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aaand.. this seems to have increase in importance now. I never had an issue with it o VRBO., however nowadays about 1/3 of my bookings are direct, I send inquirers to the website where I have embedded inquiry/quote form. And even though my damage deposit line item says in capital case REFUNDABLE, people either do not understand it and think the quote is too high. I get comments that "we are not paying $500 a night" well - it is because they do not understand that deposit amount should be subtracted from total as it is refundable...they just balk

I love the reviews widget! Everything is looking great now - thanks Chris!

After receiving an inquiry and creating a quote, I do not email the guest at that point. I learned early on that it didn't give me a chance to modify the text of the email from the inquiry (this may have changed since, but I haven't bothered to check).

So, I leave the inquiry tab and go to the quote tab and open the quote I just created. From there I am able to choose email templates or create a new email to send to the guest with their quote. This may not be how it's supposed to flow, but this is what is working for me.

I just realized Damage protection isn't billed when you do iCAL calendar synch but it looks like it will be billed for Channel Bridge Imports. Does it apply only to future bookings or bookings that happened in the past as well?

Damon

Thanks - when I started experimenting with the reports I couldn't get to the underlying data with enough granularity to convinced myself what was being shown.

I read in one of the forum responses here that OR isn't trying to be an accounting system. For me, I think that's a good approach.

After thinking more about all this I decided to NOT track based on arrival or departure, but instead to use the date funds are received. To me it's not a huge issue if I pay sales tax on funds received in 4Q2018 for a 1Q2019 visit. If that visit gets cancelled in 1Q2019 it will just show up as negative funds received and offset other taxes. Filing amended returns would be a huge annoyance, sure, but I can't see how any tax authority would have a problem with this approach. And I prefer to have my accounting rely on my bank account, where I can 100% trust posting dates, unlike OR where arrival/departure dates can be modified. So the answer I get today (when paying taxes) could be different than the answer I get 3 years down the road when I'm being audited ;-)

I imagine I'll be using OR reports primarily to keep the pulse on my rentals, but I'd like look forward to being able to 'click into' any value in a report to see the underlying line items. Quickbooks allows this and its essential, for instance when doing a class report its common to see unclassified or unexpected expenses. Clicking on them brings up a line item report where things can be modified. This goes a long way towards building confidence in QB reports and I think OR would benefit from the approach.

Thanks Chris - Will any automated emails be triggered by the iCal?

The following is my current understanding

iCal link exported from VRBO to OR:
- blocks calendar upon bookings?
- keeps vrbo calendar synced with OR?

channel bridge used on VRBO:
- creates booking
- pulls in additional VRBO guest/booking details
- gives option to trigger 'on created' activity like email templates

Setting VRBO email address to the special OR property email address:
- captures VRBO guest emails into OR
- allows OR to trigger various email templates and auto responders

Am I missing anything useful in the above?

Hi, I noticed that you have Remotelock integration.

Hence I signed up for a year service on the Remotelock site and I integrated my Vera z-wave locks to the site (they have an integration to Vera controllers). Once this was done, I was able to bring my z-wave controllers into Remotelock and control their locks via that site.

I then activated your Remotelock integration. It connects to the site and when I click on the Property Mapping button, it says "Error getting available locks for account: No available locks in account". However there are six locks on my Remotelock account that were integrated though my vera z-wave controller. Any thoughts?

This all depends on your locality and to some extent how you set up the business (cash vs accrual etc). Many taxing authorities give you the option to choose when you report (date booked, date of payment, date guest departed) as long as you stay consistent. Check with the taxing bodies in your area and see what you can do.

If you can go based on arrival or departure date, I'd highly recommend that -- makes tracking much easier because you don't have to send in a bunch of half payments for each booking and figure out which ones you paid, and back out anything for cancels/refunds.

Some folks will use the Tax report we have in OwnerRez, others go by QuickBooks. It depends on the level of data you have in each. If you fill OwnerRez with all of the data we can give a better report with vacation rental specific stuff like # of nights booked, perhaps rent vs. different non taxable items etc. This is actually our main focus area for development right now -- getting the numbers correct in OwnerRez and then being able to sync those across to QuickBooks etc.

