General Help and Questions

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What does it do better than hostaway? The app is so tiny it's hard to use, wouldn't be as bad if you could quickly link to individual monthly calendars. 

I know about the small fee hostaway charges for direct bookings, and their inbox isn't the best. Haven't been able to try ownerrez new inbox because not yet API connected. 

I really like that it's privately owned, other than that hoping someone can chime in that's used both and can share their experience .

EDIT:

I'm new here so I'm discovering things.

+1 for OR: Using Tag automations. This appears like it will come in really handy.

EDIT 2:

I've had some time to play around with Ownerrez and here are my takeaways.

Hostaway has a clean and modern feel to it, and a decent amount of customization but it pretty much ends there. So much glitchiness. I haven't noticed this at all in OR, it seems to work without any hiccups.

Reasons-

1) The Hostaway app is very glitchy. The calendar looks nice when it works. I usually need to completely close the app out and reopen for it to update.

2) Also, the Hostaway app is super limited. Most of the time I need to go to the native website to do anything.

3) One of the biggest selling points of OR is they use a web app, meaning you can do anything on a tablet or phone that you can do on a PC.

4) So far, OR seems to have more capability in general but I haven't tapped into all of it yet.

5) Add on's Pricing- for example Hostaway charges a whopping $8 per lock with smart lock integration. OR is half of that. 

6) Subscription pricing is less for OR.

7) OR is privately owned. I won't go down this rabbit hole of private equity run companies.

8) Trigger capabilities in OR. I would like to see this improved on though as it has so much potential.

9) Customer support. It's true that Hostaway has quicker responses, however it ends there. I don't ever seem to get the answer i need or the problem solved.

10) In response to my own comment on being hard to see OR on a phone. I realized you can pinch zoom with a webapp haha. You can't on a regular app.

Hope this helps. I'm sure I'll learn more as I'm still new to Ownerrez.

The quality of the customer service responses from OwnerRez is outstanding. My question is usually thoroughly answered in the first reply.

Compare and contrast with just about every other organization out there, where you may get a quicker answer, but it's usually a canned response from the help files you've already gone through. For anything substantive, you have to play tiddlywinks with the person who doesn't know anything until finally getting bumped up to someone who might (or might not) know something.

Thank you Rex.   I don't have any other tickets open.   I'm just new to OwnerRez and wanted to know what to expect in regards to getting help when I need it.    

Thanks for the timely response!  If you're working on it, I can tolerate it.

But since you asked what else could be fixed:

(1) Ability to resize the panels

(2) When opening the inbox, the main panel should show the latest message, not a blank screen (maybe this is just my preference)

(3) Filtering is great (thank you!) but it would be nice to have a search function.

Thanks!

Hey Undercard,

Yes, you're exactly right - it needs to be there. And actually, that canned response button is there (in the new inbox) under the covers.

Right before release, we discovered an issue and yanked the bottom out to not create confusion.  The engineering work to put it back is already under way, along with some stuff to make it better.

Apologies for the heartburn, but it'll be fixed extremely soon.

Anything else you see in the new inbox that is causing problems? We have a lot of feedback already, but never hurts to get more.

Thanks in advance! 🍺

-Paul

The new unified inbox looks pretty and includes some long-overdue functionality, but...

I can't figure out how to send canned message (i.e., templates) from the unified inbox.

Just now, when a guest asked for alternate directions, instead of doing it the old way by choosing "Use Template" and then choosing the one I want, I had to:

1. Go to Setting | Templates | Channel Templates

2. Find the message to use

3. Copy the message by hand

4. Paste the message into my reply to the guest by hand

5. Manually replace all the field codes

6. Send

This is not an improvement.

Am I doing something wrong?

Hey Eh!

I was adding Properties and just did a series of imports from Airbnb and ran into a different problem. I ticked all the boxes to do an import of all available data sets from Airbnb. The import crashed in flames because Airbnb "Smart Pricing" was enabled.  Or so the error message claimed.  When I went into Airbnb I could not figure out how to disable Smart Pricing and came to the conclusion that perhaps that was set in Lodgify from where these properties' data was populated.

After spending some time on Lodgify without resolving the matter, I decided to try another approach.  I went back into the OR Airbnb import function and unchecked all boxes except for photos.  Photos were in my opinion the most important to salvage, so it was worth a try.  Lo and behold, the photos all transferred successfully!

Encouraged by that, I proceeded to repeat the import process with other data sets individually selected.  They all worked, except for one, where again. I got the Smart Pricing enabled error.  About the only data set I could not get to transfer was the text-based info such as Description, etc.  So, I had to go in and brute force do a cut and paste from the Airbnb listings.  Yeah, I had to do this for five different properties....

But if you need to do this, try out individually selecting each of the data sets and you will hopefully have (more) success even if Smart Pricing is enabled!

Bonne Chance!

Thanks for your question on the Daily Report. I'm assuming you're referring to the Daily Checklist report? 

