Feature Requests

Sort by

• Newest Reply
• Newest Topic

Hello all,

I would like to see a new feature added to the conversation tab to include Whatsapp.  Here in USA we use SMS to cummunicate cell to cell but the rest of the world uses Whatsapp as a way of texting.  So far, we have not been able to communicate with our Mexican guests outside the Airbnb platform.  Airbnb limits our communication with our guests.  We should not have to be dictated by Airbnb.  I hope you all agree.  Thank you, Rosa

you can create a custom field type "booking" and it will be shown on check out. Here is mine:

Feature Request: Customizable source/Referral tracking, "How did you hear about us", that is a drop down list as part of a an inquiry. Knowing how a person was directed to your site and fills out an inquiry for a quote is VERY valuable information for a rental owner. It helps track advertising dollars. When I have asked about this in the past, I was told Google Analytics should be used for this. Raise your hand if you think Google Analytics is easy. As all of you know Google Analytics is not user friendly, its made for programers, not vacation rental owners. How easy would it be to just put a drop down list of customizable "How did you hear about us" field on the inquiry page. This is a very common field on almost all websites, except Ownerez? Please consider this as an added feature, even if its a paid one. There would also need to be some sort of reporting feature to aggregate the information. Thanks, Ownerez' biggest fan!!! 

So you write out a new message for each response? Or do you somehow have templates that you use?

Me too! Now I am just figuring out all of this information. I had no issues with Hospitable, I just wanted to get everything in one place and be able to offer direct bookings. Loos like that is not happening.

Well, there are plans to add inquiry triggers.  Not sure how useful a trigger for "email sent" would be.

I was trying to create a follow up trigger for an inquiry after sending a quote but not receiving a booking.  But triggers only work for booking event items, not for emails sent, inquiries received, etc.  

A current example is that we are discounting our Vrbo listings to try to build more business from them. We have all the discounts and such setup and it is working fine. I would REALLY like to add it to the title, like "ALL MAY STAYS 20% OFF - Secluded Cabin, Hot Tub, Fire Pit, King bed". But if I put that in, it will show up on AirBNB and the website too. Obviously we don't want that.

Just found that you and I went back-n-forth on this a year ago. I had forgotten I had previously suggested it. Still no solution?

https://www.ownerrez.com/forums/requests/different-titles#65992

Chuck

PS: sorry for duplicating my feature request

In the case of Airbnb, you already can, because, as you note, it has very different requirements.

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/channel-management-api-integrations-property-field-differences

Actual mobile apps Are really needed. As a retired technical professional I can respect the attempt to use a PWA, but with the new security measures that Apple and android are taking as well as the design of the site presenting text very small even on a large phone screen, It’s just not practical anymore.

I recently found myself with nothing but an iPhone and an android phone, no computer or tablet. And it was hard and onerous to get anything done. Navigation wasn’t working properly on either device, moving between sections was difficult, and it was also very difficult to read the screen Because of it cramming so much on the one display. And Trying to drag and re-order photos on a phone is next to impossible.

Given that each OTA has its own specifications for titles, as well as different audiences, it would be great to add the ability for us to use a different title free service.

For Instants, I total for AirBNB and a different title for Vrbo and you had another title for booking.com.

instants, I total for AirBNB and a different title for Vrbo and yet another title for booking.com.

Unless I’m missing something it seems like this could easily be accomplished in the description section.

It's not hard to code some rules around this to handle this.

-If guest enters all lowercase, convert to title case

-If guest enters all uppercase, convert to title case

-If guest enters a mix, make no changes

In my thank you for booking template, I have this line

If you booked direct with us, Vrbo or HomeToGo, here is payment link if you wish to make interim payments.

Oh, good idea. Thanks!

You can simply have them pay a deposit, send them payment link and they can make payments at their own pace as long as they are paid by due date. Works for advance bookings. 

It would be so much easier accounting wise if we could have the Damage Protection Fees subtotaled by property on the monthly invoice. I currently have to manually add up the total for each property in order to allocate the bill properly to my different properties. 

Hehe, well you could have a list exceptions ;)

The trouble is that not all names work that way.  What about deWitt?  Or O'Hara?

