The OwnerRez Blog

What repetitive task takes you the most time in OwnerRez each week?

Thu, 18 Jun 2020 13:00:00 GMT

OwnerRez is an incredibly powerful tool that does a lot of high level tasks automatically. But there are still some thing that take time. We'd like to hear what repetitive task you think takes the most time to do in OwnerRez.

What do you find yourself doing over and over again?

(make sure to scroll to the bottom and click the Submit button)

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If the survey form didn't load, use this link instead:
What repetitive task takes you the most time in OwnerRez each week?

Airbnb’s Surge In Demand, Beyond Pricing’s Pulse Page Stats, Crow Wing County License Requirement, Hawaii Owners Threaten to Sue

Fri, 12 Jun 2020 18:00:00 GMT

Good news everyone, It’s Friday!

Airbnb joins vacation-rental sites who have begun to see a surge in demand. Antsy city dwellers seeking to escape their Covid-19 refuges are road-tripping to nearby vacation rentals in surprisingly strong numbers. This shows the first signs of life for an industry that essentially ground to a halt in March.

“People, after having been stuck in their homes for a few months, do want to get out of their houses; that’s really, really clear," Airbnb Inc. Chief Executive Officer Brian Chesky said in an interview. “But they don’t necessarily want to get on an airplane and are not yet comfortable leaving their countries."

Yes, Captain Obvious. But the key is that a lot of those people know Airbnb will give their money back (against the wishes of the host) if it's an "extenuating circumstance" so hey why not use Airbnb? 😒

Beyond Pricing’s Pandemic Pulse page has some really interesting stats coming out. West Coast and Ski markets in the US have now returned to similar booking pace levels that they were seeing before the pandemic. The East Coast and US Interior vacation rental markets continue to see historically high levels of booking pace. Australia, New Zealand, France, Portugal, and Italy are seeing steady growth in weekly booking pace that will soon get these markets back to a normal level, while other countries like Japan and Spain have yet to see travel demand return.

After contemplation and discussion spanning nearly a decade, property owners who operate short-term vacation rentals in Crow Wing County, Minnesota will now be subject to new regulations and licensure requirements beginning in 2021. The ordinance states short-term rentals will not be allowed to operate in the county without an annual license and defines these rentals as "any home, cabin, condominium or similar building that is advertised as, or held out to be, a place where sleeping quarters are furnished to the public on a nightly, weekly, or for less than a 30-day time period and is not a bed and breakfast, resort, hotel or motel."

Hey, at least they got a decade to discuss it! Most counties jumped on the regulate-short-term-rental bandwagon the moment they could. Who doesn’t like extra taxes?!

Hawaii Vacation Rental Owners Are Threatening To Sue Over Shutdown. A Honolulu land-use lawyer has sent letters to four island mayors saying local rules related to COVID-19 violate constitutional rights of property owners. “The result of preventing these rentals statewide equates to damages of approximately $100 million per month, and the collective impact on property values is easily $1 billion,” Kugle wrote. Hawaii remains under an order requiring all people flying into Hawaii to stay in quarantine for 14 days upon arriving. One issue has been how to make sure people follow the orders. While supporters of short-term rentals say their properties are safer because they’re generally less densely occupied than hotels, hotel industry executives argue that they have established policies and procedures to keep guests safe while they’re bound to their rooms. What do you think? We’re pretty sure we know, but tell us anyway!

What channel API changes should we make?

Fri, 12 Jun 2020 01:00:00 GMT

API Integrated Channels communicate with the partner site on a preferred back-channel. This allows for the ability to push rates, availability updates, receive bookings, and much more! That being said what changes should be made to our current API integrated channels?

What new channels would you like us to support?

What existing channels need to be changed or currently drive you nuts in some way?

(make sure to scroll to the bottom and click the Submit button)

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Product Updates - Airbnb Messages Inbox, seeing owners, merging cancelled bookings, channel amenities for cleaning

Wed, 10 Jun 2020 22:00:00 GMT

It's Wednesday, so let's talk updates!

This past week, we released a small part of the "long term stuff" I referenced last Wednesday. But what long term stuff, you say??! Think messaging. Think hosted sites. Think texting. Yeah okay, texting is kind of part of messaging.

In the next few weeks and months, you'll see that area grow more and more. There are some exciting things going on with Hosted Sites as well, but that didn't get out the door in time, so hopefully we'll cover that next Wednesday or the week after. 15 things to talk about this week...

New Features
Enhancements & Tweaks
Bug Fixes

New Features

There is now a Airbnb Messages inbox under the CRM menu that shows all of your Airbnb platform messages if you have API integration connected for Airbnb. The menu option shows a indicator of the unread messages which bubbles up to the parent CRM menu as well.

