VRBO inquiry to quote

Hello,

Not seeing this problem easily answered on the forums. 

I received a Vrbo inquiry from a potential guest. I attempted to create a quote for the inquiry but OwnerRez doesn't seem to want to send the quote through the API connected channel. I can't figure out how to do that or if it's possible. I did not want to send the quote manually and bypass Vrbo.

Additionally, I attempted to respond with a quote within Vrbo itself. Vrbo is supposed to have the ability to send a pre-approval or quote within the native inbox, but for some reason those features are missing from the inquiry. I suspect they are removed since I connected the listing to the OwnerRez PMS, but I'm not sure.

I'm going to have the guest actually request to book instead of contacting host. That's my interim fix. Any clarification on what is happening and what I should do?

It is in fact not possible to do what you want.

 - You cannot send the quote manually and bypass Vrbo, even if you wanted to, because Vrbo only provides the guest's real email address after they book.  Prior to booking, they only provide a proxy email that automatically filters out any links, phone numbers, web addresses, or other potentially identifying information.  That's why you can't send a regular OwnerRez quote.

 - At present Vrbo does not have a custom-quote API interface, so it is not possible for OwnerRez to configure a quote that can show up at the guest's end as a regular Vrbo quote for them to book.

 - And, unfortunately, Vrbo also doesn't allow you to create custom quotes in their control panel for API-connected properties.

We do have regular discussions with Vrbo about our client experience, and, they are aware of this gap in functionality.  We'll continue to push for that capability to be added.

The most effective workaround is to tell the guest to go ahead and book at whatever rate Vrbo presents them.  Then, once the booking has been made and appears in OwnerRez, you can make any desired changes to the Charges in the Booking in OwnerRez, since at that time OwnerRez will be in full control of it.

Hi Holly:

Assuming you are API-connected to Vrbo, the detailed answer depends, in part, on whether you are Instant Book or Request to Book. I read your question about the inquiry/quote to mean you want to adjust the pricing to discount the stay. If you are not adjusting pricing, the guest can simply book, no quote and approval are needed.

If you want to change pricing:
If you are Request to Book, you and the guest can message back and forth and agree on a price. Simply edit the booking amount before confirming and collecting the payment.

If you are Instant Book, you have several options, once you've agreed on a price:
 A} Allow the guest to book and refund the overpayment if there was only one payment scheduled; otherwise adjust the pricing and the final payment will adjust automatically
B} Go into the rates calendar; edit the pricing and minimum nights to match your discussed amount; sync those changes to Vrbo and let the guest book (anyone could book those prices, so do it when the guest is available to act quickly.) If you use dynamic pricing, either adjust on that site and force a sync, or adjust pricing on OwnerRez, knowing that it will disappear the next time pricing syncs, and expect the guest to book immediately
C} Go to Properties>Rules and change the rule to NOT charge the card at the time of booking, allow the guest to book, adjust the pricing, run the card, and then change that rule back

While I'm not trying to create a quote as above, I have the same problem as what the original poster mentioned:

"Vrbo is supposed to have the ability to send a pre-approval or quote within the native inbox, but for some reason those features are missing from the inquiry. I suspect they are removed since I connected the listing to the OwnerRez PMS, but I'm not sure."

How can I pre-approve inquiries in Vrbo? This works just fine in Airbnb but I don't have that same functionality with Vrbo.

How can I pre-approve inquiries in Vrbo?

You cannot, and, it is not necessary - guests can simply go ahead and book without waiting for approval.  If your property is in Instant Book mode, the booking will be finalized automatically; if in Request-to-Book, it will appear in OwnerRez as a Pending booking for you to accept or decline.

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/pending-bookings#request-to-book

Either way, no action is required by you in Vrbo.  There is more discussion and explanation earlier in this same thread that may be helpful.

Hey there, I believe I am having the same issue with VRBO, where I cannot send a quote back to the person at VRBO. I am new to this so maybe I am missing something. 

Here's what we did. 

I received a request to book through VRBO. We are running a 20% off on Airbnb, so we wanted to offer that discount to VRBO as well.

Since discount codes don't work with OwnerRez pushing through to VRBO, we adjusted the price in our pricing software. (that is correct, yes?) 

We then hit "create a quote" through owner rez. 

When it came time to send the quote, OwnerRez is looking for an email address. Since the offer came through VRBO. There's no email address. So how do we send the quote? Is there a randomized email you can copy and paste like craigslist? 

We logged into VRBO and tried to send through their server. That wouldn't let us send any quote either, and said we had to use OwnerRez.

Thanks for any advice or help.  How do we respond with a quote to VRBO? 

On the plus size. Using Owner Rez allowed us to create our direct listing on two channels. So that is a plus. 

How do we respond with a quote to VRBO?

As noted above - you cannot.  Vrbo API simply does not support that.

I'm thoroughly confused on how to handle VRBO inquiries. I've responded, but I'm unable to pre-approve via VRBO's portal and the guest info wasn't imported to send a quote via OR.

What are the proper steps when an inquiry is received?

More detailed information is in the above posts in this thread - it is not necessary to pre-approve anything. The guest should simply proceed to book via Vrbo, your manual participation in advance is not required.

Ok, so pre-approval not needed. Though what if I wanted to send the guest a quote for different dates? Is there any way to do this through VRBO or OR?

Unfortunately, no, this is not possible, because Vrbo has no custom quote API, nor can you generate OR quotes and send them to Vrbo guests who have not yet booked.