Feature Requests

Sort by

• Newest Reply
• Newest Topic

According to the new pricing post, this is officially in the works for 2023 and contracts signed!

Source: https://www.ownerrez.com/blog/new-ownerrez-pricing-for-2023

"Channels, channels, channels.  Work on channels never stops - every week we are updating some part of a channel integration.  In 2023, we have laid plans to integrate with both Hopper and Google Vacation Rentals, both of whom we have met with and signed agreements with.  Hopper should be finished first, as it is currently in the process of kicking off, and we anticipate that landing early in the Q1 of 2023.  Google will be after that, but we are looking forward to that as well.  Airbnb as mentioned above will be getting transactions and payouts very soon, and we are planning to sync content for Booking.com as well.  In the background, we have half a dozen smaller first-class channels working on integration as well.  These are channels like ECBYO, Whimstay and others."

Thanks for making this happen OR!

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.  

How many votes does it take to get a feature green lit?

I currently accept eChecks offline, using VacationRentPayment.  I'd like to be able to enter the eCheck as a manual payment type under check.  It would just need to be added to the drop down choices.

Mine is working through ResortLock.

Can you please provide a help article or give me more direction on this?

My website is now on Wordpress. And I've put the property search/availability widget on this page:

https://stardustretreatgroups.com/testing-page/

using the following code:

<!-- OwnerRez Availability/Property Search widget -->
<div class="ownerrez-widget" data-widget-type="Availability/Property Search" data-widgetId="6b516fc0cfe34212976f57ee2ed81d7f"></div>
<script src="https://app.ownerrez.com/widget.js"></script>

But it STILL does not provide any "book now" option when you search by the dates. It only shows the properties and you have to click through to the property page and THEN do the search again. ?? What am I doing wrong? How do I get an availability search that will then result in a booking button where someone can immediately book any rooms that display as available on the dates they input?

Any updates on this? I just looked at their integrations and OR is not listed under their Coming Soon section.

https://www.breezeway.io/integrations

Hi Paul, what is the different mechanism that supports sending ad hoc messages at scheduled times? I very much would like to access that. Thanks!

Hi, I read a request earlier to add automatic tags based on a specific property being booked. I would like to request an automatic tag for reservations that have an optional surcharge selected. We have an optional pool heating surcharge that guests can request upon booking. It would be helpful for us that when the guest chooses to pay for an additional, optional charge, the reservation is automatically tagged. Thanks!

It already exists. You need to specify that autoresponder is sent to blind email addresses. I actively use it. Here is the sample/. make sure not to use anything g but plain text

Here is template below ( I call it AVAILGEN); choose Header/Footer options = none:

Hi {CFIRST},

Thank you for considering {PDISPNAME} for your vacation.

The dates you are inquiring about {IARR} - {IDEP} are available. Please see the information about renting our cabin:

• {PDISPNAME} is a private vacation home, rented out by owners (not a management company or an agent).

• NO smoking | NO pets (no exceptions!) | NO house parties | NO bachelor/bachelorette parties | NO student/school/chaperoned groups.

• Must be at least {PMINAGE} years of age to rent, and be present during the entire stay; No third-party rentals. Minors under 18 can only stay with a parent, legal guardian, or responsible adult, and must never be left at the property unsupervised.

• No occupancy above {PXOLIMIT} persons (of any age 1 day and up), with maximum  {PXMAXADULTS} adults. Our quoted rate is per property/stay and it is the same whether one guest is staying or {PXOLIMIT}, but we do not permit over-limit occupancy. 

• Property is not reserved in your name until the deposit (or full balance) is paid AND booking is accepted. Availability is real-time and may change after this email is sent.

• Rental Agreement signed by the primary Guest and a Valid Photo ID is required if you decide to book. If the required is not returned to the Owner within 48 hours of booking acceptance, we reserve the right to cancel your booking and issue a refund of any amounts paid.

• If you are booking more than {QSPDAY} days in advance of your check-in date, you will need to pay a deposit plus the site fee (if applicable). The balance will be due {QSPDAY} days before check-in. 

• If you are booking {QSPDAY} days or less before your check-in date, the full balance is due immediately. 

• Cancellation policy: {QCANPOL}

• No refunds for unforeseen or unfortunate Events outside of the Cancellation policy cutoff, under any circumstances, including but not limited to: weather, storms, fear of travel, work/life events, change of plans, change of travel party composition, evacuation, or hospitalization. We recommend obtaining Travel insurance if your stay is during the winter months, or if you are concerned about possible Cancellation for any reason.

• The exact address, driving directions, and check-in instructions will be provided after the balance is paid and a few days before check-in.

• Deposit will be released or refunded within 2 weeks after check-out provided there are no damages, Agreement violations, and no excessive cleaning required. It may released be sooner depending on satisfactory post-departure inspection. 

• Check-in is {PCHECKIN} ET and check-out is {PCHECKOUT} ET unless pre-arranged otherwise with the Owner IN ADVANCE. Late check-outs may be subject to docking of the deposit.

