As we moved further into fall, with more time for reflection and relaxation, OwnerRez continued to work diligently throughout October. Take a look at the results from the month's Product Update, including the progress on Property Management v2 (PMv2), Vrbo additions, a sneak peek of the Unified Inbox, and more.
- New Features
- New Features Coming Soon
- Automatic 5-Star Vrbo Reviews Private Beta
- Unified Inbox Sneak Peak
- New Design Progress
- Enhancements & Tweaks
- Airbnb and Vrbo Surcharge Categories
- Add Accessibility to the Global Landing Page Via "Public Link"
- Authorize.net Integration Update
- Zapier Improvements
- Pricing Preferences Default Rent Taxability Setting
- Channel Review Notification
- Cancel Automatic Review
- Disabled Integrations
- OwnerRez Bookings, Inquires, and Quotes API v2
- Bug Fixes
New Features
Property Management (PM)
On October 23rd, 2024, PMv2 (internal codename: "Everything is an Expense" 😄, rolls right off the tongue, doesn't it?) debuted for new OwnerRez users (not because we didn't want to reward loyal and long-standing PM customers, but) due to its magnitude of how it handles PM data. Why didn't we just release this PM Upgrade for all users? An upgrade of this magnitude significantly impacts the appearance of owner statements and changes underlying bookings and expense data. OwnerRez takes your property management business and operations seriously. We want to carefully observe the outcomes of this initial release to ensure that we get it right before we release it to all Property Managers.
PMv2 includes more flexibility in configuring and displaying expenses and allows the creation of custom formulas for owner statements. What does that mean for new and existing OwnerRez Property Management users?
For one thing, we've added some system-wide default expense settings for all PM users with this release. All existing PM users can configure their system-wide default expense settings by navigating to PM > Expenses > Settings. Then, they can determine the default dates to use: the Arrival (default), Departure, or Booked Dates.
PMv2 for New PM Users Wide Release!
As mentioned above, newly enrolled OwnerRez users who enabled the Property Management premium feature (after October 23rd, 2024) will be on PMv2. If you've been an OwnerRez user for a while but only now need the PM premium feature and are turning it on for the first time, you will also begin your PM journey on PMv2.
For new PM users, "how it used to be" won't matter as much, but you may still be asking, "What is PMv2?" Read on to understand what else PMv2 brings to the table.
PMv2 handles things differently in a few key ways from PMv1 (a.k.a. Legacy PM). Things are more straightforward and visible to you and your owners, making it easier to "follow the math." For example, taxes, commission, and damage protection are now system-managed visible expenses on each booking on the Expenses tab (depending on who is set to pay for each—i.e., Property Manager or Owner).
Some other features for newly enrolled PM users include enhanced PM Expense Settings and a newly redesigned "PM tab" on each booking, detailing side-by-side Owner/PM information.
The biggest thing PMv2 eliminates is the "Owner Visibility" settings (i.e., the concept of pre-deducting expenses). Instead, Custom Statement Views include an option to "Hide Booking Expense Category" to control what is visible to owners on Owner Statements.
The ability to add custom formula columns to Statement Views, is another way to roll things together and help you owners understand the breakdown you desire to show them. When PMv2 users configure their Statement Views, they can add custom formula columns by clicking the formula calculator icon to open the Custom Formula pop-up.
PMv2 users also have an additional Damage Protection expense setting available in the PM > Expenses > Settings area. There, they can determine what booking default dates to use for expenses and select their Damage Protection PM Account (if configured).
PMv2 users can also access the new Owner Statement Summary Report, an income statement (i.e., Profit & Loss statement) that contains owner income and expense totals based on remittances (i.e., how things appeared on the included v2 Owner Statements. This report will not return legacy (v1) Owner Statements data, so that's why this new report is only available to PMv2 accounts.
For more information about all things PMv2, you can read the ever-expanding support documentation - PMv2 has its own new section.
PMv2 Upgrade Path for Existing PM Users Private Beta
More information on the upgrade path from Legacy PMv1 is coming in the future. Interested existing Property Management users are being added to the PMv2 upgrade private beta waiting list upon request.
Vrbo Listing Status Real-time Updates
Integrating with Vrbo through OwnerRez streamlines your property management by automating bookings, improving visibility, and increasing revenue by reaching a wider audience efficiently.
With our October 2nd release, OwnerRez has added more listing status update webhooks to our Vrbo API integration. What does that mean for you? During your initial Vrbo API integration, the listing status of your property/ies is now more real-time in if your property is recognized on the Vrbo side.
