General Help and Questions

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Sort ribbon calendar? and search function on forum? 4 replies

Maui W
Jan 13, 2022 7:36 PM
Joined Aug, 2020 2 posts

Thank you!  Didn't know there was even a order button.

Sort ribbon calendar? and search function on forum? 4 replies

Le Touquet Holid
Jan 13, 2022 7:25 PM
Joined Nov, 2018 113 posts

Properties Order button select and drag the order you want. You can set an internal and external order.

Sort ribbon calendar? and search function on forum? 4 replies

Maui W
Jan 13, 2022 6:33 PM
Joined Aug, 2020 2 posts

Aloha Paul;

 

I see your response was back in 2018 and you still haven't "gotten on it."  This is an issue for us as well as we keep adding units to a certain complex and they drop to the bottom of the list instead of dropping in order.

Any input you might have would be appreciated.

airbnb adds pet fees 7 replies

Rex C
Jan 13, 2022 5:31 PM
OR Team Member Joined Aug, 2021 65 posts

Airbnb now includes Pet and Cleaning fees. I see that my cleaning fee has transferred over, but not my pet fees..or so it seems. Airbnb shows pets stay free and tells me all fees are imported via OR. Apparently not all.

by Donna M – Dec 15, 2021 4:58 PM (UTC)

Good news, pet fees are now implemented within OwnerRez for Airbnb API connected accounts!

"Pets stay free" is an irrelevant marker that is only on the Airbnb Dashboard, it is never displayed to guests. They only see "Pets allowed" or "No pets".

Per stay pet fees are now passed through to Airbnb. This is a flat rate fee that is applied to the booking whether they are bringing one pet or up to your property max. 

Per night and per pet fees are ignored, they will not be passed through. If you have this for other bookings, you can set that to apply to "everything except Airbnb" and then set up a separate per stay surcharge that is "only Airbnb".

The pet fee is added to the nightly rate like linen, resort, and additional guest surcharges. It will not show in Airbnb charge lists as a separate line like a cleaning fee would.

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/channel-management-api-integrations-airbnb-common-issues-questions#pet-fees

 

Tweaking a guest message while keeping same scheduled trigger? 2 replies

Shawn H
Jan 12, 2022 9:36 PM
OR Team Member Joined Aug, 2021 289 posts

HI Chelsea!

Use Case 1: Absolutely! One idea, you could modify your message to include a Booking field code in the message at the desired location. If you get to the booking in time, you could fill in some personalized warm-fuzzies into the Booking Field Code under the new Booking. If you don't make it in time, the regular message would send and the field code placeholder would not be included in the communication. So no harm, no foul. You can do multiple field codes in the same message... say for example, one for the first sentence and then one for the last.

Use Case 2: Yes, also possible! You could have separate Booking field code(s) for the pre-arrival message and do a similar thing. Again, the message could have most of the details needed for their stay so if you don't have a chance to personalize it using the field code(s), it could go out fine as scheduled and still be useful to the guest.

You set up custom field codes under Custom Field Definitions in Settings. If you do a custom Booking field code, you then would go under that Booking to the Custom Fields tab to define the specific info for Booking-based field codes.

Another example is, you can do Property-based custom field codes for things that are specific to that property but you might want to lessen how many email or Airbnb templates you need to build out.

Here's the support article on how to do custom field codes in messages with your guests --> Messaging - Create a pre-arrival email using email templates, triggers, and custom fields

-Shawn

Tweaking a guest message while keeping same scheduled trigger? 2 replies

Chelsea V
Jan 12, 2022 2:13 PM
Joined Oct, 2021 9 posts

Hi folks,

I am trying to do something that I used to do quite easily in smartbnb.  For the life of me, I can't figure out if it's possible to do in OR.

Use case 1: 

Guest books.  They immediately get the initial automatic message that their booking has gone through. In smartbnb I would set up this message to go out about 1 hour after booking.  That would give me a chance to go in and tweak it or personalize it a bit if I have time.  I might say "It looks like you pick a great weekend for snow!" or "I'm sure you and your furry friend will have a great time."  I would go in and tweak this message and either send it immediately OR save it and have it go out as scheduled.

Can I do this in OR?