As you read or respond to messages, the indicator will change or go away dynamically.

When you open the Airbnb Messages inbox, you'll notice that it's already full of messages. This is because the inbox shows all Airbnb messages to or from any Airbnb guest, no matter where each message was sent from. In other words, even if you use the Airbnb mobile app or Airbnb website to respond, the message will still appear in OwnerRez. The Airbnb message system syncs all messages in real time to OwnerRez.

There are some filter options above the inbox that let you search for a guest name or date range. Click into a message and a normal message thread will appear underneath the guest record.

The thread follows normal messaging conventions:

Latest messages are at the top with older messages beneath that
The thread shows responses by both the guest and you
Each message shows a timestamp
The guest information can be seen in the sidebar next to the thread
Other events (quotes, bookings) are shown in the thread where they occurred chronologically

It's important to understand that this is a first pass at a messaging inbox inside OwnerRez. We have other things coming in the future, but we wanted to get this out and start experimenting with the Airbnb messages since those are synced with OwnerRez under the covers.

You can send images back to the guest using the "Select File" button on the thread and it will work the same way it does on Airbnb - the photo will appear as its own message.

This does not send any email or text messages or anything other than Airbnb platform messages. We also do not have triggers or other automation built into this yet, but all of that has been discussed internally.

Play with the Airbnb Messages inbox and let us know what you like or dislike, but please understand that this is a limited inbox with no ability to send or receive regular email, texting or other channel platforms. Only Airbnb messages for now.

Enough said on that; moving on...

If you've got PM (property management) premium feature turned on, you can now see the owner's name on the property grid, filter by owner and export owner info to Excel.

While we're talking about PM, you can now also see the owner (and click through to configure) when looking at a property's info tab.

Our PM area has a lot of coming updates, but until we get to those, we are making small iterative changes to spread PM throughout more parts of the system.

By the way, fun fact - did you know you could filter the main bookings list by email templates sent (and not sent)? If you're ever wondering if any future guests haven't gotten a particular email, give that a try.

Channel integrations have also gotten some updates. As a preferred partner, we are committed to closely monitoring and talking to our channel partners (VRBO, Airbnb) and making sure we keep up with all the latest features they are rolling out - and in some cases, hounding them for more.

HomeAway API added some amenities and we jumped on supporting those. The new HomeAway amenities are EV Car Charger, Fire Pit, Enhanced Cleaning and Disinfection, and we now support those in OwnerRez and push them over with all the rest.

Airbnb added House Manual options and we now support that too.

We are also now pushing gap periods to HomeAway API based on the required gap rules in OwnerRez.

Enhancements and Tweaks

Believe it or not, some tax jurisdictions calculate tax per guest in addition to per stay or per night, so OwnerRez now supports that. You can select "per guest" as an option on tax settings and OwnerRez will calculate a special number based on the number of guests on the booking.

When bookings are un-linked from the Airbnb API calendar, it was possible for gap rules to not be followed, so we added special gap blocks around those un-linked bookings to make sure the gap rules are still adhered to.

When historical bookings were imported via Airbnb API integration, the system was skipping past cancelled bookings when merging those bookings with bookings that were already in OwnerRez. We expanded the merge process to also include cancelled bookings for Airbnb API. After all, you might want to do analysis on old cancelled bookings too, so now you can!

Listing Quality Analyzer is a great tool and now relied on by thousands of OwnerRez users. However, it sometimes returns too much information! We added a channel type filter to Listing Quality Analyzer so that you can quickly narrow down errors or warnings to just one channel.

When importing spot rates, the errors were a bit opaque, so we clarified those import messages and enhanced what we are detecting to be clearer.

When releasing a security deposit, the release button says "Release Now" but you might actually be collecting money. Do I press it?!? We updated the security deposit button to say Collect instead of Release if that's the option you're using.

Bug Fixes

Fixed multi-sort on properties grid. Previously, the grid was default sorting by display order and then property name, only not correctly. That bug has been squashed.

Pending Airbnb bookings shouldn't push availability. We fixed Airbnb API availability to not push API for pending bookings until they are confirmed.

Portal user name on emails. The booking notification emails never showed the portal user name - now they do.

Hosted sites property menu order. Not sure how this one got out the door, but hosted sites property menus were showing a wrong sorting order. After we added custom property ordering a few weeks ago, the hosted site side stopped working correctly. Fixed!

Integration with Wishbox

Tue, 09 Jun 2020 18:00:00 GMT

We're happy to announce that we've partnered with Wishbox. This allows OwnerRez clients to use smart tools such as online check-in with document scans, guest app, upsells, online check-out, and more.

Good to Know

Wishbox is a guest experience platform offering smart tools throughout the guest journey, from the moment the booking is confirmed until check-out.

