General Help and Questions

Sort by

• Newest Reply
• Newest Topic

I've been VERY unsuccessful in using my quickbooks desktop version. In the middle of getting info to my accountant for our taxes and know that if I used the QB it would be much easier, but I really don't understand QB!! My question:
Is it easy for a real QB "dummy" to use the OR feature that uploads the info to QB online? will it integrate everything my accountant will need for taxes?

Is there a service to set this up for me?
I have read the OR articles on this subject... OR does not upload refunds? will it eventually do this as this complicates things.
When I have to refund but keep the cancellation fee is that figured out in QB?
Does it keep track separately of for example: Boat motor fee, dog fee, housekeeping fee, taxes
Any other advice in this area appreciated, I really don't even know what questions to ask.
Thank you,
Wendy

awesome, let me try

Yep, you can add additional custom fields and mark them as required during checkout. Here's an article on that: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/capture-additional-fields-on-checkout-quote-acceptance

Those fields will be shown both on the quote checkout as well as on the signing link if you send it for other bookings like Airbnb.

We will add a specific guest list feature like that eventually, but for now use the custom fields. You can either create one rich text (multiline) field and ask for one guest per line, or create multiple fields one per each and tell the guest to enter N/A if the guest count doesn't match.

Those fields can then be merged in to the renter agreement so its part of what they sign.

Is there a way to add additional fields before lease signing or at least have renters fill out?
There is apparently lot of attempts to over occupy the properties (bring more than max number of people0. I was wondering if something like this can be added to make gust fill out as part of check out:

First name, First letter of last name ________ Age_______
First name, First letter of last name ________ Age_______
First name, First letter of last name ________ Age_______
etc to the max number of guests allowed.
TIA

We import whatever is in the calendar feed. In VRBO's case they only include the guest name and dates. Airbnb includes the guest email. TA includes the number of guests.

If any of those feeds get additional fields, let us know and we'll add support for importing them.

the calendar sync, however, does not import number of guests still?

Yep, we released that a bit ago -- thanks for reminding me to update this topic!

if you look in the Tools menu there is a VRBO/HomeAway importer for both reservations and payments.

Any updates on this importer, Chris?

Looks like there was a link to the old legal agreement location in the email "regarding" link.

We just pushed a fix to correct the link to go to the new Legal Agreements area on the booking.

received email about archived rental agreement.Subj has hyperlink to lease number., When you click on ot, gets error although agreement archived. ORB1216422

Thanks, no biggie for me, it is my one and only HE inquiry in eons. But if someone else ifs getting more, may matter to them

Yep, I see what's going on. They've recently changed their format and dropped the year on the from date which is causing us to infer the current year. I'm not sure why, but it seems to be what the "cool kids" are doing these days -- no year on the first date. Makes it ambiguous what Dec 30 - Jun 2, 2018 would mean.

We'll schedule a fix to infer from the year on the to date instead of the current year.

Just got once in a blue moon HE inquiry - is showed up with dates May 29,17 thru June 2, 2018. In actuality it was for May 29-June 1, 2018. Just wanted to let you know something is not parsing out. TIA

If you have a card on file, which you will for any credit card based booking (not PayPal), you can charge it at any point on the Transactions tab of the booking. We leave all of that between you and the guest and don't lock you into any certain payment schedule or cancellation policy.

However, be careful to get an agreement in writing from the guest before you charge, whether that be in the renter agreement or ideally an admission of damage after the fact and agreement to pay. Without that agreement, you'd likely loose if the guest were to do a chargeback, and then you'd have to follow up in small claims court.

If a guest damages exceed the security deposit is there a way to charge their merchant account the extra damages through OwnerRez?

