General Help and Questions

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Hi Ella,

A very good question. The issue is that sometimes when the system goes reauthorize the security deposit, the card is closed, expired or over limit from the cardholder's other activities. When that happens, the old security deposit is voided but no new security deposit is possible. This is a natural unavoidable problem with how card processing works. We can't guarantee that reauthorizations will always work for this reason. I know that's frustrating. We've looked into different alternatives in the past but always come up short. We are considering adding an email notification that will tell you when this "failed to reauthorize" occurs so at least you know you're dealing with a guest that you have no security deposit on. Not a great situation to be in, but at least you'll know a little bit ahead of time.

-Michelle

FYI the error message while trying to release the security deposit was:
An error occured while trying to release - The release request failed. Reason: The bank did not approve this request. Details: Transaction can only be voided if status is authorized or submitted_for_settlement. This error is being returned from your payment gateway. It is probably occurring because the original security deposit has expired or was released elsewhere.

Hello,
Recently I had a booking (ORB355910 ) were even though the security deposit was successfully authorized, the automatic re-authorization after a few days failed. However, I was never notified of this and when I tried to release the security deposit after departure I received a message that the bank did not authorize this release and maybe it was released somewhere else.
Luckily there was no damage, so I eventually manually marked this as released manually. The system until then did try to collect the security deposit on daily basis, each one was denied, until I marked it as released. Shouldn't I receive an email notification when such autorisation fails?
This would have been trouble if there was actual damage and security deposits to collect.
Ella

That'll work fine, thanks. Was on that section of the booking a lot, not sure how I couldn't figure it out from that...

We don't have a way for customers to add a new card separate from another operation. That's on the to do list.

What you can do now, if you want to let them switch cards, is to send them the payment or security deposit link from the booking. They'll be able to put in the new card info there and execute the charge.

The drawback of this method is that it will charge the card immediately rather than waiting for a schedule, but at least it gives you a method to handle it for now. We originally did it this way as a security measure to ensure that the card was charged at least once before queuing it up for a schedule, but now know that we need to add more flexibility here.

Once the guest makes that last payment on the new card, you can also go into the security deposit and switch over the card to the new one.

Is it possible for a customer to enter a different credit card for the 2nd payment and security deposit?

Looks like I can manually add the new card myself, but I don't see any way for them to do it online.

thanks,
-JJ

Thank you for replying. I'm looking forward to possible updates on this. :-) Ella

Unrecognized is only when I respond back via homeaway. However, those made it through to ownerRez already. I am talking about the ones that come in, but nothing is showing in ownerRez. I have to Create an Quote, manually.

We collect all emails we get from VRBO/HomeAway and you should see them either as inquiries or as an "unrecognized inquiry" email if we can't automatically parse them. Have you been seeing that unrecognized inquiry email or nothing at all? Can you double check your HA account and make sure that your @inquiryspot.com email (from https://app.ownerrez.com/inquiries/instructions) is properly configured there?

We don't currently support multiple to emails, but we've bumped it up on the priority list.

There are a couple of ways to do this. You can create duplicate email templates as you suggested. Or, if you have control over your email provider, you could create a forwarding alias that sends email to multiple addresses. Something like housekeeping@myvacationrental.com, which would then forward to the appropriate email addresses. Different email providers have different ways of doing this. If you have Google Apps, you can create a group: https://support.google.com/a/answer/33343?hl=en. If you have gmail, you could use an alias like yourgmail+housekeepers@gmail.com, and then archive and forward that using a filter: http://www.komku.org/2013/10/how-to-use-filters-to-forward-certain-emails.html

Seems that some enquiries from homeaway/VRBO are not going to OwnerRez. Do you know what is going on? It is in la st few days. I have to manually enter them.

Thanks,
Claudia

Hi there!
It would be very cool if one could setup the emails to be sent to more than one person. At this time as I understand that if I wanted an email to be sent I am limited to only one recipient? The only solution I see is making a copy of the exact email and setting it up separately but identically for anotherperson to receive it it.. which could be a drag. Options as CC field would be great. Please let me know if there is such options or if this would be a quick fix on your end. Thank you very much.Ella

The only thing I can think of is that I have to modify my rates every year because the day of the year when my peak rates start and stop changes. I'm not sure if there is a solution, but it is cumbersome to make sure all 8 properties are the same and then all my rates line up to VRBO, TripAdvisor, Airbnb, Website, etc.

Not sure if there is a solution...and it really isn't a problem with Owner Rez.

That isn't currently supported, but it's a great idea.

We're actually in the middle of overhauling the rates, rate periods, and seasons. I'll see if we can get it in. Are there any other related improvements to rates etc. that you can think of?

Is it possible to set rules for different rate periods? For example, I'd like to force a full week in my peak season but only 2 days in my offseason?