Your branding - Wishbox is a white-labeled product allowing you to customize all communication with your logo, colors and branding.
More Revenue per guest - Using Wishbox, you can offer many upsells to guests such as smart early check-in, upgrades, tours, transportation and activities with connections to suppliers. These offers are embedded in the online check-in and guest app and allow you to increase profitability and generate more revenue per guest.
Guest app with no downloading required - With Wishbox, you can offer your guests a personalized app with their reservation details, house manual and everything they need without any downloading required. Its a web app and they can access it by clicking the link, making sure the engagement rate is high
Online check-in for saving time & keeping safe - The Online check-in solutions allows you to collect scanned documents, signatures, payment for stay, check-in coordination and

How does it work?

The Wishbox and OwnerRez connection allows you to completely automate your guest communication, check-ins and messaging, whilst still providing guests with the best possible experience. The connection is quick and easy. By simply registering to Wishbox and connecting to your OwnerRez account, you will be able to integrate all of your rental and reservations and start communicating with guests in more efficient ways including via SMS and WhatsApp messages.

How to integrate with OwnerRez:

Take a look at our support article on how to integrate your Wishbox account with OwnerRez.

More about Wishbox:

Wishbox empowers property managers to digitize their guest experience by offering numerous smart tools throughout the guest journey from online check-in, smart upsells, branded guest app, digital check-out with review optimization, and much more.

Wishbox’s flexible online check-in wizard allows hosts to get the guest’s arrival and direct contact details ahead of time. Hosts can collect passport scans, payments, signatures, and more, allowing a smooth front desk check-in experience or a self-check-in upon arrival. Using Wishbox, properties are also able to communicate with guests with perfectly timed guest messaging, through a communication hub with direct integrations to WhatsApp, SMS, and Wishbox chat.

In addition, hosts can offer guests access to their very own guest-app, it's a web-app so no downloading is required. The guest-app includes a dedicated personal area that holds all the important information about the guests’ stay, the property, and additional services, all in the guests’ native language.

Before check-out, guests can receive a check-out message with smart review optimization and relevant offerings.

Properties can also generate more revenue from every guest by offering additional in-house services through Wishbox, accepting credit card payments, and auto split payments with external suppliers.

Any of you nice people want to work for OwnerRez? I mean officially; not just on Facebook 😀

Mon, 08 Jun 2020 13:00:00 GMT

Over the past year, OwnerRez has experienced a lot of growth. Even during the covid hysteria, we've continued to grow at a fast pace. We know we owe some of that growth to our awesome users because you talk to each other and spread the word.

Some of you have jokingly mentioned that you should be on the payroll. Well now... maybe you will be.

As we grow, it’s very important to us that we maintain the high quality of support that we are known for. So, what better place to find new employees than among our clients, who already know what OwnerRez can do?

We are looking to fill several positions in online support - basically, the other end of the help@ email you know and love. 😉

Software development skills are not required, nor does it matter where you live, as OwnerRez is an entirely-virtual company.

All that’s needed is a a warm personality, knowledge of OwnerRez, a decent computer and Internet connection, and a reasonable place to work. We are looking for both full-time and part-time staff.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please write to hr@ownerreservations.com with:

Your resume
A cover letter describing your experience using OwnerRez.
If you’d like to identify your OwnerRez account, that would be great too - maybe we already know and like you!

$108 million Vacasa Deal, Vacation Rentals Rebounded 127%, Florida Rentals Restrictions, Hawaii 68% drop in total occupancy

Fri, 05 Jun 2020 22:00:00 GMT

Happy Friday Everyone!

Silver Lake is betting big on the travel industry despite what is happening with the global pandemic. The top Silicon Valley tech investment firm bought big stakes in Expedia and Airbnb over the past few months, and now it is leading a $108 million Series D round for vacation rental platform Vacasa. The Portland, Ore.-based company manages more than 26,000 vacation homes in 31 U.S. states and 18 countries, and bills itself as “North America’s largest vacation rental management platform.” Vacasa interim CEO Matt Roberts, who took over in February, said he believes there will be a consumer shift toward private vacation rentals as people fear going back to hotels and other lodging options due to safety-related concerns.

According to a report from AirDNA, Vacation rentals globally have rebounded 127% since April after coronavirus lockdowns halted nearly all travel. Short-term rentals on platforms like Airbnb and VRBO reached rock bottom around April 5, but have nearly returned to pre-pandemic levels, according to AirDNA. Beach towns and other leisure destinations, especially in places that pushed to reopen quickly, are seeing the most growth. The numbers are one sign that people are starting to travel again, at least locally, as stay-at-home orders are eased, but the devastated industry is still fragile and a resurgence of cases could shut things down again.

