Texting (SMS) from OwnerRez
(page 1 )

Status: Released 10 Votes
Paul W
Dec 3, 2020 8:11 AM
OR Team Member Joined Jun, 2009 846 posts

SMS is now out of beta and available to all. Please read the following blog post:

https://www.ownerrez.com/blog/sms-available-for-all-show-signed-renter-agreement-in-booking-emails-vrbo-inquiry-emails-logo-instructions-cleanup-2

Thanks to Marina's Edge for a great idea 5 years ago! 😀 Marking this thread as released!

Marina's Edge Re
May 29, 2015 11:58 PM
Joined Oct, 2012 206 posts

Crazy idea...if we made cell phone number required and asked for carrier (optional if they opt in for receiving texts) then we could enable texting to guests from owner reservations.

Things like getting a text message on the day of arrival with a hyperlink with directions for example or a text message with the key code...

I think it would be a "wow" feature for guests.

Thoughts?

Michelle J
May 30, 2015 8:04 AM
OR Team Member Joined Jan, 2011 582 posts

Hi Marinas Edge,

We've wanted to do text messages for awhile now - you're right a great feature to have. The idea is to make "Text Templates" which are similar to Email Templates. They wouldn't have headers like emails (subject, from, etc), the body would be plain text and probably have a character limit. Then you could set triggers to send those instead of Email Templates. Thanks for suggesting

-Michelle

Marina's Edge Re
May 30, 2015 11:08 AM
Joined Oct, 2012 206 posts

Cool. I suppose I could do this right now with the custom booking fields and the email template.

Scott K
Aug 10, 2019 7:35 AM
Joined Jul, 2018 6 posts

Any time set as of yet to when texting may be available?

Chris Hynes
Aug 10, 2019 9:46 AM
OR Team Member Joined Oct, 2012 1401 posts

We don't have a hard date right now, but hoping by the end of the year.

Scott K
Dec 4, 2019 10:20 AM
Joined Jul, 2018 6 posts

Chris,

Any update on the text messaging feature?

Scott

Ken T
Dec 4, 2019 11:01 AM
Joined Aug, 2019 1706 posts

Unfortunately not. Hopefully next year sometime.

CWV
Jul 5, 2020 11:04 AM
Joined Nov, 2019 61 posts

Hi OR crew, With you all hiring and really growing, where in the list of priorities is the texting feature. We considering signing up to use a service called TextMagic (https://www.textmagic.com/docs/api/). Would love to have an API integration so we don't have to do it manually.

Paul W
Jul 6, 2020 1:35 PM
OR Team Member Joined Jun, 2009 846 posts

CWV said:

Hi OR crew, With you all hiring and really growing, where in the list of priorities is the texting feature. We considering signing up to use a service called TextMagic (https://www.textmagic.com/docs/api/). Would love to have an API integration so we don't have to do it manually.

Very very close. We actually have an early SMS feature out with a limited testing group. Look for this to be in front of everyone (or a sign-up that everyone can request) very soon. Probably before end of the month.

CWV
Jul 6, 2020 2:53 PM
Joined Nov, 2019 61 posts

Yay, great news!

Scott K
Jul 6, 2020 4:10 PM
Joined Jul, 2018 6 posts

Awesome! Let me know if you need more testers!

Hannah & Sherene 4
Jul 6, 2020 10:41 PM
Joined Jan, 2018 27 posts

This will be great, Thanks. Can't wait!

DianneD
Jul 10, 2020 6:43 AM
Joined Oct, 2018 42 posts

Yes that would be a great feature

Mike Mc
Sep 4, 2020 8:59 AM
Joined Feb, 2019 8 posts

Any updates? I would love to test this!

Joel P
Nov 4, 2020 3:07 PM
OR Team Member Joined Oct, 2009 140 posts

[A topic (https://www.ownerrez.com/forums/requests/text-notifications-for-bookings) was closed as a duplicate of this topic]

BlueMtnCabins
Nov 13, 2020 1:33 PM
Joined Jun, 2016 1132 posts

Would love to be able to text quote link for those who inquired, dates available, but has not booked.

PacViewLodging
Nov 14, 2020 12:25 PM
Joined Sep, 2019 84 posts

There is a kludge together solution that will work using an EMAIL to SMS Gateway...

We have used clicksend.com for many years... on a different PMS...

Basically what you do is create an account on Clicksend
Go to the Email/SMS area and define the from email address that will be sending emails into the clicksend system... this needs to be your email... so you would have to have setup OR to use your email, not theirs.
Build your template and in the to for the email use: {CPHONEPRRW}@sms.clicksend.com
We also define the start and stop tags inside of the email so it doesn't do any theming... you can define these on clicksend... we made ours ##START## and ##STOP##.
In the body of the template you can say whatever you want to say and put ##START## at the beginning and ##STOP## at the end...
You can then use TRIGGERS to send through this gateway.... they would look just like a normal email for the booking.

Paul W
Dec 3, 2020 8:11 AM
OR Team Member Joined Jun, 2009 846 posts

SMS is now out of beta and available to all. Please read the following blog post:

https://www.ownerrez.com/blog/sms-available-for-all-show-signed-renter-agreement-in-booking-emails-vrbo-inquiry-emails-logo-instructions-cleanup-2

Thanks to Marina's Edge for a great idea 5 years ago! 😀 Marking this thread as released!

BlueMtnCabins
Aug 1, 2021 5:05 PM
Joined Jun, 2016 1132 posts

Hello all. My understanding was that you could "forward" SMS replies to another number. I have set up forwarding to my GV number but messages do not get forwarded. GV number is capable of text messages.

Ken T
Aug 2, 2021 11:06 AM
Joined Aug, 2019 1706 posts

You can forward voice calls made to your SMS number, to another phone number, yes.

You cannot forward SMS messages though.