General Help and Questions

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Hi there, I have guests staying an extra week. They are repeat guests and I don't want to charge them a security deposit. It looks as if I will have to charge them a reserved deposit given the only options I am being shown in accepting the credit card to take them off pending status.

Can you please let me know how I can just charge them the $700 without incurring the reserved deposit? The customer's last name is DeMichele.

Thanks!

Hi Claudia,

Great to hear from you again!

That's a great suggestion.

You could figure that out right now by using the Export button above the grid and then opening in Excel sum'ing on the column.

Also take a look at the Payment Details report under Reports > Details > Payments. Use the Scheduled Payment checkbox to filter. Then look at totals. That assumes that you have a scheduled payment in place for each booking.

Ella, will do. There has been a greater push for that feature lately, and we may have an early beta version of this out in just a few weeks actually.

"We have a project for "hosted sites" that has been simmering on the back burner for awhile. When released, you'll be able to turn on and manage a personal website directly from inside OwnerRez."
Please keep us posted on this! That would be awesome

When you go under LIST, is there a way to give a total of outstanding Balances at the bottom?

Thanks!
Claudia

Glenn,

I do everything via OwnerRez. I reply to VRBO that I will send them a quote shortly and to look in their Spam/Junk Mail. I then go to OwnerRez and send them the link. I have both my email and ownerRez emails on VRBO, so everything is already entered into OwnerRez when I get there.

Hi Glenn,

We have a one-time manual iCal import (Tools > Import iCal) that will bring in bookings from other systems as "blocked off time" but this has to be triggered manually. We do not yet support a full background syncing for iCal.

-Michelle

Hi, quick question about booking calendar blocks. I can find the ical links to expose bookings (and blocks) to other websites. However I cannot seem to find a spot to put other ical links to block the OwnerRes calendar. I have a third party overall calendar that I manage and put blocks on dates. I would like these to show up as unavailable on the OwnerRes calendar. I am linking a web page to OwnerRes and want to use it as one of several sites that I take bookings on. From my overall calendar I ensure that all is aggregated from the sites and have an overall block that is resent out to AirBnB, VRBO, and Flipkey... I also want to send out the blocks to OwnerRes.

I am convinced to give the website another try. Weebly seems to be the best bet for this as they have beautiful templates and the sites are easy to create. I will certainly use your widgets. Are there any tricks to getting traffic to these websites? Like I said before I had a page for a year but I really did not get any inquiries off of it? Anyone else have experience with personal websites.

Noticing that VRBO has made yet more changes requiring more money. Although I get a lot of business from them I would really like to move away from them....

Sent!

Nancy, the person you're talking to is giving you mindless scripted responses. They don't know what they're talking about. Do you have a Virtual Terminal login with them? Might be this: https://terminal.securenet.com. Contact our ticket system at help@ownerreservations.com and give us the login for that, and we'll take a look for you. There may be a setting that needs to be turned on. Otherwise, we'll advise you on what to do next. The bottom line is that something on the SecureNet side is not configured correctly. We have many users using SecureNet accounts and none of them are returning this message other than your account. Thx, ~Sam

The CS person at SecureNet says that in order for ecommerce to be enabled, I need to put a pay button on my website that has source code in it. Do you know what she means by that? Would it help for you to talk with this person? I explained to her that the whole payment system was set up linked through your software and that people didn't pay directly from my website. She didn't seem to understand. I'm afraid I'd just get the same answer if I called back.

Edited to add, here is the log she just sent via email. Says "resolved" but it's not.

Name: Nancy
Mid: XXXXX88
Issue:
* merchant is having integration issues. She is sending invoices from Owner Reservation
Resolution:
* I advised the merchant how we normally integrate with other websites. However, the merchant is stated the Owner Reservations writes there owns codes and she send invoices from their websites. I advised merchant that she has to send invoices from our system, so we can process the payment. She stated she will call the other company back for more assistance. resolved

SecureNet has a list of error codes on their website in this PDF:

https://www.securenet.com/sites/default/files/Error%20Codes.pdf

On the fourth page of the PDF, you can see the error message that I mentioned in my previous post. That's the one we're seeing coming back.

The guest is right - this not from his bank. This message is coming from SecureNet and telling you that your account is not enabled for e-commerce/online transactions. They should be able to help you fix it.

