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A lot of folks use https://resortcleaning.com/ which is API integrated with OwnerRez so that bookings go over into ResortCleaning automatically.

Looking for input from this awesome group.....we just went live - switched from a PM system that had a way to track work orders (cleaning, inspections, and maintenance) and tie them to a reservation. What are others (PMs or owners with multiple properties) doing for track these task?

Adria! So glad you mentioned the changes with guest info from AirBnB. I am a newbie - only been at this since August. If you have time, could you give me the step-by-step on what you're doing since the changes? I am API integrated with AirBnB. (Not with VRBO because I only have 1 property.) THANK YOU!

Also - did you know there is a fairly new Facebook group called "Unofficial Ownerrez Support Group"? There's an Adria in the group, but don't know if that's you. :)

It is a steep learning curve. I definitely could not evaluate the value after the two week trial, there is just a lot to set up. But I love it now. I am going on two years and perpetually learning more about what it offered.

I say break it down into stages and master each one. For example, I began with calendar sync, I worked my way though all the syncing on the assorted sites I use for three listings. Once that was done, I then began to tackle correspondence, first the initial set up, then tinkering with the details until I got things just right for me. I absolutely love not having to send all my notes right when a booking happens and instead having missives timed to go out at the right times for guests so they are not inundated.

AirBnB just went to not allowing guest details so now I have to go to the personal step of logging in and manually setting up reservation contact info and manually sending my first couple of emails. I am so spoiled by having it be automatic the last couple of years that I am now jumping into API, I want it to run automatically. I want the guest from China who books at 3AM my time to get professional sounding correspondence immediately.

I've added e-locks with door codes and love that, too.

Each step, just one at a time, step by step, get it properly set up and only then do I move on to the next one.

The other change to my technique is that I set aside a time to work on my OR stuff (I have a real job), I open an email and as I go through my project I type up all my questions and when I am done for the evening, I send the email and know I will likely have my answers within 24 hours. Adjust your expectations to how it works with C/S and you will no longer feel impatient, but just change your routine and be less stressed.

great post, this kind of thing really helps others avoid issues !

Special items I didnt do when I did my API Integration and it cost me some $ on rentals that I am trying to recover after the fact from customers. Keep in mind almost all of your setting in Airbnb will be overwritten and if you dont have them set up in OR, they will not appear on the Airbnb platform, including surcharges, which is where I got caught off guard. Having said that, I thought I had read all the OR documents thoroughly.
1. Charge for extra guest per night. I had this only set up for OR bookings only and used the AIrbnb platform for this fee. Therefore when we switched there was no extra guest fee when several of our guest booked. FIX: In surcharges set sites to ALL. Easy enough, but this was not something that is specifically mentioned to do when preparing for the transition. No fault of OR, some folks may have already been pushing fees to Airbnb, but we were not, and only used the platform fee input fields, which all get overwritten.
2. Cleaning fee, same as above.
All in all we love the Airbnb API and appreciate all the hard work that had to of gone into this upgrade! Thanks OR Team.
Just want to give other OR users the heads up in case they have there system set up like ours.

If you're talking about a website template - the website has already applied it. It just doesn't look that great because you're missing a few things yet.

- Finish adding the data for your properties. I see you've got a couple in there already, you can import your listing descriptions and photos directly from Airbnb and HA/VRBO using the Import buttons on top of the Properties screen if they're listed there. That'll save you a ton of time, and the more you have complete, the better your website will look.

- If you have a company logo, add that to your account in your Profile, which is under the little arrow dropdown in the upper right corner of the screen. That'll appear on your website too.

- You can change some of the basic thematic elements of your website, like colors. Go to Settings > Hosted Website > click on your website > click the Edit Theme/Layout button.

- That same area also has a CSS tab. If you're good with CSS, you can customize quite a lot by examining the tags in your generated website and then putting CSS statements in that area. That's actual coding work though, so most people leave it alone.

Just signed up for the trial and want to use a turnkey template. Where do I see these and how do I edit and use for my properties. I have the hosted site turned on. Sorry, if the info is out there. Just need help locating in.

