Feature Requests

Sort by

• Newest Reply
• Newest Topic

I can’t imagine why you would not want to handle your own money. That is 3/4 of the advantage of being a PI. Just my opinion.

The way I understand VRBO API Integration is that VRBO is totally out of the payment processing. 

I talked to hosts that don't use OR (or any other channel manager), and they tell me that their VRBO setup allows VRBO to handle payments fully. OR doesn't seem to have that option. Assuming for a second I wasn't lied to or wholly misunderstood, it may be a limitation of OR or the VRBO API such that we can't just have VRBO handle payments, and we need to use a different payment processor.

Either way, there's much more to our guest interaction than payments. Just a simple example that comes to mind: you get penalized by VRBO if you cancel on a guest. If your communication is over email and the guest is been challenging, it is hard to prove that you canceled because the guest is been difficult and he/she doesn't want to cancel as a result you are forced to cancel on them (or they prove to be a scammer, or they refuse the pay the remainder....etc.)

That way if they come back, maybe they will book directly .

Makes perfect sense. If you handle payments, you have the contact info from there and you can use that for direct messaging outside the platform.

And again, all this is my personal opinion that I offer for the sake of argument, not to tell anybody how to handle their business 

The way I understand VRBO API Integration is that VRBO is totally out of the payment processing.  So, they will not advocate for you.  You will need to advocate through your Payment Processor if there is a dispute with a charge.  VRBO doesn't have anything to do with disputes.

I ask all AirBnB guests to put a credit card on file with OR for the soft hold security deposit.  Then, I talk to them after their stay if there are issues.  I have only had problems once where the guests won't pay when I reach out to them and plead my case about damages or extra cleaning needed..  So, I don't ask AirBnb to get into any disputes.

I use email for all communications.  If they reach out to me through one of the platforms, I answer in an email.  That way if they come back, maybe they will book directly .

I'm a big believer that folks should do whatever works for them.

The one piece of advice that I keep seeing all over the place (and that makes sense to me) is to keep the communication, if possible, inside the platform.

I agree. Let people talk to you however they want. Keep it on the platform if possible in case of an issue.
OR needs to consolidate ALL comms within it and then send our messages to the guest in the same way that the guest communicated with us.

Text

Direct message in Airbnb

Direct message in VRBO

Email

etc..

Until OR has this functionality it will not be nearly as useful as  it could be, especially when it comes to teams.

Is this still needed or does the Wordpress Plug-in accomplish the same thing?

If that works for you, awesome! I'm a big believer that folks should do whatever works for them.

The one piece of advice that I keep seeing all over the place (and that makes sense to me) is to keep the communication, if possible, inside the platform. In other words, communicate through Airbnb/VRBO messaging system so IF you have to talk to customer support, they can see what happen. Email is great, and I use it as a backup but it is outside the platform, and you get into she said, he said situation.

So on my computer, I keep a browser tab open with VRBO messaging page next to OR page. A bit annoying, I can live with it if I have to, and right now seems that I have to until VRBO folks get their act together and get that API done. 

Just my personal opinion, not trying to tell anybody how to run their business.

I’m still using Hospitable to push messages to VRBO;   $12/month.  Despite educating guests the reasons why they should check for email messages, they only seem to check the one with the RA and then continue with communication via the VRBO app.  I believe they assume it’s more legit since they booked through VRBO.  I’m considering adding verbiage to my booking confirmation email to educate them even further - that VRBO passed the booking to us, and we are now the merchant of record (not VRBO); however it may confuse them even more when VRBO starts prompting them to review is as the host after checkout.  Nonetheless, for now, I’ll stay with Hospitable (and email).

Great, we look forward to this change and welcome it sooner if possible!

Thank you!

No, that part isn't released and isn't planned.

it would be cool if we could rent out the entire property as a virtual 9th unit, that would automatically book out all 8 units for the 9th as a kind of package.

You can, using our Mutual Block feature:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/combined-properties-blockoff-lockoff

we have 8 separate vacation villas that are all a part of the same "compound" right by the beach, and the entire property has the same booking rules, etc, though pricing is different for each villa.

When you're setting up the properties in the first place, you can do one, and then copy it to create the others, so you don't have to manually re-set all the rules.