I'd also like to have it be 7 days for next peak season but 3 days for this peak season (as an example). This matters because I want to turn on rules and auto responders for this peak season but not for next peak season because I don't want people to be able to book <1 week next season.

Damon

Thank you Michelle :)

I also went ahead and deleted that scheduled email for you from my end so that it won't go out.

Hi Ella, I don't have an answer for you yet, but I wanted to let you know that this issue is being looked into.

Edit: sorry it should say "*unable* to delete" in the title, that was a typo... :/
By mistake I added an email with a security payment reminder to be sent to a wrong guest (booking ORB334212) I can't delete or modify it, it shows as "Server error"

There was an issue where your VRBO account was incorrectly flagged as having invalid credentials. I just fixed that.

Even though there was a banner, that didn't affect anything else in the account.

The "Fix Now" links are also corrected so they will work in future.

Hi Michelle,
By mistake I added an email to be sent to a wrong guest, even though for the same dates (booking ORB334212) I can't delete or modify it, it shows as "Server error"

When I go into ownerres now, I get a huge irritating banner that says there is something wrong with my VRBO linked account and to 'fix it now'. When I try and do so, my browser says there are 'to many redirects' and stops working.

Great. I think that answers all my questions! Thank you again :)

The security deposit is always a hold. At the moment, we don't have any way to record security deposits that are collected or refunded as payments. Only holds are put in place.

You can have the guest sign the renter agreement again - that part is up to you. The URLs in those field codes only do the specific thing showing on each respective page. They do not ask for anything else. There is a URL field code for a place you can have them to to sign the legal agreement if you want.

In general, it is wise to get the guest to always sign YOUR renter agreement even if they did one on FK or VRBO.

Hi Michelle,
I've set up an email. Thank you.
A couple of follow up question. If I enter a booking in ownerrez manualy that was taken from external site (example via Flipkey or HA), and then provide a link to submit security deposit.
1. Is it still a "hold" on the card? Or an actual payment?
2. Do the guest signs the rental agreement again here on OWnerRez, or not?

Ella

Yey, that's great!
I'll check it out. Thank you Michelle.
Ella

Ella, I've been told that a hotfix was made earlier this morning to correct this. You now have two booking field codes for the payment and security deposit URLs. Look for field codes:

BUPAY
BUSECDEP

This was added to a morning hotfix to address some other issues, but it should be good to go as well.

Hope this helps,

-Michelle

Rest assured, public guest URLs for payments and security deposits **does exist** somewhere. I'm wondering if it got dropped or is not showing based on your account or property for some specific reason. I'm looking into this. You should have a field code to use in the near future for both of these things.

Thank you for your time, Michelle,
Yes, I don't want to collect credit card info.
I was asking about travel insurance, because I believe it's based on the % of the total for the booking, so I was wondering what would happen if the total due is "0".

So far, it seems that if a link field to pay security insurance exsisted, it would be useful here (would set up an automatic email to be send to that guest let's say 7 days before arrival).

For now, I'll just collect the deposit for "Book Now" as is, via Flipkey.
For my own property, I actually send a seperate invoice via Paypal in case of "Book Now", but this is also a bit of a process for both, the guests and myself.

I wanted to set this up for the property I will be taking bookings soon (already on OwnerRez), as it would be very helpful to be more of a control with security deposits, than having to contact Flipkey in case of problems.
Well... If you come up with anything, please let me know. And, thank you again.
Ella

To address that last question... You could do that but that sounds like it might be confusing to the guest. I would do the following:

1) When you see a booking come in from FlipKey or Airbnb, create a manual booking in OwnerRez that matches (same dates, guest name, etc)

2) Make the charges the same as what FlipKey/Airbnb charged the guest, and create a payment (type of "Credit Card Processed Elsewhere") for the total amount so that the booking balance is $0. This is accurate and reflects what actually happens.

3) Then go to the security deposit page and do the Schedule option. The downside here is that you would have to get their card info.

If you're trying to get around having to get their card info, there's not really any great way at the moment. If you try to send them a $0 quote to accept, the system won't let them proceed to sign and pay because it's a $0 amount. Our code checks for $0 quotes and stops them from proceeding, I believe. I can check on that to give you more deails.

If they want to buy travel insurance, you could send them the link. If you mean during the quote acceptance process, if they wanted to buy travel insurance, they would enter their card info and still buy it. Travel insurance is purchased separatedly via a separate billing system that does not use your merchant account. Basically, the guest's card info is passed to our travel insurance carrier where they create a premium and send back the information to our systems.

I see what you're trying to do and I'll work on coming up with a better solution. It might be good, as a quick fix, for us to change the secdep form to let them update or schedule the secdep without it collecting right then and there. Perhaps a checkbox option somewhere at the top.