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I know it was me that answered you before, but I'm a little confused by my own answer. Maybe I'm just getting old. :-)
There is still no way to add random notes to the calendar.
But - if you have approved an unusual checkin or checkout time, that will be displayed by a colored stripe on your main bookings screen. You can see that under the Ribbon View on this support doc:
https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/main-bookings-display
So you aren't totally blind - you can see the early-checkin bar, and if you see another booking butting up against it, you'll know there's an issue you need to address.
Can we get an additional "Notes" box under Owner to enter in specific information like if the owner purchased their our smart lock or is they are using ours, or if they have a home warranty policy we need to use before calling our own vendor?
Any update on early check-in/late check-out flags?
Got it! Thanks!
If you go to your Trigger settings, the second line, labeled "time" gives you the option of choosing "after" or "before" - and then you can choose "booking has departed".
So, I was trying to set up a trigger for an email to go out one day before they are due to check out. Is that not possible?
Yes, this is a great idea, and something we're hoping to add in future work.
It would be really nice to be able to see a preview of what the new charges would be if I click "recalculate charges" after making a change to a reservation (e.g. changing dates, etc.).
Sometimes a guest just wants to know how much a change will cost before confirming the change. Sometimes they want to change and I want to charge them more if the price goes up but I don't want to charge them less if the price goes down.
My current workaround is to open the original charges in a new tab and then manually adjust them back to the original amount if I don't like the new charges, but that's sort of clunky. Just being able to see a preview of the new charges before I accept the recalculation would be much easier. Even better if I could sort of "price out" a change before even saving the new dates.
It would be wonderful to be able to trigger the lockbox code a few hours before checkin.
Rich: Do you send a trigger email to guests right after they book reminding them of your cancellation policy and encouraging them to purchase Travel Insurance with CFAR? Some of us have started doing that with links to the OR insurance as well as other options. It's just one more thing you can pull out to prove the guest knew the policy and you gave them options.
Chuck,
I think it will be a very rare situation where an OTA will allow anything in our RA to override/affect cancellation policy as established in their platform. I agree it would be nice to have more tracking and evidence, but I think it's inherently complex. Changing a single punctuation can affect a legal document, and it would be unlikely for VRBO for example to get legal advice on interpreting anything in your RA. Only in the most extreme situations involving legal action.
I think of the RA for use in a different manner - if I am every severely impacted and cannot be made financially whole by the platform, I can always choose to pursue court action using my RA. I expect to never do that, it's just a safety net.
In any case, in my RA I say the following:
Guest is advised to purchase travel insurance. Guest agrees that Owner is not in a position to refund any payments except as covered by the cancellation policy. Absolutely no refunds will be made after Guest checks into the Property for any reason. No refunds shall be made for inclement weather conditions, health issues, pandemics or any other reason. Guest acknowledges that weather is inherently unpredictable and Owner has no control over accessibility of public or private roads leading to the Property. At times during inclement weather, mountain roads may be temporarily closed to traffic.
Notwithstanding anything in this provision to the contrary, in the event that Guest is entitled to any refund due to cancellation, retention of service fees shall be governed by the terms of the rental website or other booking provider, if applicable. Owner does not directly charge and will not retain any service fees.
Cancellation policy:
Cancellation policy for bookings paid using VRBO, Homeaway, Airbnb, Expedia and similar online travel agencies will be as determined at booking time on those electronic platforms.
Cancellation policy for bookings with initial and/or full payments directly between Owner and Guest shall be as follows
If Guest cancels this Agreement and
• If the notice of cancellation is provided more than 60 days before the Arrival Date, all amounts paid by Guest shall be refunded to Guest;
• If the notice of cancellation is provided 31 - 60 days before the Arrival Date, 50% of the total booking amount amounts paid by Guest shall be refunded to Guest; provided however that at a minimum, Owner shall be entitled to retain the entire Initial Payment; and
• If the notice of cancellation is provided less than 31 days before the Arrival Date, no amount shall be refunded and Owner shall be entitled to retain all amounts tendered.
Thanks Paul, I eluded to that and have been relying on it. My issues have not been with the guests, but with AirBNB and VRBO who have said the policy THEY have is different that what has been in the RA. So I am just looking for a way to provide more tracking and "evidence".
Plus one for this - definitely would like an integration of Google Reviews.
