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Problem with that article is this sentence they stuck in, and which guests have come back at me with:
"You’re not obliged to sign anything."
Yes, actually they are obligated if they want to stay at my place.
But, again, my question, I suppose is really for OR techs to learn from Airbnb, is - Are guests not getting alerts/notifications when this channel message is triggered and arrives in their Airbnb message box?
Coz it's Airbnb. Their guests think that rules are optional for them. Nothing you can do but keep sending the request. I also sometimes send them link to this Air help article https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/465
Thank you so much Joel!
Hoping it will help.
My best
Carole
The description is definitely Airbnb's. You can see it here in their documentation: https://developer.airbnb.com/page/supported-amenities
This page might be restricted to developers partnered with Airbnb, but you can send this screenshot to their support and see if that helps.
Hello -
I'm having an issue with our elevator amenity when it is pushed to Airbnb. The listing shows up on Airbnb with the words " The home or building has an elevator that's at least 52 inches deep and a doorway at least 32 inches wide".
I do not know where this text is coming from and I'm concerned because our European elevator is much smaller than that.
I have checked my own OR site, it does not contain this language and I have check VRBO which I also sync with from OR, and it does not contain this language.
I thought it was from Airbnb but I have just been going round with them and they say it is not on their end.
Is anyone else who has an elevator seeing this language in their Airbnb sync?
Thanks!
Carole
I would say that 7/8s of my guests who book through Airbnb don't respond to the triggered channel message with the Rental Agreement link sent immediately to them when they book. This requires me to manually send them an SMS with the link or to call them.
I'm having a hard time understanding why this is. I'm not sure that the majority of them are just ignoring my request, figuring they can get away without signing.
The requirement is clearly and prominently stated twice in my listing - once in the description and again in the house rules. Guests are also asked to tell me that they've read the rules and that they work for them. Yet even when they do that they still don't sign the agreement without my prompting them a second time via SMS.
I can't help but wonder then if they simply aren't getting notification from Airbnb that this message has come through, which should have while they're still in the Airbnb app or webpage.
Otherwise, if they're not purposely ignoring the SMS, what else explains them not responding to it?
Booking.com did begin offering an RTB option; at the moment, users are experiencing frustration, and there is no two-way communication. You can neither ask nor answer questions of the guest. You are given 24 hours to accept the booking, after that the guest is given 24 hours to finalize the booking.
For now, we would recommend you stick with the BDC IB instead of RTB. We are hopeful that BDC will improve their offering and that OwnerRez would be able to integrate when the API is upgraded.
Hello,
I saw that Booking.com (BDC) now accepts "Request to Book" (RTB) for API-connected hosts that are new to Booking.com (which would be my case). This seems to be a reasonably new policy from BDC. However, the instructions on connecting to Booking.com on the help pages still claim that we cannot RTB with Booking.com. Is the RTB something that will automatically be implemented if I create a BDC account and API connect to OwnerRez, or do I need to do other things? Or should I even wait for OR to update their API to accept BDC RTB? If the latter, do folks know if there is a timeline for this to be implemented?
Cheers,
Acacio
How do you synchronize expenses in OwnerRez to QuickBooks?
John
They have an exchange rate of 1 to 1 in QuickBooks.
Is there a way of doing this?
Hi
we charge in USD $, most of our guests come from Brazil who use BRL.
We're moving from another Channel manager and that will show the booking in the local currency and show approx and say we bill in USD and conversion is approx price, it helps our international guests see what it will cost them in their local currency.
Is something like this available in OR? I have over 300 properties and this is crucial to my operation
Hi,
We have a general article on this subject here: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/email-from-reply-to-verified-sender
however we also have a dedicated article for NameCheap here: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/verified-email-setup-namecheap
If you have more specific questions after working through these, I would recommend reaching out to our helpdesk so we can work hand in hand with you.
~Caleb
I'm embarrassed that I missed something so simple. Thanks, that worked!
I just paid NameCheap for a year for a email box for WhisperwindCabin.com
How can I set that up?
Would it work for your setup to adjust the cleaning fee something like what is shown, with the appropriate amounts? Then batch update the existing bookings.
Hi Daniel,
I know this is an old comment, but I wanted to mention here for the benefit of anyone else who comes across this thread: Lynnbrook Group has recently started supporting Hold (auth only) type transactions. We are in the process of adding support so that "hold" type security deposits can be used with Lynnbrook Group to avoid incurring those additional fees.
The cleaning fee that is set for guests is $20 more than what my cleaner receives. On the owner report, the owner's portion is being deducted for the full guest amount. Is there a way to still have the cleaning expense be pulled into the report but at the reduced amount? I know I could create each cleaning expense instead, but that's going to add more work.
Hi Michael,
If there are no surcharges applying then nothing automatic would apply at this time, however you can manually create and assign expenses.
https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/property-management-overview#expenses
~Caleb
Is there a way to have cleaning fees in the owner report for the times the owner blocks and stays at their own property?
Perfect. That was it.
