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Yes, in fact, you can do this right now, using Property Tags! Here's how:
Hi,
I was working on an OwnerRez-hosted website for Palm Wave Stays. Palm Wave Stays has short-term rental units spread across the US. We have noticed that all the rental units are shown on the sub-menu under the Properties menu. We believe that a large number of rental units spread across multiple locations, it is detrimental to user experience and we wanted to group the properties by location, like the following:
Properties
-- Chicago >
- Rental-unit-1
- Rental-unit-2
-- Florida >
- Rental-unit-3
- Rental-unit-4
It would be very helpful if OwnerRez had such customization options for the menus of its hosted websites.
I use the notes field under the owners to store info about the property.
As you know, AirBnB's policy is that infants don't count towards the guest count. In the past, travelers didn't even have to say they were bringing infants. Now, AirBnB asks them to report if they are bringing infants but still doesn't count them towards the guest count.
I operate in a jurisdiction with a strict law governing short term rentals. It specifies the maximum number of guests allowed, based on the property size. Everyone, including infants, is counted towards that limit. This leads to a situation where AirBnB allows reservations that exceed legal limit on guest count, if the party has infants.
Ideally, AirBnB should fix this, but that is not likely. I do have a policy in my listing saying that infants count towards the limit, but most people don't read that. Hence, all I can do is manually look at each AirBnB reservation and see if there are infants reported and whether that takes the guest count beyond the limit. This, of course, is error prone.
I would ideally like a trigger that checks if # of adults + # of children + # of infants exceeds a limit. However, there are no triggers that use mathematical formulas. I would also settle for a trigger that simply checks for # of infants > 0 and sends me a reminder to check. Such checks will happen less frequently than checking every booking and hence will be less error prone.
So, as a bare minimum, I would like the field "AirBnB infants" to show up on the list of fields that I can include in a trigger. For extra credit, support formulas the include multiple fields.
Thank you.
Zapier has integrations with everything but there was probably some minor coding on the OR side but why pay for a 3rd party integration AND then for email marketing?
I agree. Additionally, I would like it to integrate with my ring security system's arm/disarm function. As with my smart lock, it would be ideal if a personalized code could be sent for guests coming and going.
Would it not be possible to create a 'Google Vacation Rentals Widget' that MUST be used by those OwnerRez users in order to have Google VR integration? (If an owner doesn't want or care about Google VR integration, they don't use the widget, simple.)
Yes - in fact, that's pretty much the plan (not as a widget exactly, a standalone landing page for Google use, but the same basic idea). That's in development.
We've been working through the Google issues, and are hoping to be able to open GVR integration to everyone using Hosted Websites (well, all properties included on those websites anyway) by the end of the year. The Google landing page, which can be used by everyone else not using Hosted Websites for Google integration, is expected in early 2024.
Hi there- sorry if I missed this in the discussion, is the Zapier integration something that OR built instead of integration with Mailchimp, or in addition to a planned integration with Mailchimp? I understand the appeal of Zapier (given that it provides many-to-many application mappings). But it's also one more platform to manage, requires some technical knowledge to set up the integration, has another subscription fee, and is kind of heavyweight for getting email addresses to and from a system like MailChimp.
On a related note, either as part of the Zapier or Mailchimp integrations, has any consideration been given to adding fields in the OR CRM module to better integrate with outside systems? I'm used to seeing boolean fields in a CRM for things like 'guest opted out' (which would be fed to/from Mailchimp) or 'dont rent to guest' (maybe because they caused damage last time they rented).
Great, this has worked. Thanks so much, Caleb! The only issue is that it still shows the discount code. Any way to take this away as well?
Hi Robert,
thank you for taking the time to respond. And I am not sure where I got Scott from either L O L sorry about that. Would you be able to kindly share your website please? Did you actually register with Google as a business? I am highly interested because I also got inquiry directly to my website and I am not sure how they got to me as well. I need to make sure that I can survive 2024 because this is the first time owning an STR. I feel like I got in at a wrong time.
my website is https://www.lux-oasis.com
I'm not Scott, but I went back three pages and didn't find a 'Scott' so I'm assuming the question is for me. I mentioned the high rate of success we have with closing inquiries that come through our website when folks find us via Google.