I just wrote the guest to ask him if he'd double checked the number and if the bank wasn't just sending him a security notice. I think he said it was an error message with the form itself.

Maybe we can try it out using me as a guinea pig? I can try to charge a small amount and we can see if it goes through. What do you think?

Nancy, we looked at the latest banking logs for your account. I see the decline messages that you're seeing. SecureNet is returning this message when you try to process credit cards:

***MERCHANT ACCOUNT IS NOT ENABLED FOR ECOM TRANSACTIONS***

It looks like the merchant account you set up with SecureNet was not configured/enabled right on their end.

I'm guessing "ECOM" means e-commerce. So they're saying that your merchant account isn't enabled for online/internet processing.

Call SecureNet right away and tell them about this message. They should be able to help you from here.

Nancy, I'll ask someone here to take a look at the banking logs here to see if we can get more detail.

In the meantime, are you sure the guest just didn't have an actual banking problem with their card? If it was a for a higher amount, some guests get security warnings from their banks. They need to call and make sure the bank allows it. We see this a small percentage of the time.

I'll see if we can find the actual banking error that was returned. That should shed more light on the situation.

OK, so I first checked to see that I'd put in my ID and secure key for SecureNet, and I had done that. I cancelled the two bookings and created quotes for each of the two guests I wanted to invoice and pay.

I sent both guests their respective quotes. I just got a call back from one of them (Mr. Livermore) saying that he clicked through to agree and then pay, but the bank refused the transaction. He is certain he'd entered his information correctly. I called SecureNet to see if anything was amiss on their end. They said that I had to "include a pay button on my website with code." I tried to explain to her that you include this on the email but she didn't understand.

I double checked that my secure key was correct and in fact copied and pasted it again to make sure, and it was.

I'm not sure why the bank won't connect to make the payment. Do you have any idea what might be wrong?

Right, if you're still finalizing dates, then I would definitely use quotes. That's the way to go. You can adjust the quote, or create multiple ones for different dates (and billing settings) and they accept/pay for the ones they want. The system won't let them book the same dates twice, of course, so no worries there.

All but one of these are "old" bookings. Some of these folks I'd already sent quotes and agreements. They were part of porting all the current calendar information over from HomeAway/VRBO during the trial period. Some of them have already paid their reservation deposits and just owe me the balances. Most are coming in the fall and winter 2017 so there is time. The short term ones this month are from AirBnB and they have already paid through their system. I just wanted to record them here because of keeping a master record of all bookings from here on forward.

I got one brand new booking today, which is the first after the trial period. So I'm off to the races! As you suggested, I will see about setting that one up as a quote, however, so I can get it processed properly. I'm still awaiting finalized dates from them.

I just noticed that you said you "entered the booking" already. If it's a brand new booking, it's better to send a quote so that guest can go through the steps the quote covers - listing their point of contacts, signing renter agreement, entering credit card, etc.

However, if you'd like to keep the manual booking you created, you can do that too. To send an "invoice" to pay, go to the Payments tab (under the booking - open the booking first) and then send the guest the "Guest URL" link. You can open the link yourself to see what they will see.

(The payment forms won't take credit card payment, however, if your SecureNet account isn't connected to OwnerRez, so do that first)

-Michelle

Hi Nancy,

Did you add your SecureNet payment method to OwnerRez? If not, go to Settings > Payment Methods > Add Payment Method and put it in. That "connects" OwnerRez to your SecureNet account.

Following that, create a quote and email it to the guest. To do that, go to Quotes > Create Quote and fill it in. Then check the Charges tab (on the new quote) to make sure the rates are right. Then use the Email tab to send it.

That's it! They'll open/see the quote and be guided through accepting, signing renter agreement and making payment.

You can also just send them the "quote payment form" link when you created the quote too. When you're at the the quote, click on the Payment Form tab.

-Michelle

OK, so I've come to that critical moment when I actually have to bill someone through the system! I've entered their booking information. I've set up an account with SecureNet/WorldPay. How is it that I invoice someone so that they enter their own credit card information or do they have to provide it to me? Am I directly connected with SecureNet/WorldPay at this time? Should I have them use a Book It button instead?

I also need to let them know how the security deposit will be handled and I'm not sure how to inform them of this ahead of time.

