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Thank you! I noticed I'm unable to bold anything or insert any coding into that form message. Will that be updated in the future?
Additionally, when checking out on this new Confirm & Pay form this is the message for paying with check. It is not correct for my vacation rental policies, where do I update it?
Ok so that was my next question...Stripe charges me on the total. Is there not a way to add it to the total amount and not just the subtotal? Or is there some kind of work around? Could you charge the guest separately for the cc fee after they book? May not be worth it on smaller bookings, but larger bookings start to add up.
Hey Becca!
If you'd like to update the text that's displayed underneath Confirm and Pay, this can be done by going to Settings > Form Messages > click Create message > select Quote Confirm & Pay - Step (1) Confirm / Pay Page from the drop-down. On the following page, you can update what you'd like it to display underneath the Confirm and Pay form, then save the changes. Once you do, it should show the updated text underneath Confirm and Pay:
Looking for some assistance! Where do you update the wording below Confirm & Pay on the new "confirm & pay form" that launched in the October update? Previously, we could alter the wording on the booking process screens under Settings - Form Messages. Those screens don't seem to apply anymore with the new update. Thanks for the help!
Make note that adding it this way will only apply the percentage to Rent and not your additional surcharges (pet fee, cleaning fee, etc.). There is a feature request out there for a new-style surcharge that will apply to rent + surcharges:
https://www.ownerrez.com/forums/requests/allow-a-new-style-surcharge-that-can-apply-a-to-rentsurcharges-for-cc-processing-fees
Hi Karen!
If you'd like to add a credit card surcharge for your guests who book on your website, you can create a new surcharge for this by going to Settings > Surcharges > click Create Surcharge > select Rate Adjustment under Standard Fees. From there, you can select the category, description, and amount. More on how to set this up here: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/surcharges-common-issues-questions#credit-card-fee
If you only want this to apply to bookings from your website, you can do this by adding a condition to the surcharge. Select Listing Site is One of, and then select your listing site from the drop-down.
Hello, I'm trying to find where to add the credit card surcharge for my direct booking website. Is there a place we can add that? If a guests books direct, I would like a 4% fee added to cover the credit card fee.
Hi Fran, I've got some follow-up questions that would make this a better conversation to have with a support ticket. I'll be sending you an email to follow up further.
There is not at this time. In the ribbon view, one mutual block can be generated from multiple bookings, so there is not a booking to block relationship.
Hi all,
Just wanted to share what I’ve recently uncovered in case it helps someone else.
In 2019 I signed up for credit card processing through Ascent Processing, which eventually switched me over to Elavon (US Bank). I was told I’d get a competitive flat rate around 3.3%, which seemed fine for my vacation rentals. Over time, though, I realized my effective rates were running 5–7%, even in normal months with steady volume. I always found the entire system confusing to navigate and opaque overall, which is why I suspected the rates we were paying were too high but was never able to get to the bottom of it.
Recently, after months of digging and talking to multiple reps, I finally found out my account had been set up with the wrong MCC code (7011 – Lodging). That code is meant for hotels and resorts, and Visa expects extra “lodging data” that vacation rental systems like OwnerRez don’t send. Because of that, every Visa transaction downgraded to a higher-cost tier. In other words, my account was misconfigured from the start.
Elavon admits this now and says they can fix the MCC and move me to a flat-rate plan, but they’ve refused to refund the overcharges — saying Ascent was the one who set it up wrong. Ascent, of course, points back at Elavon. Meanwhile, I was also getting hit with $75/month PCI “non-compliance” fees for years, with no outreach or help on how to fix it.
If you’re using Elavon or Ascent, check your MCC code right away (if it says 7011 Lodging, you’re probably overpaying) and make sure your PCI compliance is current.
I’ve switched to Stripe now (flat 2.9% + 30¢, no PCI or downgrade nonsense), but I’m still trying to get Elavon/Ascent to make this right. Posting this so others don’t end up stuck like I was.
Update: I just heard back from Airbnb tech support. Apparently there's a system-wide update going out to all hosts (not just PMS-connected ones) on December 1st, and they are anticipating that our fee structure will update at that time (but they're not going to solidly commit to a timeline either!).
I have linked my pricelabs and ownerrez, however only my airbnb connection is showing up in ownerrez. I have tried clicking "add/reimport" but vrbo and booking.com listings are not showing up. How do I go about fixing this?
When a property has multiple units with separate listings, is there a way to have the same reservation name appear on all the mutually blocked listings?
Hey Kael!