Is anyone really able to go to Florida at this point? Florida vacation rental properties can resume operations subject to certain rules and restrictions. For more information consult Orange County’s full plan. Or consult Gulf county for their rules. Or Pasco county for theirs. Or Sumter county. Or maybe just ignore it all and do what you want.😄

Vacation rentals in the destination state of Hawaii reached only 5 per cent of total occupancy in the month of April. This represents a 68% drop in total occupancy from last year. Covid-19 travel restrictions have created a global drop in travel demand which has led to record low visitor numbers for the islands.

What do you worry most about with your vacation rentals?

Thu, 04 Jun 2020 21:00:00 GMT

As most of you know, managing vacation rentals creates a lot of anxiety. COVID has impacted the industry greatly, but now that locations are starting to open back up, business is beginning to flourish. Even before the pandemic, vacation rentals were stressful enough. What are the things you worry about the most with your vacation rental business?

(make sure to scroll to the bottom and click the Submit button)

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Product Updates - new Channel Rate Tester, rate table options, Channel Bridge clarity & only bookings on CanadaStays iCal

Wed, 03 Jun 2020 23:00:00 GMT

Happy Hump Day! 🐪 Although, I'm getting this out late, so it's probably already past Hump Day for our European and Asian users.

Last week, we mostly worked on major updates that aren't quite finished - long term stuff - but there were a few things that went out, so let's take a second to go over them...

New Features
Enhancements & Tweaks
Bug Fixes

New Features

There is now a Channel Rate Tester tool (under the top Tools menu) that shows a side-by-side comparison of OwnerRez rates next to the channel rates. If you haven't seen this thing yet, check it out - it's pretty sweet.

Wondering what HomeAway will show for a property and set of dates? We'll show you directly. The tool hits channel APIs live and then returns a list of charges with the OwnerRez totals next to it. The bottom then shows the full OwnerRez rate tester charges so you can see the breakdown in more detail.

It works for the HomeAway, Airbnb and TripAdvisor channels only and, to be clear, it's only if you have API integration in place for those channels.

Enhancements and Tweaks

We added a 'booking only' option to CanadaStays calendar import (iCal) settings. This allows you to avoid situations where CanadaStays is serving blocked time back to OwnerRez resulting in a loop of activity. Other calendar import types like HomeAway and Airbnb already had this option.

The rate table widget now calculates week and month columns by a range instead of fixed amounts. Previously, there was a lot of confusion about the fix amount calculations. Week and month calculations are hard to get exact because of so many factors with spot rates, exact arrival nights and so on. The range option helps remove the confusion for guests.

Also on the rate table widget, we added a setting so that you can specify these options directly.

Channel Bridge has been enhanced in a number of ways. We are now ignoring empty rows on the Bookings tab of the export file. We clarify that matched-bookings (ie. matched against other properties and dates) are double bookings. On overlapping bookings, we now show the dates and guest name to make it easier for you to research. And past VRBO bookings with an 'unknown' status are now treated as cancelled. The are misc. bugs that are fixed on Channel Bridge on an ongoing basis, but these enhancements should clarify and strengthen how users interact with the normal Channel Bridge workflow.

Bug Fixes

Reviews widget count. We fixed the review widget to show decimal places properly for large numbers. Some of you have a lot of reviews! We wouldn't the guest thinking that's 200 when it's really 2,000.

Check-in Type lockbox options mention guests instead of hosts. This was confusing previously as the Airbnb documentation mentioned hosts for some reason but we have now changed it to correctly refer to guests.

Some Friday News - Long-Term Stays, More Florida Counties Reopen, VRBO Price Consistency, Buying Vacation Houses Sight Unseen

Fri, 29 May 2020 23:00:00 GMT

Happy Friday everyone!

Vacation properties are seeing a surge of bookings, especially now that states are reopening and loosening health and safety restrictions. A typical summer vacation may take the family for a week or two to the beach or mountains. This year, as many employees have been shooed from the office and summer camps have been canceled, many travelers are vacationing for a bit longer. Angela Rice, a co-founder of Boutique Travel Advisors in the Scottsdale, Ariz., area, said that some clients are looking at rustic long-term rentals near lakes, trails and waterfalls. She has received inquiries from clients with children who are looking to take road trips to a “lodge, ranch, ski resort town,” or anywhere with stand-alone lodgings and outdoor activities. Many travelers are ready to depart immediately, perhaps because they have cabin fever, feel more comfortable as officials relax restrictions or are unsure about booking too far into a future with hazy conditions. Evolve Vacation Rental, which manages 14,000 vacation homes across the country, said trips booked within seven days of departure are up 300 percent compared with last year.

