Square, Venmo, and Zelle are well-known payment processors widely used by small businesses. Why doesn't OwnerRez support these?
There are a couple of reasons.
- Vrbo and other listing channels require you, the Host, to be the Merchant of Record (MOR).
- While Square, Venmo, and Zelle accept credit cards, none allows you, the host, to be the MOR.
This is similar to how PayPal works. If you've used PayPal to make online payments, you've noticed that the process moves you off of the site you're buying from and into PayPal's site instead. This is also part of why we don't recommend PayPal as a primary payment method.
Many channel API integrations, such as Vrbo and Booking.com, securely pass the card numbers to us, and then we process them using your processor. We also have areas where you can key in a card number over the phone and process the card directly.
Since Square, Venmo, and Zelle do not support those scenarios, they could only ever be a partial solution for OwnerRez users—you'd still need to have a normal card processor to meet all your needs. Therefore, Square, Venmo, and Zelle have become a bit lower on the priority list than other integrations.
Every other card processor we support does allow the processing of card numbers, and the entire system is built around that concept. To support redirecting guests to Venmo, Square, or Zelle's entry forms and removing any owner key cards would be quite a large undertaking!
Many businesses attempt to disguise business income by using Square or Venmo. However, since January 2022, the IRS has been cracking down on payments received via Venmo or other payment processing apps. All payments over $600 for goods and services annually fall into this category, and you will receive a 1099 IRS form from Venmo.
See our vacation rental guide, Choosing a Merchant of Record for Your Short-Term Rental, for more information on this topic.
In the meantime, if you want to use Square or Venmo, you could go to Settings > Payment Methods and add a Custom payment method. That technique allows you to give instructions to the guest on how to pay after booking—so you can tell them you'll send them an invoice via Square, Venmo, Zelle, etc. Once they have paid, go into the booking in OwnerRez and record the payment.