TL;DR
Custom fields are great to have, and in their current state, offer very little value. There have been a considerable number of mentions of custom fields that have gone unanswered.
CONTEXT
I've reviewed SO many feature requests and various forum posts surrounding custom fields. Many, if not most, of these have gone with little notice or comment from the OR team or from other users. I can only imagine that it is because the current functionality of them is a) weak and b) misunderstood as to the possibilities.
https://www.ownerrez.com/forums/requests/custom-fields-enhancement#72515An email exchange between me and a team member at OR:
There is room to improve the inclusion of non-booking fields in the pre-agreement form. As it stands, I need to open their license image and manually enter their birthday. It seems like unnecessary work for something that could be automated.
And I hear you: the perception of the powers that be at OR is that an agreement is the transactional part of the relationship. Really, it's so much more. Not to mention, what harm could there be in allowing non-booking fields to be inserted into the POC form? Why not give us the flexibility to collect any information we'd like?
I'd also like to make mention of the lack of creativity in the custom field design. Most notably, why are there no formatting options (e.g., MM/DD/YY, checkboxes, radials, etc.)?
In the end, there is considerable room for improvement regarding custom fields. I love the product and the team, and I hope to see more in this area to lay the groundwork for more automation.
To add further context, I want to invite guests to enter their DOB on the point-of-contact form (pre-contract). This field gets to stay with the contact, not the reservation. Unfortunately, only "booking" fields can be used on the POC form. And in case you don't know, booking fields are considered transactional and relevant only to the current booking. In other words, the information (e.g., Driver's License) doesn't remain with the contact.
Think about the potential use cases, especially in marketing and automation...
All of this information (and undoubtedly much more I'm not considering at the moment) should be associated with the contact record, not just the one booking. The entire purpose of OR, in my opinion, is to create an incredible guest experience that does NOT end when the guest leaves.
As I said in my email exchange, there is considerable work to do regarding custom fields. As it stands, (respectfully) it feels like a slapped-together afterthought that was given very little consideration.
I very much hope that other users see value and possibility in custom fields and UPVOTE THIS POST in hopes of OR taking action.