When your new Vrbo API integration is initiated, property listing statuses include your Property ID, Property Active Status, First Time Active, and Property Status Change statuses. New Vrbo messages now include your Property ID, Message Thread ID, Message ID, From Role, and Reservation ID.
To learn more, explore OwnerRez's direct partnerships with major listing channels (Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, Google Vacation Rentals, and more).
New Features Coming Soon
Automatic 5-Star Vrbo Reviews Private Beta
Patience is a virtue, and soon, OwnerRez users will be rewarded! Yes, indeed, one of our long-awaited feature requests, Automatic 5-star Vrbo Reviews (which operates much like the Airbnb option), will be available to all in the coming weeks.
It will also alleviate the need to run Channel Bridge to bring in your Vrbo reviews (if you're API-connected, that is).
Rather than leaving our users in suspense, please know that OwnerRez is diligently working on testing it in production with a set of properties.
Be assured that we're hustling to reach the wide-release phase. At OwnerRez, we never settle for half-baked solutions and want to ensure we get this right for you.
Unified Inbox Sneak Peak!
The OwnerRez Unified Inbox is coming soon, and we want to give you a little sneak peek to whet your appetite. Not only have we included regular inbox functionality with the ability to compose, archive, and mark messages as read/unread, but the associated booking information includes links to booking charges, transactions, and guest contact information that opens in another tab. Here's a little taste.
The Unified Inbox is in active testing in production with limited users (and we continue to add more features before we release it widely), and we look forward to releasing it in a "limited beta" phase very soon.
New Design Progress
Profile Menu Pages
The OwnerRez in-app design changes continue. In October, we focused on the in-app Profile Menu Items, including the Profile, Preferences, Notifications, Safeguards, Affiliate Program, Change Password, and Logout pages. These subtle design changes are consistent with other recent in-app design enhancements.
Here's a side-by-side before and after example of the OwnerRez Profile section.
The new Preferences page includes updated rounded toggle buttons.
Here's what the previous Notifications page looked like.
Now, the Notifications page also features rounded toggle buttons with the ON/OFF text removed for simplicity. Additionally, both the Email and Push notification Previews now have their columns for increased visibility.
Here is the previous Safeguards page.
The New Safeguards page now includes the rounded toggle buttons.
We also revamped the Affiliate Program pages.
Here's our new OwnerRez Change Password page, which now includes the password eye icon for viewing the input in the password fields.
And lastly, check out the new Logout page.
Once again, these design changes may be subtle, but they were implemented to ensure consistency across all areas within the app.
ownerrez.com Header and Footer
Have you noticed the new OwnerRez public website header and footer yet? Our new header looks like this now.
Check out our new footer, which appears on all public website pages, including the Support Center, Blog, Forum, and Vacation Rental Guides.
Enhancements & Tweaks
Airbnb and Vrbo Surcharge Categories
Do you remember the required Surcharge Category "keywords" for your Airbnb or Vrbo API-connected property to ensure your surcharge was correctly passed to Airbnb or Vrbo? Those Surcharge description "keywords" included Cleaning, Resort, Management, Community, Linen, and Pet.
With the October 30th release, those magic description field "keywords" are no longer necessary. Now, through category mapping logic, you can safely rely on the Surcharge Category to push your surcharges for your API-connected Airbnb and Vrbo properties to Airbnb and Vrbo.
The work on this release paves the way for future support for Airbnb per night, per guest fees.
Still not API-connected? Check out all of your OwnerRez channel management options!
Add Accessibility to the Global Landing Page Via "Public Link"
Since the release of the OwnerRez "Global Landing Page," it was only available as an option with Google Vacation Rentals. With our October 23rd release, it is available for you to send as a "Public Link" to potential guests from multiple in-app places (Bookings, Inquiries, and Quotes).
Sending potential guests a Public Booking Link is a great alternative for users who don't yet have a hosted website (we recommend all users have a direct booking site) but still want to accept direct bookings and allow guests to select different dates. Here's a reminder of what the Public Link/Global Landing Page looks like.
Prospective guests can change the dates and guest party details and begin the Book Now process directly from your Public Link!
How do you send a quick Public Booking Link to a potential guest? There are several ways to generate the Public Booking Link in-app.
One quick way is to navigate to the Quick Quote tool through Tools > Quick Quote or click the + Create Quote, + Create Booking, or Block Off buttons on the Booking section. The Quick Quote pop-up allows you to generate a Public Booking Link by selecting the Public Link radio button and choosing to Copy Link or View Link, which will open the Public Booking Link in another tab.
You can also click on the dropdown lists on the Booking List view, Quotes, and Inquiries grids and select Copy to New Public Link.