Inquiries are oriented around that response. You can go to an inquiry and "answer again", but the main purpose is to get an initial response (or perhaps hook up to an autoresponder). We don't have triggers for inquiries and quotes yet, but those are planned.

Yep, that's exactly right. You want to do both -- the iCal because it'll get the calendar blocked automatically, and then the channel bridge because it brings in more detail and can send the "on created" triggers. The channel bridge will smartly merge with the booking that has already been pulled in by the iCal (or vice versa).

To do this on the iCal, enable add a custom link with the "Show a full description of the booking on each event" option enabled. That'll show the guest count but not the contact info.

Another option is to give them portal access: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/portal-access

Ahh, yep, you have to map first. Everything else looking good now?

I just got an inquiry (via VRBO forwarded email) that came into OR.

I was able to 'answer' the email, but as I was poking around I couldn't find a way to initiate a 2nd email. For instance, suppose I had forgotten to mention something... The masked vrbo email is available in OR, but of course I'd want the email to be sent via OR so it remains in the history.

(edit - I realized that for inquiries the 'email guest' button isn't available, but it is for confirmed bookings. In the inquiry there is a 'verify information' button that is in the same place as 'email guest')

Also wondering if there is any mechanism to schedule an email for the future other than having a trigger set up. I regularly get inquiries and there is no more followup, so it would be nice to schedule a followup for +2 days to say something like "checking back to see if you have any more questions about unit xyz or the area..."

How do you report taxes? When the funds hit your account? Or based on the dates of the stay, which will usually straddle the start/end of a taxing period?

With direct bookings I get the fees before the stay, but with VRBO they come after the stay. Or maybe there is a deposit around the start of the stay, have only done a few so far.

Seems like it would be easiest to pay them based on date funds are received into your account.

Also - for the purpose of calculating the taxes owed are you using OR reports? Or Quickbooks reports? I suspect it would be easiest to track using Quickbooks, in which case the OR reports would be nice for managing the business, but irrelevant regarding your tax position.

I set up the Chrome Channel Bridge to manually export bookings from VRBO and then import them to OR.

I can also setup a live iCal feed by visiting VRBO's export calendar for each property and copying the .ics link
( see https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/calendar-import )

Should I be doing both of these? I'm thinking that the iCal feed is good because it's handsoff, and once a VRBO guest books, soon afterward OR will become aware of it and start triggering appropriate emails. But I think the Channel Bridge brings in more details about the guest, so I'll want that too.

As I'm writing this, I'm not sure that the emails can be triggered by the feed from VRBO anyway unless the guest email is part of the feed. Hopefully someone can educate me on this ;-)

I'm using an Ical link through google calendar and wish to include (for the cleaning person) the party size but not party name/email/phone. I'm not seeing an obvious choice in the ical link settings for this, is my only option creating custom fields or adding manual notes? Both are extra steps I'd like to avoid if possible.

I figured out my own problem - I had not done property mapping correctly. ugh.

I downloaded my VRBO reviews with Channel Bridge and uploaded the Excel file to OR. When I set up the reviews widget to include all 3 of my properties, the property names do not show on each review.
If I change the widget settings to show just 1 property, then the preview of the widget shows no reviews at all. I guess I have missed an important step or setting somewhere?

Thanks Blue Mountain Cabins .... much appreciated! And great website www.smoky-mountains-cabin.com that I found in another post, you've obviously thought and implemented a lot here!!

1.
- answering inquiry questions? - you can set up auto responder in OR that will respond to a VRBO inquiry. Mine is set up as a bullet point list of FAQs that usually cover about 90% of questions guest may have. I just review their inquiry after the fact and reply manually via VRBO if the question they have was not covered in a canned reply. The auto response also maintains sub-minute "response time" on VRBO whether you are sleeping or flying in the airplane.

3. Yes. If you update your VRBO reservations imported into OR with actual guest's email (copy from vrbo, paste in OR), later on you can download email list and export easily into programs like Mailchimp.

3a. yes of course. They are YOUR guest. I can give you my sample of post departure email that solicits their review and also emphasizes that they can save on booking fees if they book direct with you.

