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At the moment, the API is still under development. We have references to it sprinkled around the website because it's something we've been working on (and use ourselves) for the last year or so. But it's not ready for prime-time at the moment.
-Michelle
A a manager I prefer a flat fee, providing a choice of FF or PB would be a great move on your part and allow you to capture business from both owners of a single property and owners / managers of multiple properties.
Hi Claudia,
1) Enter all your reservation into the system as manual bookings. You can do this from the Booking menu by clicking the "Create Booking" button and select the "Create from scratch" option. Make sure to not send out emails by un-checking the options at the bottom.
2) For each reservation, go to the Charges tab and make sure it reflects the actual charges you billed the guest for originally.
3) For each reservation, go to the Payments tab and enter a manual payment for each one you've already collected. You can select "Credit Card Processed Elsewhere" as the type of payment if it was a credit card. Otherwise, check and cash are two other payment types.
4) For the reservations where the guest still owes you money, you can schedule a second payment under the Payments tab. To do so, call them and get their credit card info by phone to enter into the scheduled payment fields. Or you can have them pay by PayPal as you did originally and enter it as another manual payment.
We are working on Scheduled Payment Reminders that work like Scheduled Payments, only the guest receives an email about paying their second payment and then is presented with a list of options.
-Michelle
Is the info on your API available? I would be interested in finding out what features can be integrated into our website.
Thanks
No limit. You can enter as many properties as you want. Our pricing model - due out in a month or two - is based on bookings so the number of properties doesn't matter.
That being said, you may find that if you enter a LOT of properties, the booking overview calendar is difficult to manage. It can only show 8 or 10 properties side by side before you begin to run out of room. We haven't developed a "ribbon" style availability chart, but that's on the dev roadmap for the future.
-Michelle
Thanks for the prompt response. A common email may work and the alerts are definitely useful. I have multiple properties I own and manage, is there a limit to the number of properties I can enter?
Hi SM8285,
Thanks for the kind words!
Our 'grant access' feature has not been released. We've had bits of that designed for awhile but we had to delay it to make way for higher priority features.
What some users do is share a common email address to login with.
We also have Third Party Alerts that can be configured to send email to someone whenever a property is booked, dates change or is canceled. For instance, this helps you alert the housekeeper that a new booking came in.
-Michelle
Just signed up a new account and LOVING the software, great job! Cannot seem to locate the ability to grant access to a manager, please advise.
Thanks!
Other vendors hold the payments because you aren't really using your own merchant account. You're using THEIR merchant account and they're assuming the risk on your behalf. We made the conscious decision to NOT go that route and instead require each user to bring their own merchant account or set up one with our bank partner. We want each user to be responsible for their own merchant account and the underwriting associated with it.
-Michelle
Thanks. That is what I thought, I just wanted to confirm. I think some places hold it until the end of the month.
Claudia
Hi Claudia,
When a guest pays you by credit card, the payment goes directly from their bank to yours, via your merchant account. That's what a merchant account is - a virtual account that links interchange (Visa/MC/Discover) with your checking account.
We (OwnerRez) do not touch, hold or handle your money in any way. Interchange takes about 2 business days for Visa, MC and Discover payments to settle. Amex takes 3-5 business days.
-Michelle
What is the best way to switch existing customers onto your system?
I have 8 upcoming reservations, 4 of which have paid in full, but have not paid the Security Deposit yet. The other 4 have paid the deposit only. According to my rental agreement and when they booked, they didn't have the money taking out of their accounts, automatically. I would send them a bill and and email. What would happen now, if I switch? Or, for now, do these in the usual way, Paypal? How would I record it on your system, without the credit card? Cash?
Claudia
You might have answered this in a previous letter, but does the money go into your account? I think you mentioned that it would take 2-3 business days. However, the money goes into your account and then at the end of the month the charges are deducted?