You can select the Public Booking Link from the Copy To dropdown list on individual Quote Overview pages.
Just like Quotes, you can also send a Public Link to guests (past and present) so they can book their next reservation. Select the Public Booking Link from the Copy To dropdown list on the Booking Overview page.
Is the Public Link available to send to guests through OwnerRez channel messaging (Airbnb, Booking.com, and Vrbo)? Unfortunately, no. These listing channels will redact your Public Link in their messaging systems.
Authorize.net Integration Update
OwnerRez integrates with many industry-leading processors and gateways. OwnerRez has been connected to Authorize.net for a long time and it was due for an upgrade. With our October 9th release, OwnerRez has upgraded and modernized our Authorize.net integration to the latest direct API. The updated integration also lays the groundwork to support automatic deposits (like we offer for Stripe, Lynnbrook Group, and Airbnb).
Check out all of the available OwnerRez payment processor options.
Zapier Improvements
The OwnerRez Zapier public integration allows users to connect OwnerRez with thousands of the most popular apps, so now you, too, can automate your work and have more time for what matters most—no code required. OwnerRez has recently updated our Zapier platform version, enhancing our Zapier integration to improve communication, add more trigger types, and enable the updating of additional categories for contact and booking updates. Additionally, you can now filter your webhook subscriptions.
Zapier is very powerful, and we have other automation integration options. Check out all of the Business Automation integrations.
Pricing Preferences Default Rent Taxability Setting
Taxes can get complicated, but OwnerRez tries to simplify them for you as much as possible. Your configured tax line items are added to quotes and bookings, and OwnerRez ensures those tax settings are initially applied correctly to both direct and channel bookings.
But what if your rent is not taxable? By design, even if you had configured your Pricing Preferences > Rent Taxability to Not-Taxable, taxes would automatically be applied whenever you added additional nights to a booking. While you could uncheck the Taxed checkbox, it was frustrating and easy to miss.
With the October 30th release, you can now extend a guest's stay, and your configured Pricing Preferences > Rent Taxability settings will be applied correctly, even when set to Not Taxable.
Channel Review Notification
Vrbo and Airbnb reviews boost credibility, attract more bookings, improve search rankings, and provide valuable feedback to enhance guest experiences and drive repeat business.
Starting with the October 2nd release, OwnerRez has added a new Review Submitted Via Channel Notification that alerts you when your Airbnb or Vrbo channel guest has left a review of their stay.
Notice that the Email Notification is automatically turned on for all users, but the Push Notification is defaulted to Off. You can enable the Push Notification for Review Submitted Via Channel by navigating to your Profile menu > Notifications > Review Notifications > and toggling the Review Submitted Via Channel Push Notification to On.
Here's an example of the Review Submitted Via Channel Notification from OwnerRez to users.
Cancel Automatic Review
Configuring automatic 5-star reviews of guests saves you time, encourages positive reciprocal reviews, boosts your listing's ranking, and enhances guest satisfaction for future bookings. But sometimes, a guest isn't a great fit for our property. While we may be able to skip their automatic 5-star review through the use of tags, there may be times when you want to cancel the automatic 5-star review altogether and write a manual review.
With the October 2nd release, you can now click the new Cancel Automatic Review button on the specific Booking > Reviews tab.
Learn more by reading our Automatic Posting of 5-Star Reviews for Airbnb support article.
Disabled Integrations
OwnerRez partners with many third-party integrations to provide additional features, allowing you to choose the best solutions for your specific vacation rental business needs alongside the power of OwnerRez. But keeping track of, or accessing, your disabled listing channels, locks, payment methods, or QuickBooks integrations was tricky until now.
When you attempt to connect an integration, we've added links to your disabled listing channels, locks, payment methods, or QuickBooks integrations, allowing you to access those disabled integrations if needed, instead of thinking you have to recreate a new connection, you can often times reactivate a disabled one.
Check out all OwnerRez third-party integration partners to solve your vacation rental business needs.
OwnerRez Bookings, Inquires, and Quotes API v2
OwnerRez's Oauth API is available to other companies and users who want to communicate with our software. With our October 9th release, we've added additional support for the creation of booking and block information (e.g., Cleaning Date, Check-in, Check-out, Arrival, Departure, Owner Blocks, Property IDs, Guest IDs, Notes, etc.) to the OwnerRez Bookings API v2.
Learn more by reading our v2 OwnerRez API for Apps Overview support article.
Bug Fixes
October 2nd release with 8 bug fixes
Change Communication Notifications Descriptions from "Channel" to "Channel/SMS." For clarification, the Notifications > Communication notifications section has changed "Channel Message Fails to Send" and "Channel Message is Received" to "Channel/SMS Message Fails to Send" and "Channel/SMS Message is Received," respectively.