To manipulate the way the data is presented, you would need to export the report. This report changes daily because it is a snapshot in time, and on any particular day, guests are hopping into different categories, depending on where they are in their stay. The sort order within the categories is Arrival date, then departure date.

You might also want to look at the Stays by Date Range report. This report doesn't break out bookings into categories, so you'll see one list. You can make the range one day if you like seeing the data that way.

This is a business question.

I have primarily exclusive listings. This is where the owner signs up with only my company to represent them on my website as well as other OTAs.

I have recently brought in several properties that are listed by the owner on other real estate broker websites.

If I book the property, I get the full commission. Out commission usually is 15%.

Recently, a property that is exclusive to me has wanted me to list their property on another real estate broker's website.

What would you do?

Are any of you dealing with this sort of competitive market?

How do you handle ensuring that the pricing is consistent if I am using an algorithm and the agent is not?

How do you keep the calendars synced when the agent does not use anything that can handle iCal?

None of these other realtor websites have any of OR's features.

I want to take advantage of any best practices you may have, and I appreciate your reading this post and sharing your knowledge.

I asked about this before. We need to be able to access the manual and have it accessed by guests as a link.

Why? One of my properties has a 30-page manual.

My hope was that the Wordpess plugin would allow MORE features and ease of use in publishing properties.

I am finding that it is not being developed or improved. 

What is the future for the web from OwnerRez? 

@Suzee -- I understand it shows in the long property description section if included there (as I have it now). For aesthetics and readability, it's far superior to be able to separate out this information. Disappointing to discover so many shortcode and widget limitations in this regard. 

Hi Alece!

Although we don't have a widget or shortcode to generate the house rules, you should be able to put them into the property description, which should sync over via shortcodes if you have a WordPress site. Feel free to write into help@owerrez.com if you'd like us to take a look at your account.

For example, the Daily report.

It comes out in dofferent sort order every day, and a different sort order between sub-categories (Arrival, Depart, Stay).

The common sense way to sort is by property (IMHO).

Is there a way to do that without downloading?

@Joel -- I'm trying to display House Rules as their own segment on each of my property pages. I cannot seem to find a shortcode or widget that allows for this, nor can I figure out how to utilize the Custom Field (PXHRULES) that I have created in OwnerRez for this. Can you help me figure out how I can achieve this?

Hi Maarten,

We'd want to take a look in your account at your discounts and this booking in particular to see what occurred. Please send this question to us at Help@ownerrez.com and we'll be take a look at it for you.

If your discount is currently disabled, the "live amount" wouldn't show the discount. Again, happy to take a look at that for you as well.

Thank you! I'm not sure why I didn't see that before, I did click Change but must have overlooked the field.

Hey Renee!

If you click on the Change/Move button on the Overview tab of the booking, do you see a Title space that you can edit? 



  

If you do not see that option, please write to help@ownerrez.com with the ORB# so we can take a look for you.

Hello all,

A 20% last minute discount has been applied to a Vrbo booking for August 2025. The reservation was made in June 2024. 

The discount should apply when the following condition is complied with: "Arrival Days From Now is Less than or Equal To 60 Days" 

At present, the discount has been disabled but I am not sure if it was in June 2024.

Questions: 
1) how is it possible this has been applied more than a year in advance?
2) is there a change log where I can see when I disabled the discount? 

Finally, the Channel Rate Tester currently indicates a "live amount" that is about 50% of the "expected amount". However, when I try on the Vrbo site myself, the rates are equal to the "expected amount" + Vrbo guest fees. So OR's tester seems to be faulty.

Hello

I had created a block and when I did I added a "title"

I then converted said block into a booking - and it kept the title. Is there a way to remove this? The "title" field isn't an option when converting and "changing" the booking doesn't give me access to this field.

Any update on timing of a fully functional guest portal.  Understand some revamp steps on booking cleanbup form, etc...the post in April here suggested a revamp of a guest portal targeted by end of 2024. Are we to expect this in weeks, months, quarters... Thanks in advance. 

Hey sunchic vacation!

While there is no specific ETA I can provide with regard to a guest portal, it is on our roadmap for Q2/3. Barring any more pressing issues that would rise to the top of the list before guest portal, we hope to see this by the end of the year. That could always change, so we try to set realistic expectations. 

I've lost business because of this, when I reached out to the guest why they didnt book with us, they said, they thought its in their currency which looked high compared to the other quote they got. 
I know we can add a widget, but when the customer look at the payment page to finalize, it's the owners app page, so we don't have control on that.

With all due respect to OR, Lodgify has this feature, it shows the converted price in the browser location currency, along with "host currency as $ (which is my default currency)". I hope ownerRez can come up with a feature or some kind of integration. 

See this api - https://api.exchangerate-api.com/v4/latest/USD
How can this be used in ownerrez?

Hi Cory!

You'll want to use the BUFIXUP link in your channel templates to have guests fill out the POC form and sign the renter agreement. One thing to note is that Airbnb and Booking.com don't send us the guest's email address, so you'll want to use the channel template. We have this support article that goes over how you can set it up: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/trigger-example-booking-channel-reply-request-contact-info

However, Vrbo does send us the guest's email address at the time of booking, so you don't need to use a channel template for Vrbo guests and can use an email template instead that has the BUFIXUP link. 

