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I use TouchStay for this. I send them the link via email and repeatedly remind them to use this link and download as icon onto their phone. they can send to their guest. The app is linked up to OwnerRez and disables once guests checks out.
#1 - Consistent Discounts Applied:
When a surcharge has the check box "Categorize at Rent" it is also not "Discounted" when you check the box under discounts "Percentage of Rent".
Surcharge Items that are "Categorize as Rent" should also be Discounted as a "Percentage of Rent".
#2 - Treat Direct Booking Websites/Widgets as a Channel.
The ability to place a "Rate Adjustment" to the direct booking website (either posative or negative) outside of the "Rate Calendar" rates would be super helpful.
There are times where you might want to charge a premium for direct bookings if you are trying to steer guest to a channel.
You can accomplish this as a "Surcharge" and categorize it as rent, but then as noted in part #1, discounts are not applied correctly.
I agree, a guest portal link to their booking would be sufficient. An app is overkill.
It would be extremely helpful if we could move the curser over available dates on the ribbon screen and see rates for that time frame. Thank you.
Hi Erik,
There is not an automatic means built into OwnerRez currently, generally we recommend dynamic pricing tools such as PriceLabs. I've moved your request to our feature requests so everyone can vote and discuss on this further.
~Caleb
But can we maybe categorize it as something else to trick the system? I tried with a few categories but it didn’t without. Maybe if we just don’t call it “cleaning fee”?
Airbnb is a bit particular about what Surcharges they'll allow. They'll only accept Surcharge descriptions that include one of their approved "magic words", as we jokingly call them here.
You can read more about creating acceptable Airbnb Surcharges here - https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/channel-management-api-integrations-airbnb-rules-settings
But can we maybe categorize it as something else to trick the system? I tried with a few categories but it didn’t without. Maybe if we just don’t call it “cleaning fee”?
No, Airbnb generally displays cleaning fees on their own, but combines all other fees into the overall rate.
This is the response I get from Guest Guru: “We contacted them(OR) about integration, but unfortunately, their API lacks the capability for integration. Thus, it's not feasible currently. “
hopefully they can get something worked out because this would be very helpful for my team of 1 responding to all messaging :)
That makes sense for orphan pricing, but we need a way to increase prices for all lengths of stays. It sounds like this works smoothly with other PMS, but not working with OR for some reason. If there is any more information I can provide or anyone I can talk to to keep the ball rolling please let me know.
Thanks for all your work!
That definitely would be great, everything is too scattered into different apps at this point, in my opinion, I don't want a different app for every portion of my business, I feel OR should have that and true cleaning portal and accounting, I hate having to use a digital guidebook and separate cleaning app for information that's already in OR, just needs a way to present it, A guest portal that shows them all the info in one simple place would be awesome.
I would actually prefer a simple guest portal link, so guests don’t have to go download a whole new app. Just one link with all their stay info, including access to the legal agreement & amenities list, etc. to bookmark until the end of their stay.
Yes please! It’s so embarrassing when I forget to skip my review follow up message. I have thought this many times, thanks for reading my mind. 😄
Makes me wonder - I currently have 3 legal agreements. One for channel bookings, one for direct & one for pets. The booking agreements are exactly the same except for the payment clauses. Sounds like a feature like this could allow me to fold them into one agreement with just the payment clauses swapped out.
Personally I would prioritize other high value feature requests like the unified inbox and more customization for discount codes & gift certs, but this would be a nice upgrade eventually.
Yes!!!
Almost 14 years ago my previous PMS Software had this feature.
Inquiries and quotes and emails opened (or not) need to be included in triggers. Not just bookings.
This is at the heart of effective marketing:
- Three days after sending a quote that has not been opened by the guest, send this email.
- Three days after sending a quote that was opened by the guest, but not booked, send this email.
- And so on...
What would be REALLY cool would be the means to have automated emails go out along the lines of:
Dear Guest,Just so you are aware, we just quoted your requested dates to three (actual number filled in here) other guest parties in the last week. To ensure you get your dates at property XYZ, you must act promptly to book them before someone else does.Click here to book and secure your dates before they're gone!Sincerely,Your helpful host
I realize that this gets in to the territory of email funnels and services like Constant Contact or Mail Chimp, etc. but the data relating to the inquiries is stored in OwnerRez, so I expect it needs to come from here.
Further, Tags for Quotes need to be included in Triggers.
I am aware that this could possibly be accomplished with tags already (I checked and it doesn't look like it. If I'm wrong, I'll update this post.) but a means to classify quotes would be a great feature also, such that Triggers could be based on the classification.
So for example, the above email sample would only go out to those quotes Tagged with a "Booking is Desired" moniker, so it is only sent to those particular inquiries that we the user want to identify as such. Often times requests come in that are a bad fit in the calendar, or not our best guest profile, but likewise, sometimes they come in and they would be 'perfect'; they would perfectly fill an existing gap, the guest would be a great center of influence amongst a group we want to market to, that sort of thing. There should be a means to create email follow-up chains for various quotes that we send out that could dramatically increase our chances of getting bookings.
