General Help and Questions

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Hey James,

Not to my knowledge. I see this was discussed some months back in another forum thread. https://www.ownerrez.com/forums/general-help/vrbo-problems

If you'd like to write to us at help@ownerrez.com, perhaps we can see about taking this discussion directly to Vrbo support to see if they can provide us any additional detail.

Good afternoon, everyone. After years of offering a loyalty discount to our repeat guests, I want to implement something new with a point system. Is there an app/software like preferred patron that integrates with the software, or has anyone implemented this type of program? If there are any users who have implemented this type of program, I would love to collaborate and get your feedback.

thank you

Sorry for the title pressed go without finishing.. 

I was wondering if there have been any developments with the API connection to VRBO.

In particular the VAT registration issue in the UK?

I wonder about that as well. Any updates would be great. Thanks!

I just posted the following on a similar thread:

I acknowledge the age of this thread and ORs lack of desire to create their own solution, which makes perfect sense. 

 

That being said, what I would like to see is the cleaner's contact information automatically synced with Breezeway and Turno. 

 

While having multiple platforms that do their own thing really well, it can definitely feel like everything is just cobbled together to work with no single source of truth. As the owner/operator, I don't want to jump around a bunch of platforms to see what's what. Furthermore, I would like to have messaging for the guest that says 'your professional clean was just wrapped up by Susy Q. Cleaner, let us know how she did" --type of thing. 

 

So I would very much like to see a tighter integration of data between the applications... 

I acknowledge the age of this thread and ORs lack of desire to create their own solution, which makes perfect sense. 

That being said, what I would like to see is the cleaner's contact information automatically synced with Breezeway and Turno. 

While having multiple platforms that do their own thing really well, it can definitely feel like everything is just cobbled together to work with no single source of truth. As the owner/operator, I don't want to jump around a bunch of platforms to see what's what. Furthermore, I would like to have messaging for the guest that says 'your professional clean was just wrapped up by Susy Q. Cleaner, let us know how she did" --type of thing. 

So I would very much like to see a tighter integration of data between the applications... 

I am also experiencing the same queued error for two different properties, and it has queued for 23 hours now.

Hi Dwayne,

If you haven't already, please write this in to the Helpdesk. This will require more digging into sensitive account information than is safe to disclose in a public forum. 

We look forward to getting to the bottom of this for you. Thanks so much!

I am also experiencing the same queued error for two different properties, and it has queued for 23 hours now.

Not currently strictly with Ownerrez,

We do offer integrations with services such as Touch stay, which may be helpful for you, But otherwise if they're not quite what you're looking for then you should check if it's been suggested already! Use the link below to search our Feature Request forum. If it's not there you can write this up as a suggestion so other clients can vote up your ideas for new and improved features in OwnerRez:

https://www.ownerrez.com/forums/requests

Is there a way to make a URL link to the field code for the House Manual for a property?

{PINSTMAN}

Hi Fernanda,

As long as you're API connected to VRBO then generally no. There's typically no means to accomplish what you're looking for yet.

We don't generally recommend not being API connected, but if you really need to you could try utilizing iCals instead.

This could lead to more headaches down the road such as double bookings, but it would allow Vrbo to remain in charge of the payment process.

Hi Bri!

Is there a way for VRBO to charge the guest the 100% payout? In other words, can VRBO collect the total booking amount along with their fee and then pay me the remaining portion? I understand that many hosts use OwnerRez to avoid this situation, but in my country, there are significant limitations with credit card processors.

Im about to API connect but in my case vrbo will be a failure if I need to process their payments.

Thanks for your advice.

Hello, I'm having the same problem and support team still couldn't fix this problem for more than 10 days back and forth. Are there others having this issue too?

Hi Jhem,

You could ensure that your Rental Agreement has a section that discusses costs beyond what would be covered by the security deposit. For instance if the RA says you hold them responsible for all of those charges then as long as it was signed, you could charge the card for the excess.

OwnerRez itself generally doesn't feature anything akin to incidentals, we have security deposits and damage protection, and then a custom surcharge system to create charges as you need

Yes, I’m experiencing the same issue. Booking.com is not enforcing the minimum night requirement, even though PriceLabs is configured correctly, and it appears as intended in my OwnerRez calendar. I tested it on Booking.com and was able to make a 1-night booking.

