Feature Requests

Sort by

• Newest Reply
• Newest Topic

It would be cool to have a repeat guest trigger option that would send a more personalize welcome/thanks for booking template to guests who have booked with you before as opposed to the generic one all guests see now.

Its not a feature if it is annoying and it is a CONSTANT RECURRING reminder of something that just doesn't work.

As with any computer, the file or pic you’re uploading would need to be stored somewhere on your computer. So, yea, you have the process correct - get the file you need onto your computer and upload it. You can either mark the field as “required” or not. It has nothing to do with which type of device you’re on. Hope that helps. 

I agree entirely with the above about the ribbon view. I am new to OR but came over from iGMS. The ability to scroll the ribbon view and simultaneously see the rates for unbooked nights was a major help on iGMS, If we got this on the OR platform it would make me so happy!

Have had no problems on desktop. Works great. 

Thanks OR!

As I'm testing this, it seems like an incredibly smooth process on a smartphone, but I honestly don't know how I would be able to complete the form if I was booking on my computer.  I'd have to maybe take a picture of my ID on my phone, email it to myself, download it to my computer, find that file, and upload it to the form...  Anyone have a smoother suggestion for a process that we could encourage?  Or is there a way to detect whether it's a phone or computer and make it mandatory or not based on that?

Thank you!

Does anyone offer guests water toy rentals? eg. Paddle boards, water mats etc.

Originally I was thinking it would be best handled in OwnerRez but the more I think about it....

I use VRScheduler Operto ......
when there is a surcharge for Paddleboard ... VRScheduler Operto would create a task for delivery/pickup of the Paddleboard

BUT how do I handle inventory so we don't accidentally rent out more paddleboards then we have? 

Currently with linens I have a spreadsheet but I have enough inventory to cover any mistakes I make. I won't with water toys

Does OwnerRez have an inventory feature that could be developed rather than manually tracking in a separate spreadsheet?

In an ideal world....Here's how I would love to see it
Water sports equipment available for certain cottages, 
in the quote as guests are checking out they have the option to add paddleboard or watermat  IF all in inventory aren't already spoken for  (in my case we would rent water sports equipment Sun to Thurs 

I just spent time to reformat my marketing including creating a new email template in an outside email html editor. I then imported the .html into OwnerRez code. However some of the formatting in fields like {QHCTAB} are hardset by OwnerRez. So the formatting does not match our color scheme or fonts. It would nice to expand Theming to include more than headers and footer but to globally set color, fonts, etc.

When adding a new fee as a write-in description, any change in the wording creates a new column in the Pivot Chart.  The imported "Airbnb host fee" is different from "Payment fee" which is different from "Channel fee".  Even something as simple as reversing the words like "Host fee-Airbnb" creates a new column and you don't realize it until doing a new report.  

You can do this now:

https://www.ownerrez.com/blog/rate-calendar-overhaul-new-colors-formatting-and-hover-cards-adjust-rates-by-relative-amounts

The WordPress Plugin does accomplish the intent of this feature request, if you are using WordPress.  If you are not using WordPress, it's no use to you.

Is this still needed or does the Wordpress Plug-in accomplish the same thing?

Yes, to use the WordPress Plugin, you do have to enable the Hosted Sites premium feature.  You don't have to actually set up a standalone Hosted Website in OwnerRez, you just have to have the feature turned on.  Then you can configure and use the WordPress Plugin, which will give you what you want.

Hi Ken, so for that photo feature..is that a premium feature that we must first enable? Even though I use my own website through Wordpress...do I enable this feature and then somehow I can integrate this photo feature to our pages? Thanks for your patience. I am not technical as you can see. Trying to understand. 

No, I think you must have followed a different link. My most recent posted link is not to the Widgets at all.  It's to the WordPress Plugin, which provides WordPress shortcodes you can use to directly access property information, specifically including the photos.

I went to that page. Ken. I’m already using all those widgets. They are great. But when a user clicks details there is currently no provision to show the photos of that particular unit. It doesn’t pull the photos form OwnerRez. I think that’s what we are taking about. The widgets stops there.  On my own website you will see I have the widgets but when clicking details no photos will appear.

https://sanpedrosquareapartments.com/furnishedstudioapartments/

anyways I thought that was the thrust of this request. I could be wrong. I have been working on a workaround which is on the page I manually upload videos and eventually photos to each apartment for rent. 

This is exactly what the WordPress plugin does:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/wordpress-plugin-overview

Hi all,

I would love to have all the charges/payments on one page that could show (or not show) the detail rows like doing grouping in Excel.  Switching back and forth between pages gets tricky.  This will also help those of us who are having problems with the collection/remittance of taxes by the channels.  For instance, Vrbo charges the incorrect rate for our state in Mexico, and doesn't include local taxes. It pretty much becomes an accounting nightmare.

Yes, we do plan on adding multi-language capabilities for property listings, as well as (in the longer term) for OwnerRez overall.  We've been making some structural changes to support this, so you'll see additional features over time.