Finally, ideally the email templates could include Trigger Links or Tag Links IN them as well, so if a guest clicks and replies to a particular email, it changes the Tag setting in OwnerRez, thereby stopping an email chain from going out (and if one wants to get really creative with Trigger programming, could actually start a different one).
Thanks!
This is true, Airbnb now supports Short Stay Cleaning fees. This can be configured in OwnerRez! Here's how:
Both surcharges will be pushed to Airbnb and used with bookings of the corresponding durations.
Airbnb requires a Short Stay Cleaning Fee to be lower than your regular cleaning fee - so, you cannot use this as a proxy short-stay surcharge.
More information on common scenarios for surcharges can be found here - https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/common-surcharge-discounts
For some reason, Airbnb seems to think that cleaners charge less for a 2-night stay vs a 4-night stay (spoiler: they don't). So looked at the Airbnb listing - and yes, it is there alright.
you can capture this in a custom field as guests are completing the rental agreement
If you don't mind my asking, how does one do this?
you can capture this in a custom field as guests are completing the rental agreement
I have two different listings at the same house, one listed as a two bedroom, one listed as a three bedroom. I want the rates for both listings to be the same at all times.
I know there's a "batch copy rate" feature, which is manual and a one-time sync. Is there a way to automatically mirror the rates from one property to another, so if any changes are made, it's reflected in both listings without the manual batch copy process?
Is there a way to blend it with the cleaning fees for Airbnb? When I blend it for direct quotes it doesn’t show up but cleaning fees are still broken out on Airbnb….
Hi,
This is a great idea, and already possible in some capacity. To clarify we have developed some related code and worked with clients in the past to change the "Comments" field to read as you've requested.
If you'd like to do the same you'd do so by going to Settings > Widgets > select that Booking/Inquiry Widget > click the Change button. Then, scroll down until you see Conversion Tracking > Widget Loaded
You'll then enter this code on line 1 within the "Widget Loaded" field:
<script> $('[for="Comments"]').text('How did you hear about us?'); </script>
If you're having difficulties, please reach out to our helpdesk and we'd be glad to offer support.
~Caleb
We really need this! Team Access permissions would let us provide granular access where needed (e.g. Messaging is important in my case) rather than full admin access to everything, or ReadOnly access to everything. This would be very helpful.
Here's more helpful information:
https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/local-laws-regulations
We used to push those registration numbers through the API, but Airbnb and Vrbo no longer accept that information from us, so it has been removed from the feed.
In order to get your registration number properly associated with your listing, you'll need to contact Airbnb directly.
Vrbo had been letting hosts add the registration numbers to the "Local Laws" section of each listing (if applicable), but I'm not certain if they're still allowing that or if you now need to contact Vrbo directly the same as you would Airbnb.
If need be, Vrbo can be reached via email at pm-support@vrbo.com, or you can also try calling them at 877-239-2592. Their hours of availability are 9a-5p M-F CST.
I can only see all my bookings for all my properties together on the "booking" tab, but then I can only edit my rates / changeover rules by moving to the "rate calendar" for each individual home without seeing all the homes together. Seeing all the homes is needed to manage my business while I'm setting rates and rules.
Please combine the two so we can see multiple properties in a booking ribbon with booking details shown if you hover, and ALSO see/change the rates, stay reqts and changeover rules in the SAME view. Potentially you'll need to shorten the ribbon and enlarge the squares to fit more information.
This is needed by folks with multiple properties where we might need to block off dates if one property has a same day turnover and we cannot accommodate more as an example. Or if we want to raise a rate if all our other homes are booked for same date and there is limited availability for demand thus justifying higher rate. There are many ways multiple-property managers use data from the entire inventory to decide on terms for individual rentals within the set.
Going back and forth between bookings and rate calendar is a hassle but do-able with two monitors on a desk. It is extremely difficult to manage on a mobile device which is where many of us work.
[There is no feature in OR to automatically detect if other properties have same day or close in time turnovers and impose rules on other properties to prevent overwhelming housekeeping which is a limited resource. This would also be a good feature to add - a new rule that you can only have so many turnovers in a day and then it disallows more, or arrivals/departures within a specified number of days. It would need to impose a block of sorts and send that to the channel calendars, and automatically unblock if there is a cancellation.]
Many locations require a property to be registered, including the one where I work - Galveston, TX. There is a fee to do so for each property, and the City issues a unique number for each property called a GVR# and it takes the format GVR-x x x x x. I have placed these in the correct space on my listings in OwnerRez, however, they don't "feed" to other platforms like AirBnB and VRBO. The platforms will not publish without this number as they, too, are responsible for ensuring home owner / property manager compliance with the regulations of our City. Wondering if there is a way to have that "feed" when we push a new listing out to the platforms.
I checked with PriceLabs, who mentioned that they do not send LOS (length of stay) pricing to OwnerRez; however PriceLabs does offer a orphan premium option you might use to add on a 1 night stay. They also said that they now have several orphan options, not just one, could that be where the confusion is arising?
PriceLabs seems to indicate you can still add that orphan fee:
