Descriptions

Creating your Property Description is key to marketing your vacation rental! Potential guests are interested in all aspects of your property to determine if your vacation rental is a good fit for their vacation. Crafting your Property Description is your opportunity to "sell" your vacation rental to potential guests by highlighting the unique amenities that your vacation rental offers.

Property Description has proved challenging for OwnerRez users due to various description limitations for some Channel Integrations. OwnerRez's solution is the Property Description feature, allowing users to create a Default Property Description with customized Override Property Description options for specific listing channels. Let's get started by following the steps below.

• Property Descriptions
• Default Property Descriptions
• OwnerRez Website Descriptions
  • Hosted Website
  • WordPress Plug-in
• Override Property Descriptions
  • Airbnb
  • Vrbo
  • Other Channels
• Plain Text vs. Rich Text Editors
• Field Codes
• Edit, Disable or Delete

Property Descriptions

First, let's review and get comfortable with the Property Descriptions area. Navigate to your OwnerRez Properties and click on the link for the property you want to update the Description.

Click on Description ( Property > Listing Content > Description) on the left menu. Select and click on the Pen icon  next to Default Descriptions (Property descriptions that may appear across all channels).

Users will now see several channel listing icons that are viewable. Note that the default description area includes channel listing icons. When users hover over each channel listing icon, helpful tooltips, including channel listing character counts, will appear.

Default Property Descriptions

Crafting your Default Property Descriptions is your chance to communicate your property's unique location, activities, and amenities.

OwnerRez Users can also take full advantage of Property Field Codes to aid the automation of Property Descriptions and can append or add additional text around the Property Field Codes in the Description Fields for more accurate detail. 

To create a Default Property Description that may appear across all channels, click on the Pen icon to the right of Default Descriptions.

The OwnerRez Property Description plain text editor will appear where you can enter all or as many of the descriptive fields you desire (listed below) to best describe your property. Those fields include:

• Headline
• Description
• Short Description
• Year Purchased
• About You
• Why This Property?
• Rate Notes
• Accommodations Information
• Location Information
• Registration/License Information

Note that the Default Property Description plain text editor also includes:

• Character counts under the left side of each editor field that displays characters entered/total characters possible.
• Users can always hover over specific channel listing icons that display helpful tooltips (specific to each field) including channel listing character counts.
• Insert Field Code lists to add to your Property Description.
• Save and Close, Save, and Cancel buttons at the lower left.
• Be sure to Save your Property Description first before you click on the Preview for Default Descriptions button at the top. Previewing is a great way to verify that you are presenting your property in the best light possible. To exit the Property Description Preview, click on Close.

Override Property Descriptions

Property Description has proved challenging for OwnerRez users due to various description limitations for some Channel Integrations. OwnerRez's solution is the Property Description feature, which allows users to create property description overrides for specific listing channels when one size does not fit all.

OwnerRez's dynamic Field Codes help construct consistent information across multiple listing channels, and users will benefit from using them to automate Property Descriptions.

Users can create Override Property Descriptions for Hosted Websites and Channel Integrations by clicking on the Add Override drop-down list.

As you add additional Overrides or channel integrations, you will see those tabs added along the top of your property descriptions.

The override editor page lists all the fields available for that particular channel, such as Headline, Description, etc., and by default, includes field codes that reference the values from the Default Descriptions tab. To override a particular field for that channel, replace the field code with the new value.

Airbnb

You won't need an override for every channel you connect to, but the one you will likely want to add is for Airbnb. Airbnb's most notable property description limitations are the character limits in the Headline (50 characters) and Short Description (500 characters) fields. For example. by adding the Airbnb override, you can have your Default Descriptions be longer for all other channels (if the content is the same for those).

Follow the instructions in the Add Override section and select Airbnb from the Add Override dropdown list. The process for adding an Airbnb property description override is similar to adding a default description, with more limitations.

Vrbo

Other Channels

Adding additional overrides for additional Channel-integrated Property Descriptions remains the same as detailed above for Airbnb and Vrbo, and as shown below. OwnerRez supports Property Descriptions for many other Channel Integrations, as seen in the Add Override drop-down list.

Plain Text vs. Rich Text Editors

What's the difference between a Plain Text Editor and a Rich Text Editor, and why does OwnerRez have both? In what case would users craft a property description in a Plain Text Editor, and when would users use a Rich Text Editor?

• A Plain Text Editor creates text that contains no formatting, images, colors, or other types of markup. The advantage of using a plain text editor for Property Descriptions that contain no formatting in the Override Property Descriptions process is that extra formatting will cause display difficulties in Channel Integrations.
  • The Plain Text Editor is available in the Default Property Descriptions and Override Property Descriptions areas.

• A Rich Text Editor creates text to display within web browsers, which presents the user with a "what-you-see-is-what-you-get" editing area in order to reduce the effort for users trying to create formatting directly as valid HTML markup. 
  • The Rich Text Editor is available only in the OwnerRez Website Property Description area.

Field Codes

Field Codes are a powerful feature in OwnerRez, creating consistent information across multiple listing channels. You can use Field Codes (Account and Property types) in Property Descriptions!

OwnerRez's enhanced Property Field Codes are used when you first add a Property Override.

When you add and Save your description text into each descriptive field in the Default Property Description, OwnerRez automatically transforms that text into your corresponding Property Description Field Code. For example, the default "Headline" is available using {PDESHEAD}.

See the list of new Property Field Codes below. In the example below, note that we are on the Property Tab.

In the pop-up, you will see the following:

• The column of Field codes
• The Name of the Field that correlates to the Default Description Fields
• A Description of the Field
• The Insert button to the left of each specific property field code

In the plain text editor, click on either the abbreviated Insert Field Code icon or the Insert Field button on the right side of the field to add an Account or Property Field Code. In the example below, the Field Codes have already been added to the description fields because we have already added that text in your Default Property Description. Remember that OwnerRez Users can append or add additional text around Property Field Codes to accurately portray their property in the Description Fields.

Edit, Disable or Delete

With any overrides tab, you can click on the drop-down list to the right of the Pen icon to Edit, Disable or Delete your Property Description. In the future, WordPress Plug-in will have its own override but for now, you can use the OwnerRez Website override to accomplish the same outcome.