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Awesome! Thank you, Chris!
That informational text is only shown in the preview -- to make sure you don't wonder why it was blank. Good point that we should clarify that so you don't wonder what the real email will look like.
When an email is sent, any fields with missing values aren't rendered at all. You can test for yourself by going to a booking for that property with no PXHOTTUBCODE, using the "Email this Guest" button and switching to that booking template:
It seems like that when a value in a custom field is not defined, the system automatically displays "[Custom field PXHOTTUBCODE is empty for this property].
I have some properties where hot tub code is required and some properties where guests don't need a code. I would like to use one welcome email for all properties, but when the error message "[Custom field PXHOTTUBCODE is empty for this property]" is printed in the welcome email, it's not really helpful information to the guest and it signals that something is wrong.
Is there a way to turn the "error" message off and simply leave it blank when there is no value? So in the case that the field value is not defined - they don't need the code - it would not print anything in the welcome email.
Thank you.
Daniel
Great idea! I'll note it down and see if we can get a report in for that.
In the meantime, you can see the custom fields on the Stay Reports. If you pull a date range report for the next year, you can scan down the custom fields column and see which ones have fields set. Hopefully that'll help a bit.
Hi, I have a two properties each with lock codes I can set remotely (using Vera and Zwave). Unfortunately it is not one of the e-rental locks that was just added as an integration point. I import bookings from Airbnb and VRBO and that is pretty easy. I have set up a custom field for the lock code so that triggered emails can use it.
However each time I import new bookings, I have to go and click each one to see which ones are new (ie. the custom field for my lock code is blank). There there a report I can show that will show each booking and allow me to select custom fields to add to it? That would save a lot of time for me. I can then import new bookings and run a report to see which ones have a blank lock code and then update those ones.
Glenn
Can you give me a bit more detail about where you're seeing that issue? You should be able to copy/paste anywhere. We don't have buttons for that because browser security limitations don't allow us, but you can copy/paste by Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V using the keyboard, right clicking and using the menu, or tapping and holding if you're on mobile.
Do any of those methods work for you?
Why am I not able to copy and paste descriptions for properties?
If you create a specific dates season for those dates, you'll be able to set the allowed/required days and min length of stay for that Memorial Day holiday. Then you can set the same rates or different rates.
Thank you Michelle, excellent write up. The reason I am exploring this is I am looking for ways to make my quotes more appealing to travelers(without increasing my risks) so Trying to weigh my options.
I do like my current set up in terms of having money in my bank - that keeps renter behaving because they know I have their money (and not just credit card auth).
Hi again BlueMtnCabins,
You're right - we're completely empty on articles about security deposits. We're adding bunches all the time, but still haven't covered that area!
Okay, instead of writing out a book by hand, I found scads of support tickets I could steal from. Here are some relevant paragraphs...
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Our security deposit follows the hotel model of putting a "hold" on the guest's credit card for whatever you specify. This is done automatically by our system following the rules and settings you put in place on the property. Typically, the hold is done 1 or 2 days before arrival.
Our system fully manages this process. You get emails when it happens, whether successfully or unsuccessfully, and the guest does too. If the hold fails, the guest is notified just like when a payment fails and given a link where they can submit a new card. The vast majority of the time, the guest uses the link, within a few hours of getting the email, and everything is fine.
After departure, our system emails you (once per day, every day) until you release the security deposit hold. It's a very fast process that typically is just one click. There is also email templates that can be sent at that point, telling the guest their security deposit was released.
If you need to collect against the security deposit, that is also easy and part of the same process. Here's a quick pic showing what it looks like:
The money that is collected flows through your same bank account just like your payments and refunds. Our Payments Detail report show this revenue just like the other items.
It's important to understand that the hold we put on the card cannot be blocked or removed by the cardholder. The way a "hold" works with interchange (Visa/MC/Discover) is that it's like any other regular charge, only it's "pending" until you collect something against it. The cardholder cannot call the bank and ask that the pending charge be removed. No bank will do it based on interchange policy. Even if the cardholder was to cancel their credit card account entirely (or the card was stolen), they would still be liable for whatever was collected against the hold.
The way it work is that the "hold" is an authorization from the bank just like any other regular charge. The difference is that with a regular charge, the authorization is followed up a request to finalize or "capture" the authorization. In this case, there is no followup "capture" and the authorization stays in place until either we void it or collect on it, or its been too long and the bank expires it on their own.
This is the standard way hotels and other businesses deal with damage across the travel industry, and its what interchange recommends for best practices. The VRBO style is not recommended and can be disputed by the cardholder.
The other thing to understand is that, if you collect the full security deposit up front as a payment and then refund it after, your credit card processor will most likely not refund you the fees from the credit card charge when you refund it after. Some (like Paypal and Stripe) will refund fees. Most do not. So you may very well pay a credit card fee for the deposit each and every time. With the "hold" style, there is no fee until you actually capture a charge (which rarely happens).
All that being said, we are scheduling some new development which will fully support the VRBO style of security deposit. We're planning on differentiating it as "security deposit" versus "security hold" and allowing both to work on bookings. The "security deposit" will take a real payment which you'll refund after. The "hold" will follow what we do now. While we continue to recommend the hold style, we have a lot of users ask about the other method because VRBO has done that and they want to follow what VBRO does, so that's in the works.
This may be a silly question, but how do they work? I could not find comprehensive article.
Currently the way I have it set up is I collect rent + damage deposit. Once the renter check out, I issue a refund for deposit (provided no damages).
So if my rent is $1000, and booking/damage deposit is $300, here is what I do.
1. 1st payment (if more than 30 days out) = $300 (deposited to my bank) = this amount also equal my damage deposit
2. balance payment (at 30 days mark) = $ 1000 (deposited to my bank)
3. renter check in and stays.