• Owners reserve the right to install and operate security/image capture devices on the property outside of the cabin for the express purpose of securing the property, driveway, entryway, parking, dwelling, and its contents and ensuring adherence to occupancy limits and NO PET policy.

• Complimentary WIFI is available (Connection speed and availability are not guaranteed).

• Our cabin is on well and septic. Guest understands that they will be charged above and beyond the damage Deposit amount if prohibited items are flushed & clog or damage plumbing or the septic system.

• Our cabin has a yard with a fire pit. The yard is NOT fenced and surrounded by nature, small children must be always supervised by a capable adult. 

• All roads leading to the cabin are paved. AWD/4WD and/or snow chains may be needed during winter IF there is snow/ice on the ground.

NOTE: you will see at least TWO separate credit card transactions on your statement - one charged by Vrbo for their "service fee" and the other by "{MYCO}". THIS IS EXPECTED. Vrbo "service fee" is NOT payable to {MYCO}.



Regards,  
-------------------------

Here is the Autoresponder set up. Notice yellow highlighted.

Agree - also looking to move over to OR and not having Schlage Encode integration will create a major burden. Encode is great for removing the dependency on gateways and streamlining access control, especially when you're not looking for greater smart home controls or Z-wave capabilities offered by RemoteLock, etc. 

Please add a field for guest nickname.

A high percentage of guests have nicknames, and it would be good to be able to call them by those in messages.

Thank you for this suggestion! 

How do you suggest doing this?  Let's say a guest on Airbnb says hey hot water isn't working.  How do we at 1 am send them an email that they see on airbnb chat saying to call us at XXX-XXX-XXXX for immediate response?

We are actively trying to figure this out!  Our example is no one responded to even a guest comment for 1 minute.  Would love for an auto response with a phone number to call.  We have a auto attendant and it will burn through team members until someone answers.  The guest is going to get a fast response this way.

Great news!  I just got confirmation from Matt Barr at Breezeway that the Breezeway / OwnerRez integration is set for a Q1 Release!  ;).  They said that they have a ton of OR users on Breezeway who have been requesting the integration, so great work, everyone!

I look forward to finally being able to fully utilize the combined power of OR and Breezeway!

Awesome to hear!!! Thanks for providing this update

Great news!  I just got confirmation from Matt Barr at Breezeway that the Breezeway / OwnerRez integration is set for a Q1 Release!  ;).  They said that they have a ton of OR users on Breezeway who have been requesting the integration, so great work, everyone!

I look forward to finally being able to fully utilize the combined power of OR and Breezeway!

To help with the seasonal nature of the business and make it more handsfree it would be very helpful to be able to have multiple versions of most description fields that we could schedule. Photos too.

Example: A short Description that can be scheduled for Sep-Dec to target holiday travelers and perhaps accentuate winter activities. A different one for Spring break, and another for summer and shoulder seasons.

If photos could be scheduled this way, that would be even better.

While on the topic, maybe a way to auto-rotate the hero photo?

Realizing these would likely require rearchitecting several areas, it might be 1-3 years out. But would be a great feature for the roadmap and help solidify OR as the tool that does more for you so you can do less.

Chuck

Just realizing how useful this would be, especially as a trigger or template library grows. Having this tracked and part of the display would make it easier for hosts to ID items that may need a review or updating. 

I would even advocate that this would be useful in many other places as well.

Chuck

Can we create a policy that allows refund if cancelled within 24 hours, no refund after that. Or how ever anyone wants it, but with the option to set it for after booking is created as well as before arrival date?

Hi OwnerRez,

I think it would be a good idea to have an autoresponder for enquiries that come in on 3rd party platforms.

For eg. A guest sends a message via Airbnb, asking a random question. But neither yourself or staff is available at that moment; an autoresponder letting the potential guest know that you have acknowledged their question and will assist shortly, would help to retain the guest. 

I think this would be a very good option for guest retention. 

We would like to be able to show/hide photos in our gallery based on dates/months etc.  For example, we have a different set of photos for summer than we do for fall or spring.  I would like to be able to add all my photos at once, sort them, and then enter dates or months for when these photos will be active.  Then I can write my description for each photo but only have them displayed during the appropriate time of the year without having to add/remove and write the photo descriptions.

Take a look at the rules tab on the specific booking:

If you still can't figure it out, write in to our help desk (help@ownerreservations.com) and we can help you get it sorted.

I really wish that were the case.

We are also having problems with Channel Bridge.  We have had to run channel bridge manually every month for a long time to catch all of the financial information.  We do have the airbnb api setup.  Is there a way for OR to automatically collect all of the financial data without us having to run channel bridge.

We have also had issues with guests who extend through Airbnb.  It appears that OR is not picking up the new income generated from a booking extension.  Last month, we had a guest extend 4 times and we had to run channel bridge by hand three times before all the income appeared in owner rez.  

This seems like it could be automated somehow.  Help.

