Have you been able to add the multiple payments options yet? If so, where do I go to set this up, especially with channel manager?
I give my renters ability to make as many payments as possible. After they have booked I simply send them payment link. Then they can make any number of payments. The final balance payment is set to collect at 30 days prior to arrival.
Looks like this is a pretty important feature for lots of people. Is it still a planned improvement?
I would just like to request that when the multiple schedule payment option is rolled out that it allows us to use it for both credit card and offline payments.
We have a lot of long term rentals now, and we would love to be able to set them up as one long 12 month rental with 12 equal monthly payments. As it is now we are having to set them up as twelve 1 month rentals and this comes with its own complications.
We would then love for there to be some new corresponding fields available for us to use in templates and triggers including fields for:
Amount of next paymentdue
Date of next payment
Schedule of all future payments (table that includes dates and amounts)
These additional fields would allow us to create templates and triggers to remind ourselves and our guests of their upcoming payment as well as all future payments.
I just thought this can be solved by sending scheduled emails with payment link. You can schedule emails at (example) 90, 60, 30 days prior to arrival and have guest pay at those intervals using the link.
Another reason why it would be nice to be able to "schedule" an offline payment is so that when we run payment reports those scheduled payments will be included on the report for future payments. As it is now, those payments are not included in the report so it is not a complete picture of ALL future payments, only scheduled payments via credit cards.
What I've learned is don't hold your breath waiting for these unscheduled features to be added. They have been talking about multiple payment and scheduled payments for about 3 years if not more. I've given up asking about them.
With the high cost of credit card fees, it would be nice to allow guests to pay via direct debit from a bank account, rather than paying with credit card. In fact, most of our snowbirds still pay with checks, not credit card.
I guess market dependent. In our market too much fraud so renter prefer to pay by CC. As far as credit card fees - cost of doing business and tax deductible. Or just build them into your rates.
This would be very helpful. 70% of our booking revenue comes from travel medical professionals. They aren't the only travelers using STR's for longer term stays. The billing process in Owner Rez is incredibly clunky and puts follow on billing at risk if we happen to forget to manually set up the follow on bills in the system.
I agree with needing other payment options besides credit card. We have almost 70 condos and 99% of our snowbirds (which are all winter rentals) pay with checks or direct debit from their bank account. With credit card fees on the rise, more and more of our customers are opting to not use credit cards. They also fear scams. Currently, OwnerRez only allows cc payments. I am having to use other systems outside of OwnerRez if someone wants to pay with check or direct debit. I would love to give our customers the option of paying with check or direct debit from their bank account through OwnerRez. Having to juggle multiple systems for one reservation is a nuisance. Also, many of our elderly customers are on a budget with their social security. It would be nice to give them the option of paying a little bit each month, as long as they are paid up 30 days prior to their arrival. If we are stuck with credit card payments only, it would be nice to be able to add the credit card fee automatically when the guest goes to pay with credit card. I know the cc fee can be added to the charges as an "other surcharge" item, but I don't want to add that to the price quote, not knowing who will be paying with credit card and who will be using other payment form.
I agree with needing other payment options besides credit card. We have almost 70 condos and 99% of our snowbirds (which are all winter rentals) pay with checks or direct debit from their bank account. With credit card fees on the rise, more and more of our customers are opting to not use credit cards. They also fear scams. Currently, OwnerRez only allows cc payments. I am having to use other systems outside of OwnerRez if someone wants to pay with check or direct debit. I would love to give our customers the option of paying with check or direct debit from their bank account through OwnerRez. Having to juggle multiple systems for one reservation is a nuisance. Also, many of our elderly customers are on a budget with their social security. It would be nice to give them the option of paying a little bit each month, as long as they are paid up 30 days prior to their arrival. If we are stuck with credit card payments only, it would be nice to be able to add the credit card fee automatically when the guest goes to pay with credit card. I know the cc fee can be added to the charges as an "other surcharge" item, but I don't want to add that to the price quote, not knowing who will be paying with credit card and who will be using other payment form.
1) You can specify manual/offline/check payments via Ownerrez. It is under payment methods. There are more scams with fake checks than Credit cards bc credit cards can be disputed. I do agree the credit card fees are high., but they are the cost of doing business and actually a business expense for the owner/manager.
2) What I do is after the booking is made and the deposit is paid, the guest received a payment link which they can use to make as many payments as they want (every week? 2 weeks? every day? whatever!) for whatever amount so they can pay at their convenience as long as the balance is paid by the due date. No schedule is needed. here is a template:
Hi {CFIRST},
Please find an updated billing summary for your {BARR} - {BDEP} booking at {PDISPNAME}.
Charges: {BTAMT} Paid: {BTPAY} Owed: {BTOWE}
Here is the current list of charges:
{BCTAB}
Here is the full list of billing activity:
{BBACT}
The current balance is {BTOWE} due on {BSPDATE} which is {BSPDAYSFN}.
Payment link for your booking {BUPAY}, you can make partial payments at your convenience. You will get a receipt for every payment made.
To add one more reason to create urgency for this request. Being able to not charge 50% when a guest makes a booking that is several months in the future and have this implemented as a process in the system will allow hosts to reduce their risk with merchant CC processors (Stripe) in my case and reduce the amount of risk withholding they make. They want hosts not to collect too much in advance because they are on the hook if we don't deliver on the accommodation.
thanks for the quick response. I understand we can set the %, the issue is that we need to charge 50% on most bookings as they are within 90-60 days, it's just the minority of bookings that are a few months out that need a different schedule and more than just 2 payments, which goes back to the purpose of the thread that we need to be able to schedule more than 2.
Having said that, I understand if 2 is hard coded, the coding lift to change may be substantial and therefore there is likely other things that are more important. I just wanted to make the business point that not being able to have more than 2 has some financial impact on the business.
You pretty much nailed it - the 2 payments was built into the original code. We definitely understand that this needs to change, and it will, but it's a major rework effort that hasn't quite made it to the top of the list considering the large amount of work involved. It will eventually for sure, but, I do not know when.
I'd like to make another bump and request for better and more flexible payment schedules, specifically with the option to have 3 payments and change the amount taken based on how far out the booking is! Is there an ETA on this yet?