 

Use case 2:

The other use case is similar.  Seven days before arrival I send a message giving them the key codes and link to my digital guidebook.  It would be great to be able to tweak/personalize that message if I have time, and keep the original schedule.  From what I can tell, I can tweak those message, but then I have to send the edited message immediately.

The ability to personalize message and still have the option to keep to the schedule would be awesome.  Is this possible? 

Thanks everyone!

 

 

 

Owner Statement - owner with multiple properties expenses question 5 replies

Alana A
Jan 10, 2022 11:06 PM
Joined Oct, 2021 6 posts

Owners must treat each property as a separate entity and must have clear accounting for each. We are required by state real estate commission to supply a total for each separate property.  Can we please request this subtotal by property to be added soon?

Chargeback question 2 replies

CleanSheets
Jan 10, 2022 4:41 PM
Joined Jan, 2022 5 posts

Thank you! This is the most helpful response that I have received in posting this question across three different platforms :)

Merge or move a Airbnb property from one Airbnb email to another 0 replies

Sloanish
Jan 10, 2022 3:24 PM
Joined Jun, 2018 152 posts

I combined companies and have two Airbnb accounts with separate emails. Let's call them Email-A and Email-B

I want to move two Airbnb properties from Email-A to Email-B.

Here is the thread on Airbnb

How-to•HostMerging multiple accountsFor one reason or another, you might have more than one Airbnb account. Unfortunately, there’s no way to merge or move information or bookings between them. Our advice? Choose the one you’d like to use going forward and deactivate or delete the other one. Any pending reservations on that account will be canceled, so be sure to wait until they’re complete before deleting it. Does anyone have any idea how to do this properly or work around the limitation from Airbnb?So far all I can think to do is disconnect and delete the listing from Email-A that I want to give up and then start it up on the one I want to start syncing on Email-B.Email-A has two rentals that will need to be dealt with, perhaps canceled and then rebooked under the new Email-B account.Thanks for any help and advice you can give.

Chargeback question 2 replies

BlueMtnCabins
Jan 10, 2022 1:33 PM
Joined Jun, 2016 1159 posts

Lynnbrook, Helpful. You have to have 1) rental agreement 2) renter's ID 3) all pertinent documentation (emails, texts etc). Chargebacks are relatively infrequent if you have a good rental agreement, and important things initialed via custom fields during booking (such as cancellation policy., no pet etc) so that renter cannot claim that "they didn't know". 

 

Cleaners 19 replies

Lisa PAGBeachHou
Jan 10, 2022 9:24 AM
Joined Feb, 2018 10 posts

I agree I still hope that there’s some thing that you can do in the Owner Rez system so I can mark which Cleaner is doing what property and then have some sort of auto generated email or something sent to the cleaners maybe.. there are now so many systems that I am managing in different programs for different things from pricing to whatever it would be nice to be able to not have an additional system just to manage who is cleaning what rental.. 

Cleaners 19 replies

Miranda C
Jan 10, 2022 8:36 AM
Joined Sep, 2021 2 posts

Thank you for your reply. We currently use Turnoverbnb and it is very costly with our growing number of properties. Our goal is to reduce the number of programs and websites we are using for efficiency. 

Cleaners 19 replies

Sarah H
Jan 10, 2022 7:48 AM
Joined Jul, 2019 109 posts

VRScheduler handles scheduling very well, great pricing and product.

Chargeback question 2 replies

CleanSheets
Jan 10, 2022 1:19 AM
Joined Jan, 2022 5 posts

I’m getting started with ownerrez and have always used Airbnb and vrbo. I’m excited to start handling payments for vrbo and adding a direct booking site, and a bit nervous.

I’m curious how others have handled chargebacks and how helpful your processor has been, if at all. Which processor do you use and would you suggest?

I’m currently considering Costco/elavon and ascent.

Thank you!

Cleaners 19 replies

Ken T
Jan 9, 2022 9:20 PM
OR Team Member Joined Aug, 2019 1704 posts

This is a very old thread... Since it was originally written, we've decided not to add any additional cleaning features to OwnerRez.  That's because we have several partners that do a really first-class job of handling that kind of thing, and it doesn't make sense for us to use our resources duplicating their work.