That's the workaround I'm using as well, as I mentioned. However, as the house rules live other places (so that they display in the listing, etc.), any time the house rules need to be updated, changes need to be made in multiple locations per property. Having a more streamlined, consolidated manner of dealing with these would be very helpful. Even having the custom field work in the listing content would make a big difference! 

Hi Ken,

Check the rules tab on your booking. The text of that page reacts to whatever rules you have configured. In this case, you probably have a booking that is set to use a Refundable type instead of a Hold type security deposit. 

Actually, it's not possible, because of the way Vrbo integration works (which is very different than Airbnb integration).

When you integrate with Vrbo, you effectively turn into a hotel that runs its own front-desk software, and Vrbo becomes just another OTA booking channel (just like someone booking a hotel room at a Hampton Inn via Expedia). Expedia takes and confirms the booking but the hotel's front desk software charges the card, manages the transaction, handles check-in/check-out, etc. The hotel is 100% in charge of the booking once it comes in.

This is amazing for vacation rental owners, because once the booking comes in, we are 100% in charge of it. We can change it, cancel it, evict someone, charge them for damages, etc. without Vrbo's permission. Vrbo can't even force hosts to cancel a booking, unlike Airbnb. Think of March 2020 when Covid hit: all my Airbnb bookings canceled instantly without any input from me, whereas all my Vrbo bookings remained intact. Now, of course Vrbo tried to incentivize me to allow my guests to cancel by dangling carrots (higher placement in future search results if I allowed cancellations, etc.), but I was still fully in control and could have chosen not to allow cancellations/refunds (and in a number of cases, I negotiated with guests to move their stays to future dates, preserving that income).

With Airbnb, Airbnb still controls the booking in full and can cancel (or not cancel) at any time. If you have bad guests in your house and can't get Airbnb to approve the cancellation, good luck evicting them: at least in my jurisdiction, the police will not enforce an eviction if the reservation is still active and the guest has a legal right to remain in the home. I once had trashy hoarders with two pit bulls in violation of my rental agreement, and the cops would not back me up to get them out until Airbnb approved the cancellation, which took 10 hours from the time I initially reached out to Airbnb.

So this is all related to why Vrbo cannot collect the taxes for you (while Airbnb can): with Vrbo, Vrbo doesn't even collect anything from the guest (except for their service fee), and YOU charge the guest's card and manage all of the charges completely. You can charge more or refund or cancel or extend or do anything you want without Vrbo's input (just like a hotel front desk can), so Vrbo actually doesn't even know what to charge the guest for taxes. Airbnb can collect and remit taxes, because they control the charges and finances and everything and don't even pay out on the booking until after the guest has checked in.

The Vrbo model is way better. Why? With Airbnb, you have no control over the taxes. Have a tax-exempt stay? You can't just delete the taxes; you have to charge the guest the tax and then reimburse them their taxes using the Resolution Center. Have a state/county/city collector after you claiming you didn't remit tax? Good luck getting anyone at Airbnb to provide any kind of help or proof that they did remit the taxes. And that doesn't even cover the cashflow/interest benefits of being able to collect the booking charges up front and then only pay the taxes when they're due (in some cases, many months later). Plus, in my case, my state offers a discount of 5% for timely tax payments--that goes into my pocket if I pay my own taxes instead of Airbnb's or Vrbo's pockets.

Admittedly, signing up for all the taxes and licenses and things yourself can be cumbersome, as is reporting and remitting taxes, but at least in my jurisdiction, it's all pretty straightforward. I previously recommended Avalara MyLodgeTax's services for handling all of this, but they recently raised their set-up fee from $50 per property to $300, which I think is highway robbery, so I no longer recommend them. But unless you have a crazy amount of bureaucratic red tape in your jurisdiction, it's just a bit of paperwork and waiting for them to send you stuff back and well worth the ultimate flexibility that API integration with Vrbo offers.

exactly! Paying taxes is a small inconvenience compared to the HUGE advantages. 

We feel it's important to reiterate the house rules in the rental agreement. As there isn't currently a way (that we've found!) to automatically include them, we've had to create a custom field with the house rules for each property to include them that way. However that means that any time we make changes to our rules, we need to update it in not just the house rules section of OR but also in our custom field. It would be so ideal if there was a built-in field for the house rules which we could utilize in email messages, rental agreements, etc. when needed.

It is possible to do this already. I utilized the "Custom Fields" under Settings > Custom Field Definitions. 
I created a custom field specifically for House Rules.  Now when I create emails or the Rental Agreement, I just use the "Insert Field Code" icon in the templates editor to bring in that information. When the Insert a Field dialog box opens, you will find the Custom Fields under the property tab at the bottom. 

I have opted the Custom Fields to manage each properties House Rules because I was not limited to how many rules I can enter. I use bullet points for each rule.

I want to use this system but I can already see a serious headache coming. All I want to do is put a hold on the guests card but when the guest is taken to the link to fill out their information it tells them that their card will be charged and then they will be refunded. What?

Why in the world is this a thing? The messages should clearly read that there will be a hold and that the hold ends in a certain number of days. I am already having nightmares of guests constantly wanting a refund of their security deposit even though it was just a hold.