I Want To Try Channel Bridge But I'm SUPER Nervous

I see there is something called Channel Bridge here and I wouldn't mind trying it to reduce the calendar sync issues and the amount of manual work I'm doing to manage my property. However not being a highly technological person, I'm very nervous that either I'll mess it up or that I won't like it and then I won't be able to easily go back to the regular calendar sync way of doing things.

Also, I use Evolve, and I'm not sure Channel Bridge will work with them.

Thoughts? Opinions? Experiences?

Thanks!

1) Get rid of Evolve. They also charge your guests high commissions, have a questionable reputation, only do the easy stuff Ownerrez does, and they control your reviews and prevent you from using Booking.com.

2) Read the channel bridge help and forum article(s). You can search on the Support page.

You cannot use Channel Bridge with Evolve because it requires direct access to the VRBO or Airbnb account that your properties are listed in. If you cannot login to VRBO and see the VRBO bookings directly - the ones that Evolve manages - then Channel Bridge won't be able to see or download them either.

Channel Bridge won't mess anything up. It's basically a sophisticated copy and paste tool for grabbing booking/guest data out of VRBO and filling it in to OwnerRez. It merges with the bookings you already have in OwnerRez.

Here's a copy/paste blurb we use in tickets:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

You are importing bookings from VRBO but they are "empty" and just have date and guest name. This is because for calendar imports (such as with VRBO or Airbnb) that is the only information that is contained in the calendar sync. However, we created a tool called Channel Bridge that will download booking/guest information for VRBO and Airbnb bookings. Read more about that here:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/channel-bridge

And here is how to install it:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/channel-bridge-install

The workflow steps are:

1) The booking occurs on Airbnb or VRBO

2) A few minutes after, our system automatically imports it in, blocking the calendar

3) The booking in our system will have basic information such as dates, guest name and phone number if it's Airbnb, but not much else

4) Later (the same day or later in the week) you then run Channel Bridge to download and "bring in" the rest of the booking info which you can do later at any time

We also have direct/API integrations available for Booking.com, TripAdvisor, CanadaStays and VRBO/HomeAway depending on your size. Some like Booking.com will work for any number of properties. Others like TA and VRBO/HomeAway require 5 or more properties.