We hear ya, really we do... We're trying to ramp up our support, and we'd like to make it possible for you to pay for personal training and setup assistance beyond what our Concierge service offers. We just don't have the staff availability to do that quite yet.

Hang in there! The learning curve is SO FRUSTRATING, but the long term results are great. I only have 1 property. I am on AirBnB and VRBO and have an OwnerRez website. Take it one step at a time. Try to get the OR guys on the phone with you. I probably don't use the OR functions as well as I could. I do not let OR respond to inquiries or bookings because I like to do that myself through the ABB & VRBO messaging systems. I like to add something personal in my response rather than sending a generic response. Beyond that, I have 12 trigger emails that go out depending on the circumstances of each reservation. You should feel free to post any/all questions on here - no matter how trivial you think they are. We will all help!

I am right there with you Monica!!! I have sooooo many questions that could simply be answed if I could talk to support staff to walk me thru a few last items so I can actually start my free trial. I know in the end it will be good.... it's just getting there! I don't like talking thru problems and issues on email... need a real person and have called several times and left a message. Feeling completely overwhelmed.

Aletha, how long ago did you talk to Lynnwood? They are not longer saying that and are creating merchant accounts for all users regardless of volume. You may not save any money necessarily, but there are other advantages in going with them, as I wrote here:

https://www.ownerrez.com/forums/general-help/how-does-the-pricing-between-stripe-and-lynbrook-compare#62729

I'm curious if you talked to them awhile back or just recently?

I spoke with Lynnwood Group. They advised unless we'd be getting charges of 50K or more, it doesn't pencil to go with them. Since we only have one listing and expect to get only a small percentage of our guest on the Hosted Web-site what do you recommend? I'm considering PayPal, Stripe or Square. If Square is only for U.S. then that's out, it seems.

Look at the charges and payments on the booking. Even if the booking is cancelled, there still may be charges showing which will remit earnings to the owner (and commission to you the PM). There are legitimate use cases where cancelled bookings still collect revenue from the guest. Just because the booking is cancelled does not mean it will be dropped from PM. If you want all the money reversed, remove all the charge line items or add additional line items that negate what is there (ie. use negative amounts) so that th etotal balance is $0. Check the booking > PM tab to see the breakdown of charges, payments, etc that is being remitted to the owner and PM. As you adjust the booking's charges, those PM numbers will change.

I have a cancelled booking on my owner statement and its' paying the owner on the cancelled reservation? How do I remove?
The booking was entered in May and a cancellation was end of May but the refund went out in June. It was a direct booking.
Anyone ever have this issue?

It is also useful to learn how to identify fake service dogs. I watched a couple Youtubes on how to identify a fake service animal. Every VR owner should do that once. There is a huge difference between service animals and others. The 2 questions are one thing. Picking out fakes is another. My lease agreement also states that people with fake service animals can lose their booking without refund.

Hi, I am a happy OR user from SC, managing 14 properties at Isle of Palms and a couple elsewhere in the state.

I'm just taking a tour through these messages and spotted this.

We have pet friendly properties and used to get requests ALL. THE. TIME. for pet fee to be waived for a service animal. We finally put the note below at the bottom of our pet policy. We also have a policy for Service Animals that we provide to "remind" guests that their animal should never ever be left alone in the property, as well as the other typical things they forget. Haven't had a request to waive the fee since.

A NOTE REGARDING SERVICE ANIMALS AND EMOTIONAL SUPPORT OR THERAPY ANIMALS:

We welcome all Service Animals in all properties.   
While we recognize the value of emotional support animals and therapy dogs, according to the ADA laws, emotional support animals and therapy dogs are not considered SERVICE ANIMALS and therefore are not afforded the same rights as animals that are working dogs, trained to do a specific task to assist an individual with a disability.  If you have questions about SERVICE ANIMALS please see the Americans with Disabilities Act website:    https://www.ada.gov/regs2010/service_animal_qa.html.

Good catch, we will get those fixed.