Don't Send Forum Notifications to Users With Disabled Notifications. Forum notifications were incorrectly sent to users who had disabled them. We fixed this bug so that we no longer send forum notifications to these users.
Exclude Non-automatic Discounts From LQA Checks. Non-automatic discounts (e.g., Discount Code, Optionally, and Manually) were incorrectly displayed as errors on the Listing Quality Analyzer (LQA). OR corrected this glitch to ensure non-automatic discounts are excluded from LQA checks.
Fix Airbnb Check-in Window Display. Some Airbnb bookings had incorrect check-in window times field codes rendered and displayed on channel templates. We resolved this issue by correctly rendering and displaying Airbnb check-in window times field codes on channel templates.
Fix Error When Some Team Access Staff Users Try to Access Notifications. Some Team Access Staff users encountered errors when accessing the notifications area. OR fixed this bug to ensure that, if allowed, Team Access Staff users can access the notifications area.
Fix Phone Number Inputs on Booking Widget and Guest Forms to Follow Default Country. Some booking widgets and guest forms failed to automatically detect the default country in the phone number input fields. We resolved this issue, and booking widgets and guest forms will correctly automatically detect the default country in the phone number input fields.
Fix Sorting Issue for Surcharges With Blank Position. We experienced a code regression in which some surcharges with no position configured were incorrectly placed above discounts, resulting in an incorrect discounted surcharge. OR corrected this glitch, and surcharges with no position will be appropriately applied.
Show Distribution Channel Name on Vrbo Bookings. Other than Vrbo, other Vrbo distribution channel names (e.g., Expedia, etc.) were not displayed on the booking channel tab. We resolved this issue by ensuring that other Vrbo distribution channel names are displayed on the booking channel tab.
October 9th release with 14 bug fixes
Alphabetize Property "Other Rooms" Type Dropdown. The Property > Other Rooms > Type dropdown list was unalphabetized, confusing users. OR has updated and alphabetized the Property > Other Rooms > Type dropdown list.
Auto-disable Webhooks for Partner OAuth App Integrations That Fail at a High Rate. Some partner OAuth Apps occasionally respond to OwnerRez data pushes with errors. When this happens at too high a volume, it can cause problems for that partner and other OwnerRez partners. Partner OAuth App integrations that experienced high failure rates utilized substantial OwnerRez processing power. We have resolved this problem by auto-disabling partner OAuth App integration webhooks when too many failures occur, skipping all retries for these apps, preventing old retries when and if the webhooks are re-enabled, and notifying the partner that their webhooks are disabled with the following message, "Webhooks have been paused due to a high incidence of errors from the remote server. Please review the HTTP failures in the webhooks below and correct any issues. Then re-enable webhooks."
Don't Send Review Submitted Via Channel Notification on Placeholder Create, Wait Until Submitted. We inadvertently sent users notifications when Airbnb created a temporary review placeholder. We fixed this bug, and notifications will only be sent when the guest actually submits a review.
Fix Duplicate Contact Issues When Multiple Vrbo Inquiries. When Vrbo guests initiated multiple inquiries, multiple guest contacts were inadvertently created. We corrected this issue so that Vrbo guests who initiate multiple inquiries will not result in multiple guest contacts.
Fix Error on Host Review When Delayed Negative Review Scheduled. This edge case occurred when a scheduled and delayed negative host review received an error, resulting in a host review failure. OR fixed this bug so scheduled and delayed negative host reviews will be sent correctly.
Fix Incorrect Inquiry Violation Autoresponder Upgrade. When we converted Autoresponders to Inquiry Triggers, some triggers were created with an incorrect send condition, resulting in these triggers being sent with the wrong inquiry status. We've corrected these triggers so that they will now be sent with the correct inquiry status.
Fix Incorrect Trigger Gap Rule Between Upgrade. When we released the September Trigger Conditions redesign, we upgraded Gap Rules to use the new Between operator. However, if the gap rule was set to exactly 1 number, the upgrade was incorrect. OR corrected the upgraded triggers that exhibited this problem by using the Equals operator instead.
Fix Missing Items for Conditions Editor for Triggers. We encountered a code regression that resulted in some condition options not appearing for blocked-off time triggers. We've corrected this regression so that blocked-off time triggers will offer all applicable conditions.
Fix Issue With Review Import When Neither Guest Nor Review Have a Display Name. Some review imports without guest or display names resulted in import failures. OR corrected this bug, and review imports without guest or display names will be imported correctly.