3b. Is your goal to get reviews or grow YOUR "brand"? Mine is to grow my brand and have them returning to rent directly from me, not VRBO (where VRBO will show them dozens of my competition). Do you know that OR has submit review feature and you can embed reviews in your website, in addition to importing them form VRBO, airbnb and TA? See mine smoky-mountains-cabin.com/reviews

Yep, that's how we started with OR back in the day, actually -- a couple of us got vacation rentals back in 2009 and being developers figured we'd put together some software. Back then there wasn't much at all.

Some answers:

1, 2) All of those steps would remain in VRBO. What happens in OR is:
- centralized calendar (via 2 way iCal sync)
- pull in guest contact info, party size, charges, payments etc. via channel bridge: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/channel-bridge. Those will all still be processed by VRBO but we can pull the info into OR for you. We are about to release a direct 2 way integration with them that will pull everything into OR automatically, but they've got a 5 property minimum for that integration
- e-signing renter agreement
- post booking communication like pre-arrival welcome letters, review requests, upsells for gap nights

3, 4) Anyone who has ever inquired, quoted, or booked in OR is a Guest. You can merge guests together, manage repeat guests, follow up with them.

I would recommend a website (we have a hosted site template: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/hosted-websites or you can build your own using our widgets: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/widgets). If you're just starting out you won't have much traffic through your site, but as you develop a list of previous guests, send them email newsletters, market in your area, you'll start to get more traction.

My suggestion is to send everybody you can back to your site to book. Don't try to steal leads from VRBO or AirBNB, obviously, and have them book through the site they came from. But if they're a repeater or have come in through a local listing site, book 'em direct.

If you are totally brand new on listings you'll want push a few through the site to get reviews so your listing isn't totally bank, yes, but after you've got a few under your belt that's enough so you can rank and book there so drive the rest to you direct.belt they'll

Hi Folks,

New user (day 1) trying to get some concepts down. I've stumbled upon OR after posting in a VRBO forum that I was planning to build a homegrown system with some of the OR features. For background, I own 2 ski resort condos in Colorado US and currently have them only listed on VRBO.

Some Questions:

1. If using OR with some premium features, what mgmt steps will remain in VRBO vs moving to OR?
- cc payment handling?
- initial booking?
- return of secdep?
- answering inquiry questions?

2. How thoroughly is VRBO connected to OR?
- only via OR intercepting/scraping emails (both sent/rcvd)?
- via API, so useful info such as guest email/phone is kept synched?

3. For previous guests (who were originally found by VRBO or AirBNB) ...
- Does OR provide a way to manage the guest as a 'lead prospect'?
- Should I want lead prospects to book followup visits ...
a) using OR only to avoid VRBO/AirBNB fees?
b) using VRBO/AirBNB so I get more reviews?

4. Should I assume that I'll get the vast majority of guests through the advertising of VRBO/etc?

There are many features I'm looking for that I believe OR will really help with, just wanting to get my head around how OR will play nicely with VRBO or other rental sites. Happy upcoming New Years y'all !!

Regarding Service Animals, the ADA exempts in certain situations, for example at a school with children having allergies, service animals can be banned. Or a zoo with animals that would react against the presence of a dog.

I have two properties that will be hypoallergenic and i ban service animals. It is not possible to clean a house top to bottom between someone with a service dog and then the next guests with deathly allergies to dogs. So this is what I am doing:

1) My contract makes it clear they are banned. I am assuming this will block many fake service animals. I also assume it will prevent some real service animals.
2) If someone shows up with an animal, I will grill the owners to ensure it is a real service animal. Essentially, you ask the two legal questions, and watch for behaviour that is wrong (jumping up, untrained, aggressive towards others, etc.)
3) If they make it through these hoops, I will just accept the service animal, thoroughly clean the rugs and hope the next people didn't book expecting dog dander free.
4) If they did, I will tell them I was forced to accept a dog against my policy, and I tried to clean as well as possible
5) My agreement states that we cannot guarantee a hypoallergenic place will be dog free, as we cannot guarantee someone did not sneak in a dog without out knowledge. It is a goal, not a guarantee.
6) If there is a complaint from an OTA, I will play dumb and show them the law and that my place is hypoallergenic and that I wasn't really aware of the OTA ban, I was just following the ADA guidance directly from their site.

if you string together enough low probability cases, I think it helps.

Actually, homeaway also requires allowing service dogs. https://help.homeaway.com/articles/What-is-HomeAway-s-service-animal-policy

The OTAs stupid threat without understanding either ADA law or reality.

