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For some reason all my messages are not syncing to my inbox. This seemed to start this weekend. Even when I refresh my page I am not seeing it. They are coming into my email mailbox but not the message app on OR. anyone else?
I agree the Glamping Hub integration is clunky, and I am considering de-listing all of my properties indefinitely until it is better.
What is their markup or fee? Also, why am I getting random, emailed invoices to pay their fee separately?
If I wanted to have to hire someone to respond to emailed invoices, I wouldn't have software integration.
Are there other integrated "partners" that don't have their commission disclosed and/or collected automatically? If so, I will probably de-list all of them.
Anyone with wisdom on this topic it would be much appreciated.
Hi Jessica:
I created a ticket and wrote you directly & we will help you get your API connections setup optimally.
Ideally, your listings will be API synced to all the channels, so then there would not be any double bookings expected.
It's great when new features or updates are released, but if they are, they shouldn't break existing workflows. I'm not putting this as a Feature Request in that forum, because I'm only asking for things to be LEFT ALONE the way they were. Put another way, I want the functionality back that has been taken away from us with the introduction of the new Confirm & Pay form.
Under Custom Field Definitions, there are a couple of things which affect the Confirm & Pay form:
1) First is the ability to include the Custom Field Definition in the Confirm & Pay form so the guest can enter the needed information. Great. That's the way I want it.
2) Next is an Order number entry which determines the order of the fields on the Form, another good and needed feature. And
3) Description. This is a bit of text that in the previous booking form would appear UNDER the field where the guest would enter their information. It is there to provide help and an explanation about what is being requested.
Based on how the Description text appeared on the form when I set it up three years ago, I used the description field to insert instructions into into the form about how I needed the various fields filled out by the guest. This is especially important because there are no controls provided to me as the OR user, to control how these form fields appear (date, type, size, etc.).
I would love to show you a picture of what my Booking Form USED to look like after my creative use of the Description fields, but I can't now, because it's been replaced by the new form. (OwnerRez, if you can give me the old form back in a snap, PLEASE DO SO for obvious reasons as explained below, at least until you can fix the issue you have created!)
Because whatever I entered into the Description of a Custom Field showed on the form BELOW the field, I used it to provide instructions that guided my guests through the proper completion of the form. I put space in between the lines of text in my descriptions, in order to have the comments spatially relate to the correct fields, either above or below the text. In some cases, I would put the instructions for completing a field in the description of the item BEFORE that field, so they would instruct the guest about what to do in the next space.
So with a description entered like the following (note the empty lines before the text begins):
It would show up in the form kind of like:
Note how the text is spatially related to the field underneath it, and separated from the one above by an empty space (created by a couple of blank lines in the description).
In fact, in one instance, I put information in the description about the field above it (meaning the description for that particular Custom Field), then put a couple of blank lines of space and then added more text that related to the next Custom Field underneath.
In this way, I guided the guest through completing the form, with text IN the form, related to each part the guest had to complete.
Why is this important? In some instances, I would have the guest put more than one type of information in a field. For example, in my GUEST LIST Custom Fields (Something OwnerRez SHOULD have, but lacks), I ask the lead guest to not only put the guest's name, but also the age group that they fit into; adult, teen, child, infant.
Or in other cases the instructions are vitally important. For example in one part of the form, where the guest is to place their initials in the fields, the instructions and that part of the form looked kind of like this:
Notice the text underneath the Credit Card Cardholder Agreement Section? Pretty important right? It's important that it be visible so that when the guest initials it, they can't later claim that they didn't understand what they were committing to and launch a credit card chargeback in a dispute. I WANT that text THERE! I NEED that text there!
And using the Description field in Custom Field Definitions it was there. There was text like that for all of the items.
Note also the instructions at the top telling guests to Initial the following fields. It's important to tell the guests what to do at this point, because... well... guests can be kind of dumb and will screw up things if they can, but also, the design of the form NOW doesn't make it obvious that this section is different from the previous ones. My text and instructions and spacing throughout the OLD form accomplished that.
Now look at the mess we have:
Could we possibly have a more boring, unimaginative and unhelpful form design?