If you want to specify a certain agreement to be shown to guests who book on Airbnb and those who do not book on Airbnb, you should be able to edit the listing site conditions for the legal agreement and make it so that one is for Airbnb and the other is for bookings from other listing sites. More on that here: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/renter-legal-agreements#single-agreement

If needed, you can reach out to help@ownerrez.com and we can look further into it for you.

Thank you. I need to do a deep dive into the API integrations. For some reason they scare me! 😝 I’m doing something that basically works for me albeit a very arduous system but worried if I apply the API and everything goes haywire. I will read through all the links again. It just seems complicated. 

Hi there -

If you are not API connected to Airbnb or Vrbo, you would need to make your pricing changes in each platform. This sounds like what you are doing now. If so, there's an easier way to do away with that dreaded task!

When you connect to Airbnb or Vrbo through the API, you would make pricing changes on your OwnerRez Rates calendar and then OwnerRez would push those prices out to all of your connected listings. The Airbnb and Vrbo API settings will allow you to add or subtract a percentage of your choosing to the pushed rate so you can account for platform fees if you'd like.

And you could also use one of our Dynamic Pricing partners to help you determine the rates to charge for your specific property if you don't like doing the pricing yourself. They would push pricing to OwnerRez and we will in turn push those to your API connected listings.

If you have more specific questions related to your account, please reach out to us at help@ownerrez.com - we'd be delighted to assist!

How to API connect to Airbnb

How to API connect to Vrbo

More information on our Dynamic Pricing partners

Thank you Rex.   I don't have any other tickets open.   I'm just new to OwnerRez and wanted to know what to expect in regards to getting help when I need it.    

Whenever you submit a ticket (whether via email, the in-app form, or the Contact Us page), you’ll receive an automatic confirmation letting you know we’ve received your request. To help us assist you as quickly as possible, please include a clear and relevant subject line in your email or ticket submission. This ensures your request is routed to the right specialist.
When submitting a ticket, be sure to include any important details, such as your Booking ID (ORB#####) or other identifiers like the property name (for listing issues) or channel name (for API issues). If you’re using the submission form, you can reply to the autoresponder email to add photos or other attachments. If you’re emailing your ticket directly, feel free to include attachments right away.

You can generally expect a response from our Helpdesk within one business day, often sooner. For urgent issues, having a descriptive subject line is especially important, as our system prioritizes requests based on keywords to ensure critical matters are addressed promptly. The Helpdesk team primarily runs on US Eastern business hours (Monday-Friday 9AM-5PM) but that is not set in stone. Don't be surprised if you do get a response to a ticket later in the evening or on a Sunday morning! 

While we are currently quite a way from a 24/7 live support service, we are looking to expand the support hours. Additionally, our Support Center is getting frequent updates so many questions during off-hours can have their answers found there.

I looked at your profile and it looks like you have one open ticket with our Onboarding team and your others are closed. Just making sure, am I missing any tickets you've submitted?

I have been using OR for 4 years now and I do really love all the possibilities it offers.  However, I know I must only be scratching the surface with the options.  I absolutely hate setting rates for my properties bc I have to manually go into each property on each platform and go day by day.  I KNOW there has to be an easier way to do this! But bc Airbnb has different platform fees than VRBO how do you do this?  I've searched through the forum posts but don't see one that specifically addresses this. Or if there is a tutorial that you can point me to I would be most grateful.  

I am using API for Airbnb and VRBO and direct booking via a non OR site widget. I have created 2 custom rental agreements to tailor liability language (we have a treehouse but no hot tub, etc) and to allow for collecting a security deposit for VRBO and direct, but not for Airbnb.

I would like to send channel messages to sign the rental agreement. For Airbnb, I assume I should use the fix-up form to collect contact info. I believe this form has a "Next" button that goes to the rental agreement. How can a specify what version of rental agreement is shown following completion of the fix-up form?

Thanks!

Cory

Thanks Suzee,

I ended up selecting all three and doing a test booking, and triggers worked as planned.

My Wix site has a Booking widget and also a Calendar widget, so maybe this is why there are 2 separate checkboxes under "listing site" that use "fileusr.com". I can see from the booking which of these was the source of the booking, so I assume if I unselect the other one and My Property it would still work, but I haven't tried this if it is working as is.

Hi there Cory!

This support doc will explain a bit more about the "filesusr.com" label.

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/wix-widgets#filesusr

This custom site will correlate to a specific place on your Wix site, and that will be shown as the listing site in your bookings. There shouldn't be more than one of those attributed to a booking's listing site,(you can verify this if you look in your bookings list), so you shouldn't have an issue with duplicate messages being sent out if you select them for your condition setting in the trigger.

Can you please update this topic?   What is the turnaround time for tickets as of January 2025?   Thank you!