Feature Requests

Sort by

• Newest Reply
• Newest Topic

Is it already possible to send a text message when an email event has happened to let folks know that they've received an email from me?  Thank you!

I'm afraid this is fundamentally impossible.  That's because the capabilities of SMS text messaging, email, and for that matter, channel internal messages, are very different.  So it is not possible to simply convert messages of one type into another automatically - that's why we have three completely separate template types, so you can best use the attributes of the different types of messaging.

If you wish to send messages predominantly via SMS, you can certainly do so by setting up SMS-type templates for all common messages.

It would be nice if guests/potential guests could opt to receive all correspondence via text message in addition to email.  This would prevent the loss of communication that happens when emails are directed to spam folders.   

I asked for the ability to print out the spot rate calendar showing the block out dates with reservations--just like it shows in the Ownerrez when I run the report. Apparently I have to post here just to get a printout of what I am seeing on the screen. Not sure why I am still using this program. 

Any new thoughts on credit card surcharges? Nowadays it is almost becoming the norm to see the surcharge. Wondering if more people might be interested in this feature now?

We are currently working through redesigning and modernizing all of the guest/booking forms. The first two completed were Guest Reviews and Travel Insurance (i.e. when using {BUTRAV} purchase link).

Once that is complete, our plan is to bundle them up into a portal that guests can use. What that fully looks like is TBD but similar to what was described here in this feature request. No ETA on the portal but the prerequisite is in active development.

Would love to see what OR has in mind for the guest portal. I think booking charges, payments, balances and due dates are obvious. But including things like a contact form/contact info would be great, as well as options for owners to include links to relevant info on their websites such as an FAQ page, a link to add-on services, local recommendations etc. Basically give the owners a certain amount of space to provide info. It could be as simple as 3 optional fields with a title for each and a link below.

FAQ
www.mysite.fake/FAQ

Local Attractions
www.mysite.fake/local 

Purchase additional services
www.mysite.fake/services

etc.

It is easier to change RA maybe? Also, it actually does not matter how much you take upfront - can be a fixed amount like $500, or a percentage like 30%. The flow is still the same. I used to have a fixed amount upfront too and it worked. I thought about 3 payment schedules before but did not see any real benefit to it since I can give a payment link to guests and they can pay every week if they so desire, as little or as much as they want. 

•  $500 upfront (or whatever amount/percentage you like) in July 2023 to hold the reservation.
• <auto-send the payment link in booking confirmation email and tell the guest to make as many payments as they like between July 2023 and March 2024>
• < auto triggered balance payment reminder X days before due date - mine is set to 7 days> 
• Balance (anything not paid yet) 60 days (or 30 days out - whichever you like) set to auto-charge in March of 2024 for a May 2024 stay. 

 

No. Because I require 50% paid by Dec1. So allowing guests to pay as they wish doesn't work. There simply is no workaround to a required 3 payment system, and I don't want to burden people by holding thousands of dollars for over a year, and on the flip side I don't want someone who hasn't paid the bulk of the rental until 30/60 days beforehand when it would be difficult to re-book if they flaked out. So I NEED a multiple payment option with set due dates.

I am so surprised that this is not a feature.  At the very least, I need to figure out how to have the availability widget next to the book now widget so a back-and-forth clicking is avoided.

I just have them stacked with the minical sitting above the booking widget. Not ideal but at least it is there. Still, it would be way better if the Calendar on the booking widget was open by default.

There are two widgets that I use that are different. There is the mini calendar widget and the booking widget. The minical widget only allows a guest to scroll the months. The calendar is not interactive so they can't choose dates from it or really do anything but scroll it. 

Then there is the booking widget: The widget allows guests to choose dates but the calendars aren't visible until the guest clicks on the check in and check out fields.

It would be nice if the mincal widget would at least allow the guest to click on it and jump to the booking widget, even better if they could select a date from the minical and jump into the booking widget with the date already chosen. 

Basically only during a calendar import can we exclude bookings from a listing site from a calendar export, this has led to "Conflicts" on VRBO during ICAL syncing. It would be very helpful if I could make the exclusion go both ways. 

Thank you!

That's actually an option - you can set the color for holidays to be displayed as, but if that's set to be the same as regular days, they're effectively invisible.

Please write in to the Helpdesk with the URL and a screenshot of where you're wanting them shown, so we can point you to exactly the right place.

Hello,
I noticed when looking on my calendar widget on my website
HappiTravels.com
that holidays are highlighted.
But when I go on Ownerrez
tools
Rate calendar
the holidays are not highlighted.
It would be great if we could see highlighted holidays on the rate calendar so we could easily see the holidays and increase the rates

They're talking about the end of the year, which - let's be real - probably means early next year.  But that's progress at least.  :-)

I'd like to make another request for more flexible payment schedules, specifically with the option to have 3-4 payments and change the amount taken based on how far out the booking is. Is there an ETA on this yet?

Ohh...that's awesome! Yes I think that takes care of it. It consolidates all these unique charges into one column.

Thanks for the suggestion Alece!

-Austin

Austin, does checking this box to Merge Similar Charges remedy that for you? 

Not yet - you'll want to watch our product update blog posts for the announcement.

https://www.ownerrez.com/blog 

Has this now been released, and if so, how do we set it up?

