General Help and Questions

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Great.

Claudia

No, but we're planning on doing it anyway. The idea is to ask the guest at the bottom of the review "Do you mind if we submit this review to TripAdvisor, HomeAway, etc on your behalf? We won't share any private details". If they say yes, we'll use the public review pages on those website to post our review. The guest will then get confirmation emails from those sites (TripAdvisor, HomeAway, etc) asking if they really posted the review which hopefully they'll confirm. That's the best we can do. We believe it should work well.

-Michelle

That would be great if we can have the link to our reveiw. Any luck with HomeAway or VRBO letting you enter it into their system, once received?

Claudia

We don't send them any survey ourselves at the moment. We include that text - "we MAY send you a survey" - because a lot of owners like to send a review request (from FlipKey, HomeAway, etc) to the guest after the fact. We like to alert the guest that it might be coming so when they get the review request email, they understand why they're getting it.

Here's a forum post about it last year:

https://www.ownerrez.com/forums/general-help/security-deposit-release-email

In addition, we are designing our own review system that will ask the guest to fill out a survey. Our goal is to ask the guest directly for the review, since they're used to seeing our emails, and then be able to update all the listing sites so the review is everywhere.

-Michelle

When you release the hold on the card, you state that a survey is sent. What does the survey say and where do I go to see the response?

Is this like the REVIEW? Where do we enter the link for a reveiw?

Claudia

*Very* strange observation. He's saying that when he clicked to go to the renter agreement page, it crashed. I don't see anything like that on my end. Well, we'll continue to monitor. ~Sam. PS. I looked in the servers logs and it appears that other guests have used Apple/Chrome with no problem.

Hi Sam,

Here was his response...

" On chrome when the finalize button was clicked it seemed to try and go to a new page that it couldn't find and thus showed the 404 error. On firefox when thr button was clicked it opened up a new section within the page that had the contract details. Seems like chrome wasn't able to understand that the click thru opened a new section within the existing window.

This was on a MacBook pro using the latest updates for both browsers.

Sent with Yoyodyne technology. "

Thanks,
Claudia

Sam, I will try to find out a little more information. He did say maybe it was something on his side. Since I don't understand some of these things, I figured I would just copy and paste his statement. I know one little word that is misplaced could make a difference, when it comes to these things.

Claudia

Claudia, as it happens, we have an Apple machine in the office w/ Chrome already loaded. I tested a public quote form from start to finish. Zero problems. It looks perfect and went all the way through smoothly. Please let me know if your guest forwards any screenshots or mentions anything specifically. It might be a problem on their end with an extension or plugin they have installed. ~Sam

On Windows, we test for Chrome, Firefox, IE8+ and Safari. On Apple, we test Safari and Firefox. Chrome on Apple should be (theoretically) identical in rendering behavior as Chrome on Windows. Did your guest provide any more information? I'd love to know what they meant by "doesn't see to work". Rendering issues? Buttons didn't work? ~Sam

Here is a email I received from a guests trying to book online...

You might want to tell your booking agency that it doesnt seem to work on Apple computers using the Chrome browser.

Thanks,
Claudia

Hi Claudia,

It CAN be done, certainly, but there are no plans for that kind of thing right now. Auto-complete is what it's called, and it's a great suggestion.

-Michelle

Is it possible to have it auto fill a previous email address or name? I am not sure if Auto Fill is the correct term. You know when you start to enter something and the computer searches for what it might be and starts to fill it in?

That would then let us know that the email address or name is familiar with the system, thus letting the owner know that we had a previous dealing with them. Whether it was just an inquiry or an actual booking.

Can this be done?

Claudia

Not that specifically, but we'll be adding CRM features in the future that merge all the bookings, quotes and inquiries for a guest into a single contact history so you can see things like this.

-Michelle

Thanks for the ideas. Please do send me a copy of your spreadsheet. I can't guarantee that we would produce the exact same report for you, but it may expand our idea-base.

-Michelle

I was looking over your report section, for what will be coming up. I wanted to see if you had the usual, standard information. For examaple:

Will you generate a report which basically provides...

Date of Contract
Name / Total People
Dates of Rental
Actual Price
Taxes Paid
Total w/o Sec. Dep.
CC/CK
Website
Paid
PAYPAL
Balance Owed
Cleaning Fee
Credit Card Fee
Damage Insurance
Real Total - After Cleaning Fee
Email Address
Nts Rented
Website
Comments
Total for Listing Bookings

All of the above, going across, in a row?

This what I currently have that I call my BIBLE. It is not in a report form, but in an EXCEL spreadsheet. When it comes time to pay for the taxes, it is all there, calculated already.

This spreadsheet is a VERY QUICK and easy glance at EVERYTHING that is happening with my bookings. All the information is basically on this one speadsheet.

If you are interested in seeing it, please let me know and I will send it to you, so you have a better idea what I am looking at.

Thanks,
Claudia

I don't know if you have this in the works already, but do you have where the system alerts the owner that the email address or Full Name inquiried previously?

This always helps to go back in "history" and see what happened with that previous request. Did they book? Did we have a conversation and it didn't work out?

Thoughts?

Claudia

Great!

You guys are all doing such a great job! You are very fast, too. Well, from what I see since I began here.

Claudia

Small stuff, and it's going to be fast. Mostly small tweaks, grammar fixes, enhancements. Your request to have a fixed amount for the first payment was included.

-Michelle

Can I ask what is currently in the works for the next sprint?

Thanks,
Claudia

I will forward this to Tim in merchant services.

-Michelle

PS. If you have any questions or comments about your merchant account, please email merchant-services@ownerreservations.com. Or you can keep posting in the forum!

Hi Claudia,

You're right. We'll have that updated to be clearer.

-Michelle

Wording on this page needs to be modified. If they paid by check, it still states "Booking charges will be listed on your credit card statement as Claudia Vacation Home." Maybe it could say... "Booking charges will be listed on your credit card statement as Claudia Vacation Home, if paid via credit card.", instead.

Billing Details

The total charge for this booking is $1,362.50 of which $1,362.50 has been paid. A separate email is sent for each payment that is made, listing the details. Booking charges will be listed on your credit card statement as Claudia Vacation Home.

Thanks,
Claudia

Thank you, Sam.

Claudia

Claudia, open the booking -> Security Deposit tab -> Change Scheduled One -> Delete. If you know that they want to buy your insurance before booking, you can also turn off the security deposit on that specific quote. That will ensure that no security deposit is ever scheduled in the first place. Look at Quote -> Billing Details.

Thx,

~Sam

Hi Michelle,

Can you shut off my AMEX. I don't want the extra fees.

Thanks,
Claudia

How do you shut off the Security Deposit for a booking, if I wanted to collect for the Damage Insurance instead of a HOLD on their card?

Exactly. You can have as many open quotes as you want for the same dates. When the guest clicks through the acceptance/payment form and finalizes it, THEN it becomes a booking.

Remember, quotes and bookings are not the same thing. Quotes LEAD to bookings.

-Michelle

Since I created the booking, then it caused it to do that. If I created a QUOTE and then he said he wanted to book, then really, it is not booked until they click on book and move through the process, at that time. Thus, it would not show as booked until THEY book it and move through the process.

The only time it would be an issue is if they indicate that they will pay via check.

Claudia

If a booking is canceled, for lack of payment or any other reason, any quote for the same dates automatically re-opens and becomes available.

So if someone books, causing other quotes for the same date range to go into "preempted" status, and the first person cancels, those other quotes will return to "open" status.

-Michelle