You should be able to accomplish with Specific Date seasons. You can create a season for specific dates of the year, and set seasonal rates to apply to the dates in question. We have these support articles that go over setting up seasons and seasonal rates:
https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/seasonal-rules
https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/seasonal-defaults
I keep getting this error message "Service bad request error: Could not complete request, input was malformed. (status code 400)" and can't send a quote. Is there a way to fix this?
Yes, that test worked. The guest must not have selected the option.
Vrbo does not offer a 'limited' API integration. However, we are all anxiously hoping and waiting to see if the rumor is true that Vrbo may soon offer the option to leave the merchant of record duties of payment and tax collection with them. This would eliminate one of the final hurdles that keep some from embracing API channel integration.
I have an option for guests to select a discount if they pay via check instead of credit card. However, when they selected this option, it did not update the charges on the booking. Therefore, the email that it sent the guest had the wrong total amount. Do I just have to fix this manually?
Hi Holly, both a Discount Code and an Optional Discount should work to provide the option that you want. I tested both in your account by creating a quote and a 'payment form' link. Both worked perfectly. Both added the discount and lowered the total price. Try it yourself! Create a 'Payment Form' from the Quotes menu and then 'View Form'. It's easy to test when you allow manual payment methods. You don't have to be afraid of credit card charges for a test! If you still don't think it works, please submit this as a support request. Please include screenshots, booking (ORB) numbers, and as much information as you can.
For this specific guest, if they booked and the total was wrong, you would have to manually add the discount to Bookings > Charges
I have an option for guests to select a discount if they pay via check instead of credit card. However, when they selected this option, it did not update the charges on the booking. Therefore, the email that it sent the guest had the wrong total amount. Do I just have to fix this manually?
simple. 1st, Unlink the booking from the channel; 2nd, change/move booking to update the new check-in/out dates; 3. I suggest "stick with current charges". 4. Edit charges and add a line with the amount for the extra night (before tax) above the tax lines. Save. 5. Go to Booking > Transactions tab. You will see that guest now has a balance for an extra night (plus tax). Here you can do one of the 2 things:
1) click on payments > request payment from guest (assuming you already have their real email because they provided it when they esigned the Rental agreement) > send
2) if you already have the guest's credit card number on file (for sec dep) AND the guest agreed to charge an extra night to the same card, do Payments > Collect payment (Run card).
Simplest way: Quotes> Create quote > add your recipient's email > send. They can book using that emailed quote. Keep in mind that if you want them to pay through that quote, you need to have at least 1 payment method established within OR.
Here is an article - easy to find in the support center by searching "direct bookings" https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/overview-setting-up-direct-bookings-from-start-to-finish-video
@Gina V: Wow, I'm not sure how I missed that when I was reading through! I'm glad I'm not the only one.
Yes, see my post above. Still waiting for the “forced” change as of right now. Very frustrating to be told it’s 10/27/25 and here 3 days later, still on split fee.
@Joe L - I know I've had issues with the Error tag getting stuck displaying, even though the error itself was corrected hours earlier. A couple nights' rest, computer restarts, and page refreshes seem to take care of it.
Anyone else having issues with not actually being switched over yet? I went through a lot of work over the last two days updating all our rates to avoid giving away too many bookings at a 15.5% discount (our situation precludes using the 15.5%-surcharge method OR recommends). Then I was testing our rates this morning, and it's still using the split-fee pricing structure. This despite Airbnb insisting on numerous emails that the single-fee pricing is live on our account. They recommended we reach out to OR Help to try to figure it out. How in the world could this be an OR issue?
Has anyone else gotten this error? I adjusted the additional percentage in the channel integration for Airbnb, but there is a sync error about the pet fee. On the Airbnb side, the Pet fee is lower than what this says, so I'm really confused. I try to adjust the pet fee up and down, but it seems to have no effect on this error.
Oh good idea!! Thanks for the help.
You can run the Booking Detail report and export it to an excel file. Then feed that file into Chatgpt and ask it to tell you how many bookings you get on the weekends vs weekdays.
Here is the prompt I used in Chatgpt:
Please analyze this excel file of bookings and tell me, 1. Looking at column E, how many bookings were booked on weekdays and how many are booked on weekends? 2. Looking at dates of stay, with column F showing the date of arrival and column G showing the date of departure, tell me how many dates of stay are weekdays vs weekends.
I went back and added a line number to the surcharge to see if it solves that problem. It should have been ranked last so it applied to everything above but it seems it didn't work. Using the Channel Tester the math makes sense now, with the exception of the Pet Fee. It doesn't seem to be applying it to that. Pet fee is in position 7 and airbnb surcharge is in position 10
Great, I will add my vote there.