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/housekeeping-service-connections-overview

Emoji in property headline 2 replies

BlueMtnCabins
Jan 9, 2022 4:33 PM
Joined Jun, 2016 1159 posts

was not my q-n, but thanks. Airbnb should worry more about party houses, lying scheming renters etc , not emojis in headlines. 

FWIW, emojis in a listing title are a violation of Airbnb's content policy, despite the fact that thousands of listings seem to be getting away with it. (If Airbnb really cared, you'd think they'd just block emojis from even showing up.)

by Chris L – Jan 9, 2022 9:30 PM (UTC)

 

Emoji in property headline 2 replies

Chris L
Jan 9, 2022 4:30 PM
Joined May, 2017 208 posts

FWIW, emojis in a listing title are a violation of Airbnb's content policy, despite the fact that thousands of listings seem to be getting away with it. (If Airbnb really cared, you'd think they'd just block emojis from even showing up.)

Cleaners 19 replies

Mike V
Jan 9, 2022 10:28 AM
Joined Jun, 2020 1 post

I am following up on this request.  Have features been added to OwnerRez to assign cleaners on a certain date so other team members know who is cleaning what property on what day?

Reports Improvements: How to see Net Total minus taxes and host fees? 7 replies

Chris L
Jan 8, 2022 4:03 PM
Joined May, 2017 208 posts

Great list.

One thing I can't figure out is why there's no summary report that shows the same info as the Line Item Pivot report. I run the Line Item Pivot report when I want to see how much total revenue I collected from pet fees and how much I gave out in customer service discounts and other things like that, but then I have to scroll all the way to the bottom to see the totals and then scroll all the way to the top to try to figure out which column header I'm looking at. Freezing the header row would help, but...why not offer a summary report that breaks down the line items like Line Item Pivot does but without breaking it down by individual booking? Seems kind of like a glaring omission.

Reports Improvements: How to see Net Total minus taxes and host fees? 7 replies

Paul W
Jan 8, 2022 9:55 AM
OR Team Member Joined Jun, 2009 864 posts

That's a great list!  Thanks for detailing that.  Several of those things, we already know about and plan to add.  In general, we are planning to do a lot of of accounting work in 2022, so stuff like this is great to be talking about!

Security Deposits (CC holds) outside of Airbnb - Airbnb telling guest they are not allowed 13 replies

Aunger Vacation
Jan 6, 2022 1:44 PM
Joined Apr, 2021 57 posts

Yes totally is but the crazy thing is it doesn’t matter either because the Airbnb staff don’t look at the house rules section or aware how to handle them I’ve mentioned to many customer service people it’s in my house rules and they haven’t or don’t want go in them… 

Interesting as we also know guests never read them or the rental agreements either.. 🤪

had a really good one the other day a litigation lawyer that wanted to book my home… was very happy to side with me and said it’s amazing Airbnb hasn’t had a massive case against them. Then rightly said have you seen there terms they are really a media company (totally are) they leave all the liabilities on the home owner. however want to control the homeowner like a letting agency he said he had never see a company or industry like that expect the few internet companies we know the ones and he said they couldn’t get away with that in physical world. 

VRBO allows you nicely to do rental agreements. Booking.com wish they just worked to better rules amazing. 

We need a Theranos moment in the STR industry these companies are faking a lot of things and then people are buying it. What they are saying to the public and there investors doesn’t line up to what they are practicing. We are slaves to this… 

Security Deposits (CC holds) outside of Airbnb - Airbnb telling guest they are not allowed 13 replies

Chris L
Jan 6, 2022 1:21 PM
Joined May, 2017 208 posts

> the latest one we have is Airbnb says we are not allowed a rental agreement that has more rules than on there website and getting to sign or communicate about rental agreement and deposit is not allowed which as we now is garbage and Something some made up the consistency of Airbnb is amazingly bad

There actually is a rule that you cannot make a guest sign a rental agreement that has more or different wording than is disclosed in your Airbnb listing. So the solution is to put the full text of your rental agreement in the Airbnb listing. Thankfully, the "House Rules" section of an Airbnb listing has a ridiculously huge character count, so I'm able to put the full text of my several-page rental agreement in it. That satisfies Airbnb's requirements.

