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Pushing Rates to OTA's

Urbanize Staff
Feb 5, 2019 11:02 PM
Joined Nov, 2018 1 post

I recently added Channel Integration and looking to push rates from OwnerRez to OTA's, but am having a hard time finding information on how to do this. Do you use the Excel Export? Do you have to manually do this every time you want to change your rates. Also, is there an easier way to change your rates in OwnerRez, I am constantly updating my rates on the OTA's based on demand and comp set pricing and it does not seem easy to change rates in OwnerRez like you can on the calendars in the OTA's. Thanks for the help!

Chris Hynes
Feb 8, 2019 7:27 PM
OR Team Member Joined Oct, 2012 1400 posts

You can push rates from OwnerRez using channel bridge. To do that, go to Settings > Channel Connections and click on an Airbnb or HomeAway synced channel in the list. If you don't have one yet, add the channel. Then next to each property you'll see the listing number and an actions dropdown including a "push rates" option. Use that and it'll push the rates over. If you don't have a listing number configured yet, first set that in the Change Property Settings button.

There are a couple things you can do to change rates...

#1 - you can do rules based pricing like "for arrivals < 10 days away, add a 20% discount" -- this is done as a criteria in the surcharges & discounts section

#2 - you can use spot rates. These allow you to set specific nightly rates for a date range. It's not a calendar UI yet (we're working on it) but it's the same idea as the OTA nightly rates

#3 - we're integrated with PriceLabs, so you could use them to set rates automatically: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/pricelabs

Stacy S
Feb 9, 2019 3:23 PM
Joined Feb, 2019 31 posts

If we use PriceLabs, do we have the option to accept or deny rates they suggest or does it automatically change them?

JTVRs
Feb 9, 2019 7:19 PM
Joined Jun, 2018 385 posts

This is PriceLabs pointer to OR, FWIW: http://blog.pricelabs.co/ownerrez/

Chris Hynes
Feb 9, 2019 7:40 PM
OR Team Member Joined Oct, 2012 1400 posts

Thanks @Ross!

@Stacy...
Right now if you hook up PriceLabs they'll push the spot rates directly into OwnerRez and there's currently no way to override that.

They've got a lot of options on their side though, so you can set min/max prices inside PriceLabs which will control what's pushed to OwnerRez.

Michele W
Feb 9, 2019 8:07 PM
Joined Sep, 2018 47 posts

Is there a tutorial on "pushing rates". I am able to see the BUTTON for it in channel manager, but want to know about how it effects length of stay, min nights, ect in AirBnb and VRBO. Also jsut to get a good overview of what happens when you push rates and all the ins and outs of it. Thanks Jim

Michelle
Feb 11, 2019 1:37 AM
Joined Feb, 2019 3 posts

Hi. I am hooked to Pricelabs and the rates are imported as "spot" rates to Ownerrez. The option to "push" rates is inoperative when I try to push them to Homeaway, though:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lgsxwvzuv8xuva2/Screenshot%202019-02-11%2000.36.02.png?dl=0

Stacy S
Feb 13, 2019 9:16 AM
Joined Feb, 2019 31 posts

Yes, I'm also looking for a video on that. I'd actually like to set my rates in VRBO since I can dynamically watch trends and make adjustments there. Then pull rates from VRBO and push OUT to other OTAs. (I do not currently have those set up but planning on it.) Plus I'm currently using a widget with pricing on my website and would like to actually turn on the booking component but won't do it until I can trust true integration of pricing and booking rules from VRBO into OR and not have to manually manage it.

Thanks for any videos to walk us through it!!!

Paul W
Feb 13, 2019 9:54 AM
OR Team Member Joined Jun, 2009 825 posts

@Jim:
No tutorials yet. Sorry for the lack of support on that subject. When you click the button, a little window will open that will show you what will be pushed across. Click the See Details link to expand it and see the "rate groups" that will be used. Rate groups are just the date ranges that we see in OR where the nightly rate has changed from a day/date range before it. We break that up into start/end date ranges so that we can update the channel in chunks. It will also show you if taxes and any rate adjuster (% markup) will be included in the numbers being used. In the case of VRBO/HomeAway, it will also send across fees for cleaning, pet and extra guests based on what we find in your OR surcharges. We definitely need tutorials around this - thanks for your patience on that.

