General Help and Questions

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Hi Tarki:

Thanks for raising this issue. Our engineers have spotted the problem & are in discussion with Airbnb to remedy it in the next few days.

We also offer a Manual Lock integration. I'm not sure if this would be a suitable fit for you, but you can explore that option here:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/integration-manual-door-locks

Essentially, you'd still be setting the lock yourself, but you can have the system automatically generate codes to send to guests based on your configuration.

Hi Bri, thank you.  I have seen the available Door Lock partners, but I do not see any of them listing the Kwikset Halo.  This is a fairly popular brand so I am surprised none of the partners work with it.  I already made the purchase, so maybe I just need to return it. 

Hi Matthew,

Yes! We have Field Codes that can be inserted into your Templates that populate with property-specific content.

You can read more about creating custom email Templates here (all Template creation is generally the same, be it email, SMS, or channel message):

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/email-templates#custom

And here's more info on our available Field Codes:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/field-codes

We also offer the ability for you to create Custom Field Definitions:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/custom-fields#field-defs

Hi Jessie,

Take a look at that booking now. I gave it a nudge from this end to update the transaction records.

If anything still looks amiss, please write to us at the helpdesk so we can have another look! help@ownerrez.com

Hello, there is a recent problem: Airbnb bookings come into OR with US phone code "1" regardless of the phone number. For example German phone number  +4917624625363 comes as +1 4917624625363

I have a red balance due on a single airbnb booking. I am API integrated and I have transaction sync enabled so channel bridge no longer works for airbnb bookings. ORB7816389 Thank you!

Hello! Have there been any updates to this? I did not realize that this was not an option when I first created my OwnerRez account and website for my rentals. I agree with everyone else that time is of the essence when it comes to guest bookings. They will very quickly look elsewhere. An SMS notification is imperative for STR! Thanks!

Can same template be used for different properties pulling property specific info?temp

Hi Sheri!

We offer the ability to create Custom Field Definitions so that you can obtain that additional information on the Point of Contact form.

You can read more about Custom Fields here - https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/custom-fields

Of course, if you have further questions, feel free to write to us at the helpdesk! help@ownerrez.com

Hello!

Is it possible to customize the fields in the Point of Contact Form (POC) that goes out with the Rental Agreement?

Previously, I sent my lease out via Docusign which allows guest to fill in the form with all the guest names, emergency contact and additional email address. OR's system only allows signature acceptance of agreement and is nice that it is all in one message to the guest. Since I'm now paying for OR, I am trying to incorporate this use and cancel the additional cost of Docusign.

Thanks!

Sheri

I know that we can easily ask guests through the airbnb messenger for emails but now we have an additional step to grab that email and enter it in ownerrez.  It would be AWESOME if Owner Rez could provide a link similiar to the booking clean up link that we can set a trigger for that asks for contact information (not payment information) and then is autoamtically dumped into Ownerrez.  

The process outlined in my post above regarding channel Templates allows for that guest's email to be entered on the booking automatically. 🙂

While the {BUFIXUP} link does contain the Point of Contact form, Rental Agreement, and a payment page at this time, and the three are not able to be pieced out, the end result is still the same as what you've described you're looking for. The system will dump that email into the booking for you when the Airbnb guest has completed your Point of Contact form.

I know that we can easily ask guests through the airbnb messenger for emails but now we have an additional step to grab that email and enter it in ownerrez.  It would be AWESOME if Owner Rez could provide a link similiar to the booking clean up link that we can set a trigger for that asks for contact information (not payment information) and then is autoamtically dumped into Ownerrez.  

Thank you Bri. 

Thank you Tim. That's a good idea and I'll start implementing this.

This actually isn't the first time I've heard of clients with this concern, but yes, it's relatively rare.

A larger issue is that OwnerRez fundamentally wasn't designed to work in minutes/hours, but rather days.  This affects all kinds of things, including the fact that properties can only be rented for nights (24-hour overnight periods) rather than hours, which is why you can't add, say, a tennis court that people might rent for a couple hours at a time.

However, there are an increasing number of situations where specific times and shorter delay periods are appropriate, particularly as internationalization increases, and there is ongoing work to add that kind of functionality to the underlying systems.  I can't speak to when or whether that would grow to the point where quote-hold would be available in minutes or hours in addition to whole days, but, it's not totally impossible down the road somewhere, particularly if we see increasing demand for it.

Wow. I've never heard of someone having such high demand that they are booking in minutes. Unfortunately for you, I think this might be a situation that is unique to you and thus not likely to be addressed by OR. Quotes on OR do allow for blocking dates while the quote is open, but right now OR only has the options to hold dates for days. Maybe they could tweak that to allow for hours without a major change? Without knowing their backend its hard to know if that's an easy change or a hard one.

Hi Catharine,

In order to use OwnerRez to automatically send messages to guests, you will need to be using our Airbnb API connection, and configure your messages as channel templates.

Note that, if you require your guests to sign your Rental Agreement as we recommend, that process collects the guest's real email address, so regular email message templates can be sent automatically to guests after they've done that. But the original message with the link for the guest to sign their Rental Agreement, can only be sent automatically as a channel message.

