General Help and Questions

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We're going to put out a blog post about this - a lot of users have asked the same question.

In a nutshell, the "opened" flag does not represent 100% of the opens. In fact, it represents very few.

The way we can tell if someone has opened the message is by using a web beacon. A web beacon is a tiny 1x1 pixel image that is added to each email message. When the image is opened, a request is made to our servers allowing us to see that it happened.

The problem is that many (most?) email clients nowadays have images disabled by default. You may notice that little message above your message: "Do you want to enable images?" A lot of people never turn that on. If it's off, there's no way for us to tell if the message was opened.

I sent out three emails through OwnerRez yesterday. While it says Opened from the ones that came to me as CC, their's still say SENT. Does this mean they still have not opened the emails? Isn't that strange that not one of the three opened their email?

Claudia

I'm talking about everything we have scheduled relating to email. It could actually take longer than that - we have a lot scheduled.

There will be numerous small releases as part of that. We aren't going to wait and release it all together. It will be released bit by bit, every few weeks.

I agree that pictures are important. You are certainly not the only one saying that. Many others have too. The only issue is figuring out the best way to do them. The best way of accommodating them is still being debated.

Hi Michelle,

Are you saying that email will probably be completed within 3-4 months, or did I misunderstand that?

As for the pictures in the email, does that mean you are thinking of not putting that in? I think it is important to remind guests which property an owner is referring to. "A picture is worth a thousand words", and this is so true!

Claudia

Except for minor one-offs, we're working on email-related features for the next several sprints. It will probably be a good 3-4 months before we switch to another big area because there's a lot of email-related stuff we need to do.

I can't promise exact dates for templates or mail merge but that's a huge part of this. Nearly everything you've asked for, as it relates to email, has been scheduled except for the embedded pictures part. That's still up in the air.

However, we also have to respond to things we see as we go along too. For instance, just this morning, after only a few minutes of being out, we've already noticed some things we need to tweak about the new email area. Columns that should/shouldn't be on the main grid. Filter options, etc.

I don't currently answer with the quote response. Only if I know it isn't going to book. I just go in and create the quote, but don't send the email through your system.

I am very anxious to see the things you mentioned. Is that the next implementation? Or there is something before that?

Claudia

Hi Claudia,

Even though you don't respond to inquiries, you will see all the notifications that go out on your behalf. For instance, the quote email or the various bookings ones (confirmation, payment received, etc).

Even in the first 30 minutes of being released, I'm already hearing from users about the benefits they're seeing, like when a bounce occurs on a guest's email address (you actually see it now!).

Having a good email system is a VERY important part of VR management. We've let it languish for too long.

-Michelle

Thanks, Claudia! We had to refactor quite a few things relating to email so that we had a solid foundation to build on. I know you're looking for customizable templates, tags and auto-responders. All coming, don't worry. ~Sam

Great job guys. While I don't use the outgoing mail much, at this moment, I can't' wait to see when I would be able to use it with customized emails! It will definitely make my life a lot easier. I would be able to respond to my inquiries in a snap, using your system. At this moment, I have to go into my email and do everything manually.

Claudia

Great! Thank you for letting us know. Just changed it on my Properties.

Funny, earlier today I was thinking about that.

Claudia

For anyone watching this topic, this was released back during the big 1.0 release in Jun. Look for the "Booking Total Amount" field in the agreement editor.

I would assume the original was on 7/9, when it was scheduled. But maybe it should include all the other times it was put on hold again. For example, 7/16 Re-authorized, 7/23 Re-authorized.

Claudia

Ah, yes. That was a re-authorization on the 23rd which would be 7 days. Evidently her bank didn't honor the 'void' request we made and immediately kill the pending transactions, so it should be gone by tomorrow.

By the way, that overview/activity text should be showing when the security deposit was ORIGINALLY reserved and not just the latest re-authorization. We know about that and have it fixed in the upcoming release.

Looking at her history...

