Experience the difference of "Elite".

OwnerRez Global Alerts, Improved Rates Calendar, and New Arrival/Departure Rules!

  • Posted on
  • By

Are you celebrating National Football Hangover Day today? Did you watch the big 🏈 game, or did you watch the 122 dogs that faced off in the Puppy Bowl instead? 🐶

Regardless, we hope that you were able to celebrate (or commiserate if your team lost) with family and friends and enjoy some yummy snacks. Whether you are still recovering from all the excitement of last night or were up and at 'em on this Monday, take some time to relax and give this February 10th release with 3 updates a once-over. We've rolled out our new Global Alert System and added some nice enhancements to the Rates Calendar to "advance the ball" (yep--we went there)!

New Features

Added In-App Global Alert System

OwnerRez users may have noticed our new In-App Global Alert System already. Still, we're "super" excited about this new feature that adds a more efficient way to communicate OwnerRez news and information.

This new and hopefully unobtrusive global alert bar will appear at the top of the OwnerRez app. We do not intend to "alert" our users unnecessarily to the point of annoyance; we think OwnerRez must communicate important news and information.

In-App Global Alert

And while some of the alerts will automatically expire and disappear, users can read more or Dismiss the alerts at any time.

If you were able to "Read More" about our first alert, you already know that it featured more information about the new In-App Global Alert System. How meta is that? And in case you missed it, a screenshot of all the interesting details is shown below (Hint: click on the image to make it larger).

In-App Global Alert Feature

So, there you have it! From the new OwnerRez Status Page to this new In-App Global Alert System, OwnerRez is committed to providing more transparency and information to our users.

Enhancements & Tweaks

Spot Rates and Rates Calendar

It had been a while since we last updated the Rates Calendar, so it was time to give it some love! Are you a user that has to create a season that lasts just a day or two to apply specific rules? Well, you likely will no longer have to, so keep reading to find out why not.

Set Rules Drop-Down List

We've added a new Set Rules drop-down list that allows users to set Maximum and Minimum Nights and apply Arrival and Departure rules in the Calendar Tab. Users can also navigate there by clicking on Settings > Rates or selecting the Tools drop-down list > Rate Calendar.

Set Rules Drop-Down List

Minimum and Maximum Nights Rules

In the improved Set Rules modal that pops up, users will now see the current Minimum Nights Rule displayed in the blue informational callout and can choose to either Use the default rule from season or property or to Set a custom rule for these nights.

Set Minimum Nights Rule

Arrival and Departure Rules

Users can set specific Arrival and Departure rules directly from the Calendar tab.

Arrival and Departure Rules

The Arrival and Departure Rules modal pop-ups are essentially the same, including the following options:

  • Use the default rule from season or property
  • Arrival (or Departure) is not allowed
  • Arrival (or Departure) is allowed
  • Arrival (or Departure) is allowed except where excluded by gap rules

See the Arrival and Departure Rules in action below. Note how the gray line denoting Arrival or Departure rules is added after each Arrival and Departure Rule is applied.

Arrival and Departure Rules

Expanded Hover Cards

Hover cards now display additional expanded details, such as Arrival and Departure restrictions and Channel Blackouts, when users hover over each day in the Calendar Tab.

Daily Hover Card

Create Seasons in Spot Rates for Special Events
Let's say that you know that there is a very popular festival and that guests will be looking in your area for a vacation rental to rent for their lodging to attend this annual festival. Users can now quickly and easily select one or more properties to change the nightly rates and minimum nights rules in the Spot Rates tab. 

Spot Rate Modal

Any Spot Rate Changes Made Will Display in Bold Font
Any new Spot Rates will display in a bold blue font until the saving process is complete. 

Saving Rate Percentage Increase Results

After the saving process is complete, the new Spot Rates will be displayed in bold font, while Seasonal Rates will be displayed unbolded.

Spot Rate Change Complete

Delete Button Removed

It was determined to be in our users' best interest to remove the Rates Calendar Delete Button. Our reasoning is to refer to it as "delete" was inaccurate because deleting is not what was happening when you used "Delete." Instead, you're removing any override set on that date, whether rate or rule, and reverting to the default rate/rule from the season or property. Since adding the additional rule options, it's clearer to set to use the default under each individual rate/rule setting.

Learn more about the Rates Calendar and Availability Rules by reading our Rates Calendar support article.

Bug Fixes

Fixed Issue With Downloading Lynnbrook Deposits With Many Transactions. There was an edge case where a large PM had thousands of transactions in a single deposit that were truncated and didn't fit in a column. We corrected this by enlarging the column and reprocessing the deposit to ensure that these Lynnbrook Deposits download smoothly despite the file size.

