VRBO Inquiry not coming through with email

Hi - I have had my last two inbound inquiries from VRBO come in without any contact info from the potential guest.  So when I make the quote to send back to the guest, owenerrez wont let me send the quote. This is because in the "Send Quote" section, it requires the email of the guest.

Is this a gap with the integration between VRBO / Ownerrez? I really need to solve this ASAP in order to get this quote out so this guest can book! Any help is appreciated!!

-Matt

Is this a gap with the integration between VRBO / Ownerrez?

Effectively, yes - Vrbo intentionally does not provide any direct guest contact information until the guest has actually booked.  You can only communicate with the guest via the Vrbo internal messaging system (though OwnerRez does integrate with that).  And, those messages block any phone numbers, email addresses, or weblinks until after the guest has already booked.

This means that, unfortunately, there is no way to send a guest a custom quote.  The only option is for them to simply book their stay on Vrbo at whatever rates are posted there.  Once the booking has been made, it appears in OwnerRez and you can control it there, including by adjusting the rates at that time.  You can discuss this and make promises via the internal messaging system prior to booking, but you can't actually do a custom pre-booking quote.

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/channel-management-api-integrations-vrbo#vrbo-quotes 

Ken this is massively helpful. Thank you.

But this is also a massive gap. I get more inquiries than anything in VRBO and its creating a bottle neck, disincentivizing me from even using Ownerrez. Right ? I pay a pretty penny to come centrally manage, but this is me manually working through VRBO directly now. As of now, I only use for Airbnb and VRBO. I already message people directly on AIrbnb instead, and now im having to do the same in VRBO and talk them through any post booking costs changes on a "promise"? Kinda makes sense for me to just use those two platforms directly instead then

The issue is that Vrbo doesn't even have a custom-quote API.  We've pressed them on this for years, and recently we've gotten a bit of traction, so hopefully at some point that functionality will be available.

Note that, with Airbnb, you can already create a custom quote in OwnerRez and send it to a prospective guest via the API.

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/air-inquiries-and-stuff#specialoffers 

Thanks Ken 

Sorry to bug you again but I think I'm still having an issue. I can't pre-approve / edit the quote in VRBO

And then I also can't send them the quote in OwnerRez because I dont have their email. How am I supposed to approve this inquiry?

You can't - and you don't need to.  Inquiries don't need to be "approved", the guest can just go ahead and book without approval.