This feature is absolutely needed!
I need to be able to support multiple month rentals. At the moment, I think we're going to need to issue invoices for each month of their stay to do split payments. We also use Appfolio for longer rentals but I'd much prefer to keep all our business in one platform.
It’s been needed for years! They aren’t interested in solving this issue.
[Another topic was closed as a duplicate of this topic (Variable payment schedules based on (1) how far in advance booking is made or (2) length of booking)]
[Another topic was closed as a duplicate of this topic (Scheduling payments for long-term stays BEFORE booking)]
Any update please? We are getting stuck with refundable bookings being paid too far in advance and then having to refund on cancellation, and credit card processors not returning their fee. Two scheduled payments only are not granular enough, and yes, I know payments can be scheduled manually but that defeats the purpose of software.
The last update was in mid 2023 when they said that it would probably be in 2024. It is nearly 3 years later with no updates. This is unfortunately not a priority and doesn't even appear to be on their timeline at this point. At this point I've given up expecting to ever see it. If I had more than one seasonal rental at this point I would have looked for other, less manual options.
Any update please? We are getting stuck with refundable bookings being paid too far in advance and then having to refund on cancellation, and credit card processors not returning their fee. Two scheduled payments only are not granular enough, and yes, I know payments can be scheduled manually but that defeats the purpose of software.
I’m not sure if others are already doing this, but I’ve found a workflow that works well for me.
I created a payment reminder email template, then after creating a booking I schedule the reminders to send in line with my payment schedule. It’s working well on my side.
If they pay by bank transfer (offline), my accountants will pick it up during their weekly accounts close. If they pay by card, OwnerRez records and tracks the payment automatically.
As long as we’re reconciling revenue frequently, it shouldn’t be an issue. The key is making sure that when the booking is created, the payment plan is confirmed and the scheduled reminder emails are set up.
Example template below:
Others use differing means of workarounds, but for myself and many others, workarounds don't work. Also, workarounds always require extra manual effort. My other problem with ALL workarounds is that the booking process only allows us to set our bookings as one payment or two payments. The language on the booking page our guests see will never match the language in your actual contract if you require multiple payments. You can't change it to match your workaround and I don't want confusion. As it is I have to explain up front to guests that the language in the booking process is not correct due to technical limitations of my software and that the payment schedule in the contract is correct. Who wants to have to do that and what guest isn't going to see that and be like "why don't you get better software?"
Agreed! It's frustrating that this request has remained on the back burner for so long.
All true, but at least now you can set a complete workflow and templates based on whatever payment schedule you want (all payments referenced to either arrival, date of booking, or a mix of the two), have it all ready to go (including a special explanation about the schedule being different from the software default), and trigger it once at booking by adding a single tag, and then the whole thing automatically flows from there. In fact, an owner/manager could set up multiple different payment schedules and implement one of them simply by placing a tag on a booking. The manual work is absolutely minimized once the setup is done.
Is it the best solution? No, but it comes very close. The flexibility of tagging things and setting triggers based on tags really opens up almost unlimited possibilities.
In addition, because one can alter the instructions that appear at the top of the booking/payment form, one could place instructions there to instruct guests to wait for an email with detailed instructions, and/or setup all bookings to have a really small initial payment (call it a 'booking deposit' with the initial payment due immediately afterwards, and then have the initial payment amount be sent in an email with a link to make the payment, controlled by the tag you apply to the booking, right after the booking is made). Different schedules could request different percentages for the 'first' (actually second) payment.
Create each process you need and assign it to a tag. It's almost there!
All true, but at least now you can set a complete workflow and templates based on whatever payment schedule you want (all payments referenced to either arrival, date of booking, or a mix of the two), have it all ready to go (including a special explanation about the schedule being different from the software default), and trigger it once at booking by adding a single tag, and then the whole thing automatically flows from there. In fact, an owner/manager could set up multiple different payment schedules and implement one of them simply by placing a tag on a booking. The manual work is absolutely minimized once the setup is done.
Is it the best solution? No, but it comes very close. The flexibility of tagging things and setting triggers based on tags really opens up almost unlimited possibilities.
In addition, because one can alter the instructions that appear at the top of the booking/payment form, one could place instructions there to instruct guests to wait for an email with detailed instructions, and/or setup all bookings to have a really small initial payment (call it a 'booking deposit' with the initial payment due immediately afterwards, and then have the initial payment amount be sent in an email with a link to make the payment, controlled by the tag you apply to the booking, right after the booking is made). Different schedules could request different percentages for the 'first' (actually second) payment.
Create each process you need and assign it to a tag. It's almost there!
1. This still leaves a confusing/misleading booking process for the guest. While you can modify the text instructions at the top of the booking page, the payment breakdown will always be wrong. Because you have to either choose "everything upfront" or "percentage / set amount" for first payment, that part of the quote/booking process will be "wrong". You can change the wording to say "$500 due now, with the remaining balance split over two payments due xx/xx/xxxx and xx/xx/xxxx." Or whatever the structure is. But beneath that it's going to show the guest either 100% due now or $500 due now and the entire balance due on a particular date. It just won't match.
2. While your process does reduce the amount of work in the work around, it still requires you to tag every booking request that comes in with the appropriate payment tag you've created.
3. If you have different payment structures depending on dates or other aspects, this won't work. OR doesn't allow you to have different quote templates based on criteria other than property. For me, if a guest books over a year out I take $500 upfront and then half in December and the balance xx days before arrival. If it is less than a year out they pay 50% up front and 50% xx day before arrival. So I can't have two different sets of instructions that apply based on tags. I would literally have to remember to go change those payment form instructions twice a year.
Hi Tim,
You're right. Nothing would be as good as having automatically adjusted payment schedules based on the date of booking relative to the arrival date, no question. I was just hoping that there would be some way to minimize the work involved as things sit now.
I don't think you need to have different quote templates. I explain different payment schedules to my guests with every quote, and how the schedule changes based on how far out they're booking, and no one has ever had a problem with it. (I have enough different quote templates for other reasons!)
In your situation, I would have the initial payment set to $500 for every booking, and explain in the booking instructions that an additional payment will be needed by December of each year to bring the total balance paid up to 50% of the booking amount, and if it's December or later, an additional amount will be due immediately afterward, with the balance due X number of days before arrival. The the booking form will indicate a $500 deposit, and a remaining balance of Y amount. You're right, it's not great, but at least it's not wrong and your email explaining the next partial payment will go out immediately for those bookings made in December or later, including a link to the partial payment form, based on your tag which is chosen at booking based on when it comes in. The guest would have to calculate 50% of the balance and make a partial payment, but even if they get it wrong by a little bit, I would expect it would be close enough for your purposes.
I've been racking my brain trying to automate your requirements within the confines of OwnerRez beyond this, and I haven't been able to come up with anything. Which is why this is such a great and important feature request! Here's hoping they come up with something soon!
Robert
[Another topic was closed as a duplicate of this topic (Increase payment options to 3 deposits instead of 2)]
I wish that OwnerRez would pay more attention to what people are requesting on their forums rather than these silly walk around blog posts that don’t improve the software whatsoever.
At some point this refusal to address real improvements in the software will force users to find a different solution on another platform.
7 years on and it is still a manual process to split from 2 payments to three, am i right on this?
Yes I believe you are correct. It’s why rental owners are going to Guesty. I like OR but I need 3 manual payment option without all the manual work around!
