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Dear members of the best vacation rental software in the world.
#1
What are your opinions on adding a field in Surcharges/Discounts where the defined Surcharge or Discount would be deleted automatically after it expires (selected date). Dealing with temporary discounts happens often to us, this way the list does not get flooded and is tidy and reduces the checking of every custom discount/surcharge.
#2
Adding a "Booked between" criteria instead of selecting dates "On", or digging into the seasons and/or holidays.
the "is" could be two date selectors.
I agree that just better sorting and filtering on the results page is vital. I feel like the system is seriously limited in this way and it feels kind of crippling when you have any more than a few properties.
I am having to input a bunch of new owners and I really wish I could just import from a spreadsheet or something rather than doing manual entry.
I am inputting our owners and really wishing there was functionality for adding multiple owners -- often the homes are owned by a couple, and we have both email addresses and phone numbers on file and there is no way for me to input both parties info into the owner data page.
Wouldn't it be great if somehow there was a way to send guests a link to the Guest Instructions?
In this day & age when everyone wants to do everything on their phone how nice would it be if they could click a link and not only see the Guest Instructions but their stay-specific door code (if applicable)?
No automated way, but it's needed for sure. That and quote-based triggers in general (both email and SMS). You can do this manually of course by following the quote > guest > conversation and sending a manual SMS in the conversation stream.
You can do a 1 day block. It starts at checkin and ends at checkout, so it goes over a night, so it looks like 2 days but that’s how reservation systems work. Guests don’t book days, they book nights. So in effect, a 1-day block is really a 1-night block.
It would not make sense to block 1 day, really. I guess you’d be saying a guest staying the previous day would have to check out at midnight and someone coming the following day would be able to only check in midnight or later on that same day. Does that make sense?
For having more accurate historical reporting, it would be helpful to have setting in many reports to “include inactive properties.” Occupancy and booking reports for example cannot be complete without inactive properties included.
Following up on SMS the quote in response to inquiry. I am doing it manually still. that was 50% of my need for SMS - to send quote link via SMS vs email only as I see many quote emails go unopened. Thanks
Interesting! I haven't seen it on the API side yet, but we'll keep our eyes peeled.
We do support the non-refundable discount option already.
Chris: I found the entry in my browser history but the page now comes up empty. The URL includes "variable-cancellation".
I called Airbnb and they said it was a new feature that was released to a limited set of SuperHosts, then pulled back. So, it is coming. Maybe your contacts on the API team have more details or info.
I went back to the page and it wasn't there. I SWEAR it was there yesterday as I was playing with it on one of our listings. I wonder if it was a new feature that was accidentally released to some SuperHosts then withdrawn?
It offered the opportunity to pick a different cancellation policy along with a start and end date. Pretty simple from the owner's viewpoint.
I'm not aware of Airbnb letting you set a different cancellation policy for specific date ranges, other than things they have admin overridden for COVID etc. Not a user accessible, "use policy X for these dates and policy Y for those dates." Can you link over a support article on their side that describes the process?
Not specifically, but you can add a custom field to collect it during the rental agreement signing process.
https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/capture-additional-fields-on-checkout-quote-acceptance
I stumbled across the fact that Airbnb is now offerng this, and I think it is a great idea. I would very much like to have a stricter cancellation policy during prime periods (like Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring break, etc) but a looser on during slower periods to potentially attract more bookings.
Are there plans to support this within OwnerRez for API-connected listings?
And, if so, will that carry-over to direct booking with OR as well?
Is there a means of capturing a pet's name and then have it auto-fill in follow-up emails?
For users with many properties this would provide a much faster method of creating seasons for differently priced rentals without having to enter each one manually.
For users with many properties this would be a very useful addition
"Current" view of bookings could be extremely useful, however, in the current setup, it's completely useless for us.
We've 15 apartments and 2-3 night stays are allowed so our manager who greets the guests on the field can't use the "Current" view because the list is too long since check-ins and check-outs from yesterday, today and tomorrow and also already staying guests are all included in the view.
What we'd need for the "Current view" is to be able to see only "today" and check-ins and check-outs (not staying guests).
Doing what we want would be possible from the reports area, however, note that our manager doesn't have access authority to reports and even if he had it'd be unpractical to have a couple of steps to access such a crucial report/view.
Hi, I looked around and didn't see this request. Can you change the setting for blocking dates to allow us to set a one-day block instead of the current two-day block?
I think there's a misunderstanding - you'd subscribe to VR Scheduler or Resort Cleaning, integrate that account with OwnerRez, and then set up your cleaners with accounts to log in to those systems, which offer those features. They don't have to do any fancy tech stuff.
Most of us do not have large companies to clean our place, but a housekeeper with a small crew or just by themselves. Unfortunately they do not have capability of having an integrated system such as you spoke about.
Do you have any other suggestions?
Thanks, Ken.....that worked, in a roundabout way! :-)
I think so? What exactly are you trying to do?
If you have a different coupon code for each property, you could create a custom field code to contain the correct coupon code for each property, then use that field code in your email template.
OwnerRez also not currently provide a method to track the usage of "gift certificates (meaning using discount codes as gift certificates)." You would need to track them yourself, such as via an Excel spreadsheet, and remember to manually disable the codes as they are used.
Hello,
Is it possible to insert a field code into an email template that will fill in one of our custom coupon codes?
This would be handy; instead of having to create separate email templates for each coupon code we could use one template and allow the field code to insert the applicable coupon code.
Fixed conditions like the pool or beach rules can be done with Property custom fields. Just add a custom field for properties called something like "Legal Agreement Clause." Then fill it out on each property for the specific pool and beach rules for that property. If none, leave it blank. Finally, update your legal agreement to include the {PX...} field for your new custom field.
We have properties on the beach and in the city, we allow pets in some but not others, and some with pools and others without. What would be very useful would be to have a process, like custom fields, to be able to insert different variable clauses based on the condition(s) presented and have sigs for the important ones. For example, a property on the beach with a pool, and the guest is bringing a pet. So we have to have the pool liability clauses, the beach rules, the beach rules for pets as well as the normal requirements. For a city property without a pool or no pets then we'd just have the general clauses and city-specific, e.g. quite times, criteria. For now, we have several legal agreements and send based on the conditions but it would be much more efficient to just have clauses and they get inserted based on the booking and/or property specifics.
This is something we've long talked about, but at present the best way to do it is by integrating with our partners who provide full housekeeping and maintenance scheduling and services. They have this sort of capability and much more besides:
https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/housekeeping-service-connections-overview
Having the ability to have the housekeeper chose to upload info into a damage insurance claim while performing the cleaning of the home/condo would alleviate so much back and forth. The housekeepers do not need to and I would not want them to have access to financial or any other part of the guest info(email, phone number, address). They maybe could populate the insurance claim form by choosing the property and stay dates of the guest, it would then automatically populate the reservation number and input the correct info that would be needed to file a claim. Once the claim is filled out and pictures uploaded from the cleaners, it would automatically be sent to the homeowner or appropriate person to complete the insurance claim so appropriate action can be taken by the owner by filling in the replacement costs and/or receipts. This would allow us to eliminate a lot of emails, back and forth info on damage, uploading of pictures, ect. It would streamline the process.
As it is now housekeeping sends me the picture they took, I download the pictures, ask questions of housekeeping. Then I have to fill out the claim, upload pictures to the claim, ect.....
Housekeeping could upload pictures, explain the exact damage done adding in the ability to take pictures on a phone or a tablet going directly from picture taking to form, such as done in messaging. Similar to taking a picture choosing to upload it directly into the message. Oh my what a time saver! It would streamline the process, freeing up time for an owner.