Worse, the critical information the guest HAS to see when completing the form is all hidden underneath the little 'info' buttons, as in this example.
This is NOT good enough! For legal and liability reasons, the text needs to be displayed right by where the guest initials their agreement to these specific parts of the terms and conditions! In fact, my Credit Card Processor DEMANDS the text shown above along with the specific place where the guest separately indicates their acknowledgment of the Credit Card terms. I have given them screenshots of what the form looked like and it was necessary as part of their even agreeing to accept me as a client!
For those of you who operate a vacation rental business in your own country, this may seem like a bunch of over-the-top nonsense. For those of you who are a 'foreign national' to where your business is located, you KNOW just how difficult things can be and the hoops we have to jump through! This is NOT an inconsequential issue!
Yes, I can just go through all of my Custom Field definitions and correct and adjust them so they make sense based on the new form design. I know that.
There are other points that matter here:
1) When OwnerRez makes a big change like this, it can have unexpected consequences. This is an example of it. But the issue I want to draw attention to is that never did OwnerRez warn me/us that we should go and review the new versions of the forms they introduced THREE months ago. Instead, they just announced that they had updated the forms, which I (I guess now stupidly) thought would be just fine and have no real effect on me other than to improve how the forms looked. It never once occurred to me that they would CHANGE THEIR FORM AND FUNCTION!
I have been having guests using this form for four months, and had no idea they were being handed this hot mess to find their way through, and in a format that no longer protected me as it once did. I only found out about it today because a confused guest contacted me to ask for clarification on part of it.
2) Changing all of my Custom Field Descriptions will NOT put back the text into the forms where I need it to be. Yes it will pop up in the little info boxes if a guest hovers over one, but that is NOT good enough to protect me legally and limit and control my liability, and bulletproof me in disputes and chargebacks.
3) I understand that the powers that be may not want to get rid of the little info circles to hover over. Fine. Keep them. But I still need (desperately) the function/ability to put specific descriptions and info IN THE FORM (not just in an introductory paragraph at the top) the way I had it before! OwnerRez, please put this functionality BACK into the software.
Why post this here rather than just send the request to support? If someone else had experienced the same issue and shared it here, I would have found it, possibly months ago, and been able to take action on it sooner. Perhaps others did have the same issue, but did not share it here, and others, like me, wouldn't find out about it until later.
Finally, hopefully this thread can be a reminder to others to always repeatedly check your workflows, particularly after major changes are done. Don't just assume everything is working just fine!
So should we use iCal or channel bridge to avoid double bookings? I’ve been getting alot of double bookings on airbnb from booking.com and it recently caused me to have an account restriction on airbnb. I only have 2 listings. This should not be hapoening.
I'm having a similar issue, Vrbo calendar is getting blocked everyday and I can't figure out the issue? I have Hospitable connected as well. But I have Vrbo ical added on OR and vice versa. What am I doing wrong?
Hi there. I know we should be utilizing the Owner statement summary option but it honestly is not giving me any of the info I'm needing and is a bit confusing to create a year-end statement (maybe I'm just use to doing them by excel) The report that worked best, I can't find it! It had columns like "taxes (in period) (net for comm (in period) owner rev (in period), Cant find this report anywhere, have been doing owner statements with these reports for years so I'm stuck!
Here's what I came up with: Increase your nightly rate for the weekends to equal the nightly rate of the Parent. I do this through PriceLabs and their day of week price adjustments.
If someone books the Child through the weekend at the Parent price, I don't care because I will be making the same amount of revenue. This has worked well for us, we are getting a lot of mid-week stays on the Child listing that are spilling over into the weekends.
If someone has any other experiences, I'd like to hear them.
This would be the gamechanger I've been waiting on.
Hi, I can't find any way to import our FAQs for Rezzy, I'm wondering if it's possible to import them? We have around 100 defined and was hoping we didn't have to enter them one by one.
Thanks Kaitie for your answer.
That's disappointing. I do know how to add the tags to contacts and other things manually.
