I frequently have guests (upcoming and past reservations) contact me to request details of their booking information. Just like any travel accommodation booking site, this feature would allow guests to login to their travel profile account and view details of their booking.
I never thought about this until seeing your post. Like many STR's we take two payments months apart. Even though we send out payment reminders via OR with amounts and instructions, I still regularly get guests contacting me to ask how much they owe. Sometimes before my reminders go out, sometimes after (I guess they don't read).
It would be nice if there was a way to have guests access their reservation...but I guess that might require them to create an account and login....and they'd need to know where to find this site (would it be on ownerrez's site....they wouldn't know that).
Maybe instead of a login and an account, there could be a widget/plugin we could insert on our own sites. Kind of like how online retailers let you shop as a guest and you can find your order later by entering an order number and last name. Guests probably don't know their ORB# but it could be a search based on guest last name and check in date. When they entered that it would bring up a select amount of info.....previous payments, balance due, payment link or instructions, etc.
I'm all for it, but maybe a lot of challenges to create it though.
That is a great idea. It would be also nice to have the widget that goes with it for the website so a guest could easily "log in" to see their reservation details, communications, invoices...
Guests LOVE this feature!
It was a key aspect of my previous management system, and I can not stress enough how much we and our guests miss it since moving to OwnerRez. The secure guest portal also became a single location where the guest could go to get all of the details of their reservation, and the guest arrival information, area maps, and other helpful information that we provide.
The assurance that it provides to guests that they are dealing with a legitimate entity that is safe and trustworthy can't be overstated, especially in an industry conducted primarily online with strangers, and rife with scammers and fraudsters.
More than any other feature, this eliminated guest questions and consumption of our time answering 'stupid' questions.
(Forgive me for the 'poke' but calling OwnerRez 'elite' when it lacks such a fundamental feature for providing excellent guest service, is really not accurate.)
We are currently working through redesigning and modernizing all of the guest/booking forms. The first two completed were Guest Reviews and Travel Insurance (i.e. when using {BUTRAV} purchase link).
Once that is complete, our plan is to bundle them up into a portal that guests can use. What that fully looks like is TBD but similar to what was described here in this feature request. No ETA on the portal but the prerequisite is in active development.
We are currently working through redesigning and modernizing all of the guest/booking forms. The first two completed were Guest Reviews and Travel Insurance (i.e. when using {BUTRAV} purchase link).
Once that is complete, our plan is to bundle them up into a portal that guests can use. What that fully looks like is TBD but similar to what was described here in this feature request. No ETA on the portal but the prerequisite is in active development.
Would love to see what OR has in mind for the guest portal. I think booking charges, payments, balances and due dates are obvious. But including things like a contact form/contact info would be great, as well as options for owners to include links to relevant info on their websites such as an FAQ page, a link to add-on services, local recommendations etc. Basically give the owners a certain amount of space to provide info. It could be as simple as 3 optional fields with a title for each and a link below.
Local Attractions
www.mysite.fake/local
Purchase additional services
www.mysite.fake/services
etc.