdep deposit option to "Do Not Collect." Was that the right thing or the wrong thing to do? I really have no idea.
Secondly, since she received an email to click and submit a deposit, does that mean that my secdeps are NOT being automatically held, even though I chose the automatic hold option in my property rules? Because I thought the email reminder was ONLY going to come into play for bookings where the secdep was NOT going to be automatically collected.
Going forward, how should I configure my email reminder settings so this doesn't happen again? Do I just choose "Do not send reminder" and if so, will that work?
Thanks so much!
Could you set up a forum topic specifically relating to all questions quickbooks pls.
Given that OR doesnt create deposit records in QB what is the best way for us to manage large deposits in advance. Should we raise an invoice for those?
This is from the support page, good place to start
https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/hosted-websites
Julie,
Have you looked at the examples that Chris posted on Feb 12th in this thread? I imagine you could achieve similar look/feel. If none of those work, what feature(s) are you looking for?
I'm going through this myself right now but creating my own website. It's a lot more work and time since I don't do this professionally, but it's a fun project that interests me.
Are there any preexisting templates available in OwnerRez to use, or would I have to design my own site (or hire someone to design it) while using the OwnerRez plugins and widgets to create the functionality?
I understand that the bones of building a site are present, but what platform is used to achieve it? What design options do I have? Yes I need a website, but I also need it to be attractive, and that's the part I can't get any grasp of via the existing information.
If I want to add another unit, what should I do first
a) set up on VRBO/AirBnB and then in OR where I can import lots of info?
b) set up in OR and then after I get VRBO setup, import/overwrite info?
I'm not quite ready to spend the time on VRBO yet, maybe in a few weeks, and the rentals will only start May 1st. Just want to avoid having to input information first in OR and then again in VRBO
Getting close to completing the first round of imports (260 rentals across 5 years)
I've had a variety of (mostly self-inflicted) issues, here's a list for others to watch out for:
- Must have all template columns, and (I think) the headers must match exactly
- Must have the sheet named same as the template (eg: Bookings)
- Don't have garbage data on trailing rows (my replacement operation accidentally added thousands of zeroes in otherwise empty rows)
- Must have a last name (first name can be empty)
- Double check for having duplicate Booking IDs (my mgmt company split bookings that spanned end of month)
- Payments must be no less than $.01 (I had a bunch of $0.00 bookings for some reason, probably personal use)
I sure appreciate having all my historical data in OR !!
I haven't used it on my properties yet, but we've gotten some great feedback from other users who've had great results and really increased their bookings.
Right now you can only map one product/service to rent. We do have a per surcharge product/service mapping.
What would you be using the mapping for? The best way to break things up per property is to use class/location mapping.
I was able to reproduce this by pasting in an email ending up with some extra whitespace at the end. Just pushed up a hotfix that will clear out any whitespace. Does it work for you now?
You can also submit a ticket by emailing help@ownerreservations.com
Hello, I am looking at using a Dynamic Pricing tool. I"m looking for feedback regarding Pricelabs. Anyone here using them? I figured I'd start there since they work with OR. Thanks!
Oof. I forgot about that 😬 -- if you don't put any name or contact info, the import will treat it as a blocked off time.
To fix this, put in Imported as the last name.
I emailed y'all the test file I'm trying. I used the template, kept all of the column headers as is and just added my own info, using just 2 rows as a test.
The import failed with status 'Invalid' for each of the two rows, and the issue is listed as 'Charges aren't allowed for blocked-off time'
I don't have any blocked off time in 2014 (or anywhere else for that matter) so not sure what the issue is.
I have currency values (eg: $123.34) in three columns: RentTotal;Total;HostFee
Thanks Chris; I'll be in touch. I need to set up a mail account with Siteground for my domain name.
The columns need to match exactly, so start from our template, clear out all of the data, and then copy/paste from yours into the standard template.
Chris - Just getting around to this, I pasted my column headings below, are these sufficient? I kept them in the same relative column order I think, and I have all of the required (colored) columns.
Your Booking Id OwnerRez Property Id BookedDate ArrivalDate DepartureDate Adults Children FirstName LastName RentTotal Total HostFee ListingSite Notes
I tried to use a contact us form, but got error messages that was not a proper email.
