Latest Activity...
I was wondering if there is a way to just view the guest ID and not have it download to my computer to view it - I am trying to not have it on my computer for liability reasons but do need to view it to make sure it is who it is supposed to be
Curious if you were able to find another way to list on Google Vacation Rentals while maintaining OR as your PM system. We are in the same boat as we have multiple properties and we are being searched and found on Google now.
Currently looking at this too. Need to find one of the integrated CM's that has a reasonable price and find a way of syncing the calendar and pricing between the them and OR. that last bit is the biggest headache.
Considering an alternative CM, plus Pricelabs to sync across OR and the other CM and do an ical sync. Seems overly complicated and overly expensive to acheive something that is available in other CM's. Frustrating!
It is either that or go direct and try to get listed myself, this is a revenue stream i do not wish to miss out on.
I am happy to say that I just booked my first reservation using the new option to Collect ID. Worked like a charm. Thank you so much for this addition!!
The owner and I operate a little differently than most it seems, Airbnb allows for split payouts, we have it set up that I automatically get paid my 25% commission, on Airbnb that means that also means the owner pays 75% and I pay 25% of the host fees and the owner gets a 25% portion of the cleaning fee that I get. So at the end of the month, I create an excel report and bill him for the balance he owes. He does online bill pay, and sends me a check which takes a week or more. That's why we do the split payout at least I'm getting a partial payment.
With VRBO the owner gets paid in full then I bill him for the commission and Cleaning fees.
I am just setting up my own LLC and business accounts so that I can handle the direct bookings, then I do a report to show what I owe him, then deduct it from what he owes me.
So for me, It would be awesome if we could have a way for the Owners to pay the statement online :)
Chris, I also use Pricelabs, and I checked with them also. They define gap days differently than ownerrez, and currently they do not support this feature that I am requesting.
Currently there's no solution for this feature from either Ownerrez or Pricelabs.
Hello! We're actually looking into implementing the newer Airbnb transactions API which can hopefully stem how much OR users have to use Channel Bridge after being API connected. We have to do a few other things first but we hope to get to it later this calendar year.
FWIW, while I'm all for OR adding more customizable flexibility on things like this, I did want to note that if you use PriceLabs (or possibly other automated pricing systems), you can set far more granular/customized minimum stay settings than OR allows. That's how I do it.
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.
Has an SMS Trigger been released so we can send sms to guests who have inquired, but not opened their quote email? Likely due to it going to spam folder.
I use gsuite and have a verified email domain
As, we have previously raised - we would really like to see this feature. Google organic searches are the biggest traffic source to our website. In a FB group of 8,000 members many are reporting success with being a GVR connectivity partner. Our previous channel manager who we consider inferior has had it for some time now. We really want to stay with OR, but this remains a consideration for us. I hope OR will be able to bring good news this Autumn, thanks for all your work on the subject.
Hi Chris whilst your in the 2fa headspace can you think about a work around for the 2fa required for the channel bridge into air bnb. Its very frustrating having to enter a code and pin into air bnb before channel bridge will work.
This is actually now under development -- thanks for the nudge, I've updated the status on this feature request.
It is really frustrating that this important feature for security is still pending in back burner for several years; and still not planned. It is anytime someone can login and refund all our money.
After API integration with VRBO, we need to submit Florida sales tax ourselves.
It's a huge inconvenience, and requires a lot of extra work on host side, also it's prone to human mistakes. airbnb handles that even after api integration, so it must be technically possible. Please request VRBO to handle that. It is a win-win for everyone, state will not miss unreported taxes, hosts will not have to worry about that, and it will be an incentive for more hosts to enable api integration.
Thanks
Use Case:
I am embedding FullStory into my website to better understand my traffic. However, within FullStory session replay, all OwnerRez iframes appear blank, and I can't see how users interact with them. Looking at FullStory's documentation it is possible to capture traffic from within an iframe and have it communicate back to the iframe's parent. Furthermore, I would be able to, within my OwnerRez widget setup add the required script into the widget html with the Widget Loaded conversion tracking setup. However, in order to do that securely while avoiding XSS, the Content Security Policy headers must be configured with the Content Security Policy header of frame-ancestors as per this documentation. Unfortunately, that is disabled for use with the <meta> tag, for good reason. So, in order to configure embedded FullStory within the OwnerRez widget, I would need the ability to add my domain to the Content Security Policy header, which doesn't appear possible.