I hate to admit it, but I have been rather delinquent in finding out and tracking where, why and how these guests find us on Google. All I can tell you is that I will occasionally get direct inquiries that come through our website that appear to have no other source, and the 'kill rate' for those inquiries is much higher than average. We ask everyone, both those making inquiries and those making bookings, where they first heard of us or how they found us. And the majority of those that inquired and booked directly with us through our website respond with 'Google'.
I don't know if that means that they saw us some place else like VRBO, read between the lines and decided to do a search for us by property name, or someone gave them our name and the did a search, or they did a search for our location and the words 'vacation rental' and our website showed up as one of the search results. Honestly, that possibility would boggle my mind, as there are (the last time I checked) roughly 300,000 results for that search on Google. No matter how good one's SEO work is, it's tough to compete with that for attention.
At the same time, I get an email from Google every month telling me something like "86 people found you on Google last month! 'So many' responded with an email, 'so many' clicked on your phone number... etc." Now, 86 people is not a huge number, but when I only need four or six bookings per month (if that), 86 people can be enough to get that one or two extra direct bookings I need and want to fill my calendar.
Google is a mystery to me. I know that if someone has our company or a property name and does a search, they will definitely find us. Even on a blind search (nothing cached, new browser, new computer in a new location) if searching for our name or one of our property names, we usually occupy the first two pages of search results on Google, and at minimum, at least half of the first two pages. But will we show up if someone just types vacation rentals and our location? I doubt it. And yet I get these odd inquiries which seem to suggest it does happen occasionally. If that's the case, I'm shocked and happy about it.
That's why I'm so interested in being on Google Vacation Rentals. It seems to me that there is a synergy that happens when you can be found in multiple places out on the internet. Showing up in more locations builds credibility. Sure VRBO has our listings, and they may feed them to Google Vacation Rentals, but I doubt that happens much... the same with TripAdvisor and others... those sites just have too many 'fancy' properties to promote to try to get traffic back to their site. I don't think my properties are special enough to be the poster boy for any listing site. So I don't expect they actually get into the feed from those large sites to Google Vacation Rentals (I'm not an expert in the mechanics of this, it is just my intuition to say that.) But if I can get my properties on Google Vacation Rentals, with a direct feed back to my own website, which Google is already well aware of, I suspect that there would be a boost for my properties and site on both Google in general, and through Google vacation rentals, as that synergy works its way through the system.
This would create two blocked dates at either side of the reopened dates, and simplify the process.
Sounds more like a wifi issue to me but I may be wrong.
Feature Request for next Schlage integration update!!
We have been having issues with our locks disconnecting randomly - seems to happen if the wifi goes out or has an issue. We only find out that the lock is disconnected once the guest arrives and... their code didn't get programmed because the lock was disconnected.
It would be REAL helpful if there was an email or a notification that went out as soon as the lock experienced a connection issue so that we could troubleshoot proactively ASAP. Maddeningly there doesn't seem to be this feature on the Schlage app... but if OwnerRez could send out an email notification as soon as a lock had a connection issue, that would be extremely helpful in preventing very stressful guest moments.
If anyone knows of a better way to deal with this that currently exists, I'm all ears!
Currently Airbnb has updated their platform and gives us the option to give a cover photo that appears as a square on their search, but doesn't appear inside the listing. We would like the ability to have that cover photo in OR. We would like to be able to select which photos sync with each platforms, like we can with descriptions, titles, etc.
Hi Maartje,
Something like the following should do the trick,
.date-holder { display: none; }
.size-holder { display: none; }Be sure the widget is set to allow inquiries without dates or hiding the dates will just create an unusable form. If it's still giving you difficulty please feel free to reach out to our helpdesk and we'll see if we can provide more precise help.
~Caleb
Hi Scott,
How do you get direct bookings via Google Search? Are they looking for your name, location?
Hi,
I wanted to jump in on this discussion to just mention that OwnerRez does also have an Open API. This means that third party apps are free to build an integration at any time they can check pricing (potentially even store the prices on their side), and then use that to create a clean comparison widget against Airbnb/Vrbo.
https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/api-overview
This would be typically be up to the apps discretion of course. In any case thanks for the wonderful ideas everyone!
