We all want bookings - but how does a guest get there?
Before you read the rest of this article, take a few minutes to watch the following videos about quotes. This first overview video is a special high-level video that walks you through where quotes are and their various settings, and the second shows you what happens when a guest gets the quote, accepts and converts it to a booking.
- Video - Quotes Overview
- Video - Creating, Sending and Converting Quotes to Booking
- Video - Status Changes
Inquiry
An Inquiry is when a potential guest reaches out to you about maybe renting your property. Usually, they'll say which property they're interested in and what dates. OwnerRez can receive inquiries from many sources, including listing sites, your own website, or email.
Want to see which inquiries you have read or answered? Click on the Filter button at the top left of the grid.
In the Read and Answered Inquiry Filters, you can select specific filters, allowing for more definitive inquiry filtering.
Save your default inquiry view, and those defaults will stick across your OwnerRez sessions by simply checking the "Save as my default" checkbox and clicking Save & Apply.
Of course, users can always change or clear their "default" filters by clicking on the Show All link for that session.
These configured default filter settings will be consistent across sessions and devices. These settings work across devices but are cookie-based, so changes made on one device may not update on the other device immediately. As always, your in-app OwnerRez experience may be different depending on your specific device, operating system, and browser.
Mark as Spam
Receiving unsolicited and irrelevant spam inquiry messages can be frustrating for OwnerRez users. These messages often promote other PMS competitors or irrelevant services.
You have the ability to mark your unwanted Inquiries as spam. You can mark unwanted inquiry spam messages by navigating to the specific Quote > Overview > and simply clicking on Mark as Spam and selecting OK on the subsequent pop-up.
You can also mark inquiries as spam in the Inquiries section of the app by selecting an individual inquiry from the list and selecting Spam (or Not Spam) from the Mark As dropdown menu.
Will this release filter out Vrbo spam? Unfortunately, no. The Vrbo API does not support spam filters at this time.
Quote
A Quote is when you reply to an Inquiry, with a price that the guest can choose to accept (or not). OwnerRez will attempt to take the information provided in the Inquiry and help you create a quote. Depending on the form the Inquiry arrives in, OwnerRez may be able to do this automatically and send back a quote without waiting for your review. A Quote can block time on the calendar - it is not possible for there to be multiple open quotes for the same property and time period if you choose "Hold these dates so that other guests cannot book these dates while this quote is active" when creating a quote or after the quote has been created.
- Holding dates during the Quote creation process
Quotes last for a limited period of time, and then expire at 3AM Eastern (New York) time of the day selected.
- Holding dates for an existing Quote can be completed by navigating to the specific Quote > Change/Move.
Users also have the opportunity to keep, extend or enter a new expiration date for the Quote. Click Save.
Filter Quotes
You can filter your quotes by clicking on the Filter button.
Save your default quote view, and those defaults can stick across your OwnerRez sessions by simply checking the "Save as my default" checkbox and clicking Save & Apply.
Of course, users can always change or clear their "default" filters by clicking on the Show All link for that session.
These configured default filter settings will be consistent across sessions and devices. These settings work across devices but are cookie-based, so changes made on one device may not update on the other device immediately. As always, your in-app OwnerRez experience may be different depending on your specific device, operating system, and browser.
Booking
A Booking is when the guest has accepted your quote. Normally this includes a payment. From this point on, the dates and the property are fixed, and OwnerRez blocks them off in the property calendar(s).
Instant Bookings
The process described above is how vacation rental used to work. With modern Internet systems, though, guests often expect to be able to instantly book online, just like they can instantly buy plane tickets. Some listing sites like Booking.com don't even support the inquiry/quote back-and-forth - it's all instant booking. Bookings made this way don't have a quote, and there never was an inquiry - but the end result, a Booking, is the same.
OwnerRez also supports instant bookings through our Widgets. You can place a Widget on your own website that lets a guest instantly book.
Today, most guests use instant booking, so inquiries/quotes are becoming more rare. You still get them from your own website and from regional listing sites, from guests that want to ask questions before they book.
Listing Sites and Masked Inquiries
Years ago, the major listing sites worked mostly like old-time newspaper ads - they simply told guests about your property and gave them a way to get in touch with you by sending you an inquiry. That allowed you to respond with a Quote, and hopefully get a Booking.
Today, many of the sites, such as Airbnb, do the opposite: they intentionally block you and the guest from being able to communicate directly. Any discussion must go through their messaging system using masked, random email addresses. Only once the booking is made are you given the guest's real identity and contact information.
OwnerRez directly integrates with the native messaging platforms at Vrbo, Airbnb, and Booking.com, so communicating with guests on those platforms is easy in OwnerRez.
OwnerRez can handle all communication with guests using our extensive system of channel, email, and SMS templates that you can send with triggers. Be sure to check out our Trigger Examples support article for lots of messaging and trigger ideas!
Note: Why can't you use a platform email or proxy email address like "joe.blow.12345@messages.homewaway.com" or "joe.blow.12345@messages.houfy.com?" These platform/proxy email addresses aren't real. If you send messages to them, your message will be collected by the channel, stripped, re-formatted, and displayed on the channel's message platform in various ways that typically don't work well for email.