Do you have a plan for your files📂as you contemplate World Backup Day?
OwnerRez does! Over the 1st quarter, we have implemented three new tools to help OwnerRez users avoid data theft and monitor, as well as access, their important business records and files, at all times.
- Two-Factor Authentication for all OwnerRez users provides an extra layer of security to verify users and avoid data theft. Learn more by checking out our Two-Factor Authentication support article.
- The OwnerRez Status Page allows users to monitor and be alerted if OwnerRez is experiencing any outage, service interruption, or planned maintenance window. Learn more by reading our OwnerRez Status Page support article.
- The OwnerRez Read-Only Environment is a proactive and effective solution that protects and provides continuous access to all your OwnerRez data. Read our OwnerRez Read-Only Environment support article to learn more about this vital tool.
As you can see, OwnerRez is committed to transparent communication, numerous redundancies (above what we've always done), keeping your data safe, and providing continued access to that critical data.
As we close out the 1st quarter, continue on to review our March 30th release with 21 updates, including Enhanced Guest and Booking Imports, Listing Quality Analyzer (LQA) Additions, and SMS Messaging Refinements!
Enhancements & Tweaks
Enhanced Guest and Booking Imports
The ability to import and export your data into and out of OwnerRez is an essential tool for all vacation rental businesses. So, we have improved the Import and Export tools in these ways:
- Tags and Notes columns were added to the guest and booking import and export Excel spreadsheet templates.
- For importing tags on either, you just add as a comma-separated list of tag names.
- Similarly, we populate the Tags column on booking exports.
Learn more about importing and exporting OwnerRez data by reading our Importing Outside Bookings and Exporting Data from OwnerRez support articles.
Improved Booking.com Setup Instructions
Founded in 1996 in Amsterdam, Booking.com has grown from a small Dutch start-up to one of the world's leading digital travel companies. Listing your vacation rental on Booking.com can boost your property's exposure allowing you to expand your reach to potential guests.
OwnerRez reviewed our in-app Booking.com setup instructions and determined they could use some tweaking for clarity and completeness.
Learn more by reading our Booking.com Setup & Connecting support article.
Listing Quality Analyzer (LQA) Channels Selector Additions
The OwnerRez Listing Quality Analyzer (LQA) is a robust tool that checks your listings for errors and makes recommendations for improvement. We decided that all API Channels should be available for selection from the Channels selection drop-down list on the LQA and quickly made that upgrade! Users can now select any channels on the Listing Quality Analyzer (LQA).
Watch the Listing Quality Analyzer (LQA) support video for more information about this powerful tool.
New Guides Area Polish
After releasing the Vacation Rental Guides, we had a little polish to add to the area. Anytime we release a new feature, we watch it closely after release and always see things we want to improve upon quickly. So, we did a few small things to Guides to make the new area shine.
If you missed the announcement, these comprehensive guides aim to provide actionable insights on establishing and managing a successful vacation rental property, including advice on choosing the right location, furnishing your property, pricing strategies, and marketing tactics. Additionally, they can offer guidance on maintaining your property and handling guest communication and inquiries.
Have suggestions or ideas for new vacation rental guides? Want to contribute your own guide or add more information to one of ours? Please contact us. OwnerRez envisions the Vacation Rental Guides to be living, breathing resources that will change over time. We would love to add some regular contributors to the Guides area, so let us know your interest!
SMS Messaging Refinements
Short Message Service (SMS), a.k.a. texting, is a powerful and efficient way to send information directly to your guests, supplementing email. Additionally, OwnerRez's SMS Premium Feature also works with templates and triggers so that you can send automated personalized SMS text messages at scheduled times, providing even more value to your guest messaging workflow.
- We now support sending SMS messages even while your SMS Brand approval is pending. SMS Brand Approval has been taking longer these days, so we wanted to help get our new SMS users up and running a bit quicker.
- We make SMS communication history available to users should they turn off the SMS Premium Feature.
