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Only ID of the primary guest who is signing the rental agreement and paying.

Personally, I don't ask for ID on every booking, just if it seem scammish or otherwise high risk. Anybody else on the forums want to pile on with some advice?

I think it's overkill to ask for ID's from every guest. There's an argument to be made that it's reasonable to ask for the ID from the responsible/paying guest because of fraud/chargeback issues, but personally if I was booking and somebody tried to get an ID for all of the people I was bringing, I wouldn't go for it.

Yep, individual properties is the best way to do it. You can set up calendar imports for mutual blockoff so that when the main properties is booked the individual unit properties are blocked off and vice versa. Here's instructions for that: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/combined-properties-blockoff-lockoff

For OTA's that'll work too -- most don't support the concept of a combination property, but they all support 3 individual properties. Since OwnerRez has the master calendar and is managing that mutual blockoff, you can just integrate with OTA's on 3 listings like they were 3 normal properties and OwnerRez will do the rest.

Our property calendar only goes down to the night, and there's a lot of stuff built round that. If you're doing multiple intraday bookings, you'd need to use a different method. If you are only doing one booking per day (but some are shorter than others), then you could make it work, but if you need to have two bookings on the same day it won't work unless you make multiple properties to hold simultaneous bookings and manage all of the calendars manually, and that's a lot of work.

We do have add-on options for bookings: https://www.ownerrez.com/blog/add-ons-are-here--also-known-as-optional-surcharges. If it's adding on to another booking, you could do the event space that way, as an add-on, and then keep track in a separate calendar so you don't double book it.

Booking.com recently introduced a bug on their iCal where they don't support secure (https) iCal links.

Change the beginning of the iCal URL to http:// instead of https:// and it'll get round that issue.

Hey, were you able to fix the issue? I am having the same issue too.

Many VR owners require a government picture ID for each adult in the booking party. (Again, I have not started yet.)

But hotels do not seem to do this. And I have units that hold up to 8

Question: Is it overkill to expect a picture from each Adult, just from the responsible/paying guest(s)?

What do you do?

Reminding that I have not started actual VR rental yet, likely March or April...

In the Licensing Agreement, I have this Property Address field definition: {PADDRS} I have not tried to figure out how this pulls in yet but assume it comes from the Description:

Anyway, I have:

...A Property with 5 apartments, each is independent VR. Lets say Units 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

SO: I assume best/easiest to include the Unit in the Property Address such as: Unit #1, 100 Main Street, Anywhere, USA 12345???

...A Property that is two town homes, can be be rented separately or together. Lets say addresses 100 Main Street and 102 Main Street.

SO: I assume best/easiest is to code this as 3 properties: 100 Main Street, 102 Main Street, and 100-102 Main Street?

But not sure this would work with OTAs...?

The building I bought a couple months ago (the former bowling alley in town) has an empty space that used to be a 1000sf karate studio. It dawned on me yesterday, that it would be a great small "Event Center." The kind of thing some vacation renters try to use your VR for, sometimes without your knowledge. film shoot, wedding, party, etc.

The questions are:
1) I would like it to be bookable by the Hour/MultiHour/Half Day/Day --> is this possible to do this as an "Event Center" with current functionality?
2) Events often add-on options such as catered / musician / photography service / etc. --> it is ok if is is simple description, but how would this be associated with the Event Center?

Hi everyone, 👋

In a large update, just pushed out this morning, we added the ability to do more widget things. You can now:

- make property links open in new tabs
- target the legend for CSS (eg. make the "Today" and "Holiday" text thing disappear or change)
- add a name to easily identify which widget is which

Have a great holiday season! 🎄

Absolutely, as long as they are in smoky mountains and have their URL properly set up. I have one "offender" who's URL lands on come odd page when his "detail" button is clicked. I think Sharafunnisa wanted to join in ORP185006.

I also ended up embedding page code into my website page. I guess my website builder tool is quirky in a sense that html embeds do not resize based on how many cabins are in the result list of availability search. I kinda got around it but my business name, logo and my website/ phone (theming) displays on widget .. I am thinking guests will start contacting me about other's cabins. See here and you will see what I am talking about :-) https://smoky-mountains-cabin.com/rentals-by-owner

Good ideas on the open in new window and hide legend option. Will add those to the dev list.