Vacation rentals can reopen in 49 Florida counties after state officials cleared seven more safety plans Wednesday. Bradford, Columbia, DeSoto, Leon, Polk, Pasco and Seminole counties are joining the nearly three quarters of Florida’s 67 counties free to offer short-term vacation rentals. Those plans, going into effect immediately, will locally reverse Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ statewide ban from late March.

VRBO has introduced the Price Consistency program. What does this mean for you? OwnerRez is fully price consistent if you use the HomeAway API. So basically you have nothing to do, you will be price consistent by default. Here are some of the benefits for property managers who choose to be Price Consistent:

More bookings: On average, property managers saw more than 10% conversion improvement after upgrading to Price Consistency.
Total price shown in search: Travelers will now see the most accurate, total price on the search results page instead just of the average nightly rate. This has been one of the most requested features from partners and will help build traveler trust in the booking process.
Access to new products and features: Property Managers will be required to be Price Consistent in order to take advantage of new features and products for their listings.

To learn about what will happen to property managers who do not adopt Price Consistency by August 31st, read more here.

Two and a half months into social distancing, affluent city-dwellers are buying homes in rural areas, and some are even doing so sight unseen. In New York state, the COVID-19 PAUSE policy means that traditional showings are verboten. "We're getting offers on virtual showings alone," says Howie Guja, a real estate agent at Old Purchase Properties in Bellport Village, New York, a rural community about 90 minutes from Manhattan. Jessica Lautz, the vice president of demographics and behavioral insights at the National Association of REALTORS®, says that about a quarter of the realtors her association represents report they've made a sale in the past week to a buyer who had only seen the home virtually. "Rentals are approximately 20% higher this year than last year, conservatively, and while there are some short-term rentals in the mix, we are mostly seeing long-term rental deals being done," says Cody Vichinsky, the co-owner of Bespoke Real Estate, which lists Hamptons properties valued at $10 million or more. "I’ve never seen the type of increased energy like we’re doing this quarter."

Have a fantastic weekend!😊

Coming Soon to a Hosted Website Near You

Thu, 28 May 2020 17:00:00 GMT

Many of you reading this may already be using our Hosted Website feature.

If not check out some great examples like ShenRent, Sasquatch, MT Shasta, CB Borrego, Dawn's or Mountainside.

Hosted Websites has some solid features, but we're in the middle of designing some great new ones.

Please let us know (survey below) what you need for your hosted site. What's bothering you about it? What do you see on other VR websites that you wish your website had?

(make sure to scroll to the bottom and click the Submit button)

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Product Updates - sort properties any way you want, RA account values, longer LQA checks, status on guest activity, Ethernet

Thu, 28 May 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Another week, another update. Make that 22 updates. 😇

Let's run through it...

New Features
Enhancements & Tweaks
Bug Fixes

New Features

Ethernet is now an amenity that can be selected in addition to the others. It does not replace Internet or Wireless/WiFi. This is useful because some users want to point out that their internet handles Wireless/WiFi connection in addition to hard-line ethernet connections. Business travelers often look for the hard-line ethernet type.

You can now order properties explicitly in OwnerRez. For a long time, users have wanted to order by different types of fields (codes, internal names, external names). Forget all that... You can now specifically set the internal and external order of properties.

Head on over to the Properties menu, click the Display Order button and you'll get two drag/drop lists. Drag your properties around and click save.

Internal and external are exactly what you think they are - internal is inside of OwnerRez's control panel and external is what guests see on public facing features like websites or widgets.

When downloading renter agreements as PDF or showing them on HomeAway API, we now fully render your account information instead of the field codes. Before, the renter agreement might have shown "the owner {MYFULL}" but now it will say "the owner Joe Blow". This so that the agreement can show the owner info when the guest previews it as a sample, even before they go to sign later on. To be clear, we do not render any email address or phone number fields for privacy purposes.

You can now check the DNS records on your hosted website directly from OwnerRez. Wondering why an SSL certificate hasn't been generated or why the live domain name didn't map over yet? Pull up your hosted site, drill in and click the Check DNS button right there by the location fields.

This will show you what OwnerRez sees when we look at your domain name. We'll tell you whether it's configured correctly or something is off. If it's off, you'll see the IP address that we see.

Enhancements and Tweaks

Why get 12 months of spot rates when you can get 24 months instead? Our spot rate import (ie. with channels like Airbnb) now automatically scoops up 24 months of rates at a time instead of 12. To be clear, this is the manual one-time import on spot rates, not an API integration, dynamic pricing or anything else.

Listing Quality Analyzer (under the Tools menu) now checks longer time periods when analyzing rates even if min/max rules are set. This helps scenarios where rates are valid for longer periods of time but the min/max rules don't allow those rates to be used or applied.