Update: I had a non-refundable rate hidden in booking.com which appears to have been causing the issue. I deleted it and only have a single rate option. It does make my calendar look to be unavailable if a minimum length of stay applies. e.g., August 13th and later is available/bookable but has a 2 night minimum while the 12th and before is 1 night minimum.

In the case of "request to book," I don't think there's is a vrbo reservation so there is nothing for the guest to cancel. 

Hey Caleb, I went to the helpdesk with this very same, very concerning issue, and they told me to post it in the forums.  Ahem....

Not only is my inbox overflowing from spurious non-messages (see below) I'm seeing messages that I shouldn't see, between one of my clients and her guests at properties that I don't co-host. I'm faced with either letting her know that OwnerRez is somehow "leaking" messages to me, which will make me look incompetent, or saying nothing and pretend it's not happening. I'm not a lawyer so I can't say if there are any privacy violations, but it sure makes me uncomfortable seeing other people's emails that they don't know I'm reading.

I'm going to have to tell my client, because at some point I'm going to reply to a message that I shouldn't even have seen, and I don't want to have to explain that later. Any suggestions on how to make this not sound like negligence?

As a separate matter, I also get a separate message from each guest in a party wheneever one of them replies. So if a guest in a party of six says "Thanks!", I will get six new messages in my inbox, one from each guest, even though they didn't send anything.

These issues have made my inbox chaotic and unusable.  In order to avoid accidentally answering a message I shouldn't, I have taken to the inboxes on Airbnb and other OTAs exclusively, only accessing my OwnerRez inbox to mark everything as read.

My inbox is a dangerous mayhem. I know you're working on a new one, I sure hope you release it soon.

Hi Haydn,

This is probably a little too much deep work to cover in a Forum post.  I replied to the support ticket you wrote in about this.  And recorded a Loom Video that steps you through the solution.

Hope that helps and look forward to helping you further with this if needed

-Steve

Generally speaking, you are always better off getting the guest to cancel. If they don't like their decision, they should be the ones canceling. This negates the entire issue.

We have 106 timeshare units that are represented with a 4 digit code (ex. 1111). Each unit can be partially owned by 12 different owners. We call that fractional ownership. We represent this fractional ownership for each unit with a two digit code after the unit number (ex. 1111-01). So 1111-01 would mean it is the 01 owner for the unit called 1111. Each of these fractional owners are entitled to 3 weeks at the timeshare unit a year. Let's say those 3 weeks for that owner (01) are Jan 5-12, Feb 2-9, and March 1-8 of 2024. You will also notice these are week-long stays that go Friday to Friday.

So here is the crux and what we need from OwnerRez. 

Let's say the owner, 01, who owns the aforementioned weeks (Jan 5-12, Feb 2-9, and March 1-8 of 2024) for unit 1111 wants to rent their unit for those weeks. How do we create a property profile that we can then designate those dates as available and ensure the customer sees each week as an individual rental option? What I mean by an individual rental option is they look at unit 1111 and they see there are 3 full weeks available and they can only rent an entire week at a time - we do not rent individual days. Now that is step one of this puzzle.

The next step to the puzzle is we can have up to 12 different owners with different sets of weeks available. So we need to be able to repeat the exercise in the above paragraph numerous times for a single unit and ensure that the money for the rental goes to the appropriate owner for each week rented. For instance, let's consider another owner, named 02, of unit 1111, who has the weeks Apr 5-12, May 3-10, and Jun 7-14 of 2024. If someone were to rent unit 1111 during Apr 5-12 we want to make sure the money goes to owner 02. While of course if someone rents unit 1111 from Jan 5-12 we want the money to go to owner 01. And of course we want to be able to provide each owner with an accurate monthly financial report about these rentals.

The final layer to the puzzle is that the weeks each owner has for each unit rotates every year so they are never the same year to year.
We want all of this to be built into our system at OwnerRez if possible while not presenting a horrible confusing mess to the customer when they view the options they have for rent.

Another way we can look at this is to categorize the different units. For instance, let's say there are only 4 different categories of unit: 1) a 2 bedroom / 1 bath with no view, 2) a 3 bedroom / 2 bath with no view, 3) a 2 bedroom / 1 bath with ocean view, and 4) a 3 bedroom / 2 bath with ocean view. Now we can just present the customer with 4 options and lots of availability which would be the compiled availability of all the similar units and all the partial owners weeks they want to rent it out for... Do you think this is possible? Again, the money and reports would have to still be given to specific owners and we would like that automated.