I was hoping to automate the process adding them to guests. I guess we're only part-way there!
Hey Robert!
Although the tag automations can only be added to bookings, and not the guest contact themselves, you should be able to manually add tags to the contacts. You should be able to do this in their booking by going to the Overview tab and clicking the Change button next to Tags in the Guest section. From there, you can add a tag. More on how to do this here:https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/tags-use-assign#assign-guest-tag
If you'd like to add tags to guests in bulk, you can do so by going to Contacts > check the box to the left of each contact you want to add the tag to > select Set Tags at the top > select the tag in the pop-up > click Save. Once that's been done, the tag should be applied to those guests in OwnerRez.
Hey Rich! Interestingly, I recently came across Roam. I'm not sure they're fully operational yet, as I haven't heard back from the email I sent them for more details, but it may be worth exploring: https://goroam.io/
Hey Rich!
It doesn't look like a host can purchase travel insurance, as it is designed for guests, not hosts. You could try creating a stronger cancellation policy. For example, if you have a policy that offers a full refund close to their arrival date, like 7 days, you could edit your cancellation policy to only offer a full refund if cancelled further out, such as 30 days before arrival. This way, if they cancel last minute, they wouldn't receive a full refund.
Hey Cody!
You should still be able to collect their phone number by sending a channel template with our BUFIXUP link when a booking is created. This form should have a POC form and the renter agreement. Once they fill it out, the booking should have a phone number on file. We have this support article that goes over how to set this up: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/trigger-example-request-guest-sign-renter-agreement
We have a Parent/Child property that I would like to restrict stays to occur at all over weekends (Friday and Saturday nights) for the Child listing. In other words, I don't want to just restrict arrivals/departures from Friday and Saturday - I want to prevent guests from staying in the Child listing on Friday and Saturday nights altogether, and essentially force them into weeknight stays (Sunday night through Friday morning). Does anyone know how to accomplish this without having to block off every single weekend manually? TIA!
When trying to delete a Custom Field Definition that is still been used in a property, OR goes to the login page instead of either showing an error explaining the field is in use, or delete the field in the properties and then delete it.
@Robert - Yes. That is a great stopgap measure in the meantime! Thank you.
Hi Georgie and Sarah,
I asked our devs to take a look at Vrbo's API documentation, and it does not look like Vrbo makes this information available via the API. Unless / until they support that, we'd have no way to pull that data in.
If you look at the guest record directly in Vrbo, it should show you their average star rating as well as the number of reviews they've received, but I don't believe there's a way to click into them. It's just a quick visual of star average and review count.
If Vrbo adds this information to the API at a later date, we can certainly consider adding support to pull that in, but I'm afraid it's just not possible at this time.
i LOVE the new Tag Automations introduced this past year!
Thank you to everyone at OwnerRez for this GREAT and very much appreciated development!
But...
I have a challenge/question:
I can apply a tag to a lot of things in OwnerRez.
Right now, I'm trying to create an automation which will assign the Tag "Guest" to a CONTACT when a booking is made.
As near as I can tell, the tag is assigned to the BOOKING, not the Contact. Is there some way to do what I want? Am I missing something?
Thanks anyone for your assistance!
Robert
@Katie - thank you for pointing us in the right direction to update this text in Form Messages. While the update text page allows us to include formatting (bold, font, line breaks, links), it does not seem that the destination actually allows for it:
As the guest is unable to make changes on this screen (should the dates, number of guests/pets, etc. be incorrect), they will have to be directed to email us to make those changes on their behalf. (Bummer #1.) Being able to add our email address into that text box as a clickable link is needed to make this process as streamlined and easy as possible for our guests. Is there plans to make this destination text box accept the formatting added in the Edit screen??
Hi Alece, while my comment doesn't address the issue of being able to format and/or create links in the Form messaging... Would it help to just say "please email using the link at the bottom of the form."?
While not as elegant or straightforward (which is always better), the email address shows in the footer (on my Form at least) as a clickable link. So the email address is at least easily available for the guest to reach you in response.