On the Email History report, the To filter is now a type-ahead of guest names and email addresses. This allows you to quickly narrow down a guest by name or email instead of guessing or looking elsewhere.

Not quite sure how Katie's name is spelled? No worries, just type a few characters and see what comes up.

Speaking of guests, we also added a Status column to the guest Related Activity list. This helps clarify the type of bookings or quotes you're looking at, for instance when there are several cancelled. You can filter on it as well using the filter button above the list.

There are a lot of lists and options in OwnerRez. Your API integrations show a running log of Sync Actions for instance - we do this to give you transparency into the process. However, sometimes you're hit with information overload and can't find what you need because the information you don't need is in the way. To help with this, we added some filter options to the Sync Actions list on API integrations. Want to find where a sync with Airbnb recently error'ed? You can now do that.

We clarified the Tax Registration Number fields to point out that max length only applies to VRBO, not Airbnb. Speaking of Airbnb and taxes, check out this new tax article specifically for Airbnb taxes.

On the Email History report, we updated the Entity ID filter box to automatically strip extra text from the number that is entered.

Bug Fixes

VRBO reviews not downloading in Channel Bridge. VRBO changed the data format of their Reviews, under the covers, and Channel Bridge could not download them. This was fixed.

Booking total in Tax report. The Tax Summary report showed conflicting booking totals when bookings with no tax results were selected based on specific listing sites (eg. Airbnb) versus all listings sites. This was fixed so that all booking totals would show even if the taxable charges were zero regardless of the listing site selected.

Property URLs with hash fragments. On certain widgets, property URLs were improperly appending parameters after the fragment (ie. hash tag portion) which led to incorrect results. This is now being detected dynamically.

Search widget property culture. The Availability/Search widget was not honoring the correct currency and culture (ie. date format) settings as set on the property. This was fixed.

Adjacent days when arrival is passed. We fixed triggers to ignore the arrival side on adjacent booking criteria if the arrival date has passed. This was causing issues where an automated email would offer the guest a deal, or point out open days, after the stay had already started.

Seasons not saving. If seasons had old rule values configured from legacy rates, the season would silently error when saving. No error message would show but the season would not save. This was fixed.

Damage Protection settings not picked up from calendar import (iCal) settings. Some of our more proactive users will run Channel Bridge on new bookings before the calendar import (iCal) engine picks up the new booking - this is perfectly fine and Channel Bridge will create the new booking. However, the Damage Protection rule was not beiung picked up from the calendar import (iCal) settings since the calendar import hadn't run yet. We fixed this to check and detect if there are calendar import (iCal) settings when Channel Bridge runs.

Listing Quality Analyzer crashes. We fixed LQA to not crash when there are no rates or when there is an Airbnb channel configured but no properties on the account.

Include Notes option not showing. On the Stays By Date Range report, we fixed it so the Include Notes option is honored even if Include Custom Fields is not selected. Previously, they both had to be selected.

Unknown feedback filter on Emails History. We fixed a bug with filtering by Unknown feedback only on the Email History list. That now works as expected.

Integration with RueBaRue

Wed, 27 May 2020 21:00:00 GMT

We are pleased to announce that we have partnered with RueBaRue to provide advanced guest communication tools.

RueBaRue now integrates seamlessly with OwnerRez software to help vacation rental property managers save time, optimize operations, and liaise with guests.

About RueBaRue

RueBaRue Guest Communication Platform helps property managers use smart messaging to communicate with guests, schedule automated text, and email delivery of guestbooks and area guides, respond quickly to guest questions using the property manager app.

Here's what RueBaRue can help you do:

Reduce the high volume of communication between guests and the property management team
Schedule automated delivery of guestbooks by text or email of door codes, welcome letters, surveys and more
Help guests report problems to the team for faster resolution, good word of mouth and 5-star reviews
Send emergency alerts by text about road closures, power outages and a pending storm

With the integration, guestbooks will be created in seconds, and you will have RueBaRue up and running within a few hours.

Here’s what a vacation rental company in San Diego has to say about RueBaRue:

"A game-changer for our Guest Services Department. People aren’t calling in asking how to use a TV or where exactly to park because it’s all there in detailed step-by-step photos. And their customer service and support team are the best."

Want to learn more?

Schedule a 30-Minute Demo at https://www.ruebarue.com/schedule-a-demo

Learn how to Integrate RueBaRue with Your OwnerRez Account.

OwnerRez is now a Preferred Partner of HomeAway

Mon, 25 May 2020 17:00:00 GMT

Our older users know that it took a few years for OwnerRez to break into the channel API integration game. We avoided using third party software and lobbied hard for the channels to work with us directly. It paid off, and a year ago we got our own direct API integrations off the ground. OwnerRez now has the best channel management features available in the vacation rental industry.