~Caleb
I have a list of templates that go out to my guess with various triggers, the one trigger is set for one week out from their stay, this sends them the house manual and other material to prepare for the stay. In instances where they book less than a week away from the date, this trigger won’t send out. I would for there to be an option in the triggers where it will have a default trigger if it doesn’t meet the initial requirements. I see there is a retry option on there, but I was having some trouble figuring that out.
Ok, and may I ask why? what is wrong with using an embedded OR quote widget that already does all that? You can see example on my non-OR site > smoky-mountains-cabin.com/AE
I'm trying to hook up my direct booking site to OR. We are creating our own quote widget using react so that it works seamlessly with our page. I'm trying to allow a guest to define number of guest, booking dates, and for us to retrieve price breakdown. From reading through the API, it doesn't seem like this is possible. We're actively in development and need help on this asap. Thanks!
With the recent changes in profiles and access, there needs to be a way that the account owner can designate an administrator with the exact same access as the owner account.
A lot of account owners have people who handle all the settings, setting up team access, setting up the custom account fields, and even entering in a new payment method or adjusting the billing area. It defeats the purpose of having unique logins if the admins have to login as the owner to make some of the changes.
I work for 4 vacation rental companies and 3 of them use OwnerRez. None of them navigate software well when it comes to settings. Having to bounce logins makes OwnerRez harder.
Please add this feature.
We would like to see tags able to be set on Emails.
Thank you.
You can't do it on Airbnb when having everything fed to it via API.
The {QHCTAB} for the quote emails has 2 links on the bottom. These are both text links and easily overlooked. I'd love to see them as buttons instead + be able to control the button and text colors.
Right, this is the reason I am making a request for this feature in OwnerRez. It’s complicated to manage this by marketplace and can be tricky. It would be great if this was a feature in OwnerRez.
You can do that on Airbnb by changing the name of your cleaning fee to something like a management fee. Airbnb then rolls the fee into nightly rent:
https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/channel-management-api-integrations-airbnb-rules-settings
There is a way to play with fees rolling into rent on Vrbo; it's a bit more complicated. You need to assign that fee to roll into rent and adjust your pricing display preferences.
It's so pathetic that Google is not available on OR yet! It has been years since they have been talking about it and at least one year since they said it was immanent. I am so tired of all these other useless integrations etc.
While it is frustrating, I would not say pathetic. I hope you are aware that unlike other integrations that build their interfaces INTO OR, this one is where OR has to create connections into GVR, with its own unique set of challenges.
Another point is that if you are listed on Vrbo, Booking.com, Tripadvisor, and perhaps some other OTAs, chances are that your rentals are ALREADY on GVR under those brands. Did it make a world of difference? Please let me know, but it did not for me (I have Booking.com and used to have Tripasvisor listing there, as well as some others that feed into Vrbo).
Have you gone on GVR and tried to use the interface as a traveler? If you did, you will probably see what I saw: it is clunky, not VR-friendly (geared toward hotels), and it will be a sheer miracle for a traveler to find a VR there.
The high expectations of GVR may be misplaced and it just may end up being yet another "useless integration".
We need a simple way of rolling our cleaning fee into nighty rent. The market is moving toward a "no cleaning fee" mentality. The appearance of no cleaning fee to a traveler is appealing. However, we all know nothing is free. I feel that if we had a way to roll the cleaning fee into the rent, automatically, it would be VERY beneficial.
It really is not feasible to do this manually because you never know how many days a guest will book, so you cannot calculate this until the guest makes a selection. As an example, let's say you have your rates set to $200 per night with a cleaning fee of $100. If you choose to roll this fee into your rates to give the appearance of no fee, this is the way it would work below.
Software adjusts your rates based on your minimum nights settings. Example......
Doing it this way gets you the $100 cleaning fee by adding $25/night to the rate for only 4 nights (your min night setting), and anything over 4 nights booked, that $25 is discounted. This would work the same if you had a 2-night min or a 7-night min. The software would just adjust the rent equally for the min nights set, and then discount any days booked that exceed your min night setting.
I think this would give us an easy way to roll certain fees into our rates without a lot of thought. The OTAs already are starting to favor hosts with free cleaning and this will be attractive to guests as well, with no surprises at time of booing.
Anybody else like this idea?