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Depends on how they're being paid... OwnerRez itself never handles any of your money.  Airbnb collects their own guests' payments, and deposits them into the account you've configured in their control panel.  For direct bookings, we recommend configuring a credit card payment processor in OwnerRez, which will also deposit to your bank account.

Hello,

My ipnone display looks like this for my website.

What have I done wrong and how do I fix?

Thank you

New here.

How do I receive the payments from my guests into my bank account?

Is anyone using a call-center service to field inquiries and maintenance requests for their rental operations? If so, are they integrated with OwnerRez and what has been your experience?

Apparently Ken You can not add your property to Expedia. If they need more properties they pull it from VRBO.

That is true, and is also stated in our support docs:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/instant-book-vs-request-to-book#havrbo

However, the reality is a bit more complicated.  Yes, you have no control over adding your property to Expedia, and not all Vrbo-API-active properties are.  But, they are indeed working on integrating their systems, and over time we have seen an increasing proportion of properties that are on Vrbo also being automatically added to Expedia.

Apparently Ken You can not add your property to Expedia. If they need more properties they pull it from VRBO. That is the only way your property shows up on their site. Why has no one from Owner Rez told me that in the last 3 days of me trying to work on this? 

Ken for Expedia do I create a listing on Expedia?

No, don't do that.

Or do I push info from Owner Rez.

No, not that either - it connects through via Vrbo.

I did see from our VRBO API the Expedia was below it but when I click on it it just goes to Expedia home page.

That's odd, I'll ask the engineers to take a look.

Do I create our home from that page?

No, that should not be necessary, and likely wouldn't work anyway.

Ken for Expedia do I create a listing on Expedia? Or do I push info from Owner Rez. I did see from our VRBO API the Expedia was below it but when I click on it it just goes to Expedia home page. Do I create our home from that page?

The answer is - it depends.

 - Expedia is actually the same company as HomeAway and Vrbo.  We have a close relationship with Vrbo, and, if you have connected to Vrbo using OwnerRez, your properties will also appear on HomeAway without any additional work by you.  They may or may not appear on Expedia, but, they are working on integrating their systems so over time they will all work together.  Again, it is not necessary nor recommended to set up your own Expedia account.

 - HomeToGo is a separate company, but, you can push your OwnerRez properties up to HTG as a new listing fairly easily:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/channel-management-api-integrations-hometogo-setup-connecting#preparing-ownerrez

 - With Booking.com, we do have an API connection with them, but it's not as full-features as our others, so at present it is unfortunately not possible to push your properties up from OwnerRez.  You have to manually create them in Booking.com, and then connect them to your OwnerRez account as discussed here:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/channel-management-api-integrations-booking-com-setup-connecting

We are actively in work to make this process smoother and more efficient, which will hopefully be available in the near future.

Since you own your listings on each channel, OwnerRez itself does not set them up for you. If you are using our paid ProConnect setup service, our staff will assist and advise in the necessary setup and configuration.  If you are not using ProConnect, you can still write in to the Helpdesk, explain what you want to do, and we can assist you with instructions or, if necessary, schedule a screenshare call.

To add our property to other sites besides AirBNB or VRBO like HomeAway  Homes to Go  Expedia, Booking.com Do we have to go to each platform and create our listing completly or does any info from OwnerRez transfer over easily so that we don't have to go thru all of he steps? Does owner rez have a service that we can pay for to do this or does anyone know of a company that we can hire to do this on about 10 sites?

I found your ticket, and, it has indeed been replied to.  If you have not received / seen that response, the most likely explanation is that it ended up in your spam folder - please check there.  Otherwise, perhaps there is an issue with your email account or server, but I'm not seeing any bounces for your email, so that's less likely.

I have emailed 5 times and have not received any response.

Dear Scott,

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience and frustration you've experienced with HomeToGo, and we appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns.