While many of our competitors offer channel management of some kind (many use third party managers), many of those competitors don't work to improve those features or keep up with the latest channel standards and features.

Here at OwnerRez, our foot has never lifted off the gas pedal. We meet with our channel partners monthly and keep up to date with all their latest features. For instance, we are about ready to release Cancellation Policies in OwnerRez. These allow you to define your own cancellation periods and percentages, coinciding with a new custom cancellations feature that HomeAway offers via API. We also recently added House Manual support and Custom Taxes for Airbnb.

And the results have paid off. Last month, in the middle of coronavirus hysteria, OwnerRez achieved Preferred Partner status with HomeAway.

Of the many vacation rental software apps on the market, only a select few have achieved Preferred Status. You can see OwnerRez now listed in the HomeAway partner directory. Elite status - here we come!

Some Friday News - Perfect Price’s really-long free trial, VRBO talks health, CDC says covid doesn’t spread (easily) on surfaces

Fri, 22 May 2020 20:00:00 GMT

Good news everyone, it’s Friday!

If you’ve ever wanted to check out what dynamic pricing is and how it works, now is the time. Perfect Price is offering FREE dynamic pricing software for all of 2020. There are no strings attached to this deal, but if you’re interested you better act fast because the offer will be ending soon.

Cleanliness is next to godliness. VRBO has implemented a way for owners to disclose what measures they're taking to provide a clean and safe environment for their guests. Many vacation rentals currently clean with EPA-approved disinfectants along with offering contactless/keyless check in. This makes it more visible to travelers who are looking for that information.

Hey, speaking of covid, did you see where the CDC said coronavirus doesn't spread on surfaces? Maybe you don't need such a large forced-gap between bookings now! Time to drop that from 5 days down to 2?

The impact of coronavirus has made it abundantly clear that travel insurance is a must have. Due to this travel insurance companies are scrambling to meet the demand. Luckily OwnerRez offers a fantastic travel insurance policy that protects your guest against unexpected occurrences such as last minute trip cancellation, medical problems or weather interruptions. To be clear, travel insurance will not cover fear of traveling due to coronavirus, but it can help protect you if members of your group become hospitalized or are quarantined.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! 🎖️🏖️

What's the single biggest feature missing from OwnerRez?

Thu, 21 May 2020 21:00:00 GMT

OwnerRez is an incredibly powerful tool. We are constantly trying to improve and add new features for our users. That being said, we would love to hear what you think the single biggest feature missing from OwnerRez is. We have compiled a list of commonly asked features we will be implementing in the future. Please select what you think is the most important and/or write what feature you believe is missing.

(make sure to scroll to the bottom and click the Submit button)

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Some Friday News - Love 4 Guests, The #DirectBooking Surge, What's Up with FL?

Fri, 15 May 2020 18:00:00 GMT

Happy Friday everyone! In many places around the world, bookings are surging back strong and we're glad to see it.

If you haven't seen it already, check out the To Guests, With Love campaign. 💓 Great video from vacation rental leaders around the globe. OwnerRez was a sponsor on it (which basically means we went "that's awesome, please put our logo on it too"), but many others did the heavy lifting.

Most of you already support the #DirectBooking movement. Looks like COVID has kicked that into overdrive. CNBC talks about how Airbnb hosts are building their own booking websites in revolt. By the way, have you ever noticed how the press always refers to all VR people as "Airbnb hosts"? HomeAway's gotta love that.

We're keeping our eye on Florida vacation rentals. Very strange that hotels are allowed to operate but short-term rentals aren't?? There's a lot of very upset people wondering the same thing. Lawyers are having a field day.

Speaking of lawsuits, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that Stays-At-Home orders are unlawful. It will be interesting to see the implication of this with other states. Monkey see, monkey do? Or the normal heavily-politicized angry name-calling that happens instead.

Have a great sunny May weekend! 🌞

Integration with Perfect Price

Tue, 12 May 2020 12:00:00 GMT

We're happy to announce that we've partnered with Perfect Price to offer its customers the industry’s first AI-based dynamic pricing solution. Perfect Price brings something unique and compelling to the industry and wanted to offer the best to OwnerRez customers.

Perfect Price is more than just dynamic pricing. Perfect Price is about complete revenue management.

What is revenue management?

Successful property managers know that optimizing pricing is crucial. But there’s more to revenue management than just prices. Revenue management can be summed up as "constant vigilance". Successful revenue managers keep a close eye on bookings and revenue coming in. They keep an eye on the market and what comparable properties are doing. They know when events and holidays are, and adjust prices (or make sure they are adjusted) to meet demand. In fact they’re constantly adjusting pricing based on demand – implementing strategies, like lowering the price to pick up last minute bookings, or capturing more value from people who plan ahead.