4. renter leaves and we check for damages
5. if no damages I issue a refund for $300 (debited from my bank)
with a conventional security deposit, when it is "reserved" X days prior to check in, how does the owner get money if something is broken by guest, for example? because seems that security deposit amount is never actually deposited to owner's bank?
what is an advantage to this as opposed to my method? the only drawback of my method is it skews the numbers by overstating them by $300. TIA
Memorial Day weekend I usually get a million inquiries for Fri-Sun or Sat-Mon, but I only accept Fri-Mon.
3 night minimum for any stay that includes one of those 3 nights, I guess would be the rule I'm looking for.
I just set up the max days ahead thing, that should work perfectly for the other promblem; thanks.
Ha announced that external links (such as links to your website or Facebook etc) are now removed form your listings.
Thank you Sam!!!
@Ella: You're all set. Re-run your rates now and that should be gone. We pushed out a hotfix this morning that included this and a couple other things. Let us know if you see it happening again.
@Ella: We found an old bug, related to this, that we're in the process of fixing. Thanks for finding it.
Thank you very much!!
:)
Yikes! Not sure what that's about, but we'll dig into it for you!
I have noticed this for other holidays in the past as well but since I don't do instant bookings (yet), I have always manually deleted one of the surcharges and left just one when sending quotes. I looked up my settings and I do not have any custom holidays entered. Also in settings I have selected "Observe all weekend (Fri - Mon)" for all choices.
Ella
Hi Michelle,
Thank you for quick reply. From May26-29 my calendar shows Memorial Day. I assume that it's from the system. I have not entered any holidays myself, not that I remember..
Ella
Hi Ella,
Do you have two holidays in that time period? "Per multiplier" means it's calculating per Holiday instance. Is it possible that you have Memorial Day and something else triggering it? Look at the ribbon/month calendars and see what shows up in that time period.
Happy Friday!
Hello,
I have a problem with the holiday surcharge. It shows up twice. My setting is "Per Multiplier", Holiday calculated per 1 after the first 0.
If I select dates May 25-29, it shows up twice, but if I select May 26-29, it shows once (correct). I need it to show once only, even if the stay is longer than 3 nights.
Thank you for your help.
Ella
I just emailed you a sample excel spreadsheet to help conceptualize this. Let me know what you think
That's correct. To simplify it you could even automatically pre-select bookings "as of booked date".
This allows me to at a glance do a year over year comparison of key metrics:
-Inquiries
-Bookings
-Occupancy
-Nights
OK, so you want to pick 1 Jan 2017 to 31 Dec 2017 to filter stay dates. Then separately pick 15 April 2017 as the "booked as of" date.
So we'd grab all bookings staying from 1 Jan 2017 to 31 Dec 2017 where booked date <= 15 April 2017. You'd get an occupancy % for the whole year based on what was booked as of 15 April.
Then we'd go a year back and compare to all bookings staying from 1 Jan 2016 to 31 Dec 2016 where booked date <= 15 April 2016.
Any bookings staying in 2018 wouldn't be included at all, even if they were booked before 15 April 2017.
This one's a bit tricky. What I'm trying to do is compare year over year occupancy AS OF a certain date (but I of course want all bookings for the year included).
I believe the total nights is still the total nights available for the dates booked. I still want to know what the occupancy rate is for all future months.
The x-axis is still the stay date, it's just that the filter is on "bookings through date".
Thank you i will try that
Thinking about this more, what's needed for the booked date is to add a selector for the period with two options:
"Use stay dates" vs "Use booked date"
Stay dates does what it does now. Booked date would filter on the date booked.
That would work for most of the stats on the occupancy report and booking stats report.
However, there are two stats that I'm not sure how to calculate: percent occupied and people per period night. When going by stay period, that's easy -- divide nights booked by total nights. But going by booked date there's really not a "total nights".
Any ideas on that? I suppose we could disable those two when going by booked date and you'd have to use total number of nights or total number of people as a proxy.
Right now you can only set one departure day per season. There is a default arrival/departure day setting in the property rules, and then each season also has an arrival/departure day setting that can override the property default.
If you were to create a "Easter" specific dates season from 26 March 2018 to 1 April 2018, you could set departure date of Sunday for that season. Then any booking that is part of that season will require to depart on a Sunday.
That gets you most of the way there, but it'd still reject bookings for that Fri-Mon (as the departure of Sunday wouldn't be fulfilled). However, you could handle that with a second season with minimum number of nights. So:
"Easter (Sunday departure)" season from 26 March 2018 to 28 March 2018 with a departure date of Sunday. That will require anybody arriving Mon-Wed and require them to check out Sunday.
"Easter (4 day min)" season from 29 March 2018 to 30 March 2018 with a 4 day minimum number of nights. That will require anybody arriving Thu or Fri to stay at least 4 nights, pushing them through until Sun or Mon.
There is one little hole there, in that anybody arriving Mon-Wed is required to check out Sunday (not the next Monday or afterward), but in that case you could override the rules and create the quote anyway.
It's a bit complex, but should work -- and definitely use the rate tester to make sure it does what you expect.
Will that work for you?
You should be able to do that with the compare with previous option.
If you pick a period 1/1/2017 - 4/11/2017, and then do compare with year before, it will compare each month with the month of the year before. You could also go back up to 5 years if you want.
If you want to compare the overall totals vs. breaking out month by month, set Columns to Year so you get one column for each year.
Does that work how you're expecting?
EDIT: I just realized you wanted to filter by booked date and compare on that, not the actual current availability. Yes, that's something you can't do yet, but it's on the list.