Feature Request:
Either automatically during widget setup, ask the user what domain it will be set up on and automatically add that to the frame-ancestor field with the Content Security Policy header, or add a configuration option to manually set this up.
The contract I used was indeed a fillable PDF file, where someone sneaky could have slipped something different in there.
your answer makes sense to me.
the judge didn’t look at it from that angle. He viewed the initial as “proof” that the guest saw the clause and couldn’t say that he didn’t read the contract but just signed it at the bottom
No, there is no functionality for initialing the rental agreement. It's not needed, because the agreement is one single electronic document rather than multiple separate physical pages as with a printed-paper agreement, where each page needs to be initialed so someone sneaky doesn't slip an extra one in there. Electronic agreements don't have this problem.
Ken, you are contradicting yourself. Please see your post on 11/3/2020 here - https://www.ownerrez.com/forums/general-help/rental-agreement--is-there-a-way-to-make-guest-initial-every-pa
Perfect, thanks!
Try looking for the ID into the file tap for the full size version.
== ID Image Resolution? ==
I have a guest who just signed the RA and uploaded their ID. However, the guest's ID appear as miniature 60x60 pixels image, which is indecipherable.
Is there an option to require the minimum resolution (e.g. 600x600) or uploaded file size (i.e. at least 300Kb) to ensure that the ID is readable?
Very good point!
I won a lawsuit against a guest and the judge made a point to say that I had demonstrated that the guest understood the contract term that was being disputed because she wrote her initials in the blank space next to that paragraph.
As a result, I am using the workaround I described previously, but would find being able to use initials very helpful.
Hi, Ken ...
This has less to do with functionality as it does to do with liability.
If an owner offers a high-risk amenity -- like a swimming pool or a fireplace -- requiring initials is evidence that the owner emphasized this risk, and that the renter in turn acknowledged it.
I can highlight risks such as these in my rental agreement with bold type. But requiring a renter to acknowledge that s/he understands what the cautions are ensures they can't claim ignorance should a problem arise.
So please consider some initialing option within the rental agreement.
No, there is no functionality for initialing the rental agreement. It's not needed, because the agreement is one single electronic document rather than multiple separate physical pages as with a printed-paper agreement, where each page needs to be initialed so someone sneaky doesn't slip an extra one in there. Electronic agreements don't have this problem.
I am unaware of this feature to initial sections of the RA, and do not see it mentioned in the OR Help files. I only see initials as a requested feature here - https://www.ownerrez.com/forums/requests/support-initials-within-the-rental-agreement-form
If this is an active feature, could you please provide some direction on where to find documentation to implement this feature?
Completely agree. It would be great to have this feature.
OwnerRez doesn't currently create promotions in booking.com as their schema is quite different and more limited than the discount structure in OwnerRez.
Instead, create a promotion or derived rate on the booking.com side, based on the normal nightly rate that OwnerRez is pushing. Then the promotion will be applied to bookings if applicable.
One major improvement for me would be if I could set up Length of Stay discounts for Booking.com
OR documentation indicates this is not possible, but when looking at Booking.com's Promotion API documentation it looks (to me, not a techie), that it should be possible.
https://connect.booking.com/user_guide/site/en-US/con-faq-promotions/
I would love the ability to customize the Booking Overview screen (first screen visible when clicking into a booking from the calendar) with helpful information from the Custom Fields that we have incorporated into the booking process. For instance, guests type in the reason for their visit via a Custom Field. Being able to select that specific field to be visible on the Booking Overview screen would make it muuuuch easier and streamlined for various processes on our end.
this will be great to have, agree 100%
This is a problem for me too. Feature will allow for more bookings.