Thanks
Hi Michael,
Automatic expensing is only possible through the surcharges configuration themselves at this time, so if there's an issue with how a surcharge related expense is generating you would typically want to look at the settings for that surcharge itself. There is an expense related section towards the bottom with all the relative settings.
Taking an educated guess it sounds like that cleaning expense could be set to pre-deduct, however there are a few other possibilities here so if you're still having trouble figuring this out please reach out to our helpdesk and we can work more closely with you on this one.
Here's what that pre-deduct setting would look
PS. Remember to run a batch update after making changes, to update bookings/surcharges with your changes: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/property-management-common-issues-questions#changes
~Caleb
I have searched the forum without luck and tried to do a stare and compare against my other properties that are showing the expense on my reports. I know it's something easy I have missed, but I can't find it.
Suggestions on were to look?
Thanks
Great, thorough answer. I wish there were a way to pin or save posts.
Hey Cody,
With the use of the {BUFIXUP} booking field, users can create their own Channel Template that allows OR users to collect guest contact information and renter agreement signatures. Those guests would enter their phone number directly on your Point of Contact form so you can ensure you have the right number for them, using the link provided.
If you don't already have a channel message in place to get that {BUFIXUP} link out to your guests, here's how to go about that:
https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/request-airbnb-guest-contact-information
Without setting up a channel message for this, your Airbnb guests will not receive your Point of Contact form, Rental Agreement, or payment page for Security Deposit (if applicable). You'd have to send it to them manually after asking them for their email address. {BUFIXUP} takes out the extra legwork for you and can be triggered to fire when the booking is created.
If you have any questions surrounding this topic, please don't hesitate to write to us at help@ownerrez.com
Hope this helps!
Hey Acacio,
It's not necessary to paste your entire Legal Agreement to the API House Rules for Airbnb. You do, however, want to include specific details and important info that your guests need to be aware of, all of which we assume would also be included in your Rental Agreement. For example, do you charge them extra if they smoke in your home? Do you not allow pets, and charge a penalty fee if someone brings one and violates your House Rules? So on and so forth. The House Rules should also mention that a signed Rental Agreement is a requirement.
We suggest the following information (remove what's not applicable, add to these as you see fit) be included in your API House Rules. This area is the strictest enforcement, the channels will allow you to cancel a reservation before arrival or during a stay for violating these.
No Smoking, No Parties, No Pets, Minimum renter age is ##
Guest must sign Renter Agreement within [## hours/days], Quiet Time is ENFORCED ## PM through ## AM
Security Deposit required up to $####. Deposit to be processed by Host on guest's credit card.
The Security Deposit amount listed should be the highest value you collect on any of your properties under this API channel.
If you would cancel a channel booking for not completing the Agreement or Security Deposit, you should set a time limit (usually 24-48 hours) in your house rules so that the CS rep can support you if you need to cancel a booking for failure to follow house rules.
If you do allow pets, be sure to state the pet limit and the fee (as well as if the fee is per pet or one fee for all pets). NOTE: Airbnb charges one pet fee, if the fee is per-pet you may need to collect additional amounts through the Resolution Center.
If you have different House Rules for different properties, you may want to add those rules directly in each Property > Channel Rules page. Rules written within a Property can override House Rules from the API Integration page. To add rules at the property level:
There are two Airbnb support articles relating to guests signing contracts. I suggest making yourself familiar with these as well. If you ever receive pushback from a guest about meeting your requirements, you can let them know that you're a software connected host and these requirements are allowed.
https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/465
https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2824
Who is the other Elavon reseller you are referring to?
Hello,
I'm new to short-term rentals and Airbnb/Vrbo. I followed the setup OwnerRez recommends, including a rental agreement contract for the booking guest to sign. However, looking into the Airbnb rules, they say that the contract terms must be stated in the house rules. It seems too much to include the whole contract in the house rules (they look cluttered). Do folks do that? Do you copy and paste the contract into the Airbnb rules? Or are there other workarounds?
Cheers, and thanks for the help,
Acacio
Hi there!
I don't know that we have any control over when Airbnb publishes those reviews. We sync them to the channel, and then they do with them what they will at that point. If you'd like us to dig into this deeper for you, could you write us at the helpdesk at help@ownerrez.com? Sending us specific examples by way of URLs and screenshots would be most helpful.
Hi all,
Over the last year or so I have been collecting contact information from previous guests and reaching out after their stay to see if they want to join my e-newsletter to stay up to date on happenings at the cabin and when I run special deals. I collect this info by texting them after their stay. I have noticed over the last couple weeks that the phone numbers I get from airbnb aren't going through. Did they anonymize the numbers? I am wondering if there are other best practices to gather contact info for a newsletter.
Cheers!
We just implemented an automatic review for guests that meet certain criteria, and it's working great! However, the reviews are published at midnight, which is not great for the guest experience. I imagine my past guest is getting a notification at midnight that I left them a 5 star review, and likely getting irritated. How can I change the time of day that my automatic review is published?