Open Up QuickBooks Fee Settings to Non-PM Users. The August QuickBooks Deposits release mistakenly required users to enable the Property Management premium feature to configure the QuickBooks fee settings. We resolved this glitch so all users can configure the QuickBooks fee settings for deposits.
Push Trigger Between Criteria to Channels. Due to a code regression, the "between" surcharge/discount condition wasn't properly sent to listing channels. Or fixed this bug, and "between" surcharge/discount conditions will be properly sent to listing channels.
Set Correct Listing Status for Vrbo Status Webhook. Vrbo listing statuses were incorrectly set as not sync connected on the Vrbo status webhook fallback. We resolved this glitch to ensure that Vrbo listing statuses are set to active on the Vrbo status webhook.
Update Notification Name to "Pending Booking New Card On File." The "Booking New Card on File" email and push notification had a confusing name, so we have updated the notification description to "Pending Booking New Card On File" for clarification.
Use the Correct Default Field When Creating a "Payment" Type SMS Template. When creating a "Payment" type SMS template, the form incorrectly prepopulated the "To" phone number field with an incorrect field code, resulting in the phone number not rendering or being displayed correctly. OR fixed this issue so that the "Payment" type SMS template "To" phone number field will be prepopulated with the correct field code.
October 23rd release with 5 bug fixes
Fix Error When Disabling Property Tied to Mutual Blocking. Users who attempted to disable mutually blocked properties encountered errors preventing them from disabling them. OR resolved this glitch to ensure that mutually blocked properties can be disabled correctly.
Fix Igloohome Locks When Trying to Move Arrival/Departure Times. Some users with Igloohome API-connected locks encountered errors when they attempted to move arrival or departure times. We fixed this bug, and Igloohome API-connected locks will be able to process moved arrival or departure times correctly.
Fix Issue With Booking.com VCC Scheduled Payments. We experienced a code regression that resulted in some Booking.com (BDC) Virtual Credit Card (VCC) scheduled payment failures. We corrected this issue, and BDC VCC scheduled payments will be properly processed.
Show Helpful Error if Setting up QuickBooks Deposits With No Undeposited Funds Account. Users with API-connected QuickBooks accounts encountered unclear errors when attempting to configure deposits without an "Undeposited Funds" account. OR resolved this glitch to display a more helpful error message to API-connected QuickBooks when they attempt to configure deposits without an "Undeposited Funds" account.
Show Scheduled Messages on Blocked-Off Time's Messaging Tab. While triggers correctly sent messages for blocked-off times, the blocked-off time messages tab failed to display those scheduled messages. We fixed this bug, and scheduled messages will be displayed on the blocked-off time messages tab.
October 30th release with 8 bug fixes
Fix Converge Credit Card Handling Issue for Non-US Addresses. Due to an error in our system, Converge credit card payments from non-US addresses were rejected. We corrected this error, and Converge credit card payments from non-US addresses will be processed correctly.
Fix Error on PM Statement Export to Excel. The PM Statement Export to Excel contained a null reference (a value saved for indicating that the pointer or reference does not refer to a valid object), which resulted in errors. OR fixed this bug, and the PM Statement Export to Excel process will work correctly.
Fix Error While Viewing Older Outbound Channel Messages. Several of our older outbound channel messages included language that stated, "You can go ahead and reply to this email. This email account is monitored." However, that is no longer the case, so that language has been removed from outbound channel messages.
Fix UI Issues With Widget Amenity Filter. The amenity widget filter was not rendering or behaving correctly on integrated websites. We resolved this issue to ensure the amenity widget filter renders and behaves correctly on integrated websites as expected.
Fix Vrbo Listing Import Duplicating Pet/Children Policy Text. Pet and children policy text was inadvertently duplicated and imported during Vrbo Listing Imports. OR fixed this bug, and the pet and children policy text imported during Vrbo Listing Imports will be correct.
Fix WWW Support Center Interactivity Bugs. Following the October 16th Public Website Header and Footer release, we noticed that the Support Center left navigation menu was bleeding over the footer under certain circumstances. We corrected this glitch, and the Support Center left navigation menu will now be displayed and behave as expected.
Improve Navigation on the Possible Airbnb Duplicates Page. The Possible Airbnb Duplicates page navigation inadvertently directed users to the merged contact's conversation history after merging rather than the expected Possible Airbnb Duplicates page. OR resolved this issue by sending users to the expected Possible Airbnb Duplicates page after merging duplicate contacts.
Restore Event Time Filter to Triggers. We experienced a code regression that removed the Event Time conditions from the trigger configuration form. We fixed this bug, and Event Time conditions have been restored to the trigger configuration form.