Often we have guests write their names without proper capitalisation, and then the automated emails look unprofessional until we manually correct:

Example; Hello john doe 

Or: Dear JOHN DOE

So could the system not automatically fix each word so only the first letter of each is capitalised? 

Would be a time saver!

I, too, am very interested in this feature.  The inability to use native messaging in VRBO is what keeps me continuing to consider going back to Hospitable (Smartbnb) just for their awesome messaging capabilities.  OR is really a game changer for me and, and native messaging with both Airbnb and VRBO would make me very happy!  Glad you are continuing to work on it.

Deleted due to accidental duplicate post - sorry!

I am absolutely dying for this feature.  Half the time the emails guests use for VRBO are ones they don't check often, so I have to tell them to make sure they check it, and THEN half the time the OR emails go to spam anyway.  High percentage of guests asking me for information the day before/day of check-in when it's already been sent to them... but went to spam.  Extra hassle for me and poor experience for the guests.

Also I'm sure this is a VRBO side issue, but half the time a booking shows up as confirmed in OR with payment accepted, but just shows as an inquiry in VRBO.  So I can't even respond in the VRBO interface to look out for emails from X email address... it won't let me send an email address, I have to say something generic like "keep an eye out for emails from me".  Totally inconsistent as to which bookings show up as confirmed in VRBO and which ones don't.

Very much dislike that communication is off-platform so if there's a dispute there's no record of it on VRBO.

I've given serious consideration to switching to Hospitable purely for the native VRBO messaging, but so far OR has won out because of other features/integrations it has that Hospitable doesn't.  But that doesn't make this feature less important to me, or the current situation less frustrating, and I sincerely hope it's able to be integrated very soon!

I don't like the VRBO app at all.  Updates lag, notifications aren't  great, attachments stink.  Airbnb is fine.  Ideally I'm on a computer more than not so that's what drives my desire for OR and VRBO native messages.  Plus the templates in VRBO are weak.  VRBO app gets the job done for now...

While waiting for this to work, I just use the Vrbo inbox. I have the owner app on my phone, so super easy to use. I often use the Air inbox that way too, even though it’s supported.  
when on my phone, it’s a lot easier than going through OR to message guests.

My prior PMS didn't have reliable VRBO messaging capability.  Had to do it all through VRBO messaging or direct to their email (we had their clear emails).

On the 90 day migration plan too, but VRBO says it's more like 3-4 weeks of you have an existing PMS.

So how are you handling communication with VRBO? Just through emails? Also when I tried to connect with VRBO they said it's processing and it may take up to 90 (!!!) days to complete. Is that normal?

I feel you.  Kind of silly to not want it solely because there's a kludgy workaround.  That said I feel OR has more utility than Hospitable.   Literally only thing missing for me (can't speak for others) is VRBO messaging. 

That's kind of a silly approach though. So you'd rather not have the feature available at all vs having a completely useable feature like Hospitable does? I came here from Hospitable expecting ownerrez to be better. I can't believe you guys don't support VRBO messaging. 

I started using channel bridge in January. Which means I started getting guest addresses. Once I figured out why so many had a specific California address (they cam from Affirm), I learned about Affirm. In the first three months using Channel Bridge, 17% of my VRBO reservations have used Affirm. I understand that once API takes effect, the Affirm payment option will no longer be offered as an option to my VRBO guests. This is concerning. So yes, it would be good to be able to offer Affirm. I'm assuming that individual small businesses cannot do that. But I wonder if there is another way, perhaps something OR can arrange. By the way, as I understand it Affirm is not zero interest. I believe they charge an interest rate, but it may be less than a credit card charges and I think they apply interest - rate determined by guest credit rating - to the whole amount and then  split the payments over a specified time period. Not really sure of the details, but the method seems to be advantageous compared to a credit card. Also there seem to be different methods of using Affirm. Some transaction were paid by Affirm, some paid by Affirm Visa. Don't know what that's about.

On the other hand, I've held off splitting payments for direct bookings until after API gets done. Maybe allowing split payments on VRBO API bookings will alleviate that. At least for far future bookings.