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I am curious is anyone else is working with https://www.adkbyowner.com for any of their properties. They don't have any sort of integration with anything but with the desire for more direct bookings without platform fees they are a reasonable option for anyone in the Adirondack Mountains.

My biggest grip with their listing site is keeping the calendar up to date because you have to login in order to make changes as there isn't an API or integration with another calendar. I solved that today though by creating a tool that will take OwnerRez bookings and map them to the corresponding calendar changes and then make the changes.

If anyone is listing on their site let me know. And if anyone is interested in running the sync code let me know as well. The code isn't for the notice user so I would consider running it as a service for those that don't want to get into github, coding and configuration.

Hi All!

I am newer to OR and set up most of my messages to go out via email. My thought was: The emails look prettier, I can send attachments cleaner, and not all guests check their VRBO/Airbnb messages. Also if they have my email in their inbox several times, they will be more likely to find me and book direct with me in the future.  However, I am now entering into our summer (busy) season and learning that when a guest responds to those emails, it's actually a pain to respond back b/c I can't just reply to that email like normal. If I want to stay consistent with branding/email address, etc then I have to go back into OR and respond there by sending a new email (which then doesn't copy the previous email or subject line). 

I'm also finding that guests tend to reach out to me during their stay via the channel message and they are maybe less likely to check email while on vacation (makes sense! and easier for me to respond to). So I actually just set up a "How are you doing?" check-in as a Message. I am also wondering if I should send the "reminder to check out" via Message, not email? And maybe the "Check In Instructions" via Message too? 

I also wonder if certain things should be within the Messages so that if there is an issue later, VRBO or Airbnb can see it? 

And many of us know people who just don't check their email or get so many they don't see the ones from us. 

So now I am just wondering what, if any, should go to email? As I said, I am new to this so don't have a large sample size to really get any opinions yet so thought maybe others on here can give their insight before I get too far into creating a ton more emails I have to copy and move over? :)

Thanks! 

Thanks Deb,

I did end up moving forward and had a similar experience as you. My website is live and it looks ok. Somewhat boilerplate but professional enough. Here are my observations:

Very low integration with OwnerRez. Only one paragraph of the site receives copy from OwnerRez. The booking widget works. (I think. I haven't gotten a booking through it yet but I also haven't specifically tried to drive traffic to it yet).

No syncing of pictures, reviews, amenities, descriptions etc. (except for the "Short Description")

The boostly site is much more complicated to maintain then OwnerRez. I'm in tech and did Web development for years earlier in my career. The suite of technologies and embedded dependencies require more bandwidth to maintain than I have as a single-property manager. There are hours and hours of training videos that you need to hunt-and-peck through to figure out how to make the update you want. You need to be (or hire) an active web developer to maintain this site, and not just a dabbling Wordpress person. Perhaps its well suited for larger property managers with multiple properties and a staff to maintain systems, but its just me here.

Zero SEO out of the box. They immediately try to upsell you this service through another partner when it would be so easy to just ask you for your desired search terms up front and incorporate them in the right places (every page) while they're building you the site. That would be a clear value-add from what I had before with the OwnerRez site.

There are hidden pages as part of your website that appear to exist solely to drive traffic to boostly's other services, including property management 

Why do i need a second CRM?

To be fair, I have not invested the time to play with their CRM or to implement some of their marketing and promotional strategies. I do still intend to do this to see if I can drive traffic to the site, but I feel like grass-roots campaigns/promotions with past guests is still going to be the most effective form of organic promotion. I don't think I need fancy social media AI campaigns or another $100/mo CRM to do that, but I do plan to experiment with this when I have time. 

Their support during the onboarding process was good and my questions and concerns were addressed promptly.

Their sales team is really good

I’d definitely look into the opinion of others on Facebook about them.

I recently went through the Boostly onboarding process and ultimately decided not to move forward. The product never reached a point where I could approve or launch it, and it didn’t meet the professional standards I was expecting—particularly with how it handled my OwnerRez data.

