When a guest completed the Price Widget Form and is shown a quote for the dates and other information they have entered, the quote displays on screen, but when they click submit, it gets treated as a standard quote request as if the guest wasn't shown/given the price at all. Their request is sent to the owner/manager to later respond with a quote.
Why?
When a guest completes and submits info on the Instant Price Widget, they should immediately receive an email or SMS, generated from a specific template created for the purpose, with all of the quote details and a link they can book from.
What the heck good is it to display a price for a guest, but to not provide them with a copy of it for their own records? I'm shocked and frustrated that OwnerRez doesn't do this. Isn't it an obvious 'no-brainer'?
Come-on OR!!! Let's get this glaring oversight and lack of functionality fixed!
And yes, having guests able to instantly book themselves from the Instant Price Widget Form is NOT the same as having them receive an emailed copy of the quote they generated for themselves. I may want some guests to be able to generate their own quotes... that doesn't mean I want anyone to book 'unatteneded' and on their own.
On another and related topic: What happens when guests sent a quote request to an OwnerRez user, via one of the other Quote Form Widgets? Do they not receive an automated response telling them that their request has been received? If not, they should. If they do, why are they receiving a response to that form submission but not this one?
Hi Robert,
Sorry, but I'm having some trouble following you here. There are no widgets we refer to as the following in OwnerRez:
Are you possibly referring to the Booking/Inquiry (Book Now) widget? https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/widgets#book-now
Sorry! My display of the name reads as 'Instant Quote' Booking/Inquiry Widget, because the page includes my custom name for the widget.
In correct nomenclature it is the 'Booking Inquiry' Widget.
In my particular usage of it on this particular page of my website, I refer to it as Instant Quote, and I have the Quote setting on the widget as follows:
This produces on my website a quote that the guest is able to see immediately, without waiting for them to hear back from me, as follows:
Which is a really great feature, if a host wants to do it this way. But after the guest completes the form, and has seen the information, and if they click submit, this is all they're left with (until the host responds):
Why? If one is going to have the ability for the guest to generate for themselves a quote, without the host having to do anything to facilitate it, why not have some way for the guest to have a copy of the quote information without the host sending it to them?
If the guest didn't happen to take a screenshot before clicking the submit button, the information is lost to the guest, unless they fill out the form again, but even that's not simple as the form is no longer on the screen. They can go back, and/or re-enter the URL to get to the form, but it's a hassle.
This makes no sense. If the host is going to choose to allow the prospective guest to generate an accurate quote for themselves, then it should be easy for the guest to have a copy of that quote without any specific action on the part of the host.
It would be even better if the guest could click a button to specify how they want to receive the quote info, either by email or sms, but even an automatic email when they click submit or a suitably labelled button like "Send me a Copy of My Quote" would be much better than the dead silence that greets a guest now after submitting the form. At least give the host the option in the Widget setup to have it work as I'm suggesting.
It is extremely common internet methodology that whenever a website visitor submits ANYTHING that they get an acknowledgement back via email that their request has been received, even if it doesn't contain the actual response. That's the minimum standard. But here, the guest receives nothing, until if and when the host responds.
If the host is content for the guest to be able to generate the quote information themselves, or even WANTS it that way, why shouldn't the guest be able to immediately receive a copy of the information for their records? Especially after it disappears from their screen?
Goodness knows... with a quote in hand, the guest may actually go ahead and BOOK something?!? :)
Thanks for that clarification!
What you're looking for is already configurable using Inquiry templates. 🙂
The Inquiry Reply for Bookable Quote Template & Trigger article provides a detailed walkthrough of how to set this up.
Here's a summary of the key steps:
The trigger will automatically send a personalized quote to guests who send an inquiry for available dates.
Thanks for that clarification!
What you're looking for is already configurable using Inquiry templates. 🙂
...
The trigger will automatically send a personalized quote to guests who send an inquiry for available dates.
This is NOT what I want.
There is a big difference between an inquiry being received, which requires a response from the host, and a quote that a guest generates for themselves.