First and foremost, we want to express our regret that you haven't seen the results you expected over the past two-plus years on our platform. We take your feedback seriously, and we understand the importance of resolving the issues you've brought to our attention.

Regarding the pricing discrepancies and the lack of response to your emails, we want to assure you that this is not the level of service we aim to provide. We did have several pricing issues in the past however those are now fixed.

Furthermore, we want to apologize for the inconvenience you experienced with the billing topic. We would like to investigate your issues and help you out. For this we would need more information which you can provide to us via our Partner Relations E-Mail partnerrelations@hometogo.com.

We value your partnership with HomeToGo, and we are committed to making the necessary changes to ensure a more positive collaboration moving forward.

If you have any further details or specific examples you would like to share, please do not hesitate to reach out to our support team at. We hope that we can do the necessary steps to resolve your issues.

Thank you for your understanding. We look forward to restoring your confidence in HomeToGo and continuing our partnership.

Best regards,

HomeToGo Partner Relations Team
partnerrelations@hometogo.com

So helpful thank you!!

I am not a Google Sites expert but I was able to drag the embedded Html on top of a picture. I used one of the default templates to create a site. 

Do not 'just' insert a picture and try to add the widget on top, instead set the image of a section. This allows you to drag content on top of the image.

How do I overlap my booking widget and a picture of my property?

I am using google sites to build my website. I am leaving three examples of how i'd like it to look.

https://www.azure-properties.com/

https://www.lindsborgvacationrentals.com/

https://www.haustay.com/

How do I overlap my booking widget and a picture of my property? I am using google sites to build my website. I am leaving three examples of how i'd like it to look.

https://www.azure-properties.com/

https://www.lindsborgvacationrentals.com/

https://www.haustay.com/

Thanks Ken. I always appreciate the quality OR customer support. 

There are absolutely situations where Worldline/Bambora is the best possible choice, and maybe that's you - so, if you like them best, keep them!  That's why we support them, and all the rest - each one may not be right for you, but it's right for somebody.   :-)  

Hi Ken,

Very helpful. Thank you.

I suspected that the Stripe agent didn't completely understand what I was asking. So it's good to hear that my payment structure can work with them. However, I'm leaning away from Stripe because of the lack of service and ability to negotiate rates... 

But Lynnbrook is adamant about not releasing funds until check in...I will keep trying but I just received another email back stating this. 

Why should I switch from Worldline/Bambora if it's working and still seems to have the lowest rates for me? 

Thanks,

Kara

I use stripe.  I pull a payment of $1 at booking and a 2nd payment of the rest.  

Stripe ... does not appear (according to their customer service) to allow for my payment method of 50% to reserve and balance pulled automatically 30 days prior to stay---basically they don't keep the payment info on file to pull that 2nd payment.

Hmm, we have lots of clients using Stripe to do exactly that.  I think their agent was confused.

The various payment processors we support have lots of variety as to options, features, and cost, and there is no one right answer for everyone.  That depends on your business practices, financial strength and history, and many other factors, so it's best to do your research and choose whatever suit you best.

While Lynnbrook's default plan does indeed retain the funds until arrival (as Airbnb does), that is not always a requirement - I know some of our clients receive the funds right away (as with Stripe).  That may be something you can discuss and negotiate with Lynnbrook based on their underwriting, and actually that's one of the reasons we like Lynnbrook - with Stripe it's one-size-fits-all, which is quick and easy for many clients but for others, having someone you can negotiate with can achieve a better result.

I have always been using Stripe.  I am happy and it is easy.

I looked at others briefly but didn't ever make a change.  Lots of other items to worry about.

I've been using Bambora for credit card processing for direct bookings and VRBO since that's been integrated with API. No issues and it worked perfectly.  At the time I signed up with them through OR, I did the research and found the best rates for me. 

In October 2023 I got a message that Bambora was changing to Worldline. No big deal. I had some issue reconfiguring, so I went back to the OR suggested processors page for other options. In doing so, I see that Worldline/Bambora is best for Canadian customers. I am in the US. I don't know why this is recommended for Canadian customers...but anyhow, I see that Lynnbrook is suggested by OR. 

