Hey everybody and happy Friday! Even though we're getting into the heart (and heat) of summertime (in the northern hemisphere anyway), there's no slowing OwnerRez down.
This week's June 14th release with 30 updates is a perfect example of that! Lots of great things to highlight in one of our largest releases of the year. We're gearing up for some other great things to come but please read up on the latest and greatest from this week to whet the palate!
- New Features
- Enhancements & Tweaks
- Cell Phone Moved to be First Phone Number Entry Field on Guest Forms
- Theming and Account/Property Field Code tweaks
- Optional Surcharges No Longer included in Vrbo PPB fees
- Deposits Grid and Filter Enhancements
- Expanded Availability/Property Search Widget Rates Settings for Multi-Property Hosted Websites
- Property Field Differences Article Table Tweaks
- Bug Fixes
New Features
Kaba Integration Now Supports Users With Fewer Than 10 Locks
For those who have wanted to use Kaba with OwnerRez but have fewer than 10 locks have waited a long time for this one to come to fruition. We have wired up to use Kaba's new API that allows those owners or PMs to integrate with OwnerRez! There's an added step or two to do it, but in OwnerRez you still connect under Settings > Door Locks and choose Connect Kaba/Oracode to get started.
On the Create screen, the previous connection method is still available by selecting the other radio button ("Entire site") but that still requires 10+ locks and receiving your site name from Kaba. But the new default selection is "My locks only" to utilize IHO (Individual Home Owner) mode. With that radio button selected, Site ID and API Token fields are available.
To get your Site ID and API Token, and learn more about completing the setup, follow the steps in the Kaba door lock support article.
Channel Rate Tester Upgraded for Airbnb
Have you ever used the OwnerRez Channel Rate Tester under the Tools menu? We hope so, but it's now even better when using it to check rates on Airbnb. Previously we had to rely on a technique called screen scraping. When you would make a query, we would go to that listing on Airbnb and punch in the info and then "scrape" the results to return them in OwnerRez. Sounds complicated doesn't it? Well, it was, and not as reliable as we prefer things to be. Well, Airbnb has an API to do live quoting. So, we've switched Channel Rate Tester to use it. We also now show the expected fees that Airbnb would charge to Host and Guest for the selected dates.
Learn more about Rate Testing by reading the Rate Testing Overview support article.
System Message for Sending Owner Statements Added
Way back in 2018, PMs have been able to use custom email templates to send owners their owner statements. Well, along the way we've gotten lots of questions about how to modify the owner statement system default email that gets sent to owners. Many users would first look in System Messages and not see anything there. So we have added Send Statement to Owner as a system message to make it more clear.
Like all system messages, you can turn it off, change the message (which will create a Custom Template and link to it), or you can link up an existing template. Again, you can have any number of Owner Statement email templates
PMs can only override the default system message with one custom template. But PMs can still set which custom template to be used under each owner, if they so choose. On the preferences tab under the Owner, you can change preferred email from System Default (which is the message as set on the Owner Statement system message) to a custom Owner Statement email template you've saved.
Multiple Emails Supported On Owner
Along the same lines, we have updated Owners under the Property Management premium feature to support more than one email address! You can have any number of email addresses saved on each Owner! This is going to be a huge help to PMs who have had to manually enter multiple email addresses on templates or used other methods to get around this previous limitation. In this example, I've already added 4 emails, but I can click the "Add Email Address" button to add additional ones as needed.
Once you add the needed email addresses for your owners and you click Save. Anytime you use the field codes {OEMAIL} or {BOWNEREMAIL}, all owner emails will be returned.
So, if you're a PM who had manually entered extra owner emails in templates and had to have different template versions just because of the need for a workaround, you can simplify your setups if you so choose!
New Official OwnerRez Channel Monthly Rentals by Owner & American Snowbird
Earlier this week, OwnerRez announced our new partnership with Monthly Rentals by Owner & American Snowbird, a new first-class book-direct channel partner.
Founded in 2003, Monthly Rentals by Owner and American Snowbird specializes in providing vacation rental property managers and homeowners with a quality, cost-effective listing solution, offering a unique platform that focuses on marketing properties available for extended stays of 28 days or more. The company meets the needs of a growing market of vacationers seeking mid-term and longer-term rentals and Snowbird rentals.
Learn more by reading the Monthly Rentals by Owner & American Snowbird Setup & Connecting support article.