I think once I do this a time or two it will be easier but right now I don't know if I'm doing the right thing and I don't want to screw up.

I think it depends on whether you pay them the annual subscription fee or whether your listings are free to list with a commission paid for each booking. The annual subscription listings should allow it; you just have to get them on the phone and bend their ear.

Get your website back up, add our widgets, and start directing new guests there any chance you get. You'll be surprised, over time if you keep at it, how much traffic you can bring in directly. A lot of listing sites, even VRBO, allow you to include a link to your website from your listing. You can also find local or regional listing sites or blogs (in your immediate vacation area) to post your website link. If you work at it, over time, you'll bring in a lot of traffic.

We have a project for "hosted sites" that has been simmering on the back burner for awhile. When released, you'll be able to turn on and manage a personal website directly from inside OwnerRez.

But there are options, so stay at it!

Do you think VRBO will allow the new "old fashion inquiry"? I would guess that they would immediately perceive it as a way around their new user fee of which they would lose revenue. Has anyone else had success with this? I guess I could try changing my email back to the OwnerRez email and see what the inquiries look like.....

Yes, leaving VRBO entirely is attractive on the surface, but since I get 75% of my bookings though them, I am not sure it would be a wise move.

I did have a website at one point, but I got little-to-no traffic to it and hence no bookings. Any suggestions on how to get a private website noticed by potential customers?

Hi Glen, I'm a bit biased of course :-) but I think OwnerRez features like reporting and automation are definitely worth the cost!

I wouldn't recommend duplication though. Can you just do your quoting and payments in OwnerRez?

For a lot of users, VRBO will pass through all guest info as "regular old fashion inquiry" if you call and ask them to. If you do that, and then make sure VRBO is sending those emails to the OwnerRez @inquiryspot.com email address, it will parse through nicely. No need to do any quotes or payments on the VRBO side, and we can keep your VRBO/FK/Air calendars up to date via iCal.

Anyway, good luck with booking. We're here to help! The listing sites have tried to steal all the power away from owners and managers, but it's not working very well. Lot of users have up and left VRBO entirely.

Speaking of which, what's the situation with your website? Do you have one? If so, do you have OwnerRez booking widgets in place?

So I used to use OwnerRez all the time for my property which was linked to VRBO (Homeaway). The inquires worked well and I was able to book and management payments through OwnerRez – which worked well – really well.

About a year and a half ago, I made, in retrospect, the bad judgement call to start processing everything though VRBO as I figured it would be ‘easier’, especially with their ‘Hospitality Manager’. That turned out to be a pipe dream. The hospitality manager is hard for some guests to use and the booking engine is buggy – I already flat out lost one reservation request due to a bug that did not allow me to send an updated quote. Obviously with this new traveler fee, this was the last straw.

Hence I am considering going back to OwnerRez to handle and manage all my bookings. The booking engine is much easier and more flexible than VRBO and the automated emails are awesome. In the meantime I have started getting bookings in from AirBnB and from Flipkey. In my humble opinion VRBO/AirBnB/Flipkey are the only real players in this game. I have tried many of the other sites – some where I have had to pay an annual fee – and the results of them are 0 bookings in 3 years. I would say my bookings are broken down from VRBO/AirBnB/Flipkey as 75%/20%/5%

My overall question is such: With VRBO now joining the ranks of providers who tack an extra fee onto each booking, has anyone still had success in utilizing the inquiry engine here? The last time I really used the system, one could process VRBO inquiries relatively easy and manage the booking fully from OwnerRez. However I can imagine that like AirBnB and Flipkey, VRBO is now a closed system in order to prevent any bypass of their greedy customer service charges as imposed by their own system.

What are others doing? I am considering duplicating bookings in OwnerRez regardless just to use the excellent reporting and auto-email features of it. Mind you, in full honesty, I am trying to decide if the $5/booking cost is worth it for just that.

Thoughts by anyone? Open to advice / suggestions ;-)

This is now available.

Go into your inquiry widget settings and change the Text Color setting under Display.

Perfect... I'll get that into our next hotfix release, which should be sometime in the next couple of days.

That would be great! Thanks!

We have a way to set custom CSS, but that's not very friendly if you're not familiar with web tech.

I could add a setting with color pickers like the calendar colors, would that work for you?