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Thanks for the tip
Pretty awesome actually. Our properties are on there as well. Blue Pillow has found a killer loophole somehow with what I assume is a kickback from each booking that they send to VRBO via Google Vacation Rentals. Our photos on Blue Pillow are the absolute worst as well. Probably choose images from the bottom of the pile on purpose, so as not to trigger issues.
Either way…. It’s a nice workaround for now. Would obviously prefer it come straight to our OR site, but I’ll take it for now!
Colin and Arrive & Thrive,
Before today, I've never heard of Blue Pillow. When I clicked on my listing on Google Maps and went to the link that was on Google Maps (which was blue pillow) it took me to their site where I saw the listing below. The highlighting is mine, showing that they're pulling from VRBO. When I click the listing for details, it sends me to VRBO and my listing there. That's not the correct main photo and the pricing is off too, so their feed pull leaves a LOT to be desired. I can't get the list your home page to load to see what their deal is, but I rather prefer they link to VRBO anyways so things can be managed there, even if the data isn't 100% accurate and the photo sucks. Although maybe this would be an easier integration for OR to tackle if they can consistently get on Google.
HolidayLettings.co.uk was much the same as they are a sub-brand of Trip Advisor (like how HotPads and Trulia are sub-brands of Zillow). I pulled my listings from Trip Advisor this week (since they didn't offer integration), so that's probably why this one is popping up now.
True, nothing is as good as a direct connection and not having to pay fees to VRBO or another OTA. Knowing them they'll want every scrap of info they can get on your business and all your guests... regardless of if they booked with them or not. That's the typical MO for data brokers like Google and Amazon. "If you're not the customer, you're the product." ... but I digress.
Hi,
Is there any update on this feature? with ABB now actively blocking >50 characters and not allowing emoji, this would be really valuable. Effectively forcing ABB's title rules on Vrbo at the moment. Is there any way to do a workaround on this, or update on when this feature will be released?
thanks,
D
Looks at first glance bluepillow is a channel manager like OR. Are you using both?
How is your take up with Google Vacation rentals, is it worth the aggravation of getting listed?
Thanks for the info Ryan. How does that integration work? Would you mind sharing? Is it pretty simple?
For what it's worth, my properties are on Google Vacation Rentals search through a VRBO affiliate/aggregator (blue pilllow) and before that through a Trip Advisor affiliate (Holiday Lets).
Just anywhere in the system where you can adjust the commission. Instead of having to pick a preset commission rate in the old dropdown selector, you can enter exactly what you need now.
Here is the entry on the charges grid:
Here is the pop-up if you click the vertical ellipses on that charge line item:
Shawn, I cannot seem to find any information on the custom commission entry that you mention above.
Maybe I am just looking or searching in the wrong place.
Randy
Hello Randy - there is some minor interest but not enough to prioritize anything to be placed on the roadmap at present. We will be working on PM Automatic Expenses next quarter so maybe we can look at doing something around this after we get the bulk of that out.
Hopefully, the custom commission entry that was released in March has been a help.
What's your website, @BlueMtnCabins? I'd like to take my family to the Smokies and I want to make sure to book one of yours.
Thank you. It is smoky-mountains-cabin.com
What's your website, @BlueMtnCabins? I'd like to take my family to the Smokies and I want to make sure to book one of yours.
Would be nice to insert custom fields by criteria (like season, arrival dates etc).
Example: I want to include a paragraph in my response-to-inquiry email or my welcome email for winter travel, but only insert it if the booking falls in the winter time frame.
I can create a custom field and insert it in correspondence, but it is inserted ALWAYS. It is not relevant to summer travel.
Currently, I have a separate email for winter arrivals, but you know how renters are flooded with all kinds of emails....
VRBO Spain, where my listing is, are asking me for to add in my PMS (OwnerRez) as headline and description in Spanish. This is a requirement to activate the API sync. I don't think it is unreasonable, Vrbo will want to cater for the local market in Spanish not English.
They say most PMS have that option. However, I do not see it. How can I achieve this?
UPDATE: per suggestion of the OR Helpdesk, I created another listing specifically for the Vrbo Spain API connection. It is actually quite easy to create a Duplicate and then batch copy the rates.
This is already possible in the Settings of your Book Now Widget:
First, create an email template of the type BOOKING (Settings/Messaging/Templates).
Mine looks something like this:
Hi Lalo,
A new reservation of {BARR} to {BDEP} just came in for {PDISPNAME}, located at
{PADDRM}
So if I could please schedule a checkout clean for {BDEP}.
Thank You,
-{MYFIRST}
Then, assign that template to a trigger (Settings/Messaging/Triggers):
Occurs: as soon as the event occurs
Event: booking is created
Send Template: (the one you just created - whatever you named it - mine is called 'CLEANER Notification of New Booking (Lalo)')
All of the booking status options are 'Doesn't Matter'
Listing Sites: all
Properties: whatever makes sense for you (in my case, I have one cleaner for one remote property and I clean the ones that are local to me, so I just have this trigger assigned to one property and written specifically for the only cleaner I have...this whole thing could be done more efficiently in cases where someone has multiple properties or multiple cleaners, I'm sure, but I just got something working for my one cleaner/one property situation and haven't had a need to expand on it).