Enhancements & Tweaks
Cell Phone Moved to be First Phone Number Entry Field on Guest Forms
Since I'm on the product team, I get to share upcoming product news every now and again. One of those things I'm really excited about is that we're working on overhauling the OwnerRez "Guest Forms." Good stuff!
In the meantime, because it's a large overhaul, we know we needed to handle cell phones differently on the current forms. The cell phone field is first and that way if people have one number, it's likely a cell phone and so will more likely be entered in the correct phone field.
This should also help on a go-forward basis with SMS messaging to be more successful. Many users use {CPHONEPR} which is the primary contact phone which before this change was considered the home phone if more than one number was entered.
A welcomed change until the new guest forms are ready!
Theming and Account/Property Field Code tweaks
Call it a bug? We're calling this one a tweak so we can provide screenshots.😉 Under theming, we noticed we were saving data inconsistently thus displaying things inconsistently. For example, there was a trailing slash saved on the Business URL (i.e., domain) acmevacations.com/. In other theming places, it was saved as a fully qualified URL (e.g., https://www.acmevacations.com). So, we've cleaned things up, including associated account and property field codes and we hope you see more tidiness in your theming and branding. Field codes-wise, MYURL, MYSOCS, and MYSOCM saw the main updates.
Before - Account Theme:
After - Account Theme:
Optional Surcharges No Longer included in Vrbo PPB fees
This one should make those Vrbo users who are on their PPB (pay-per-booking) model and use optional surcharges in OwnerRez happy. We worked with Vrbo to get their blessing to remove Optional Surcharges (which are added after a Vrbo booking comes in) by the user upon request of the guest from the BUS (Booking Update Service) so Vrbo doesn't learn of them. The PPB commission fee will only factor in Automatic Surcharges that were applied on the booking at the time the guest booked.
Deposits Grid and Filter Enhancements
OwnerRez continues to make improvements to Deposits!
We've added a new Processor column to the Deposits grid along with a link to the payment method (if applicable).
We've also added a Property drop-down selector to the Deposits Filter allowing users to filter deposits by property.
And we've added a Processor drop-down selector to the Deposits Filter allowing users to filter deposits by the payment processor. This currently includes Airbnb, Lynnbrook Group, and Stripe, when applicable.
Learn more by reading the Deposits Overview support article.
Expanded Availability/Property Search Widget Rates Settings for Multi-Property Hosted Websites
New changes to the Availability/Property Search Widget Rates Section now allow users to display a range of their minimum and maximum rates on their multi-property hosted website by selecting the Show range for min and max (eg. "350-499/night") button. Click Save. This is applicable to both Hosted Websites and the Availability/Property Search Widget.
Users can make changes to the Availability/Property Search Widget by navigating to Settings > My Website > their Hosted Website > Availability/Property Search Widget selecting the Show range for min and max (eg. "350-499/night") button. Click Save.
And the multi-property search will display the minimum and maximum rates as a range.
Users can also access the Availability/Property Search Widget Rates Section by navigating to their Hosted Website > Home and/or Properties pages and selecting the Show range for min and max (eg. "350-499/night") button. Click Save.
Users should note that setting the Availability/Property Search Widget on one of the Hosted Website pages does not affect the Availability/Property Search Widget on the other Hosted Website page.
Don't have a multi-property Hosted Website but still want to change the nightly rate price range on your single-property Hosted Website? This nightly price range displayed is automatically pulled from the property minimum and maximum rates but users can override these settings by navigating to either Settings > Pricing Preferences or that specific Property > General Info > Change > Calculation Overrides to change the minimum and maximum rate range displayed on the multi-property and single-property hosted website.
Property Field Differences Article Table Tweaks
Keeping the OwnerRez support articles updated can prove challenging. We updated the Channel API - Property Field Differences support article to pull the table's data straight from the code base. When a property description field's attribute is changed in the code, the article table will automatically update!
Bug Fixes
Add (500 max for Airbnb) Note on Short Description Edit When No Airbnb Description Override. We added a note under Short Description on edit to clarify that even though the field accepts up to 10,000 characters, Airbnb only supports 500 max. If a user needs to have a longer short description for other channels, you can add the Airbnb description override and adjust accordingly.
Add More Details to Travel Insurance System Alert. Some helpful details were missing from the Travel Insurance System Alert email message sent to OR users. The email now includes the OwnerRez booking number (ORB...), Property, and Guest Name.
Add Support for RemoteLock "connector_lock" (TTLock). RemoteLock has recently added support for TTLock type locks and OwnerRez has added this to the types that are available to be mapped in OwnerRez.