Claudia
I was thinking of that. I have to first find out about the charges and what kind of record I would have, using your program. You were going to check to see how I would be able to see, realtime, the charges for the amount received, so I could record it realtime. Whether it is signing in to their system, or them sending a confirmation with the charges on it.
Claudia
Hi Claudia,
Will do. Just as an FYI: when you enter your existing bookings, you can always enter what they paid as a manual payment and then schedule the second payment for "the remaining balance". So if you have someone that already paid $500, just enter that amount as the first payment and the second payment will automatically collect what's left.
-Michelle
Very good, Michelle. Your all doing such a great job!!
Claudia
OK, sounds great. Would you let us know when it is completed?
In the meantime, I will have to wait until the flat amount comes in for the deposit, to use your system fully. If I was to use it now, I would have to change everything with what I currently have. I have several bookings for the Spring and Summer and it would get VERY confusing as to who paid $500 deposit and who paid 30%. I will look forward to the deposit change.
Claudia
Hi Claudia,
Thanks for the extra details. We have a partnership with TravelGuard already for Travel Insurance, and we've signed off on their Damage Protection product too. So the process should be the same for you except that most of the details on the claim form will be filled in for you already by our system (since we know the guest name, dates of stay, etc).
-Michelle
No, we engineer our releases to only take a few seconds of downtime. You shouldn't even see a blip. This release involves some low-level stuff that affects a LOT of areas in the software so we're doing a lot of testing and staging beforehand.
One of the listing sites offers the Damage Insurance, via TravelGuard. When I purchase one, at the end of the month, they send me a check. I receive $5 per Insurance purchased.
I fill out the information for the guest and enter my email address. So, the insurance comes to me. I believe I could enter the email for them, as well.
At the moment, they do not offer this insurance for PA and WA residents. So, you would have to find a way to exclude those residents from purchasing it.
I recently had to file a claim and I took care of everything, without the guest having to get involved. They paid me back within 2 weeks. Very quick.
Claudia
As a gauge, I am currently receiving $5 for each damage insurance purchased.
Claudia
Yes, and Paul explained why. (Beat me to this one!)
Claudia, I'm curious... Who do you sell your insurance through now? I take it you're a registered insurance agent and sell it through one of the big vendors? Or do you just provide your own program?
Sounds good.
Can't wait to see the new changes, today or tomorrow? Will we have to stay off the system during the time of implementation?
Claudia
Yes - and that's one of the reasons we haven't released it yet.
Selling Damage Protection is more complicated than selling Travel Insurance. With Travel Insurance, it's very straightforward. The guest interacts with the insurance provider if there's a problem and there's no real work needed to be performed by either the owner or us. With Damage Protection, there's a lot more to do. The owner's property has to be paid for, which means that the owner has to fill out a form - which we'll provide in the software - so that the insurance provider can reimburse him directly.
That, and we plan on crediting your account (ie. giving commission) anytime one of your guest's buys DI. We're unsure what that credit should be so we've held off on releasing it fully.
OK. Would you offer a commission for every Damage Insurance purchased through you, as other listing sites do?
Claudia
We're right in the middle of pushing out a major release today and tomorrow. The next development sprint is already underway and will range from 3 to 4 weeks. I can't make you a 100% promise on that but that's the current estimate.
Hi Claudia,
There is no way to do this BUILT IN to the software, but you could always offer them this manually. If they told you that they wanted to buy your damage insurance, you could charge them for that and then turn off the security deposit for their quote.
I should mention that we have a Damage Protection option that will be coming in the future, very similar to our current Travel Insurance option, but it's managed by us directly through Travel Guard. If selected by the guest, that would automatically turn off the security deposit.
-Michelle
Do you know when the next sprint would possibly be?
Claudia
GREAT!
Thanks,
Claudia
Hi Claudia,
We don't allow the first payment to be specified as a flat dollar amount right now, but that feature is on the dev roadmap and has been for some time. We're considering promoting that to the next sprint since we've had several people mention this. I'll keep you updated.
-Michelle