Any current templates which you want to also be sent as a Channel Message (Vrbo Airbnb), you'll want to do the following: 

1. Copy the body of the email template.
2. Create a new booking type template
   https://app.ownerrez.com/settings/templates/channel
   And paste the copied content from the email template into that newly created channel template.  Note that any links must appear as the links themselves, including the http prefix - they cannot be built into a Web-style clickable link, as with normal email templates.
3. Go to your Trigger Settings to create a new trigger here: https://app.ownerrez.com/triggers
4. Once there, you'll want to associate the newly created booking type template to said trigger, making sure to configure which listing sites (channels) you want the trigger to fire the template out for.  All available channel message systems use the same templates, so, you can send the same channel message template to multiple separate channels.

Please Note: New custom Template/Trigger combinations (email and channel) are only able to fire on bookings created after the trigger's creation date, with the exception of time based triggers configured to send prior to arrival.

Here's more help resources on this topic:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/messaging-triggers#missedtriggers
https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/vrbo-messaging
https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/channel-templates
https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/email-templates
https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/system-messages

I've always done this, even when they had the aliases. Just message the guest and ask for their email. I have a saved response on AirBnB that I just send as soon as they are booked.....

"blah blah blah.....Please send me your email address. All of our house info and door codes go out by automated email and won't work with the Airbnb messaging system. 
Thanks,"

No one has ever questioned it and typically they respond within minutes. I just copy their email onto the booking in OR. 

Hi Amber! What an amazing "problem" to have! We don't receive many questions about this so from a feature demand perspective, there are lots of other items already slated on the roadmap. In the future, we could look to add a Ticketmaster-like feature that locks in the dates and gives the users a certain amount of time to complete checkout, but that is not a trivial amount of work - and the booking portal (i.e., guest forms) work we're doing now has to all be in place. I might encourage you to make the above into a "Feature Request" and kick off the voting yourself and see what the interest is from other users. Thanks for bringing this up!

How do you reach your guests via email now that Airbnb no longer discloses a guests email to the host? I use OwnerRez to communicate with my guest and require a deposit and signed contract. This just happened Sept 30. I had to call my guest to get his email. Is there another less intrusive way to do this?

Hi Luke,

I'd like to send you some account-specific screenshots. Could you write in to us at the helpdesk (help@ownerrez.com) with the subject line "DAMAGE PROTECTION ON/OFF" and a brief description of what you're seeing?

Be sure to send it from your OR account login email address for verification purposes, please!

Thanks for getting back to me.

There is no 'Change' or 'Turn Off' button. I can see it has me automatically selecting coverage of '$500 Standard Coverage' in a drop down menu. There is no option to turn off there either, just to select a higher coverage option.
If you think Damage Protection is turned off for that property on all platforms and bookings I'll take your word for it being a newbie 
Is there another section in the setup process where I would potentially be able to view and confirm it's off?

Thank you 

SMS by design is plain text, not encrypted: https://www.howtogeek.com/709373/why-sms-text-messages-arent-private-or-secure/ -- since this is a standard protocol there is no way to force encryption on SMS.

To get encryption, you need to use a completely different secure messenger app. The Twilio IP Messaging link you referenced is a secure chat app: https://www.twilio.com/blog/announcing-ip-messaging-apis-for-embedded-chat-html, or something else like Signal, etc.

This shouldn't be a feature request, but instead recognized as an urgent need for our privacy and safety.

I am sick of Twilio or other tech company spying on my texts and blocking them if I use any word they consider verboten, such as cannabis or weed, when replying to guests' inquiries. 

What my guests and I write to each other is none of anybody else's business. We don't live in North Korea, after all.

Introducing End-to-end Encryption for Twilio IP Messaging with Virgil Security℠
https://www.twilio.com/blog/introducing-end-to-end-encryption-for-twilio-ip-messaging-with-virgil-security-html 

Hello! You can type to search what you're looking for on the Record Expense screen, and with any dropdown in the system actually. Note though, if you have properties named similarly owned by different owners it doesn't work perfectly - you have to type it perfectly for it to find it including any spaces. But many times you can probably get close and then use your arrow keys, then tab key; and/or mouse to select. For the Owners dropdown on the Record Expenses Screen, using an example from your screenshot, you can start typing "Bet" and then quickly be able to select Betsy or Betty. Give these a try!

We'll keep this in mind though as time moves along and see about adding traditional typeahead/search options elsewhere, like we've done in some other places.

Hi Larry - emailing marketing is not on the roadmap. With so many email marketing tools available, and it being their core business (i.e., they know how to keep things above board in the ways of sending email "campaigns"), it's not a high priority with everything else on the roadmap. That could change down the road but there are so many other core things we need to stay focused on.

You may know this, but you can manually email a guest as it pertains to a booking from the Overview tab ("Email this Guest"). By doing so, the outgoing manual email will be saved in the Communication History for that booking/guest.

We are working towards a "unified inbox" with the ultimate goal of supporting inbound email. So, if a guest replies to a message you sent them via OwnerRez automated messaging, that today is delivered to your email inbox (say Gmail or private domain inbox), but this would allow that message to come into the OwnerRez inbox and then you could reply to their message from inside OwnerRez, keeping that whole conversation in one place.

Why am I no longer getting requests & seeing my bookings from VRBO?

Hi Toni,

Please write to us at the helpdesk (help@ownerrez.com) and provide specific details. Screenshots, URLs and booking numbers, for example, are always helpful.

We'll gladly take a look and see what is going on for you!

Why am I no longer getting requests & seeing my bookings from VRBO?

Any news on this?