Thank you for your help.

deleted

I am not sure if this has been discussed or answered before. 

Does OR have like an incidental charges? Or Is it just the security deposit. We want to know what other hosts do if the amount of damage and extra cleaning exceeds the security deposit hold. Do you charge the guest on their card on file or do you wait for them to process the payment? I am afraid they will just ignore the message and won't pay for the remaining balance after the SD has been deducted. 

I feel your pain! Now, whenever I get a cancel request from a VRBO guest, I always redirect the guest to VRBO customer support. VRBO then sends me a request, stating I will not be penalized for aa guest initiated cancel. VRBO integrated support are at best badly trained!

Hey, James!

No, the system would not interfere with your minimum night requirements like that. There could be a number of things that contributed to that booking being allowed. The most common would be Spot Rates.

Rates and minimum night requirements follow a hierarchical system. The rates and rules that take precedence over everything else are your Spot Rates. Changes made directly to the Rate Calendar, listing rate imports, or dynamic pricing syncs (if your dynamic pricing is configured to send minimum night requirements along with rates), populate your Spot Rates.

If no Spot Rates exist, then the system defaults to Seasonal rules.

If no Seasonal rules exist, then the system defaults to the Property level rules.

What may have happened here is that you have Spot Rates in place that are allowing for a two night minimum. If you're using dynamic pricing, such as PriceLabs, you'll want to check there to see if you have two night minimums syncing over to OwnerRez. If your dynamic pricing is not configured to send over minimum night requirements, you may have imported rates from the channels with a two night requirement, or you may have made changes directly on the Rate Calendar, and those changes have not been overwritten since.

More info on Spot Rates / Rate Calendar can be found here:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/rates-calendar

If this does not answer your question, do write in to the helpdesk at help@ownerrez.com!

I have my minimum night stay set up at 3 nights, but someone was able to book a last minute booking for two nights on Air bnb.  I assume somehow the minimum night stay changes as it gets closer to the dates so that it has a better chance of not being vacant.  Is this correct?  I don't remember setting this up, but if someone knows if and what I did I would love some assistance.  Thanks. 

You can change the instant book settings for each property now.

Each channel has a set of rules and policies you can configure on the channel API settings in Settings > API Integrations.
If you follow the instructions below, This area allows you to override those settings for a specific property.

Go to Properties
https://app.ownerrez.com/properties 

> Properties
  > Select Property
   > Channel Rules
    > Change

Under Booking Mode
> Airbnb
   > Request to Book (or pick whatever setting you want)

Under Booking Mode
>Vrbo
  > Request to Book (or pick whatever setting you want)

For Airbnb, You can select from several options for Instant Book including the following:

> [Use Channel API Setting]
> Everyone who meets standard Airbnb requirements can make Instant Book reservations.
> Only guests who have traveled on Airbnb, are recommended by other hosts, and have no negative reviews can make Instant Book reservations.
> Only guests with verified government-issued ID and who have traveled on Airbnb, are recommended by other hosts, and have no negative reviews can make Instant Book reservations.
> Only guests with verified government-issued ID can make Instant Book reservations.
> Request to Book

For VRBO, You can select only a few options for Instant Book including the following:
> [Use Channel API Setting]
> Instant Book
> Request to Book

Hi James,

I'd love to go over your account configuration with you directly and talk about specifics, If that sounds interesting please reach out to our helpdesk and we can discuss that further.

As a general bit of information however the calendar widget will typically show the nightly rent, it should match what you have on your calendar via Settings > Rates

I recently changed my pricing strategy and wanted to add a 10% uplift to all of my direct websites.

So I created a quick surcharge.10% management fee and selected the websites.

It all looked right until I noticed the calendar widget (with prices on) still shows the original price.

Is there a way to get this new price with surcharge to appear?

Or is there a completely different way to achieve what I am after?

@Beach House -- I agree that if the system could save this completed form for each guest, that would go a long way in demonstrating what was offered to the guest and the decision the guest clearly made to decline travel insurance!

IS there a way to get a copy of the form where travel insurance is offered upon booking and the guest's checks they were offered and chose not to buy the travel insurance?

There is not, but you should be able to look at the Insurance tab of any booking to see if Travel Insurance was purchased!