I know this guy. He's in my building at Snowshoe. He uses Lodgix for his condo rentals

Someone posted today in Say No group this example ( see on desktop, not mobile https://www.facebook.com/Snowshoeskivacation/app/360749284116763/

You will l see multi unit availability calendar somehow embedded into facebook (group or page). I know currently one cannot create tabs in groups.. maybe pages. I know several smokies owners use OR. Where I m going with this, maybe someone OR-participation properties could have "communal" availability calendar like this... Not even with price, but link and number of bedrooms would work!
Just a thought

Thank you for the help! I figured it out. This was more difficult than it had to be.

Yep, you'd add seasons (Settings > Seasons) for each of those periods where you want to control the min stay and/or arrival/departure.

Then go to the rates (Settings > Rates) and associate them with the correct seasons in addition to the current High and Low seasons you've got set up.

Is there a way to make Sunday to Sunday stays during those min stay periods? Memorial Day would be Fri- Mon.

I tried that, but thats just in general settings. From June-end of August I have 7 day min. Memorial Day weekend i have 3 day minimum. Bike Week, Country Music Festival and Spring Break I have 3-7 night min. How can I set this up?

Yep! You'll define the default minimum stays and arrival/departure restrictions on the property Rules settings.

Then for stays that only apply for some of the year, like your summer only ones, you can define rules on each season. If defined, those will override the rules on the property. Go to Settings > Seasons (under Rates) to define the detailed rules.

Is there a way to have a minimum night stay during certain parts of the calendar? During the summer, I have a 7 night minimum stay and it is Sunday to Sunday.

I do that, but that leaves gaps when I have default rates (and those may span into other calendar seasons that are NOt in winter). So what happens is email does not get triggered for calendar winter months if those fall under default rates. I trigger it manually but sometimes I forget :) If I let it go by default all-encompassing season, then summer stays will get an email about winter travel, which I am trying not to do. Anyhow, not a big deal, I just thought maybe I am not using the seasons correctly :)

I wish I knew, I am no GA wiz. But if you develop your own, I would envision something that could track that traveler used inquiry/quote widget in <month, year> and queried dates in <month, year> for <number of nights > .. Something like that,, to determine lead times ball park. I see traffic on inquiry/quote widget and I'm dying to know what dates they are querying :)

Seasons can overlap but only one season is selected for each time period in a booking based on the priority. So the long Winter season will never be picked up as the other ones are getting selected first.

Could you associate the trigger with the 3 or 4 seasons in that period instead?

We've thought of adding additional analytics options for things like that, but as far as I'm aware there's no capacity in GA to track additional information like date ranges on events in a way that would let you analyze it later.

If you can point me to a method with GA we can certainly add the additional information pretty rapidly. Otherwise it'll have to wait until we build out our own analytics section that allows more details like that.

I have defined a recurring 'winter" season with priority 1, from nov 20 - mar 10th. What i am trying to do is to have email that talks about winter driving conditions trigger for any bookings that stay during that period. I do not have any rates defined for this period as rates are handled by other rate periods or default to standard rate. I noticed that email does not trigger even though this season 'winter" is selected. What am I doing wrong? TIA

I am very interested to know what date ranges people are looking for when they hit inquiry/book widget on my website. Ids there any way to tweak GA to track that? TIA

I believe we discussed this via support ticket, but for general reference here's the setup we recommend for booking.com:

Go to the Policies section under the Property dropdown on the booking.com admin.

Change your cancellation and prepayment settings to require 30 or 60 day notice for cancellation and charge a cancellation fee -- that'll discourage people from canceling last minute. You can give a grace period for cancellations within a few hours of booking, or 8-12 weeks before arrival to soften up the policy.

Set prepayment to Yes in the same policy and set payment to "credit card". That will require a credit card on booking.

Also go to Guest Information in the same Policies section and require an address and phone number so you have contact info.

Email or call booking.com support and ask them to require the CVV/Card Security Code field -- there's no option for that in the policies section but they will do it if you ask them. That'll make it easier to charge the card.

We're almost done with booking.com direct integration -- hopefully will be released in January, pending certification by booking.com. Once that's in place, all of the details and payments will flow in automatically and rates will be updated to booking.com from OwnerRez.