Thanks!

I just realized that when a guest goes to my website to start the booking process, and that when the inquiry is made as the first step in that process, if they make a comment, that comment does not carry over to the booking conversation.

So I am not able to directly reply to that comment.

Is this getting fixed in the works for the communication overhaul?

I'm not getting what the issue is. On my website booking widget I put in the dates and number of guests, and the price pops up. What am I missing?

Agreed that the ideal behavior here would be to be able to hide (not just disable) all fields. And even for email, but showing any fields at all up front, user psychology is affected—this is now a 'taking' area that requires something of them.

Ideally you wouldn't even see the email field until a second step after inputting dates, etc. and clicking a button. This creates a commitment ladder where a user becomes invested because they've inputted information and clicked a button, and *only then* they're asked for their email to get their result. This makes them much more likely to (1) decide to input the date information in the first place (because there was no up-front "taking" ask for any personal info like email) and (2) follow through to give their email (because by the time they're asked, they've already committed, and the sunk cost dynamic takes over (I've already come this far, I have to finish).

Yes, this is exactly what I'm after. 

Agreed that the ideal behavior here would be to be able to hide (not just disable) all fields. And even for email, but showing any fields at all up front, user psychology is affected—this is now a 'taking' area that requires something of them.

Ideally you wouldn't even see the email field until a second step after inputting dates, etc. and clicking a button. This creates a commitment ladder where a user becomes invested because they've inputted information and clicked a button, and *only then* they're asked for their email to get their result. This makes them much more likely to (1) decide to input the date information in the first place (because there was no up-front "taking" ask for any personal info like email) and (2) follow through to give their email (because by the time they're asked, they've already committed, and the sunk cost dynamic takes over (I've already come this far, I have to finish).

Someone told me you can pare down the booking widget so that the phone/email fields aren't there...I think they meant required.  I wish at the very least you could remove them from showing.  It's likely hurting conversions if people think they have to input an email for a quote.  

Yes, you can control whether the phone is required - there's a checkbox in the widget settings:

The email is required, because otherwise how do we send the guest a quote for them to accept.  Of course, a quick-quote can be displayed on the screen right away, but in order to actually book, yes we do need the email.

Someone told me you can pare down the booking widget so that the phone/email fields aren't there...I think they meant required.  I wish at the very least you could remove them from showing.  It's likely hurting conversions if people think they have to input an email for a quote.  

when someone books on GVR is it the same as if they book on our personal website? In this case do I need to set up different triggers for automated messages to go out or will it automatically send as if they booked through my direct booking site?

Yes, except that it will marked as Google Vacation Rentals as the listing site/channel on the booking.  It's the same as other referral-type channel integrations that send booking traffic directly to your website (or to an OwnerRez quote) from the channel.  I don't have a comprehensive list at the moment, but there is a small list of these like Houfy, FindRentals, etc.  When the guest goes to "book now" on that channel, the channel passes the guest across to your own website or creates an OwnerRez quote and sends the guest to the OwnerRez quote to complete booking.  GVR works the same way.  It follows the same booking process that a "direct booking" does, for practical purposes, but the listing site/channel is flagged as GVR so that you can track which guests came through there.

If you have triggers that target specific bookings coming from different listing sites, you should check to make sure the trigger conditions include/exclude Google Vacation Rentals as well.

PS. Please note that it's possible for a guest to come from GVR to your website but then click to other pages on your website before going back to book.  If they do that, the resultant booking will not show that they came from GVR because that tracking basically "falls off" as they click around.  We are working on a solution to fix this (to keep the tracking permanent even when they click around) but that isn't out yet.

I was ready to launch into adding my 16 listings to Google Travel but based on the traffic and issues...would you recommend I waits for some of this to be resolved.  I prefer not to be spend too much time on it.  Or are some of you connecting with no issues?  Thoughts?

Hi Lori, I believe that was a small blip type of thing a few days ago.  Definitely okay to move ahead!  We've recently been alerting users about even small blip outages that are only a minute or so as we continue to refine our sysops processes.  GVR itself does take time to wait on, but that's the same whether you connect now or in a month.  The time delay is how they ingest the property data, verify it and so on.  It's not a traffic issue.  Right after we announced it was live for all users, here on the forum, there were many hundreds of users that went and turned it on, but that didn't create any bottlenecks.

Not sure how this would be implemented but I send guests that have open adjacent nights a discount offer.  The issue is that when I offer 15% or 30% I have to do all of the calculations manually to update the reservation with the associated discount.  It would be nice if I could send an extra night offer with a booking field that does the additional night calculation automatically (calculates the 15% off the ADR + taxes/fees) and just puts in the total amount extra it would cost (ie. $350).  

It's not exactly clear what you're looking for - can you explain in more detail, maybe with some specific examples?

We based our Owner Statements and Payouts on Period, the same as every multi-hundred property management company in our area. Why can't I run a report on PM Commission based on period? We have 10 different owners and it is cumbersome to pull out a calculator and manually add PM commission in period for each unit.

Not quite yet, but it's expected in the near future.

Are mobile alerts from Chrome on my phone an option now?   If so where can I get info on how to enable them?