Revenue management goes beyond dynamic pricing. Successful property managers use dynamic minimum stays to prevent short bookings from blocking long ones, to pick up last-minute bookings, to maximize revenue at peak times, or to fill gap nights between longer bookings.

"In the aftermath of COVID-19, property managers need the best tools to return to growth and profitability. With OwnerRez and Perfect Price, you can automate daily tasks that might be going undone today – that will yield revenue immediately," said Alex Shartsis, founder and CEO of Perfect Price.

"OwnerRez users already know how much additional revenue can be wrung out of vacation rentals with the use of better technology and automation. This integration with Perfect Price pushes that automation even further with smarter rates that take full advantage of the leading algorithms in the pricing industry," said Paul Waldschmidt, CEO of OwnerRez. "The days of just doing seasonal pricing with a simple table of weekly rates are long over!"

Intelligence, Transparency and Control

Leading property managers choose Perfect Price because of its intelligence, transparency and control. The most advanced AI algorithms, coupled with an easy to use interface built for professionals, enables anyone to experience success.

Intelligence means smarter pricing, with the AI automatically finding comparable properties, detecting seasonal and day-of-week fluctuations, and more. It also means intelligent dashboards, showing you exactly what is going on in your business – revenue, bookings for each month and how that compares to last year and your comparable properties.

Transparency means knowing what’s going on under the hood. You can see the performance of Perfect Price and your business on an easy to read dashboard. See what the AI thinks your comparable properties are – and edit them if you disagree; it’s not hidden behind opaque and inaccurate market averages. Know every calculation that went into a price, so you can adjust as you see fit.

Control comes from working with some of the largest brands in travel, understanding how their professionals work. However accurate the AI, everyone will from time to time want to take control. Through a sophisticated rules engine, or simple overrides, you can implement exactly the strategy you want.

By combining intelligence, transparency and control Perfect Price has a unique offering that is different from other dynamic pricing providers on the market.

Can’t be easier to try

Thanks to OwnerRez's robust and capable APIs, it’s easy to try Perfect Price and OwnerRez together. Simply sign up for an account at PerfectPrice.com, and choose OwnerRez as your PMS. You’ll be walked through a guided tour and given a free trial on the spot.

Or take a look at our support article on how integrate your Perfect Price account with OwnerRez.

Integration with Parakeet

Wed, 06 May 2020 18:00:00 GMT

Hi everyone, we'd like to announce that we now support Parakeet door locks!

For those of you that don't know, Parakeet has a platform that can automate door locks, thermostats, sensors, garage doors and more.

Like our other door lock integrations, OwnerRez will automatically create door codes for your Parakeet door locks when bookings are created, changed or deleted in OwnerRez. OwnerRez will drive your Parakeet door locks - no need to lift a finger!

Learn how to Integrate Parakeet door locks with Your OwnerRez Account.

About Parakeet

Parakeet, recently acquired by Brivo (the global leader in cloud-based physical security solutions,) is now Brivo Smart Home. Parakeet's reliable cellular gateway and cloud-based dashboard enable property managers to control locks, garage doors, thermostats and monitoring sensors from one central, cloud-based dashboard, accessible from any computer or smartphone. Parakeet’s platform also collects data for property managers to track, monitor and manage their staff.

Integration with Beyond Pricing

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 21:00:00 GMT

Before you run home for the day, here's an exciting little Monday tidbit... OwnerRez now supports integration with Beyond Pricing!

For those of you that don't know, Beyond Pricing is a recognized leader in automated pricing for vacation rentals. The Beyond Pricing integration will dynamically insert rates into your OwnerRez account.

Like our other dynamic pricing integrations, Beyond Pricing will create spot rates automatically in your OwnerRez account every day or whenever their algorithms deem it necessary. Beyond Pricing will drive your OwnerRez rates - no need to lift a finger!

Kam Bain, Director of Strategy, Beyond Pricing says "Customers frequently contact our Support Team to request an integration with OwnerRez. OwnerRez was built by property managers, for property managers. It is this unique insight that ensures the PMS covers everything a property manager needs, from managing enquiries to offering travel insurance options. Their commitment to listening to feedback from their customers and building community around their users is great to see.”

Learn how to Integrate Beyond Pricing with Your OwnerRez Account.

About Beyond Pricing

Founded in 2013 by veterans of revenue management in the airline and hospitality space, Beyond Pricing is the world's first revenue management and dynamic pricing software for vacation rentals. Driven by big-data machine learning and predictive analytics, Beyond Pricing has priced over $4 billion in bookings for 300,000 listings in more than 7,000 cities.