@BlueMtn, cool if I add those additional properties to your widget? Any additional to add?

Thanks for adding this feature Chris Hynes! Would you be kind to add property IDs 185006 and 210365 to this as wel? Thanks

Chris, while opening in new window can be controlled in Availability search, when link is clicked from Ribbon Calendar, it opens in same window. Can we have it open in separate window or separate tab?

I think you can set it in widget definitions in your OR settings>widgets> edit widget(group one) check "Open Properties In New Window"

Couple requested changes.... can you have the link set so that when someone clicks the property it opens in a new tab/window rather than taking away from the site they are on?

Also can you remove "Today" and "Holiday" from the legend?

updated my info also :)

Thank you, Chris! I just changed my URLs and now moving on to update the other info. This is going to be GREAT!

Thank you so much Chris, I will pass the info about fixing their links to the 'offenders". i think many people just are not very well versed in OR yet.

I think once we demo it, more will want to jump on board!

Yep, Santa is here early :-D Just created ribbon calendar and availability search widgets that are linked to all of the property id's you sent. If you go to Settings > Widgets in your account you'll be able to see them tagged in the list as "Multi User".

For now, there's no way for you to add or remove properties, so if you need to do that let me know. And if anybody else could use a similar arrangement, let me know and I'll hook it up.

However, you can edit anything else about the widget -- how it looks etc. just not the properties that are in it.

A couple of recommendations for the other properties you have from other users:
- Have them set the property URL in the property general info area to the specific URL for the property. Some are pointing to the main website (i.e. https://www.highviewcabins.com/ or https://moonshinecabins.com/) vs the URL of the property (i.e. https://www.highviewcabins.com/sherwooddream or https://moonshinecabins.com/fireflies)... which means that when a guest searches on the widget and clicks on the property they get dumped at the home page of the site vs. the specific property page
- Fill in everything that can display in the search results...

1) The first photo you add to the property Photos section
2) Property Short Description (Description section)
3) Beds/baths you set in the Amenities section. Sleeps is also calculated from beds.
4) Min/max nightly rates
5) Highlight amenities: pets, internet, firewood, mountain, forest, waterview, waterfront

Sure thing, some notes on secdeps:
- The built-in security deposit is a hold on the card like a hotel would do. It doesn't actually charge the amount.
- If you want to do a refundable secdep where you hold the money and refund it later, then turn off the built in secdeps and instead add a surcharge called "Refundable Security Deposit". That'll be charged at booking and then you can refund it later.
- If you had a merchant account the secdep would be authorized automatically. Since you only have PayPal right now, we can't do that -- PayPal doesn't allow us to keep cards on file. Instead, the Security Deposit Reminder will be sent to the guest with a link that lets them authorize the hold before arrival.
- When you get to the release area, you'll get a page that lets you release the whole thing or charge some. See screenshot.

We’re new to Owner Rez, can someone tell us the security deposit charge/refund procedure?
Is the deposit automatically charged?
Does the security deposit come to my account or is it some type of hold?
I set it up to “send the release reminder” 1 day after check out. When I get the reminder does it give me the option to charge against it and what if necessary?
Is it possible to see a screenshot from Tech support or someone else? Thanks 😊

that sounds awesome

No worries - ask away. Sometimes the basic questions are the most necessary.

Currently, there's no way to custom sort the ribbon. It goes by name or, if you have it entered, the property code. It's a great suggestion that's been made before, so we'll get that out as some point.

You can search support articles, forum and blog posts from the big search bar on this page:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support

That will return results across everything.

We added a little easter egg for this which you'll all see in a few days. In testing right now. 😜

I'm new, so forgive my basic question but...

Is there a way to sort the ribbon calendar? It looks alphabetical? Can I custom sort it so the units are listing in a more logical order rather than alphabetical?

Also, if there's a way to search the community forum, please LMK. I don't see a search bar, but could be missing it.

Yep, we added that a couple months back. I totally forgot to update this thread, thanks for reminding me!

So what we did was to add a processing fee or discount on the payment method. That will be displayed on the quote reservation flow and add a line item for that percentage on the booking when its done. It'll also set a payment type rule on the booking so if the guest initially reserves with a check and gets a discount, for example, they have to keep using checks for the second payment.

You can always switch up the rule (on the Rules tab of the booking), but that's what happens by default.