Under Properties in Booking Area - errors

Under Sports & Adventure:
Ski Lift Privileges is there twice,Bay/Sound Fihising is misspelled.

Emma, thanks for reaching out about your product. However, OwnerRez does not currently integrate with Paycron so it would not be possible to use within OwnerRez as a payment processing alternative. If you are interested in integrating, please send an email to our ticket system with integration information and someone will take a look at it.

E-check is an electronic version of a paper check used to make payments online. Benefits of Echecks include quicker payment, secure payment method, lower cost and reduced chances of bounce checks. Paycron provides fast, reliable and secure electronic check payment processing. Contact us to save time and money with this service.

All they have to do is a $5,000 fine and misdemeanor for misrepresenting a service animal and the problem goes away.

The ones they really hurt are the disabled.

Good for you! There's way too much of that bullshit going around these days.

So, today, I had a person text about a 2 bedroom apartment I had for (longterm) rent.

She asked what the monthly pet fee I charged was.

I asked her what kind of animal (11 year old shnorkie??) - we discuss it a bit

Then she said it was a registered service animal and asked if she still had to pay the pet fee. The hair went up on the back of my neck

I said "why didn't you mention this at first" - sensing a possible lawsuit.

She said a lot of people discriminate against it which is illegal

So I did the two questions "is the dog a service animal required because of a disability? "

She said "Yes - for a mental disability"

Then I asked "what work or task has the dog been trained to perform?"

She then said it was an emotional support animal.

I said that is not a service animal. And that in some jurisdictions, falsely claiming it is a service animal is a misdemeanor.

Then she left the conversation. I am guessing someone trying to get out of a pet fee and it might not even be a support animal!

Why don't you put in a stacking washer/dryer? It may be less of a headache than other workarounds

We don't integrate with any inventory tracking software right now, but there are a ton out there: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=inventory+tracking

Is there something you're looking for on the integration that would help the workflow from being connected to OwnerRez? Seems like a lot of the inventory side would be separate from the booking side that you track in OwnerRez, so it might just work with a separate system.

I’m looking for software that links up to OR to keep track of linens and amenities inventory does anyone know if there is such a software or program that is out there?

I own a cleaning business in Tampa and I clean a few vacation rentals. I also work for my daughter cleaning and managing her cleaning business in Destin. That being said you have two viable options first being as previously mentioned having three sets of turns on hand with a private cleaner which is what I do in Tampa with the rentals I clean. Or you can check around for a cleaning service that provides linens for every turn they bring in the clean and take the dirty with them. There really isn’t much difference in cost the difference is with a cleaning service that provides the linen you know you will always have the places cleaned and fresh linen in unit at all times with someone private if they get sick or car breaks down they would have to find someone to not only clean it at the drop of a dime but be able to get the clean linen to the unit. The other benefit to a service is they get good quality linens at a better price than we can get they do the ordering when needed and they can let you know when the guests should be charged for missing or damaged linens so your not absorbing the costs. Also going with a service you do t have to store linen in the rental in an owners closet which is great when you have limited space to store things. You just need to check in the forums of Airbnb or vrbo even Facebook groups or google cleaning services and call around for prices they are all over the place anymore.

Doesn't surprise me, but I am not sure that a legitimate business should be largely dependent on PayPal. I have heard good and bad about people using them for business. I heard HomeAway (sorry, verbo :) may be allowing owners to get away from the dreaded yapstone/vacationrentalpayments, but not sure yet how they handle this deposit situation yet.

I am leaning towards Lynnebrook group. But honestly not sure if other processors do the same thing to refunds like you say. I think there is a lot of value in having someone who handles a lot of vacation rental activity (besides yapstone).

Of course, Airbnb there isn't really a deposit. Maybe the above makes them more valuable in that way.

Paypal announced changes to their Terms of Service effective May 7, 2019. Among the changes is the fact that Paypal will no longer refund service fees if you refund all or a portion of a charge. Those of you using Paypal for rental payments may want to consider alternative processors if you deal with many refunds. Especially if you have used them for security deposits....that's $15 for every $500 deposit you refund.
https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/ua/upcoming-policies-full