General Help and Questions

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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.

It looks like Processing Fee/Discount was added for Payments. Yay, I can add a surcharge when people use PayPal!! When was this added? Can you explain the note: This will set the payment type rule on the booking so subsequent payments remain the same type? What happens if they make a payment by check? Just curious. So glad this is here!!

Yes great, thanks Chris that was my problem.

What dates are you using? I see that you've got weekly prices in there and no nightly. That's fine, but I notice some of those are set to prorate and some are set to not prorate. The prorating ones will allow less than 7 nights based on your minimum number of nights and calculate that. If prorate is set to None, though, then it will only work for exact multiples of that rate length -- i.e. 7 nights.

If you do want to prorate, go and edit those seasonal rates and set 'em all to prorate.

I have tested my booking form and often get this reason why I can't book.....If you want to book, correct the following:
Couldn't calculate rates for these dates. I don't seem to be able to find the reason. What should I be looking at?

Thank you :)

Yep, it's rarely used -- mainly for things like high season payments are 60 days out but low season are 30 days out, etc. But sometimes people see it on the season and enter the value instead of (or in addition to) on the property.

Went ahead and cleared all of those off of the season. Create a new quote (or go to the Rules tab of your test quote and reset to property rules) and you'll be good to go.

Aha! So what has happened here is that the season has a 30 day before arrival second payment days setting on it that is overriding the main one on the property. Looks like this and a few other seasons have the 30 days before arrival.

Do you want that at all? If not let me know and I'll clear it off all of the seasons.

No, I created new test quote. Still shows 30 days. See ORQ1874335. Quote email template

Could you combine them all to one agreement? That'd be a lot simpler for guests, who seem to have issues getting just one thing signed, never mind 3.

Are you previewing a specific quote? The second payment days rule update on the property will set the rule for all new quotes, but that doesn't change existing ones. Or if you don't have any quotes yet, the system will use an example value.

To change the test quote, go to the Rules tab of the quote and change it there -- that'll show you what I mean.

Or create a brand new quote and it'll use the new settings.

?

Helping a friend set up OR. I defined 2nd payment due 45 days prior to arrival under Property-> Rules. However, when I use {QSPDAY} on an email template, it shows 30 days. Where does 30 days come from? Property ORP163473

Thanks!

Lead paint? In USA, this not needed for short term rental

Has an auto reminder been done yet for legal agreements?
I have a bike and lead paint agreement. Can these be auto sent as soon as I get the signed lease?
Is there a way to grab links to all of my agreements at once and send that - manually or automatically?

Yep, this is one of the big things that we need to do -- update the quote and widget so it doesn't include the secdep in the total -- TI as well. That will clarify what's going on. We also have a dev cycle planned for additional payment criteria which would let you put the deposit in a separate payment (perhaps the first of 3) etc.

I know we talked about this on the phone, but just wanted to post this here for general edification :-)

We collect the customer address (and email/phone) during reservation from a quote in OwnerRez, and also if a guest is e-signing the renter agreement for listing site sourced bookings.

I am very new to Owner Rez and would appreciate some feedback.

Is there a way to get customer provided mailing address information into the owner rez system without me having to retype it.
Thanks
Andree'

I would totally love a group availability widget so that we could use it to collectively advertise it through other channels such as magazines and other deal aggregators .... it just doesnt make economic sense to advertise 1 or 2 properties in those channels...
thank you so much for the idea BuleMountain

reason I am asking as I use traditional DD. so what happens is people being people do not look at quote carefully when thy do it online so then they comment something like "oh we did not expect it to be $2200" whereas in reality it is $1900 (plus $300 refundable DD). I get comments like that all the time and how many just abandon cart because they do not see that deposit is REFUNDABLE

Not started yet as I said, but i follow b&b + VR forums. I get the sense quite a few owners prefer it that way. And that it seems like not a security deposit to guests. Coupled with the fact traditional hotels/motels do this, FWIW

MY bigger concern once I start, is that some OTAs seem to make the security deposit into an ordeal and some VR owners have gotten delisted over minor attempts or misunderstandings trying to collect for damage.

And perhaps, using the credit card approach might invite more chargebacks?

I agree with Chris/Paul in using both traditional security deposit and I believe the damage deposit. Rather than trying to collect, it is discouraging damage in the first place. My legal agreement is harsh. I make it clear those who chargeback (friendly fraud/flippant) or deny their damage or vandalize, etc... face: entire party will be named in a court claim + face charges of theft by deception + all will be reported to all credit bureaus for nonpayment of bills. Of course, I would only bring this clause up with the nonpaying abusers...

I know this topic has been beaten to death. But, I am wondering if I can improve my bookings as it seems a lot of people do not realize that my quotes include REFUNDABLE damage deposit and quote may seem high compared to someone who charges insurance only or has secdep as Auth on CC.

Does anyone use Secdep as CC hold (vs to actually charging the card or receiving payment, and then refunding) + ARDI insurance?
I have never used Secdep as CC hold, how hard is it to charge any damage against it?

has anyone switched form using traditional damage deposit (collected amount) to CC hold secdep? has it increased your bookings?
My larger more luxury property has $500 damage deposit, and I am wondering if it is impeding my bookings. On the other hand, I do not want damages (who does), and actual damage deposit ius usally a good deterrent for that. any advice ? Tia. My cabins can be seen at bluemountaincabins.com

Dynamic pricers like PriceLabs push their rates into OwnerRez as spot rates, which override any seasonal rates in the system.

All of our channel integrations that push rates use those rates as they push out (optionally with a per-channel percentage adjustment).

Something I was thinking is, for the busier seasons I don't plan to use small/specialty OTAs such as BringFido/MisterBnB, as it brings more complexity. Someone in support mentioned that recently.

But I was considering using them for slow seasons or for Mon-Weds time frame to catch a few extra bookings.

Of course, not yet sure how to set that logic up!

Question, how will that work together with PriceLabs or other dynamic pricers? Part of the appeal of these to me, is to let them constantly determine all the best prices for the next few months and have the PMS (OR) push it to all channels. So I don't have to touch them if I don't want.

In addition to what Chris said, keep in mind that many reviews may be stored (whether manually entered or imported in bulk) globally and not against a specific booking. Airbnb reviews are the only ones that automatically find and match up against bookings at the moment. Other reviews, imported in bulk, will not be linked to a booking.

Yep, most calendars aren't built to show many properties at once or half days either.

If they've got OwnerRez accounts, email me a list and I'll have a look and see what we can do.

If you go to the Bookings tab and switch to list view, hit the Filter button and it will let you filter down to show bookings with or without reviews.

This will only show the ones recorded in OwnerRez, so if you're checking up on bookings from listing sites, make sure to run the channel bridge review imports for those before you run the query so everything's up to date.

Can OR help with identifying guests who haven't left a review? How can I make this task easier?
Thanks

Yep, that's our main focus right now! Pushing rates by hand sucks, to push it mildly. We have been turning on direct connections to sites all year.

We're already connected with booking.com (https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/connect-ownerrez-t-booking-com) and TripAdvisor. For either of those, you can go into OwnerRez and create a channel and push out the rates directly to the site automatically from OwnerRez. For booking.com, you can accept bookings directly right into OwnerRez. For TripAdvisor, it's still importing bookings via iCal but we're about to release a direct connection for that as well (ETA a couple of weeks).

We're also almost done with Airbnb rate push via our channel bridge tool -- that'll be out in a couple of weeks too.

For HomeAway and VRBO, we're working with them on a direct integration as we speak. That should be available early in the new year.