I’m sure others have had different experiences, but my advice would be to proceed with caution. Read all the reviews (Trustpilot, Capterra, etc.), and make sure their templated approach truly fits what you need—especially if you’re used to having full control with OwnerRez. If you’re not unhappy with your current site, it might be more effective to invest in traffic and marketing support than to rebuild your entire platform.

Hi David,

I see we also have an email from you that has been escalated to our engineering team. We'll follow up on that ticket moving forward.

No. Airbnb say no PMS is connected and in their privacy and sharing section of settings also shows nothing connected..

Nope. I've done this at least 20 times over the last 24hrs. Nothing doing. Didn't have this problem with Lodgify!

 Is your email still connected to Airbnb via Logdify? 

Hi David!

If you're getting that error when attempting to set up the Airbnb API integration, it usually means that the Airbnb account is already connected to another PMS, and they'll only let you have one PMS connected to the account. You'll want to remove the current PMS connection from your Airbnb account, and then see if you can set up the Airbnb API integration. We have this support article that goes over how to remove the old PMS connection in Airbnb: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/channel-management-api-integrations-airbnb-common-issues-questions#old-pms

Nope. I've done this at least 20 times over the last 24hrs. Nothing doing. Didn't have this problem with Lodgify!

Hi David!

If you're getting that error when attempting to set up the Airbnb API integration, it usually means that the Airbnb account is already connected to another PMS, and they'll only let you have one PMS connected to the account. You'll want to remove the current PMS connection from your Airbnb account, and then see if you can set up the Airbnb API integration. We have this support article that goes over how to remove the old PMS connection in Airbnb: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/channel-management-api-integrations-airbnb-common-issues-questions#old-pms

Channel accounts must have unique users and one already exists for this Airbnb user: 2263386 - xxx.yyy@gmail.com - MY NAME

Getting this error when trying to connect to Airbnb. They have no idea... it shows as connected at their end and on my privacy & sharing / services on airbnb website.

Anyone else had this error? I did have a previous trial with OR... could that be it and it's a leftover connection somehow...? Have emailed through but there's no way to chat/call that I can see so no idea how long OR take to reply - but not a great start!

Thanks in advance....

Thanks!

Hi Kimberly, Sorry you found that out the hard way.

We do have a Booking.com setup article where we let you know what will be sent to Booking.com and what needs to be configured directly on your Booking.com Extranet. You may want to review this to make sure there aren't other surprises lurking.
https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/bookingcom-api-rates-settings

We are working with Booking.com to include more items in the API sync between OwnerRez and Booking.com. 

What's he best way to send Digital Guidebook to the guest? Through email or SMS?

I just found out the hard way that when you integrate with Booking.com the cleaning fee associated to each property does not automatically integrate. You have to do this manually. Within the property, go to Policies, then scroll almost all the way down to "additional fees and charges" and fill in the appropriate amount.

This really should be fixed or at least a warning message on OR side when we integrate with booking.com.

Thanks for the info.  I will look into it!

I am using Touch Stay and like it. You can add Viator and HostCo for merchandise,

The last updated I shared above still stands today. While we hope to have the new Vrbo API in the works by EOY, there is no definitive timeline we could provide at this time.

Hello, Do we have any updates on the seasonal cancelation policies?

Has anyone had any experience with an accountant who is versed in Short Term Rentals and using OwnerRez for its PM Reporting?  Looking for some guidance on reconciling escrow account with Owner Rez.

Hey Lianne!

We have some integrations that might allow you to use a digital guidebook. You can check out the different guest communication integrations we have and see if any of them have what you're looking for: https://www.ownerrez.com/integrations#GuestCommunication

If you have additional questions, reach out to help@ownerrez.com

Sorry for the late response.... Thank you for the reply and the info, I wil look into this. 

Lianne

I know this post is old, but I'll reply for anyone else that is wondering.

We are in the process of switching.

Hostaway has a clean and modern feel to it, and a decent amount of customization but it pretty much ends there. So much glitchiness. I haven't noticed this at all in OR, it seems to work without any hiccups.

