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Currently there is no way to track blocked off time for owners use and/or for maintenance. I am suggesting that you make some adjustments to the reporting so that when a property is blocked off by the owner, you can run a report and search on a column and identify the property and dates of that block time. For owners with multiple properties that are using them for some personal use. It’s very difficult to find what they have blocked for future use
I previously worked with Streamline and one of the features I used every day was 'property notes'. This was a place where I could note info on the home that I wanted available to agents but not to guests. It was a great place for backup lockbox info, nuances of the home, etc. It was our 'go to' place when a guest called in with questions on the property.
We want to be able to quickly view guest notes from a booking. We were hoping that there would be a way, in one of the bookings views, to hover over the booking in question and see those guest notes.
Hi from past messages this was in the pipeline in 2021 its now 2023, any news.
Sort of, they're work arounds. But you'll notice that the cancellation fee is not percentage based. In your screenshot it is a flat rate of $10. So in the scenario I describe, if you had a direct booking and processed it through Stripe, if the 3% they take off the top is more than $10, you're paying out of pocket. You set your overall percentage to 97% to make up for the lack of setting a dynamic, percentage based cancellation fee. You're then left with this sort of orphan line item for the remaining money as opposed to properly labeling it as a cancellation fee. It's a preference thing. It looks as though you use the workaround I described (and currently use) to make it work and charge an extra 10 bucks for the bother of having to process the cancellation. And if I want to actually work in a line item for cancellation fee, I have to create an actual fee rule that will later sit in the fees settings, orphaned as I will not likely process another cancellation fee for the same amount.
You don't need a percentage-based cancellation fee if you can specify a percentage refund. If you want to charge 10% cancellation fee, then set refund to 90% and do not touch the cancellation fee. Actually, I do not mess with cancellation fees. I just created that screen to show you. The 3% credit card fee is built into my rates. So if 1 in 10 cancels, I am ahead by 9 X 3% that I did not have to refund. Refunding only part of the total may result in some channels like Vrbo not refunding their service fee, and that can only invite dissatisfaction and possible chargebacks. To me, the 3% is not worth that hassle. I do not get THAT many cancellations to worry about it. But if your model is different, the above set up should work.
Sort of, they're work arounds. But you'll notice that the cancellation fee is not percentage based. In your screenshot it is a flat rate of $10. So in the scenario I describe, if you had a direct booking and processed it through Stripe, if the 3% they take off the top is more than $10, you're paying out of pocket. You set your overall percentage to 97% to make up for the lack of setting a dynamic, percentage based cancellation fee. You're then left with this sort of orphan line item for the remaining money as opposed to properly labeling it as a cancellation fee. It's a preference thing. It looks as though you use the workaround I described (and currently use) to make it work and charge an extra 10 bucks for the bother of having to process the cancellation. And if I want to actually work in a line item for cancellation fee, I have to create an actual fee rule that will later sit in the fees settings, orphaned as I will not likely process another cancellation fee for the same amount.
- My cancellation fees are never truly flat. I charge a 3% cancellation fee of the booking amount for a full refund because I cannot receive that initial 3% back from my payment processor. I do not possess this money, even if I wanted to return it. A true 100% refund would be coming out of my pocket. I would like the ability to apply a percentage based cancellation fee as opposed to having to create some flat rate soon to be orphaned cancellation fee for each cancelled booking.
That is already there. Settings > Cancelation policies > create
You can specify 97% (or whatever percent) refunds or do stepped cancellation policy (ex: 97% is canceled 60 days or more, 47% if canceled 30 days etc). Plus, you can apply a flat cancellation fee if needed.
Yes, this will become more and more necessary as people continue to use this model for various different reasons. In my market, and my level of service, I feel way more comfortable controlling the money supply. But for those of us who operate differently, this would be quite useful and shouldn't be hard to develop.
Something I bump into when assisting others and for my own cancelation policies is a lack of options for the timing of the cancellation policy and the creation of the cancellation fee.
Will this then have the platforms raising the nightly rates they advertise and thus lower on search ranking for price?
Platforms can do this with or without a cleaning fee. Anyone who knows what platforms will do EXACTLY can share this info. I do not know that.
Will this then have the platforms raising the nightly rates they advertise and thus lower on search ranking for price?
Thanks - I'll check that out!
I appreciate that you will be looking at updating the photo layout like you are doing for the hosted sites. Please do more than looking at doing that.
"we need to spend more time on the WordPress Plugin and make it more powerful than it is today."
- And I very much appreciate this acknowledgement too!
Just a quick point of clarification: OwnerRez does charge less for the WordPress Plugin, on the first property anyway. You can use the pricing page to see that. Or you can view the breakdown here - Hosted Sites and then WordPress below that.
We don't usually release big bangs for all areas at once. Our WordPress Plugin is actually housed in a different code repository from the main app.
But you bring up a good point, and that is, we need to spend more time on the WordPress Plugin and make it more powerful than it is today. We will be looking at bringing an updated photo layout for WordPress too, but it won't be released at the same time.
For additional QB integration, I'd love to see this process be possible:
I'd love to see this feature added, please!
You can't do it on Airbnb when having everything fed to it via API.
You can. Just classify your cleaning fee as "management" and do not use the word 'cleaning" in the description and check "classify as rent item". That way it rolls into rate.
It's one extra click...
And more actions required before that.
It's one extra click...
There is no image?
100% agree. It adds an extra step. I'm in settings every day and I really don't like the new settings location!
Yay I am excited for this feature!
I have an owner that would like to look at the property rates on his property only since he cannot see them anymore on VRBO as VRBO move closer to their Expedia platform. Do you have a suggestion on how he can access the rate calendar for his property only and nothing else on OwnerRez so he does not have to rely on me sending him screen shots when he wants to see the current rates.
OR is charging the same for the WP Plugin that it is charging for the Hosted Website. Therefore, it is only reasonable that the plugin provides the same features and updates as the Hosted Website.
Chris just informed me that OR is upgrading the Hosted Website photo layout yet only looking at potentially upgrading the plugin for this. Please simultaneously upgrade the plugin for this too, and upgrade it to match any other upgrades that have been made for the Hosted Website. If OR isn't going to do this, then the plugin price needs to be reduced, as that makes it an inferior product.
With the new influx of people joining Hosted websites for GVR, are we likely to see any updates to hosted websites, perhaps a few new templates to add a bit of diversity? Perhaps a built in cookie policy to adhere to new regulations.
Ken and Paul, I am not understanding why a website like mine that is using the OR widget for pricing and booking is any different from that on the hosted sites. As far as I can tell, it is exactly the same. Can you explain?
Me too. I manage the listing, but the owners collect the payment. I would like to bill the homeowner for the 20% of bookings
I use Safely for my Damage Protection. Given the fact that they are an OR partner and they API integrate in, I wish y'all would offer a way for me to set up/utilize the built-in Damage Protection options with them (as opposed to RentalGuardian). The most helpful would be for recording payments received on claims and a more robust way of tracking the DP costs involved (besides the line-item surcharge I am limited to now).
It would be ideal for there to be an option to select any of the DP companies y'all partner/integrate with for this!
Hi, I agree that full administrative access should be granted to a secondary person. It's very annoying! Suddenly there are many things that I cannot do that I need to do!
