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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
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!
No, that part isn't released and isn't planned.
it would be cool if we could rent out the entire property as a virtual 9th unit, that would automatically book out all 8 units for the 9th as a kind of package.
You can, using our Mutual Block feature:
https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/combined-properties-blockoff-lockoff
we have 8 separate vacation villas that are all a part of the same "compound" right by the beach, and the entire property has the same booking rules, etc, though pricing is different for each villa.
When you're setting up the properties in the first place, you can do one, and then copy it to create the others, so you don't have to manually re-set all the rules.
https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/add-new-property
Vrbo is saying this will be available sometime next year.
Any updates?
Alin
This topic shows as "released". Does that mean it's an active feature now? If so, how would we create a quote with multiple listings?
Is there a way to block single gap days during certain seasons? For instance, I have a Dec 25th booking - I don't want to allow a booking to check out on the 24th. I do use PriceLabs if that's the way to do it as well
This would be a nice feature. I also think this search functionality should also look at the property name and property address so that someone looking for a property by name or by a portion of the street address, then the matching properties will appear in the search results.
Is there a way to change the date on a quote after it has been sent?
Good tip. Still very frustrating that OR is not working harder towards this integration.
Yep, the per channel description feature has been developed and is now in testing. I don't have a specific ETA yet, but it's getting close!
My pleasure Haydar.
Agreed Arrive and Thriv, a good workaround for now until we can get something more direct in place.