Seasons: all
Tags: I haven't created any tags, so this is greyed out
Allow Multiple: unchecked
Status: enabled
I recently had an AirBnB guest with similar concerns.
This was my reply:
"Hello, XXX ...
Thanks for your message!
I completely understand your concerns about security. Our emails to you are generated, and the document uploads and card details are processed, through OwnerRez, an approved AirBnB API (application programming interface). All transactions processed through that platform have met AirBnB’s security standards, as OwnerRez is an AirBnB preferred software partner.
We list the rental agreement, government-issued ID and security-deposit requirements in our house rules to ensure that we know the identity of the person renting our property and to provide us legal and financial recourse in the event there is significant damage to same.
If you are uncomfortable with any of the above, I understand completely, but we are unable to finalize your reservation without them. In that case, we would certainly cancel your reservation at your request with a full refund, as we want you to feel comfortable and secure in your dealings with us.
Just please let me know how you’d like to proceed, and we’ll follow your directions accordingly.
Best,
Denise"
He uploaded. :-)
Hi Greg!
Can you tell me how did you create the trigger? My team needs email notification when a new schedule comes in and we would like to have everything in Ownerrez instead of using other websites. Thanks!
I had a guest say that they weren't comfortable uploading their ID, as they were certain our database would get hacked. I told her "Please understand that security is important to us as well. Without an ID to verify the identity entered into a Rental Agreement, we can't verify to who we are giving access to our home. Often people use aliases to rent vacation homes, which can be risky for a homeowner, and why proof of identity is mandatory. Thank you for understanding!"
I offered them the option of uploading a random picture of themselves in the mandatory upload field (just to get passed the initial form), and texting me a copy of their drivers license. I could then offer to delete the image on my phone after their ID had been verified. That way we aren't sacrificing our ID verification, but we are able to offer the guest some security.
That is far less secure which is why OR worked so hard to create this safe option for ID upload.
I had a guest say that they weren't comfortable uploading their ID, as they were certain our database would get hacked. I told her "Please understand that security is important to us as well. Without an ID to verify the identity entered into a Rental Agreement, we can't verify to who we are giving access to our home. Often people use aliases to rent vacation homes, which can be risky for a homeowner, and why proof of identity is mandatory. Thank you for understanding!"
I offered them the option of uploading a random picture of themselves in the mandatory upload field (just to get past the initial form), and texting me a copy of their drivers license. I could then offer to delete the image on my phone after their ID had been verified. That way we aren't sacrificing our ID verification, but we are able to offer the guest some security.
You can go to the custom field definition setting and make it as optional instead of required.
I've had a dozen or two bookings since enabling this and they've worked beautifully. But today I got this. 😁
Given my target demographic in Branson, I may have to rethink this...
In the meantime, is there a way to send them a link to the RA signing page that skips the ID upload part? I'm not finding it--even if I don't send them the BUFIXUP link and rather just the direct link to the RA, it still prompts them for their name/address/etc. plus the ID, which is mandatory on that page.
Has the following been implemented yet?
Haven't found a way to do this yet: Triggers only seem to work with bookings.
Automatically follow up on a quote or inquiry have a trigger that allows for an automatic message template or something to be sent depending on the time etc. after an inquiry or quote has been placed to follow up with the potential guest.
This would be so good to have as we find we are having to do this manually and has great rate of converting quotes and inquiries to bookings.
The radio options shown in your screenshot only apply to booking payments.
Security deposits only support Credit Cards, since only credit cards provide the necessary level of automation for automatic hold/release and charge/refund.
Yep, the changeover rules will be added to the API when we release, in addition to being something you can set on the calendar -- so PriceLabs will be able to update them.
They already have this feature with other PMS’s though.
You'd have to ask PriceLabs about what their development plans might be.
How come a rate isn’t displayed until guest has entered number of guests, even if you aren’t using pricing per guest strategy?
Why not display the base price as soon as dates are entered, based on a permitted number of guests (1 to property maximum) and if they then enter an amount of guests that exceeds property max, just display the reason why the booking is not possible for that many, for example, “max number of guests is 4” and the price then disappears and guest cannot proceed to book.
The additional step is unnecessary and may mean some less technical users are endlessly entering dates wondering why they can’t see a price, and then assuming the dates aren’t available.
Just a thought. : )
Will this be a thing on PriceLabs too? I really miss that feature from my old PMS.
hello OR team, thanks to you we now have 111 114 properties on smokymountaincabinsbyowner.com - yeay! And more are coming.
With that number (and growing) would be awesomely great to have (in the order of importance):
