Experience the difference of "Elite".

A different email address for "inquiry is created" system alert

Status: Requested 6 Votes
Tarki
Sep 18, 2020 5:57 PM
Joined May, 2020 73 posts

As far as I understand

1) "inquiry is created" system alert is activated only if there is an inquiry from OR widget

2) there is no way of having the alert to be sent to a different email address than the account email address
when an inquiry is created from OR widget.

3) There is no way of creating a trigger for an inquiry created. As a result, when there is a new inquiry created
I can't create a trigger and attach it to a template so I can send the inquiry to the specific email address I want.

Due to the above reasons, "inquiry is created" system alert ends up in a busy email box and often it takes a
while for me to see them.

Inquiries are gold for all of us and we should not waste them by replying late.

I think it'll be great to have a solution to this problem.


Chris Hynes
Sep 18, 2020 7:02 PM
OR Team Member Joined Oct, 2012 1401 posts

Yep, all of the above is correct. We have a couple of plans to help with this:

a) create a dashboard inside OwnerRez that shows action items like unread inquiries
b) digest emails
c) subscription management for alerts so that you can add additional emails

No ETA on those yet, but definitely something we will be doing. In the meantime, a couple of ideas:

1) You can see the unread inquiry count on the Inquiries tab on OwnerRez
2) Create a filter in your email that looks for the "inquiry from" keyword and breaks it out into a separate label or stars it

Chris L
Sep 19, 2020 10:00 AM
Joined May, 2017 207 posts

Can I second the request to allow transactional emails to go to a different place than actual personal guest emails (either inquiries or the reply-to address on messages sent from OR to the guest)? I've actually been meaning to drop by these forums for several weeks to make this request but keep forgetting to get around to it.

What happens is that my email account gets utterly buried in all kinds of transactional messages (booking created, payment taken, check-in time changed, etc.), which makes it hard to notice when there's an actual email from a guest. Several times now I've missed guest emails for hours or even days and have had to apologize to guests for missing them and not responding.

Ideally, I'd like to have transactional messages go to one account and preserve my main account for actual personal communications--and then even forward the main account to a ticket-tracking system like Intercom or something so that I can keep easier track of which messages I've read and responded to.

Chris L
Jun 21, 2021 12:03 PM
Joined May, 2017 207 posts

I feel like I ran across something recently indicating I could do this (have my emails to guests come from a different address than my actual email address set up in OwnerRez) -- that way, I could set up "ownerrez@mydomain.com" for all the system alerts that OR sends but then have my emails to guests appear to come from "info@mydomain.com." That would effectively solve my issue (at least 90%, anyway). But I can't find that now. Any hints? Or still not possible?

Ken T
Jun 21, 2021 2:59 PM
Joined Aug, 2019 1707 posts

Yes, that's somewhat correct:

1. Your Profile address is the email you use to log in to OwnerRez, and also where your OwnerRez system messages are sent.

https://app.ownerrez.com/account/profile

2. You can set up Themes to have emails sent to guests from a different email entirely:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/theming

We recommend Verifying your email, and it has to be an address at a domain you own:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/email-from-reply-to-verified-sender

Chris L
Jun 21, 2021 3:31 PM
Joined May, 2017 207 posts

Great, thanks! Looks like changing my profile address didn't change the from: address on my theme, so all is good.

That said, I will keep my vote for this feature request because I think some flexibility in the system about directing certain types of messages (e.g. inquiries) to specific email addresses would be helpful. To be honest, a lot of the bulk messages generated by the system (SecDep scheduled, SecDep released, etc.) are background noise and largely ignorable, so I'd like them to go to an archive, but some messages (e.g. SecDep failed, payment failed, inquiries, etc.) need to be dealt with and having those go to an account I actually monitor would help separate the wheat from the chaff.

Joel P
Jun 21, 2021 4:05 PM
OR Team Member Joined Oct, 2009 137 posts

We've got plans to improve the alert system, but for the time being, the best way to handle that is to disable the alerts you don't need to see.

Most of the alerts you receive should be listed in Settings > System Alerts. If there are any you get that you don't see on the system alerts page, send us a ticket. There are a few we have not gotten around to upgrading yet.

Jerry O
Nov 19, 2022 9:37 PM
Joined Jul, 2020 11 posts

I agree that inquiries are like gold, and should be able to be seen immediately.  I see it's been awhile since this was discussed, and wonder if there is any update on this?  

Robert P
Feb 11, 2024 5:01 PM
Joined Aug, 2023 44 posts

Perhaps a slightly different take on this, but what I really need is a separate email address specifically for inquiries, that is separate from my account email. And I'm not sure if this exists or not (I apologize as I haven't checked as of when I'm posting this) the reply to address for all emails sent from OwnerRez should be specified separately as well.

Ken T
Feb 12, 2024 9:45 AM
Joined Aug, 2019 1707 posts

Perhaps a slightly different take on this, but what I really need is a separate email address specifically for inquiries, that is separate from my account email. And I'm not sure if this exists or not (I apologize as I haven't checked as of when I'm posting this) the reply to address for all emails sent from OwnerRez should be specified separately as well.

by Robert P – Feb 11, 2024 10:01 PM (UTC)

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the request, but, as I interpret it, that ought to be possible, using the Theming area:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/theming