Allow Payment Fees to Net Out the Payment to Zero. This edge case occurred where a validation didn't allow the creation of a payment with a host fee of the same amount (i.e. a $100 payment with a $100 fee), but on occasion, that is necessary for accounting purposes so OwnerRez allowed it.
Change "Airbnb Message" to Read "Channel Message" in More Places. After the Vrbo messaging roll-out, several users pointed out we still referred to "Airbnb Message" in some places where it should be "Channel Message."
Clarify That Rentalz is for Property Managers Only. Some OwnerRez users were disappointed to learn that the Rentalz API connection is exclusively for Property Managers only after they had started the API connection process. We had added information about that to our Rentalz support article but have added language on the Rentalz channel connection instructions and setup pages in-app to clarify that Rentalz.com is exclusively for inventory managed by a property management company.
Don't Show Booking Door Codes if the Lock is Disabled or Deleted. When users created a manual door lock associated with a property, then created a door code for a booking at that property but then deleted or disabled the door lock mapping, the old (and no longer correct) door lock code still appeared for the property. This bug has been fixed and the system will check to ensure that the door lock code is still active and not deleted or disabled when displaying door codes for bookings.
Emerald Coast By Owner Channel Integration Listing Link is Wrong. The Emerald Coast By Owner listing link was being duplicated resulting in an incorrect URL link in the ECBYO channel integration page. This has been fixed and the ECBYO listing hyperlink is correct.
Fix Address Label Not Changing to "City, Province, Postal Code" When Reloading Location Page. The address label on many OwnerRez forms was not displaying the "City, Province, Postal Code" label correctly when a country was selected from the Country drop-down list. This bug has been fixed and the "City, Province, Postal Code" label will display correctly for the related countries from the Country drop-down list selection.
Fix Conversation Link in Guest Record Dropdown. On the Booking Overview tab, there is a Guest Record drop-down. When applicable, the link to Airbnb Messages was broken so we fixed it to properly take the user to the Guest conversation view.
Fix Sync Pending Label for Airbnb Property in Limited Sync Mode. When users created an Airbnb-linked property in limited sync mode and then requested a full sync action, the property still had the Sync Pending label displayed even though the property was correctly synced. This bug has been fixed and any Airbnb-linked properties created in limited sync mode that then request a full sync action will display the correct Synced status.
Handle Case Where Vrbo Listing Import GraphQL Fails, and Don't Miscategorize Bedrooms. The Vrbo listing import was failing due to the use of public endpoints due to Vrbo having changed the endpoints on their end. OwnerRez has adapted the importer to correctly import listings with the new endpoints.
On Airbnb CB, Stop Looking for Recent Payouts if Airbnb Returns Multiple Empty Pages. Occasionally the Airbnb Channel Bridge (CB) would keep returning an empty page while continuing to attempt to download endlessly. This has been fixed and OwnerRez detects this issue and the Airbnb CB will stop attempting to download after the system recognizes a couple of empty pages.
Plug Trigger Send Holes Around Booking Import. OwnerRez recently discovered two edge cases where triggers could unexpectedly be sent around the booking import process. We have fixed this to no longer send deleted triggers when overwriting the booking import and added an additional check specifically for the “created” date type triggers and require those triggers if necessary.
Point Suitability Car LQA Warning to Location. The LQA (Listing Quality Analyzer) was pointing users to the wrong settings area if they had a warning for the note as entered for car suitability (which is under Property > Location (in the Nearby Places & Activities section)).
Prevent "Everything" Sync if Setup is Incomplete. Completing the OwnerRez property setup can take some time especially if users are planning to be API connected to Airbnb. OR has added additional warnings to alert users that they need to add their property Photos, Headline, Short Description, and Rates before they attempt to complete the Airbnb API connection process.
Smoothen Trigger and Autoresponders After Vrbo Messaging Release. After the June 7th Vrbo Messaging release, OwnerRez monitored the effects of any triggers and autoresponders that users had set up and adjusted to smooth out those automated tools.
Strip Non-printable Chars From More Places. Nonprinting characters, or formatting marks, were causing issues on property image captions and property descriptions resulting in display issues. We now strip such non-printable characters and formatting marks in those places on save.
Update bnbfinder Onboarding Instructions URL. The bnbfinder URL link on the OwnerRez bnbfinder setup onboarding instructions was outdated. OR has updated the URL to navigate to the correct bnbfinder document.
