General Help and Questions

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Claudia, open the booking -> Security Deposit tab -> Change Scheduled One -> Delete. If you know that they want to buy your insurance before booking, you can also turn off the security deposit on that specific quote. That will ensure that no security deposit is ever scheduled in the first place. Look at Quote -> Billing Details.

Thx,

~Sam

Hi Michelle,

Can you shut off my AMEX. I don't want the extra fees.

Thanks,
Claudia

How do you shut off the Security Deposit for a booking, if I wanted to collect for the Damage Insurance instead of a HOLD on their card?

Exactly. You can have as many open quotes as you want for the same dates. When the guest clicks through the acceptance/payment form and finalizes it, THEN it becomes a booking.

Remember, quotes and bookings are not the same thing. Quotes LEAD to bookings.

-Michelle

Since I created the booking, then it caused it to do that. If I created a QUOTE and then he said he wanted to book, then really, it is not booked until they click on book and move through the process, at that time. Thus, it would not show as booked until THEY book it and move through the process.

The only time it would be an issue is if they indicate that they will pay via check.

Claudia

If a booking is canceled, for lack of payment or any other reason, any quote for the same dates automatically re-opens and becomes available.

So if someone books, causing other quotes for the same date range to go into "preempted" status, and the first person cancels, those other quotes will return to "open" status.

-Michelle

This could be a problem....

The system cannot allow quotes to be open for dates that are already booked because you would risk getting double booked.

Consider the following scenario...

Person A accepts the quote and wants to pay by check. Their booking is pending while you're waiting on their payment to arrive.

Person B asks about the same dates so you create a quote and send it to them. They accept the quote. Now you have two bookings for the same dates.

You would either have to cancel one of their bookings and send their check back, or try to place them in a different property. Either way, it would be annoying to the guest and create confusion in your records.

The vast majority (over 95%) of the bookings that come through our system are paid for by credit cards up front. So there are very few times when someone has booked but hasn't paid yet. Most of the time, their booking is entered simultaneously when they submit their credit card payment.

-Michelle

Can you hold off on stating PREEMPTED, until the payment and rental agreement is signed? Sometimes, people change their minds and they don't tell you, until you don't receive something and then they eventually tell you.

Can you have it go into a PENDING state? I still send out quotes, even after booked, until I receive payment and the rental agreement.

Claudia

Yes, the system makes sure that bookings cannot be double-entered. This is a core tenet of the system. No two bookings can cover the same dates.

If you have open quotes for a set of dates and a booking is created for the same dates (either the exact same date range or several of the same days), the other quotes instantly change status to "Preempted". If the guest opens the payment form for a "Preempted" quote, they see this message:

https://app.ownerrez.com/forms/quotes/67fe14fc904a4086bd435c68e8e89915

When inquiries come in for dates that are already taken, the overview screen of the inquiry will show that it's not available. You'll see - right in the middle of the page - a calendar strip showing what they dates they requested and that it's partially taken. The text right above that says "Not Available". And if you click over to the Answer page, you'll notice that it pre-fills a message to the guest saying that.

-Michelle

Is there a way that system tells you that the dates are not available due to XXX booking it? Or awaiting payment?

I just Created a booking for Memorial Day. A few minutes later, an inquiry came in for the same time frame. I don't see where it says that it is not available.

Claudia

Ok, I see what you're referring to. The General Info tab is showing you the original expired date and mentioning that that date has passed. But that's not the status. Look at the Overview tab for that quote and you'll see it says "Booked". Or look at the quotes grid (click on the Quotes menu) and you'll see the status shows "Booked" there as well. I'll file a request with the dev team to change the wording slightly in the General Info.

-Michelle

It was as I suspected (what I mentioned above). You're having the listing site (HomeAway) send your inquiries to your account-level @inquiryspot email address but not the property-level one.

I'll email you offline more specific information so you can see what I mean.

-Michelle

General Info for that quote

Inquiry 8861

Property 2653

I'm sorry - I meant your property ID in OwnerRez. You can find it under the Properties menu (left-most column on the grid)

Or send me the ID for one of your inquiries (the ID in OwnerRez) that isn't coming in with the right property on it.

-Michelle

VRBO 189296

HomeAway, also.

OK. I think I will just do the old way (Paypal), for the outstanding 15 guests. I don't want to collect their card numbers.

Thanks,
Claudia

Which listing site is the inquiry coming from? And which property ID is it for? If you tell me those things, I can tell you specifically why. Or just give me the inquiry ID.

It's probably happening because you gave the listing site your account-level @inquiryspot.com email address instead of the property-level one.

Look at the inquiries instruction page:

https://app.ownerrez.com/inquiries/instructions

Notice the bottom paragraph. Some listing sites don't let you give a different contact email address for each property. FlipKey is a notable example. For listings sites like that, you have to use an account-level @inquiryspot.com email address which won't parse the property. You'll have to assign it manually each time using the Verify tab under the inquiry.

-Michelle

The bookings you just manually entered into the system will not get emails asking for their upcoming payment or security deposit. You have to actually schedule payments and security deposits for them in the system, which means you'll have to call them and ask for their credit card by phone (or ask for it by email).

You'll need to email each of your upcoming guests for their payment info outside of the system, using your own email program.

In the future, we be have a 'scheduled reminders' feature where you can email them using the system to ask for the second payment and/or security deposit. For the time being, you have to contact them yourself and then enter those payments in the system manually.

To enter the second payment, either ask for their credit card info and enter it as a scheduled payment. Or collect the second payment immediately if their due date is already here.

-Michelle

Why doesn't it pick up which property the inquiry is coming from? I am entering the property on all inquiries.

Claudia

Quote 14967 shows a status of "booked", not expired. On what page do you see the word "expired"?

-Michelle

I entered all of my outstanding bookings. How do I send them a PAYMENT DUE email, manually?

Some send checks and others pay via credit card. What will happen when the due date is May 2nd and they don't have the card registered, when they paid, it was before OwnerRez?

Claudia

14967

I believe you're looking at the wrong quote. What quote number are you looking at? The quote that the booking is associated with should be showing "Booked" as the status.

Give me the quote number of the one that shows "expired" and I'll see what I can find.

-Michelle

Got it.

That is confusing. It says expired on the quote side, but booked on the booked side, with a second expiration date of May 3rd. One the first page of the quote page, it states "booked".

Claudia

You might be confusing bookings and quotes. The booking is still active, the quote that it was based on (or a similar quote) may be expired. Quotes and bookings are two separate entities in the system.

I took a look at your account. The only booking in your account that was pending is still active because the Pending Until date is May 3rd which is this upcoming Thursday. The quote that it was based on is set as "booked" since someone accepted it via the public acceptance forms.

If this doesn't make sense, reply with the booking or quote number, and I'll be more specific.

-Michelle

Hi Michelle,

When does this happen? I have one that I deliberately left to expire (yesterday). Today, it is still on the calendar as booked. If I look at General Info, it states it expired.

Claudia

Hi Claudia,

It goes into 'canceled' status which means that it disappears from all calendars and the dates are free to be booked again. Both you (the owner) and the guest receive cancellation emails, with an explanation of why it was canceled. This all happens automatically.

If you want to find canceled bookings (suppose you want to look up all records) you can do that on the bookings grid by selecting the 'Include Canceled' checkbox on the filter bar. You can find the bookings grid by clicking on the Bookings menu and clicking Grid over on the right.

-Michelle

Hi Michelle,

What happens when a "Booking" expires? It stays on the calendar as "booked" and gets lost in the abyss or a letter notifies you of this? Can there be an alert?

Thanks,
Claudia