After contacting Lynnbrook for fees/rates, etc, they casually mentioned that they keep the money until check in (like Airbnb does). That's a no go for me. Why should they keep my money and earn interest on it? I have guests book over a year out.  They mention auditing and acquitions but those are non issues, I have an accountant and there is no need for this. Curious why OR recommends them.

Stripe is a bit more expensive, and does not appear (according to their customer service) to allow for my payment method of 50% to reserve and balance pulled automatically 30 days prior to stay---basically they don't keep the payment info on file to pull that 2nd payment. This is necessary for me, as I don't need the hassle of chasing that final payment. 

I'm looking for alternatives----what are other vacation rental owners using for payment processing these days? I suppose I can stick with Worldline (formerly Bambora)... 

Thanks!

Kara

I have gotten zero bookings from HomeToGo in the two-plus years I've been with them. Very recently I went to my listings on their website and discovered major issues, including advertising my units' prices at two times higher than they are. I emailed a detailed message to them about this, and I got no response. So a week later I resent them the message, and I still got no response. But a few days later I got a notice from a bill collector falsely claiming that I owed HomeToGo money for a booking that never happened. So I forwarded that message to HomeToGo and asked them what was up with that, and they didn't respond to that, either. Pretty mean-spirited and crooked.

Nevertheless, over the years I have signed up with all the platforms that are available through OwnerRez, about ten of them, in addition to Airbnb, Booking.com, and Vrbo, and I have gotten zero bookings from any of them. I honestly don't know how any of them stay in business. I do get bookings from Vrbo, Airbnb, and Booking.com, however. I get the most business from people finding my website in a Google search, then Vrbo, Airbnb and Booking.com, in that order.

From the general testing we've done we're not seeing any impact to the API connection between OwnerRez and Airbnb, Please let us know if you notice any oddities.

Any changes we have noticed, seem to be strictly UI changes on Airbnbs end.

~Caleb

Our OwnerRez Hosted Websites are already optimized for discovery and indexing by the major search engines, such as Google.  This can be expected to take time, but there are commonly available tools that can assist in that process, such as Google Webmaster Tools.

We have not found any commercially-available SEO services to provide any useful value, but, if you do desire to engage such a service, they generally want to place entries in the HEAD area of your website.  This is accessible on the Head tab under the Theme & Layout button in your Hosted Website settings.

It is not normally possible to compete in the search engines against the vast advertising power of vacation rental listing channels such as Vrbo and Airbnb - your website normally builds repeat business from guests who first find you via the channels, and then book directly for later visits.  Ordinarily, you will rarely if ever have guests who find you via a simple Google search.

However, we have had some clients find success in the search engines in smaller markets, through creating unique and relevant local content on a Custom page on their Hosted Website.  This might be a regularly-updated calendar of local events; an index of local attractions with links out to their own websites and links back to your site from theirs; reviews of local restaurants; or many other possible ideas.  Google places a high value on this.

Hello all,

I wonder how your experience is with HomeToGo. For us, it was a horrible experience. Extremely low quality guests, bookings with stolen cards, mixed up bookings (although the guest cancelled his booking with us, we were not informed about this). 

We want to be in a variety of platforms competing with Airbnb, Booking.com and VRBO but this is not the way how it should be. 

Hi there, my hosted website went live about 2 weeks ago, and I'm barely ranking on Google.

When looking at Google Search Console, I'm only showing up on result #22 for an obscure keyword (the keyword is "brooklyn escape," which is the name of my domain).

My goal is to rank on the first page for keywords a typical searcher might try, e.g.: "rental property brooklyn," "short term rental 2br brooklyn," etc.

I'm willing to put in the work to get this done, but frankly I'm not sure where to begin.

Still waiting for OR to lead us out of the dark about this.