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/add-new-property

Vrbo is saying this will be available sometime next year.

Any updates?

Alin

This topic shows as "released". Does that mean it's an active feature now? If so, how would we create a quote with multiple listings?

Is there a way to block single gap days during certain seasons? For instance, I have a Dec 25th booking - I don't want to allow a booking to check out on the 24th. I do use PriceLabs if that's the way to do it as well

Following

This would be a nice feature.  I also think this search functionality should also look at the property name and property address so that someone looking for a property by name or by a portion of the street address, then the matching properties will appear in the search results.

Is there a way to change the date on a quote after it has been sent?

Good tip. Still very frustrating that OR is not working harder towards this integration.

Yep, the per channel description feature has been developed and is now in testing. I don't have a specific ETA yet, but it's getting close!

My pleasure Haydar.

Agreed Arrive and Thriv, a good workaround for now until we can get something more direct in place.

Thanks for the tip

Pretty awesome actually.  Our properties are on there as well.  Blue Pillow has found a killer loophole somehow with what I assume is a kickback from each booking that they send to VRBO via Google Vacation Rentals.  Our photos on Blue Pillow are the absolute worst as well.  Probably choose images from the bottom of the pile on purpose, so as not to trigger issues.

Either way….  It’s a nice workaround for now.  Would obviously prefer it come straight to our OR site, but I’ll take it for now!

Colin and Arrive & Thrive,

Before today, I've never heard of Blue Pillow.  When I clicked on my listing on Google Maps and went to the link that was on Google Maps (which was blue pillow) it took me to their site where I saw the listing below.  The highlighting is mine, showing that they're pulling from VRBO.  When I click the listing for details, it sends me to VRBO and my listing there.  That's not the correct main photo and the pricing is off too, so their feed pull leaves a LOT to be desired.  I can't get the list your home page to load to see what their deal is, but I rather prefer they link to VRBO anyways so things can be managed there, even if the data isn't 100% accurate and the photo sucks.  Although maybe this would be an easier integration for OR to tackle if they can consistently get on Google.

HolidayLettings.co.uk was much the same as they are a sub-brand of Trip Advisor (like how HotPads and Trulia are sub-brands of Zillow).  I pulled my listings from Trip Advisor this week (since they didn't offer integration), so that's probably why this one is popping up now.

True, nothing is as good as a direct connection and not having to pay fees to VRBO or another OTA.  Knowing them they'll want every scrap of info they can get on your business and all your guests... regardless of if they booked with them or not.  That's the typical MO for data brokers like Google and Amazon.  "If you're not the customer, you're the product."  ... but I digress.

Hi,

Is there any update on this feature? with ABB now actively blocking >50 characters and not allowing emoji, this would be really valuable. Effectively forcing ABB's title rules on Vrbo at the moment. Is there any way to do a workaround on this, or update on when this feature will be released?

thanks,

D

Looks at first glance bluepillow is a channel manager like OR. Are you using both? 

How is your take up with Google Vacation rentals, is it worth the aggravation of getting listed? 

Thanks for the info Ryan.  How does that integration work?  Would you mind sharing?  Is it pretty simple?

For what it's worth, my properties are on Google Vacation Rentals search through a VRBO affiliate/aggregator (blue pilllow) and before that through a Trip Advisor affiliate (Holiday Lets).

Just anywhere in the system where you can adjust the commission. Instead of having to pick a preset commission rate in the old dropdown selector, you can enter exactly what you need now.

Here is the entry on the charges grid:

Here is the pop-up if you click the vertical ellipses on that charge line item:

Shawn, I cannot seem to find any information on the custom commission entry that you mention above.

Maybe I am just looking or searching in the wrong place.

Randy

Hello Randy - there is some minor interest but not enough to prioritize anything to be placed on the roadmap at present. We will be working on PM Automatic Expenses next quarter so maybe we can look at doing something around this after we get the bulk of that out.

Hopefully, the custom commission entry that was released in March has been a help.

What's your website, @BlueMtnCabins?  I'd like to take my family to the Smokies and I want to make sure to book one of yours.

Thank you. It is smoky-mountains-cabin.com