Jul 05, 12 - Scheduled a security deposit of $400.00 to be reserved on 7/9/2012.
Jul 18, 12 - Collected a payment of $168.41 from credit card MasterCard *****xxxx.
Jul 23, 12 - Reserved a security deposit of $400.00 with credit card MasterCard *****xxxx.
Jul 23, 12 - Released the full security deposit.

... security deposit was reserved on july 23 (before 10 AM), the same day I released it. So, if it was reserved again on July 23, before I released it, shouldn't the 7 days be today? Would it be gone by tomorrow morning?

Claudia

The guest would have to call their bank to find out. Eventually, they all expire on their own.

Remember, we also re-authorize the security deposit after 7 days on our end if you (the owner) haven't released it by then.

I could understand the 24-48 hours. This is ONE week later. Why would that be? When will they release it? I released it on Monday, July 23 at 10 AM.

Claudia

Hi Claudia,

Because banks do not always immediately honor the 'void' request that our system makes. Most banks will show still it pending for another 24-48 hours. There's nothing we can do about that. In some cases, banks disregard the 'void' request entirely and the pending charge will remain in place until it expires in 7 days. Banks have different rules depending on their internal development. Unfortunately, there is no universal standard.

-Michelle

Hi all,

My guest is saying that even though I released her security deposit on 7/23, it is still showing PENDING on her account. Can you please tell me why that is? Shouldn't it say it is released and done? Why would it still be PENDING? (Booking # 252549)

Claudia

Yes, it was fixed as part of the big 1.0 release back on Jun 28.

Michelle,

Has this fix been rolled out yet?

Thanks,
David

Everything that you see on that page is in the system except the "daily summary email" mentioned further down.

For instance, if you want to see a list of bookings, click on the Bookings menu and then on the Grid link over on the top right. Here's a direct link to it:

https://app.ownerrez.com/bookings

All other grids, emails and views shown are active and working.

Does that help?

-Michelle

Here is the link. There a quite a few reports there, and the daily email is toward the bottom of the page.

https://www.ownerrez.com/features/bookings

Thanks,

Ed

Oh, I see. You're referring to the Daily Summary email which was a beta feature that we stopped doing awhile back. We ran into some complications that we wanted to work out (a lot of people were marking them spam because of little-to-no activity).

Do you have the link or URL of the page of the website you were looking at? We should remove that text for now until the Daily Summary email is re-released.

-Michelle

Thanks Michelle.

It's not so much reporting on credit cards.

I remember looking at your website and seeing the reports that email you the daily on the activity of your property (it listed guests checking in, checking out, monies coming due, etc.)

Is this a specific reprot which is currently available, as it was mentioned on your website?

Thanks,

Ed

Hi Ed,

At the moment, our reporting/analytics features have not yet been released. It's a very high priority item, but we've had to push it back for higher priority items. At the moment, we're working on a lot of stuff related to email.

If you collect credit card payments, your gateway/merchant account provider offers some basic reporting though only about basic credit card transaction and batches.

-Michelle

Hi,

I was wondering how I go about accessing all the reports that OwnerReservations has?

Thanks,

Ed Nasi

Ok, sorry for the bother. You shouldn't have to manually update anymore. Let me know if you see it again. In the last release, we created a new tester service that probes the listing sites' calendars 5 or 6 times a day, based on different factors. This will tell us even faster when they change things or bugs arise.

I do not know if they updated. I updated them manually.

Claudia

Hi Claudia,

Did your bookings show up last night? Let me know if not. There was a small group of people that were affected by the update - about 50 total. Their booking changes were waiting in the queue for about 5 hours. Everyone else was fine.

-Michelle

Our updater has been offline for several hours. We ran into some performance issues and took it offline to do some tweaking. We just now - literally 10 minutes ago - put it back online, and the updates are going out right now. There are hundreds of bookings waiting to update so yours may take a few minutes. ~Sam

PS. Ordinarily, calendar updates are made within 10 minutes of your change.