I used two different emails, and I can guarantee they were proper form. I took screenshots, but this shouldn't be hard to reproduce. This was on Android using the Chrome browser
No I didnt. but I'll follow Jesse up.
In the meantime - In the General settings of the Quickbook Integration - Rent mapping - I want to be able to select more than 1 product, how can I do this?
The contact over there is Jesse Ehret -- I sent you both an email a couple days back with full contact info, did you get that?
Thanks Chris - who is your contact there as I've not heard anything from them. And have also put in a contact request through their website
Thanks for the quick reply Chris !! All makes sense
We both do -- we'll send you directions to update your DNS to authorize us as an allowed email provider for your email address. Once you do that, we'll set the FROM on our end so the email starts flowing that way.
One requirement is that you need to use a private or business email address instead of a Gmail one. In other words, you can do this:
misty@mycabins.com
but not:
misty@gmail.com
This is because you have to own, or be able to control, the domain name so that you can set DNS records in place. This is a technical requirement of being a Verified Sender and it helps with deliverability (not having messages go to the Spam folder).
Do you have access to a business or private email address that you can use? If so, email us at help@ownerreservations.com and we'll get the process started.
Sure thing, some answers:
- "Your Booking ID" is just a reference code for later. It's not required, but if you do a bookings import first and then a charges or payment import later, that's an easy way to link them up -- looks like that's your column G
- OwnerRez Property Id is the OwnerRez ORP number found in the Properties list. You can also use the name of the property in OwnerRez as long as it exactly matches
- BookedDate is required, if you don't have it you could use the arrival or pick some other date
- Adults and Children you can leave 0 if you don't have them
- First/Last Names are marked as required on that sheet because they're highly recommended but you can leave them blank if you want
- If all you have is Total and Commission, I'd set Rent and Total columns to the Total (your column D) and leave the Surcharge/Discount etc columns blank and and then set the HostFee to the commission amount.
- Host fee is used to track stuff like booking site commissions so it's not exactly matching a management fee but it's the best way to keep those separate. If you put in a discount, you'd end up with a lower total showing up in reports later.
- Listing Site can be the Rental Service Name (column F). First go to Settings > Channel Connections and add a Custom Source for that -- it'll match up by name.
The Charges import lets you get more detailed on an invoice. It's basically doing the same thing as the Rent/Discount/Total columns in the Booking import, but lets you specify names, tax status, etc. You don't need the Charges part if you don't have detailed information -- just use what's in the booking import.
You do probably want to do a Payments import. If you don't the bookings will all show as unpaid because they have an invoice but no payments. Easiest thing to do here is to put one payment for each booking, link by Your Booking ID (your column G), and put the full amount and use the payment date the same as the booked date you pick.
I have years of data with the cols below. I can massage an excel spreadsheet into whatever format is needed.
(listing columns as rows for clarity)
A Unit = 1234
B Arrival Date = 1/1/2017
C Departure Date = 1/3/2017
D Total Paid by Guest = $331.02
E Commission Paid to Rental Service = $151.03
F Rental Service Name = Mountain Resorts, LLC
G Booking ID = 3G93849
Seems like there are imports for Payments, Charges and Bookings.... Here's my assumptions, please comment
(UPDATED - I realized there are reqd columns)
1) Please confirm I should only use Import Bookings, not the other two
2) Please confirm these mappings:
Your Booking ID -> G
OwnerRez Property ID -> G (same as 'Your Booking ID' ????)
BookedDate -> B (I don't have this field, so seems best to make it obviously fake to avoid confusion in reports)
Adults -> ??? don't have this data, can I use zero? Or best estimate (2 adults)
Children - > same question as for adults ??
First Name -> should I use same name for all (eg: FakeFirst)? Or uniquify? (eg: FakeA, FakeB, etc)?
Last Name -> should I use same name for all (eg: FakeLast)?
ArrivalDate -> B
DepartureDate -> C
Total -> D
??? -> E *** see below
ListingSite -> F ???
*** Column D (Total Paid by Guest) is useful to me because it will help in future rate setting
Column E is about 45% which is what I paid for a rental service for years (was fully staffed service with front desk, maintenance team, etc)
I'd really like to preserve Column D, but also account for Column E as a sunk cost. Maybe use DiscountTotal? Hostfee? GuestFee?
Thanks Paul; I'm interested. Question, who does the configuration, OwnerRez or myself?