Reasons-

1) The Hostaway app is very glitchy. The calendar looks nice when it works. I usually need to completely close the app out and reopen for it to update.

2) Also, the Hostaway app is super limited. Most of the time I need to go to the native website to do anything.

3) One of the biggest selling points of OR is they use a web app, meaning you can do anything on a tablet or phone that you can do on a PC.

4) So far, OR seems to have more capability in general but I haven't tapped into all of it yet.

5) Add on's Pricing- for example Hostaway charges a whopping $8 per lock with smart lock integration. OR is half of that. 

6) Subscription pricing is less for OR.

7) OR is privately owned. I won't go down this rabbit hole of private equity run companies.

8) Trigger capabilities in OR. I would like to see this improved on though as it has so much potential.

9) Customer support. It's true that Hostaway has quicker responses, however it ends there. I don't ever seem to get the answer i need or the problem solved.

Hope this helps. I'm sure I'll learn more as I'm still new to Ownerrez.

Considering using Boostly for a new website and to increase my direct bookings. I currently have an OR hosted site that I completely control and I'm not unhappy with it but I haven't been successful driving traffic to it or in generating direct bookings. Saw the recent Boostly webinar and wondered if any OR members have worked with them. How well do their websites integrate with OR? How was the experience overall? Do their recommended social media and email marketing strategies drive traffic to the site and increase direct bookings? Would love to hear from someone who has onboarded with them. Thanks!

-Paul

Hi Renee,

In the conversation view, if there are templates available to be sent to the guest, you'll see a Templates dropdown as shown in the screenshot below.

If you have other questions on this, feel free to drop us a note at Help@ownerrez.com.

Thank you - I'll give this a try

Hi Renee!

While there currently isn't any way to do this automatically, you could forward that email to OR and classify it as an inquiry manually.

To do this, find your OwnerRez inquiryspot email address by going here in your account and looking for the OwnerRez User Level Email Address:

https://app.ownerrez.com/inquiries/instructions

Go to your personal email account and forward the email to that email address. 

You'll receive a notification that an unrecognized email arrived in your account with a button that says "Categorize this email". When you click on that button, you'll fill in some information. It sounds like you'll want to classify that email as an inquiry. 

Once you do that, you'll see that inquiry in your inquiries section. You can play around with some test ones to see how that might work for you.

Feel free to reach out to us at Help@ownerrez.com if you have any questions on this.

Is there a way to select a template from a conversation screen?

If someone sends an email to me directly is there anyway to connect that email inquiry to OR? Currently I only see it in my email software, but ideally I'd like to have it connect to OR and be tracked/seen there.

People are emailing me directly and not submitting a form.

Thank you! :)

Kacey,  

I"'d say no.  In fact I'd say no to any channel that doesn't have an API interface with our PMS, OwnerRez.  There are plenty of other channels that are growing with the STR.  Trip Advisor is going the opposite direction.  They quit supporting their API so now you are looking at ical and interfacing your other modules.  As to volume, I used them back in ancient times and even then they accounted for less than 2% of my bookings at it was just Vrbo Airbnb and TripKey.   Look the API channel list in OwnerRez there are so many others to add that have far better interface support.    

I've had 6 bookings come from HomeToGo, That is just over 1% of my bookings, which isn't a lot but assume 3-day average bookings at $250/night and that's $1,500.   The issue I have with HomeToGo is they are not in the States.   Banks don't like to send wires overseas which was how HomeToGo first tried to bill me their commission.  Finally, HomeToGo sent a credit card invoice but it too was out of the States and my bank didn't initially play well with them.     I spent a lot of time trying to get them paid which made me question the 1%.  But now that that issue seems resolved it's been smooth sailing.   

This conversation goes on to talk about the other providers.   I am glad and a bit grateful to support others than the big 3.  Many of you only use 2 channels & they can get upset about a simple thing and shut you down.   We should do all we can to preserve as many options as possible.  Those channels that are overseas should be smart about things and set up offices in the States so that we can avoid international banking issues.