Feature Requests

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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?

Just looking to ask about PriceLabs and the Google Price Accuracy Policy before going through the setup if it won't work. I did read the policy carefully.  Will the prices "push" from OwnerRez or do they need to be setup individually to match as I understand the importance of Accuracy

The prices will push from OwnerRez.  The purpose of the new landing pages is specifically to ensure that the Google Price Accuracy Policy is complied with.

Just looking to ask about PriceLabs and the Google Price Accuracy Policy before going through the setup if it won't work. I did read the policy carefully.  Will the prices "push" from OwnerRez or do they need to be setup individually to match as I understand the importance of Accuracy

I have been using Hospitable all along for my messaging because I find their system to be user friendly. I know a lot of people who do the same. They way they use AI is incredibly helpful in my messaging. The AI suggests a response that I get to edit and then approve before going out. It has literally taken my Hospitality to a new level. Recently I had a very annoying guest that I was having difficult communicating with because they were complaining and, being unreasonable. AI came up with "Thank you so much I really appreciate the feedback. It helps me to make the guest experience better for everyone. I really appreciate guests like you who care about our home." I never could have come up with that in the headspace I was in. AI allows me to take my emotions and ego out of the equation.

Add a subscribe button to the change log that sends me an email.

Just wanted clarification...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?

Hello All,

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?

Thanks

Dave and Lori
Shasta Lakeshore Retreat

@Shawn H- still gives me the same error.  

NickV, please write into the helpdesk about this (if you haven't already) and we can take a closer look.

I've been monitoring all the comments all day on the OwnerRez FB Support Group as well as this forum and assumed that when integrated with GVR that I would receive the same Pet Fee error that everyone else has been receiving.  But to my surprise, I didn't receive the error.

We rolled out some changes mid-day, in response to what we were seeing, to change the "pet fee" validation issues.  That is now no longer required.

Moreover, does the "ignore" mean that my $150/pet/stay will not be charged to the GVR guest?

Guests will still be charged a pet fee if they select pets during the booking process.

The issue was that Google has no "pet fee" type of setting, so there's no way to pass your pet fee from OwnerRez across to their system.  So we were throwing up a validation message in OwnerRez if you have a pet fee to exclude it for Google Vacation Rentals.  However, we realized that the pet fee doesn't matter because there is no way for a guest to select "bringing a pet" in Google Vacation Rentals interface, so there's no reason to validate against that.  In other words, there's no way for them to come from Google to your landing page with a pet selected and not see the right fee.  If they then add a pet on the landing page, then the fees will properly adjust, but they can't have it default to a pet fee because there's no pet option on Google.  So we removed the validation check.

We have confirmed that Airbnb's API integration includes no support for this feature, so, it is not possible for us to make use of it.

Hi Shawn,

I've been monitoring all the comments all day on the OwnerRez FB Support Group as well as this forum and assumed that when integrated with GVR that I would receive the same Pet Fee error that everyone else has been receiving.  But to my surprise, I didn't receive the error.  Was it because of what you said earlier (below)?  Moreover, does the "ignore" mean that my $150/pet/stay will not be charged to the GVR guest?

• GVR does not support per-stay pet fees, but we've put in an ignore since Price Accuracy checks shouldn't be looking for those since you can't set number of pets on Google as a prospective guest.

15 minutes would be better. 

For those of us that don't have an OR Hosted Website, it would be really great to be able to view a 'live' preview of the landing page using a link on the GVR Integration page.

Great idea. One we're already working on!

Once you're listed on Google, and find a property of yours, you can click through to the landing page that way.

I'm not patient enough to wait two weeks for the my listings to appear on GVR to do that!  Hahah ;-)

@Shawn H- still gives me the same error.  

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New Profile and Account Menus, Team Alerts Added, "Announcements," and Schlage Lock Updates!

Hey Alin - it's not you. We're looking into forum posts lagging and wondering if it's this ginormous thread that's laggy. I deleted your duplicate post, no worries.

I would like to propose to make the Minimum Night Restrictions defined under "Rules" to be Channel-specific (also available under "Channel Rules").

Alternatively to make the minimum stay length available under "Channel Overrides" 

Example: I would like to offer a rental property as available for a
7-days minimum for AirBNB bookings, at the same time for a
3-days-minimum for Florida Rental by Owners at the same time for a
4-days-minimum for VRBO bookings.

Thank you

Elmar