If a guest sends an inquiry, just as often as not they will have additional questions, which they put in the comments section. Examples are "Can I bring extra people? Can my brother and his wife spend a few days with us? How close exactly are you to Disney?" etc.
If a host wants to do a good job, and demonstrate that they are paying attention to detail, they will answer the guests questions in their reply, along with a quote for the dates the guest asked about. In addition, often a good host will have information to add to a quote that could be of benefit to the guest, and/or want to suggest alternative properties or dates, etc. I don't want to lose the opportunity to do that.
I have fourteen different templates setup for responses to guest inquiries alone! Automatic responses to guests are NOT the way to go! A personable, helpful host who knows how to provide good customer service beats any AI, automated system, or template-only approach, EVERY time.
This is also the reason why I have different versions/uses of the inquiry widget on my website. Most of them are set up for inquiries for the guest to submit, so that I can respond, engage and help the guest, and hopefully sell them something! I am running a business.
But I also have the widget setup on a separate web page on my site so that a guest can immediately generate a quote for themselves, as in my example up above.
And when a guest uses the widget on THAT page, they aren't 'making an inquiry'. They're generating information for themselves. In this case, they're not going to be asking any questions! Or, at a minimum, they're not going to be expecting answers to specific questions in an automated reply sent because they initiated it.
In addition, the template which would be used for replying to a self-generated quote should be completely different from one that a host would use.
For example, the message for the self generated quote should be something like:
Thanks for visiting our website. This is an automated response. Here is a copy of the quote you generated for yourself. If you asked any specific questions in the comments section of the quote form, rest assured that we'll be getting right back to you again soon with those answers. We appreciate your interest and look forward to welcoming you soon to XYZ Properties!
For obvious reasons (at least I hope they're obvious) the template and message format that I would use as a host to respond with answers or additional information would be totally different.
In fact, I would probably have a few different templates for this purpose, ready to customize before sending.
An example would be:
Hello, this is Johnny Goodhost, manager of XYZ properties. I noticed you were on our website recently and generated a quote for yourself to stay at ABC Villa from January 10th-21st. This is a great time to visit, as the Crazy Kooks with Pinatas Festival is running at that time. Blah, blah blah about blah blah blah... not to mention another great reason to stay with us is blah blah blah! And you'll love blah blah blah! It's truly wonderful!
Or if the guest had submitted questions, a reply could be similar to:
Hello, this is Johnny Goodhost, manager of XYZ properties. I noticed you were on our website recently and generated a quote for yourself to stay at ABC Villa from January 10th-21st. To answer your specific questions about blah blah blah (great question by the way!) blah blah blah, and blah blah blah! Not only that but blah blah blah too! It's terrific!
I'm having fun here, but the point is, I don't want an automated reply for regular inquiries, and regular customized responses don't meet the need for an automatic, immediate copy of a self generated quote!
It is my hope that other owners will see the value in all of this (they may want to emulate my approach) and vote for this feature request. And that no matter what, OwnerRez staff will see the value in it, and how obvious a thing it is to do (as guests will undoubtedly find it strange and disappointing when they DON'T receive an automated copy of a self generated quote).
Alternatively, given that the programming already exists for sending automatic replies to inquiries, perhaps the easiest way to accomplish this is to have a distinction between inquiries that DON'T allow guests to see a copy of the quote information prior to submission (as controlled by the radio button options for the inquiry widget shown above) and those that do. One type of inquiry gets an automated response, the other does not, and each use their respective templates. It is probably worth mentioning again that giving the guest the option to decide how they will be contacted with the automatic response (and not, if they can't already) would be a great idea.
Another great idea to consider would be to have an option so that when a guest creates a quote for themselves, that it not be shown to them until they enter their email address in a form, so that the host doesn't get guests generating visual quotes for themselves but providing no contact information. Some hosts may not want this (as the approach may only frustrate some prospective guests) but the option would be a great thing to have available for OwnerRez users.