@Robert:
That's because you don't have a HomeAway listing # right there next to the OR property. Fill in that HomeAway listing # column and the Push Rates link will work.

@Stacy:
Thanks for the feedback. We actually have a new beta feature that was just released (no joke - yesterday) where you can Import Rates from VRBO or Airbnb dynamically in OR. It's not a background thing - you have to press the button each time - but check that out. It's under Settings > Spot Rates > Import Spot Rates button. In order to use it, you have to have mapped VRBO or Airbnb listing #'s to your OR properties under Channels.

Michelle
Feb 13, 2019 7:12 PM
Joined Feb, 2019 3 posts

Paul W said:

@Jim:
No tutorials yet. Sorry for the lack of support on that subject. When you click the button, a little window will open that will show you what will be pushed across. Click the See Details link to expand it and see the "rate groups" that will be used. Rate groups are just the date ranges that we see in OR where the nightly rate has changed from a day/date range before it. We break that up into start/end date ranges so that we can update the channel in chunks. It will also show you if taxes and any rate adjuster (% markup) will be included in the numbers being used. In the case of VRBO/HomeAway, it will also send across fees for cleaning, pet and extra guests based on what we find in your OR surcharges. We definitely need tutorials around this - thanks for your patience on that.

@Robert:
That's because you don't have a HomeAway listing # right there next to the OR property. Fill in that HomeAway listing # column and the Push Rates link will work.

Thanks!

@Stacy:
Thanks for the feedback. We actually have a new beta feature that was just released (no joke - yesterday) where you can Import Rates from VRBO or Airbnb dynamically in OR. It's not a background thing - you have to press the button each time - but check that out. It's under Settings > Spot Rates > Import Spot Rates button. In order to use it, you have to have mapped VRBO or Airbnb listing #'s to your OR properties under Channels.

Michelle
Feb 13, 2019 7:28 PM
Joined Feb, 2019 3 posts

I spoke too soon:

PushRates request received
To VRBO/HomeAway listing # 4117934
360 rate groups and 0 fees received
Finding csrf token
Checking to see if calendar rates are configured
Found calendar rate end point
Sending rates to VRBO/HomeAway
Error processing data. Try again or contact support.

Paul W
Feb 13, 2019 7:49 PM
OR Team Member Joined Jun, 2009 825 posts

Yep, working on it. We saw that recently based on something VRBO changed. We're tracking it and will have an update out shortly.

Stacy S
Feb 14, 2019 7:47 AM
Joined Feb, 2019 31 posts

Thanks so much! That's a great feature to have while I'm still relying on VRBO pretty heavily. Will be testing this out soon. (And clicking a button to pull over rates is no biggie compared to all of my individual spot rates! ha ha

Appreciate it!

Paul W
Feb 14, 2019 3:45 PM
OR Team Member Joined Jun, 2009 825 posts

Hi everyone,

The rate push for VRBO is now fixed. Make sure you're using the latest version of Channel Bridge and then run it!

To see if you're using the latest version and force it to update, follow this article:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/updating-channel-bridge-to-latest-version

Matthew H
Mar 29, 2019 10:15 AM
Joined Feb, 2019 6 posts

I just pushed rates for two properties to VRBO. Do they automatically re-push nightly? Do I have to manually initiate a re-push periodically?

I manage all of my rates through PriceLabs, so I'm hoping changes there will auto-magically find their way to PriceLabs and VRBO/HomeAway.

Chris Hynes
Mar 29, 2019 10:37 AM
OR Team Member Joined Oct, 2012 1400 posts

Once you have PriceLabs set up, they'll update Airbnb and OwnerRez rates automatically: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/pricelabs

Our VRBO rate push is manual, so you'd have to do that manually from time to time.

We're going to release HomeAway API integration in April which will let you hook up the channel in OwnerRez and have all of the rates push automatically at that point.