New Backdated Product Updates available since last time:
- New User Welcome Email, Vrbo PPB Commission Imports, and Updated Maps! 

17 Comments (add yours)

Dori123
Feb 13, 2023 7:47 PM
Joined Sep, 2020 85 posts

I really hoped you all would also offer an Arrival / Departure Rule that would allow one or the other, but not both! Lots of people either arrive or depart on Christmas day at our ski place, but I don't want the cleaning staff to have to do a flip clean that day. Pretty please, can you add this functionality? 

Shawn H
Feb 13, 2023 10:23 PM
OR Team Member Joined Aug, 2021 205 posts

I really hoped you all would also offer an Arrival / Departure Rule that would allow one or the other, but not both! Lots of people either arrive or depart on Christmas day at our ski place, but I don't want the cleaning staff to have to do a flip clean that day. Pretty please, can you add this functionality? 

by Dori123 – Feb 14, 2023 12:47 AM (UTC)

Hi Dori123 - you can do either or both already. Just select Christmas Day on the Rates Calendar and set either or both to "not allowed" individually as they (Arrival and Departure) are separate settings. If one or both are already set from the season-level, you'll need to disable or delete that season, or override the season with the opposite setting.

Stacy P
Feb 14, 2023 10:56 AM
Joined Jul, 2020 4 posts

Will the settings we do here for # of nights and arrival/departure override Pricelabs settings or vice versa?

Danica C
Feb 15, 2023 10:20 AM
Joined Feb, 2020 4 posts

@Shawn. above regarding Dori's comment on Christmas.  

I am not following how your solution works.  Assume I don't have anything set at the season level.  Christmas is just a random day in the middle of a rate season.  I can allow an arrival IF I don't have a departure on the same day.  I can allow a departure IF I don't have an arrival on the same day.  One depends on the other.  if I simply set either or both (arrival and/or departure settings) to "don't allow" I don't think it accomplishes the intention.  Can you please elaborate further?

Joshua L
Feb 15, 2023 4:57 PM
Joined Dec, 2021 4 posts

It seems seasons would still be better to control Arrival/Departure rules otherwise you will have to add the rule every year.  With seasons, you can make it reoccurring for most holidays with the exception of maybe Thanksgiving

Paul W
Feb 16, 2023 9:34 AM
OR Team Member Joined Jun, 2009 825 posts

Joshua, it depends on the holiday. Many holidays change dates every year so recurring seasons wouldn't work.  Also, you have to have a 1 day season in order for that to work which is tedious.  Setting it on "the entire Christmas" holiday period (eg. 5 or 10 days) typically doesn't work because that means that no one can arrive/departure on any of the days of that season.  You typically want to pinpoint some exact dates to exclude arrival/departure, not entire seasons.  But yes, if your season is 1 or 2 days, you can do it that way as well.  That might mean you have multiple overlapping seasons.

Adria H
Feb 17, 2023 10:15 AM
OR Team Member Joined Aug, 2022 119 posts

Stacy:
The arrival/departure settings on the Settings> Rates page (shown above) will not be changed by PriceLabs settings. You can, also, go into that Settings>Rates page and override the seasonal departure settings for a particular night.

Beth C
Feb 17, 2023 12:27 PM
Joined Jun, 2017 4 posts

I'm with Danica  ^^^^  I can set one or the other but with this setting, one is not dependent on the other.  If I disallow both arrivals and departures, I have essentially blocked Christmas from both.

I currently manually block the opposite day depending on which reservation comes in first.    If a guest is departing Dec25 I block that night for no arrival, and vice versa, to prevent holiday turn-around.

I guess this setting gives me the option to set a policy that allows folks to either arrive or depart on holidays.  Or, I can keep doing it manually and hope I don't miss one.   

So the question is, is there a way to prioritize the setting based on an existing reservation?   

Ken T
Feb 17, 2023 1:07 PM
OR Team Member Joined Aug, 2019 1474 posts

Blocks and season rate overrides on arrival/departure are overrideable.  If you combine them it makes a singular expression for the entire set of rules.  Seasons, blocks, etc all combine together so no there is no priority system.
 
Take for example
 

  • Rate calendar do not allow arrival/departure on 2023-12-24 to 2023-12-26
  • Create owner block off on 2023-12-25 and 2023-12-26 as well

 
The combined rules comes out like this
 
 

 
Then if you try to make a quote/booking you would get this message
 

 
You can still override over the combined block created.

Dori123
Feb 18, 2023 3:48 PM
Joined Sep, 2020 85 posts

Shawn H says:

Hi Dori123 - you can do either or both already. Just select Christmas Day on the Rates Calendar and set either or both to "not allowed" individually as they (Arrival and Departure) are separate settings. If one or both are already set from the season-level, you'll need to disable or delete that season, or override the season with the opposite setting.