Security Deposits (CC holds) outside of Airbnb - Airbnb telling guest they are not allowed 13 replies

Aunger Vacation
Jan 6, 2022 1:07 PM
Joined Apr, 2021 57 posts

Would be great like they have with camera section of health and safety they could point it too a specific website page also that highlights that we could take deposits. 

I know your pain and our pain also, totally now that more and more software companies are being allowed to do this also it’s crazy that they don’t have some way of communicating it. 

to be honest think it’s on purpose because it might put people off booking via Airbnb if they knew people could take deposits I’ve been told it’s quite a draw for renters as a trust thing… 

Security Deposits (CC holds) outside of Airbnb - Airbnb telling guest they are not allowed 13 replies

Ken T
Jan 6, 2022 1:02 PM
OR Team Member Joined Aug, 2019 1704 posts

would be excellent if they could put a flag on the listings that says allowed to take deposits

There actually is such a flag, but it's internal only and visible just to Airbnb staff.  One of the longstanding bugs is that this flag is commonly not correctly set; we're working with Airbnb staff to manually check and update that flag as our clients start using this feature, which has helped a great deal but isn't perfect.

Interesting idea, to make that visible to guests.

Security Deposits (CC holds) outside of Airbnb - Airbnb telling guest they are not allowed 13 replies

Aunger Vacation
Jan 6, 2022 12:53 PM
Joined Apr, 2021 57 posts

Exactly exactly still not clear and very contradicting so no wonder why Airbnb call center staff and email staff don’t give out the right information either…  

Security Deposits (CC holds) outside of Airbnb - Airbnb telling guest they are not allowed 13 replies

Aunger Vacation
Jan 6, 2022 12:52 PM
Joined Apr, 2021 57 posts

Thanks Ken and Team totally as you might be aware we have had significant issues with Airbnb and this functionality to the fact bad reviews, Airbnb not reviewing the reviews either still to date. The account manager at Airbnb for ownerrez has been awesome but has not be able to fix this. 

It was also used as one factor also for having our account got disabled a year ago. Not the only factor and was provided to be retaliatory and we got enabled again..

think how people have been approaching the communications on this would really helpful. We list damage deposit on Airbnb advert, house rules , messages and communications as well as rental agreement and emails. 

the latest one we have is Airbnb says we are not allowed a rental agreement that has more rules than on there website and getting to sign or communicate about rental agreement and deposit is not allowed which as we now is garbage and Something some made up the consistency of Airbnb is amazingly bad. 

as mentioned last year would be excellent if they could put a flag on the listings that says allowed to take deposits and rental agreements be it an internal or public flag. They do it for other things and now it’s not just ownerrez would have hoped the training, T&Cs and communication from Airbnb would be much clearer. At least they could make the website very clear. 

thanks as always doing the leading job you guys do it’s hard being at the front 

Security Deposits (CC holds) outside of Airbnb - Airbnb telling guest they are not allowed 13 replies

CTK
Jan 6, 2022 12:51 PM
Joined Dec, 2020 33 posts

Thanks Ken. The issue actually is around guests that push back as they read conflicting information on Airbnb’s site. Any chance you could Airbnb to at least up date their guest facing information?

Security Deposits (CC holds) outside of Airbnb - Airbnb telling guest they are not allowed 13 replies

Ken T
Jan 6, 2022 12:37 PM
OR Team Member Joined Aug, 2019 1704 posts

Here's what we've found to be helpful:

 

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/channel-management-api-integrations-airbnb-common-issues-questions#offline-secdep-complaints

Security Deposits (CC holds) outside of Airbnb - Airbnb telling guest they are not allowed 13 replies

Aunger Vacation
Jan 6, 2022 12:33 PM
Joined Apr, 2021 57 posts

Hi there Chris this is super helpful. Would you be able to share what you send to guests as a message and what you send to Airbnb if there are issues would be awesome if you could… much appreciated 

Add-ons/Packages 20 replies

TheGrandHacienda
Jan 5, 2022 11:23 PM
Joined Apr, 2018 17 posts

Yes!  This!!  We need this, too!!