You can continue using Converge as long as it’s working well for you. 🟡 We have seen automatic payment failures on some accounts, and Converge has not been able to troubleshoot or resolve those issues. If that happens to you, it’s helpful to already have an alternative processor lined up—ideally one you explore during your slower season so you’re not forced to switch under the pressure of busy weeks.
Lynnbrook was mentioned specifically because they’re willing to waive the monthly base fees. Their quoted rate of about 2.6% is indeed higher than Converge’s lowest tier of 1.90%, but Converge also processes some cards at 2.65% and even 3.35%, depending on the card type. Amex transactions above a certain amount often hit 3.5% in my experience.
It may be worth reviewing your 2025 statements to see what your true blended average rate turned out to be, so you have solid info for comparisons. That number is usually the most helpful when comparing processors.
Hello,
We have 6 properties, so a relatively small business. We switched from Stripe to Converge because Stripe was a nightmare due to the hold/long delay in paying us and an unreasonable amount of documentation required on an ongoing basis. We strongly advise any small business from using Stripe based on our experience. Lynnbrook was not a good choice for us due to its higher cost. Use of Converge has been both an economical and seamless experience. We will continue with it until we are forced to change.
Hey Rich,
I think you've already gotten this sorted, but I did want to drop a note for any other users who may stumble across this post.
When selecting a custom range, it's necessary to select the day of the month along with the month and year. If you only select the month and year, it will move back to the defaulted date range.
I agree that the inquiry process is confusing on Vrbo!
Think of inquiring guests as tire kickers- maybe they want a deal; maybe they wrote to ten hosts to see who replies, maybe they have special questions they need answered before being ready to book; perhaps they are just not serious.
Inquiries mean answering their questions and then directing them to book.
Which is a shame, because guests can still SEND inquiries, even if you're set to instant book. And then you're running around looking how to approve it for them.
Hello,
We have had two VRBO bookings so far - one before the integration with OR and one after.
One of our main concerns is who would be coming to our property.
Before the OR integration we were able to see at least something about the guest who made the booking - average ratings and how many reviews they had been given on VRBO.
This gave us at least some sense of the guests' prior behavior on VRBO.
After the OR integration the booking includes nothing about the guest (besides the contact info) - this is not available even on VRBO.
Given the concern stated above, we are thinking about dropping VRBO from the channel integration, unless there is a way to get some sense of the guest rating.
Hey Haris! Just brainstorming some potential solutions:
Hi,
I can't believe I'm the only one with this issue and support can't offer a solution so either someone here figured it out or I have to migrate to a different platform. Just onboarded 30+ listings coming from Guesty for Hosts as they are killing their support so it will be fun spending another sleepless night doing a cut-over.
We're hosting on AirBNB. Here is the process:
- 1PM scheduled channel message "Welcome" set to go out on the check-in day, with address, WiFi password, parking instructions etc.
- An hour later, 2PM scheduled channel message "PIN" set to go out with the door access code. This code is changed on every check out and is entered into the system when our cleaners are done, typically just before 2PM. For back-to back bookings it means we have about an hour before the next set of guests come in.
What happens for at least 10-15% of all bookings on AirBNB : the guest books after 3PM (sometimes even late at night) and needs to check in right away. Perfectly fine, we're ready at 3PM. Except the Welcome and PIN triggers don't fire if the booking is made after 1PM / 2PM, and apparently there is no way to setup any kind of trigger that would send those out immediately for those cases. And so here I am, getting calls from people who booked the same day and got to the house but didn't get the access code. If there was only some software solution to that issue so I can go to bed before midnight cut-off time, right? Guesty for Hosts worked just fine in this case and there is no reason why OR can't. If they have time to implement AI they have time to copy-paste their code into ChatGPT and tell it to fix this too, it should take about 2 days to test and push to production.
Is there any solution to this?
Thanks
I have a very short cancelation requirement and want to protect myself from a last minute cancellation on a future reservation which is $30,000.
Is there a way I CAN PURCHASE TRAVEL INSURANCE to protect myself should they cancel? I do not require guests to purchase travel insurance.
What do others do to protect themselves like this?
Thanks!