 

Shawn:

I would like to set an Arrival / Departure Rule for a date that would automatically allow either but not both. This would be for set dates like Dec. 25, Jan 1, etc. If I understand correctly, your solution would have me set "no arrival" on Dec 25 after I get a reservation that departs Dec 25, or alternatively, I could set that date to "no departure" after I get a reservation that starts on Dec 25. This is not ideal, as it is not automated. I would still have to consult my list of "no flip" dates and remember to change the setting if I get a reservation that lands on one of those dates. And if I get any cancellations that affect those dates, I have to hope I'd remember to manually back out the setting

I would love to see the code allow Arrival only if No Departure that day, and Departure only if No Arrival that day. But not both. Let me know if I and the others misunderstand. 

Ocean Zen
Feb 20, 2023 1:29 AM
Joined Jun, 2022 70 posts

Can you make a slight adjustment to the UI so that instead of Arrival and Departure be two separate choices it is Arrival/Departure and the pop-up has both sets of Radio buttons - that way when we are setting 2 restrictions on the same days we can set both at once... will save a lot of time.

Is there a way to upload all these restrictions via CSV so that we can have a file that we update each year and will allow to set similar rules for multiple properties at the same time - conversely, allowing us to download a CSV of these Rules will allow to double check all properties are set and create a template of modifying and uploading

In the meantime you could possible add multiple property select to the Advanced Select option along with the combining Arrival/Departure above it would save a lot of time.

Also, can you confirm that this overrides all other settings including seasons - you already confirmed above that this will not be overwritten by Pricelabs rules.

Thank you for consideration

PS not sure if I should write in here or in the recommendations area.

 

 

Chris Hynes
Feb 20, 2023 6:46 AM
OR Team Member Joined Oct, 2012 1400 posts

@Wendy -- can you clarify a bit on the setting: are you wanting to set Arrival/Departure to the same value (both allowed or both not allowed)? Or more looking for a "set changeover" that lets you pick "both, neither, check in only, check out only"?

We do have an export/import for the calendar rates -- you can see this on the spot rates tab. But it doesn't support the arrival/departure rules yet. We're working on an update to add those rules there as well.

JAC Rentals
Feb 20, 2023 10:34 AM
Joined Sep, 2022 2 posts

I have no rules that prevent coming or going on specific holidays. I DO have same day turnover limitations where someone checks out on Thanksgiving (US) or Christmas I do not allow same day turnover. Is there an algorithm somewhere I can setup that scenario?

Scott W
Feb 20, 2023 1:57 PM
Joined Jul, 2020 4 posts

OwnerRez team: I can see that there's comments to now add scenarios where if X equals M, but Z doesn't happen, allow T, unless G is less than M, then allow A.  I can appreciate that it's just not always feasible to program every permutation that can be dreamt up.  So, I just wanted to express my appreciation for adding this feature!  It's working great and is wonderful. 

Ocean Zen
Feb 20, 2023 9:24 PM
Joined Jun, 2022 70 posts

@Chris Hynes -- thanks for the quick reply. To clarify, I'm not trying to set both to the same. It is the latter of your comments. I am trying to reduce the number of steps/clicks. In most of our cases, we block both arrival and departure for the required days. Right now we have to select the dates>Set Rules>Arrival>Select Option>OK and then repeat everything again (except Select Dates) for Departure. It would be easier to have Set Rules>Arrival/Departure (or Set Change Over as you suggested) and then have 2 columns of Radio buttons for the 4 choices for each Arrival and Departure. That way the user could select just arrival, just departure, or both all in one step. Reduced manual workload :-)

Great to hear that the rules will be added to upload feature -- please announce when its done. Completely understand get the feature out ASAP and then iterate. When the import is implemented, it would be great if there is a filter option for the rules but we can easily do that in the exported data. I assume like the manual process it wont be overwritten by Pricelabs, etc

Jason B
Apr 28, 2023 4:44 PM
Joined Jan, 2021 22 posts

This is a great feature for New Arrival/Departure Rules, however can you clarify what Channels this works on and will be enforced?

Is there any caveat to doing this where it would accidentally black hole a particular channel from availablity.

Anne S
May 1, 2023 10:44 AM
OR Team Member Joined Sep, 2022 119 posts

This is a great feature for New Arrival/Departure Rules, however can you clarify what Channels this works on and will be enforced?

Is there any caveat to doing this where it would accidentally black hole a particular channel from availablity.

by Jason B – Apr 28, 2023 8:44 PM (UTC)

If I understand your question correctly, any Arrival/Departure Rules changed on the Rates Calendar will override Seasonal rules for API connected channels. This does not take into account any dynamic pricing tools connected as rules set on those may override what is set in OR.