Please make it so we can set the WEEKEND DAYS per season per property (in the new editor). For example, at my homes, the WINTER weekend rates are Th-Sun, but the SUMMER weekend rates are only Fri & Sat.
This would be a HUGE benefit!! I look forward to the rollout.
Yep, we've been planning on both of these things for a long time and actually had them slated to start development this month, but they got bumped by COVID :-/ The eternal story.
Definitely on the near term schedule and you'll hear more as we get closer, but no firm ETA on them yet.
It would be very useful to have the ability to set the send criteria by hours or days.
for example - I currently send an email with the lock code a day before and then a reminder 2 hours before arrival. For the 2 hour reminder, I send both email and SMS.
I also like my emails to arrive mid-morning or mid-afternoon so as to get to the guests outside of the normal rush times for other emails/work obligations.
Hey Michael, thanks for the ideas!
Hi Teena,
It will work that way if you tell them which custom field to fill in yes. However, you typically don't need to do that. You could simply just have them both sign the same agreement and it will stamp the name they use (when signing) on the top and bottom.
When setting up a listing with a lot of pictures it would be helpful to be able to manipulate more than 1 picture at a time. Maybe something like being able to change the number displayed to where you want it in the order or multi slect pictures to move them of a smaller grid kind of view to get more pics on the screen at a time.
Thank you! This will be very helpful.
Good point!
We just released an update that adds a status column for the Line Item Pivot Report.
Chris Hynes said:
Ahh, normality. Soon, hopefully!2) For amenities, we've thought about that but the problem is if we put it in a widget then it's going to affect the SEO on your site. Google doesn't search stuff in widgets as well as they do things that are written out directly on the site which is why we've so far avoided making widgets for the content parts that you do want to SEO.
Hello Chris,
I'm talking way over my head here because I have never used OR for emails.
So, I can set up the system to send one email to two different email addresses. I have created custom field definitions for Signer 1 Initial and Signer 2 Initial, Signer 1 Signature and Signer 2 Signature, etc.
I make up an email that invites them both to sign and it will have the same URL to click on. The rental agreement will pop up and I will have told one person they are Signer 1 and the other person they are Signer 2 and with that info, they will sign and initial in the appropriate places.
Is that how it would work?
Thanks,
Teena
Two emails is the only way to do it right now. It doesn't have to actually be separate emails -- you need two people to click the link and separately sign it. The link is the same and will record whoever signs the agreement, so they just need to both do it.
Ahh, normality. Soon, hopefully!
1) Yep, we're planning another widget for the rate details/terms for sure. Now that we've got the multi month calendar with a "show rates" option, the details want to be a separate widget. That way you can do either the multi month calendar widget OR the rate table widget (or both), and then also separately show the terms.
Some of them can be derived automatically from the payment dates and rules, taxes, guest fees etc. Others would be outlined in the rate notes.
2) For amenities, we've thought about that but the problem is if we put it in a widget then it's going to affect the SEO on your site. Google doesn't search stuff in widgets as well as they do things that are written out directly on the site which is why we've so far avoided making widgets for the content parts that you do want to SEO.
You mean the Owner Statements? Yes, those will be getting some custom columns as well, in addition to the pre-built views that are there now.
I host large groups at my lodge and have always required two signers plus both have to initial every page of the agreement.
I saw a post about adding custom fields to my rental agreement for initials, but not how to add a second signer, which would require sending the agreement to two emails.
Help! :)
Thanks,
Teena from gorgeous NH!
Whenever life returns to normal...
1) Maybe some sort of property-driven embeddable that outlines the booking deposit (due at booking), and when balance is due ( 30 days or 60 days etc prior to arrival).
All these are updatable on property level. Would be nice to be able to embed into website FAQ page so that people don't ask "what are your payment terms". And if I change parameters on the property, it would auto update on the website.
Or even better some sort of link in the inquiry widget where they can click and see some sort of a blurb saying that $300 is dues to book, and balance will be due May 1st.
2) I know I asked before. And it may exists for sites built on ownerez. But it would be great to have embeddable widget of "amenities", maybe some sort of tabular format.
reflecting fireplace, view, hot tub, games room etc. basically amenities we check off on property set up. Instead of me writing bullet lists.
If you go to the "Support" tab and put in your search terms it will return Forum posts and other things which match.