Hello, we still need this. Don't see any plug in to accomplish this. When clicking "Details"..on that webpage that it opens...a person can insert static pictures that can be change manually. But there is no connection to OwnerRez. They are just pictures that we could upload to a wordpress page.

I originally had a full integration with VRBO through another platform and they did not take payments on my behalf.  Then when we moved over to Owner Rex ( for better service ) they could not integrate me right away as they were "too busy" so we just listed on them independently and they took the payments and paid us when guest was in residence.

Now they have agreed to do the integration thing for us and will not do the payments as its a separate entity within their system they say.  I think this is better for us as I get the payments up front and less hassles tracking them, arguing over them or cancelling them.

We are diverting from the original request. But...

I like to have our money in hand when the booking takes place. I can do that with API integration. Otherwise I have to wait until Vrbo pays out, I also take the payments for slightly less than the 3% Vrbo effectively collects. The 0.5% advantage adds up.

Collecting the funds puts US totally in control of the booking. Most importantly, WE make the decisions around cancellation and refunds, not some large company whose main goal is booking fees. They are nowhere near as bad as AirBNB, but they still have goals not directly aligned with ours as owners.

In the event of a chargeback, we can fight it directly. We have the evidence to prove everything went as promised and same person signed the renter agreement as presented payment. If VRBO takes the payment, you are just another piece of paper and cannot really be involved in defending your hard earned dollars.

Lastly, it moves the guest relationship more firmly to us and reinforces that Vrbo is just an advertising platform. We can use the contact info to try and get the guest to book directly with us, or at least with us through an OTA.

I can’t imagine why you would not want to handle your own money. That is 3/4 of the advantage of being a PI. Just my opinion.

The way I understand VRBO API Integration is that VRBO is totally out of the payment processing. 

I talked to hosts that don't use OR (or any other channel manager), and they tell me that their VRBO setup allows VRBO to handle payments fully. OR doesn't seem to have that option. Assuming for a second I wasn't lied to or wholly misunderstood, it may be a limitation of OR or the VRBO API such that we can't just have VRBO handle payments, and we need to use a different payment processor.

Either way, there's much more to our guest interaction than payments. Just a simple example that comes to mind: you get penalized by VRBO if you cancel on a guest. If your communication is over email and the guest is been challenging, it is hard to prove that you canceled because the guest is been difficult and he/she doesn't want to cancel as a result you are forced to cancel on them (or they prove to be a scammer, or they refuse the pay the remainder....etc.)

That way if they come back, maybe they will book directly .

Makes perfect sense. If you handle payments, you have the contact info from there and you can use that for direct messaging outside the platform.

And again, all this is my personal opinion that I offer for the sake of argument, not to tell anybody how to handle their business 

The way I understand VRBO API Integration is that VRBO is totally out of the payment processing.  So, they will not advocate for you.  You will need to advocate through your Payment Processor if there is a dispute with a charge.  VRBO doesn't have anything to do with disputes.

I ask all AirBnB guests to put a credit card on file with OR for the soft hold security deposit.  Then, I talk to them after their stay if there are issues.  I have only had problems once where the guests won't pay when I reach out to them and plead my case about damages or extra cleaning needed..  So, I don't ask AirBnb to get into any disputes.

I use email for all communications.  If they reach out to me through one of the platforms, I answer in an email.  That way if they come back, maybe they will book directly .

I'm a big believer that folks should do whatever works for them.

The one piece of advice that I keep seeing all over the place (and that makes sense to me) is to keep the communication, if possible, inside the platform.

I agree. Let people talk to you however they want. Keep it on the platform if possible in case of an issue.
OR needs to consolidate ALL comms within it and then send our messages to the guest in the same way that the guest communicated with us.

Text

Direct message in Airbnb

Direct message in VRBO

Email

etc..

Until OR has this functionality it will not be nearly as useful as  it could be, especially when it comes to teams.

Is this still needed or does the Wordpress Plug-in accomplish the same thing?

If that works for you, awesome! I'm a big believer that folks should do whatever works for them.

The one piece of advice that I keep seeing all over the place (and that makes sense to me) is to keep the communication, if possible, inside the platform. In other words, communicate through Airbnb/VRBO messaging system so IF you have to talk to customer support, they can see what happen. Email is great, and I use it as a backup but it is outside the platform, and you get into she said, he said situation.

So on my computer, I keep a browser tab open with VRBO messaging page next to OR page. A bit annoying, I can live with it if I have to, and right now seems that I have to until VRBO folks get their act together and get that API done. 

Just my personal opinion, not trying to tell anybody how to run their business.

I’m still using Hospitable to push messages to VRBO;   $12/month.  Despite educating guests the reasons why they should check for email messages, they only seem to check the one with the RA and then continue with communication via the VRBO app.  I believe they assume it’s more legit since they booked through VRBO.  I’m considering adding verbiage to my booking confirmation email to educate them even further - that VRBO passed the booking to us, and we are now the merchant of record (not VRBO); however it may confuse them even more when VRBO starts prompting them to review is as the host after checkout.  Nonetheless, for now, I’ll stay with Hospitable (and email).

Great, we look forward to this change and welcome it sooner if possible!

Thank you!