- We updated how SMS phone number search works:
Bug Fixes
Add Additional Checksum Case for Vrbo Channel Bridge Canceled Booking When They Calculate Total Differently. We've added additional checksums for Vrbo canceled booking calculations imported through the Channel Bridge tool when totals were calculated in a different manner.
Allow Disabling Air iCal Even When Channel Connected. After a recent release, this wasn't happening as it should. This bug has been corrected.
Batch Lock Update Creates New Codes When it Should Reuse. We noticed that sometimes if users remove a lock from their account and then add a new one to that same property (i.e., a replacement), the system generated new (different) lock codes during the batch lock update process instead of reusing the old lock codes. This bug has been fixed to reuse already set lock codes on bookings when door locks are batch updated.
Change Photo Captions on Hosted Sites to Not Use <h1> Tags. OwnerRez Hosted Websites photo captions were using <h1> tags which could be an inappropriate lead and throw off Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and page validation tools. This bug has been corrected and Hosted Websites photo captions now use <figcaption> tags.
Clarify Changes vs. Charges on Premium Feature Turn On/Off Pages. The confirmation section for adding or removing the Premium Features process was too wordy and confusing. The text displayed in the confirmation section and the buttons have been revised for clarity.
Detect and show channel name (e.g., Airbnb) when applicable for the "Who will I be charged by?" section on guest forms. When channels handle payments (e.g., Airbnb) that was not reflected on guest forms (e.g., PoC (point of contact), payment/security deposit entry, legal/renter agreement. This has been fixed and now says the following language, "If you pay by credit card, regular payments for this booking are collected and managed by Channel Name. Security deposits or extra charges may be displayed on your credit card as...."
Don't Validate Quote Arrival is Future on Update or When Validation is Skipped. After the last release, this was still inaccurate when editing a quote to move it "to the past" or when the system tried to expire a quote as scheduled. This has been adequately fixed.
Fix Forum User Post Warehouse. OwnerRez does not display user profile pages of users if they have no public forum posts. We found an edge case where a user made a post on the OwnerRez Forum, but their number of posts was still listed as 0 and their forum profile was not viewable. This has been corrected.
Login Password Field Should Not Error on <> Characters etc. The OwnerRez system was not allowing users to use the < and > (and sometimes other HTML) characters in their passwords. This bug has been fixed.
Make the Default Renter Agreement Use the {PMINAGE} Field Code Instead of "age of 18" Language. The OwnerRez default system renter agreement had a default phrase about "I am over the age of 18" which instead should use the property minimum age field code {PMINAGE}, leading to duplicate and confusing language. This has been corrected to use the property minimum age field code {PMINAGE} in that section of the default system renter agreement.
On Stripe Connect/Reconnect Clear the Needs Permissions Flag. When users initially connected or reconnected a Stripe account for payment processing, the additional permissions alert didn't always clear. This bug has been fixed to correctly clear spurious permissions alerts when Stripe accounts are connected or reconnected.
Remove Payment Requirement on Hosted/Portal Certificate Generation. We realized that the label displayed on the Hosted Website section, "Certificate generation requires a card on file for verification. It won't be charged during your trial. Do that in your Account Billing area." was no longer necessary and was removed.
Tone Down Lynnbrook Classic Warning. We realized that the warning regarding Lynnbrook Classic was a bit much so we revised it to the following, "Lynnbrook Classic is a deprecated payment method. It has been superseded by a new Lynnbrook Group option which you can see at the top of the recommended processors list. Lynnbrook is no longer accepting new applications for Lynnbrook Classic, but if you have an existing Lynnbrook Classic payment method you can continue to use it."
Treat a Vrbo Channel Bridge Canceled Booking With Total 0 Charges as a Full Refund Even if There's Not a Refund Yet. We noticed some Vrbo canceled booking charges imported through the Channel Bridge tool were incorrect. This bug has been fixed, and any Vrbo 0 charged and canceled booking charges imported through the Channel Bridge tool will appear as a full refund even if the refund has not yet occurred.