[quote=Paul W]We saw that story here as well. The correct answer here - ignore it. The author of that article says the exact opposite, but he's wrong. Wringing your hands and paying attorneys is an utter waste of time and money.

There is no legal standing for ADA against VR's or VR websites and no judge would allow the case to continue. No ADA attorney would waste time actually filing a case. They're just mailing letters to see if they can get a quick reaction. This has been done against many other types of businesses and websites and failed. ADA trolling does work against actual store front/commercially-zoned businesses, but not against VR's (which are zoned residential) and never against websites.

This is also not true. It is a potential against any business website in this country. The place I work at is small, and they are working hard for the Section 508. There are many articles about the explosion of real lawsuits against companies with websites that aren't compliant. I am not talking about mass mailings threatening action, I am talking about in the courtrooms. They are expensive to defend and expensive to fix a website after the fact.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/company-websites-that-arent-ada-compliant-becoming-litigation-targets
http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2018/01/06/ada-website-accessibility-lawsuits/id=91700/
https://www.mightycitizen.com/insights/articles/will-your-website-get-you-sued

I am not convinced this is true at all. For example a Bed and Breakfast, which is zoned residential, is only exempt for an owner occupied, single family dwelling with 5 or less rooms. This is very discussed on a bed and breakfast forum I follow. An airbnb renting out rooms, especially if owner not live there, is very subject to this.

Private entity. check
place of lodging. check.

https://www.ada.gov/lodblind.htm

"Your establishment is covered by the ADA as a place of public accommodation if it is a private entity and is a place of lodging (including inns, hotels, and motels), regardless of whether it is a for-profit or non-profit establishment. The ADA does not cover owner-occupied establishments renting five or fewer rooms."

Hi guys. Is there a way for us to enter codes for the customer to enter? For example... code:RETURN is assigned $xxx off. Code:PROMO is assigned %xx off. Etc. guest would fill the code we assign, at checkout.

Currently, I have it were THEY check Return customer. However, someone made the mistake of checking it off and gave himself a discount.

I still think there is an issue. I have AvailgenTA template set up as generic template and header/footer = none. comes up with no theming footer in a preview, BUT when set to blind email, to TA, it still shows theming footer which gets blocked by TA because eit has my website/email. . See inquiry ORI801995355. I

Hi, is the better practice to have separate GA tag for OR widget vs GA Tag for website itself, or use same one for both?

I am thinking if same one, then traffic to the site will be overstated (i.e one hit counted for the webpage itself and another for embedded widget on same page).
I was using separate ones, but then GA gives the warning on the main site that ecommerce is not receiving any transactions (as they flow through separate tag that is fro OR widget).
What is "best practice" if there is one?

It does not matter how you rent or the number of rentals you have. The only thing that matters is how the property is zoned. The VR company in question had 20-some properties as rentals, many of which are large and accommodate 15 or 20+ people. None of them are 2nd homes or "vacation" homes for the owner. It doesn't matter. The properties were built according to residential zoning/building requirements and therefore do not apply. There is an ADA office at the DoJ that will tell you this directly.

Service animals fall under ADA and are also not required by VRs for the same reason - we asked about that specifically.

But again, if Airbnb or the channel hears about it, they could ban you so you have to think about the advertising side of it. But legally, you're fine. At the time, a person at VRBO said that they would only enforce what was "legal" but VRBO tends to change with whoever is manning the CSR desk at the time.

Thank you for such detailed update. I do not freak out easily but these days, everyone is sue-happy as you know. And I was like OMG, my site is NOT compliant.

Interesting take on ADA /service dogs. I think the consensus in the forums (esp Say No) is that you MUST take a true service dog.
Mine are no pet properties (even though I love pets, used to have 2 dogs and 2 cats, now 3 cats). I have not (yet) had a true SA request, they all turned out to be just fishing expeditions by people trying to bring their pet. Easily filtered out by asking 2 questions.. or someone saying that they will "crate" their SA.. Since true SA must accompany their owner at all times, "crating" was a dead giveaway.
I was little unclear on ADA/ SA because I thought it does not apply if you do not rent "commercially". I have 3 VRs and it would be hard to explain that they are my only 2nd home etc.