Experience the difference of "Elite".

OwnerRez is a thing of joy ;-)

Rich S
Jan 15, 2020 9:36 AM
Joined Dec, 2018 301 posts

I have to say this - I'm in the middle of the busy ski season with three units, on Airbnb and VRBO, and everything is running smoothly, in large part because of OR. Everyday there are 5-10 email templates going out, and the reminders I've created using triggers are working to get people to sign the rental agreement. I'm confident that my cleaner knows what to do, and that I'm getting fully paid (and signed rental agreement) before I provide anyone with key codes. It's so nice to have automation doing its thing to make my life easier ! Thanks to the OR team for making this great product !

Lydia B
Jan 15, 2020 11:11 AM
Joined May, 2019 159 posts

AMEN!

Valerie R
Jan 15, 2020 1:43 PM
Joined Sep, 2019 119 posts

Hi Rich,

I agree! Every day I am learning more how to customize OR to make handling our 6 STRs (10 configurations, each with its own VRBO/Airbnb listing = 20 listings) more streamlined.

I'd like to ask about your reminder to guests to sign the rental agreement. Do you handle that reminder the same for Airbnb bookings as for others?

I'm asking because I use a version OR's "Booking Clean-Up Form" for Airbnb bookings, which makes them provide their personal email address. I use a different message to ask guests who booked elsewhere to sign the rental agreement.

Which message do you use for Airbnb bookings if you have any?

Rich S
Jan 15, 2020 6:49 PM
Joined Dec, 2018 301 posts

Valerie R said:

Hi Rich,

I agree! Every day I am learning more how to customize OR to make handling our 6 STRs (10 configurations, each with its own VRBO/Airbnb listing = 20 listings) more streamlined.

I'd like to ask about your reminder to guests to sign the rental agreement. Do you handle that reminder the same for Airbnb bookings as for others?

I'm asking because I use a version OR's "Booking Clean-Up Form" for Airbnb bookings, which makes them provide their personal email address. I use a different message to ask guests who booked elsewhere to sign the rental agreement.

Which message do you use for Airbnb bookings if you have any?

I just started using Airbnb and haven't worried about having the guest's actual email, but you're right I should be getting it.

I didn't change anything with regard to my email templates and triggers for the rental agreement. I think it worked same as with VRBO, nothing needed to change. Now for taxes I had to do things differently because with airbnb I configure all of the taxes myself and with vrbo they collect some taxes (state/county) themselves.

Can you tell me more about how you get the guest's actual email? I figured I'd need to send yet another email template so that I could use the trigger to only send it to airbnb guests, not others.

I don't think that a custom field can be configured to be blank if being pulled on a vrbo guest but otherwise have a request to send email, but in any case I figured that I'd just keep using the airbnb proxy email until someone tells me a good way to get the guest email ;-)

Lydia B
Jan 15, 2020 7:23 PM
Joined May, 2019 159 posts

Rich, have you tried making a custom field requesting the guest's direct email? Make it a required field that they have to complete as part of the booking/agreement signing process.

Rich S
Jan 15, 2020 9:44 PM
Joined Dec, 2018 301 posts

Lydia B said:

Rich, have you tried making a custom field requesting the guest's direct email? Make it a required field that they have to complete as part of the booking/agreement signing process.

I haven't tried that, but that sounds like a logical thing to do. Make everyone provide it, even though I have it already from vrbo guests, but sometimes folks provide different email addresses anyway so can't hurt.

Are you doing this? How do the email addresses get incorporated back to the guest, do I have to do that manually.

Lydia B
Jan 15, 2020 11:23 PM
Joined May, 2019 159 posts

If you make Custom Fields to be completed by the guest as part of the rental agreement process, their entries in those fields will show up in their individual booking under Custom Fields. BUT - I do not think your asking for an email as a Custom Field will transfer to the Guest's record. You may have to cut and paste. Maybe the folks at OR can clear this up for us.

Rich S
Jan 16, 2020 8:57 AM
Joined Dec, 2018 301 posts

Lydia B said:

Rich, have you tried making a custom field requesting the guest's direct email? Make it a required field that they have to complete as part of the booking/agreement signing process.

Lydia - I just checked this morning and OwnerRez already has my Airbnb guest's personal email. Weird, I imagine that they are able to pull it using the API and assign it where it needs to be. That's another thing of joy ;-)

Tim M
Jan 17, 2020 7:56 AM
Joined Dec, 2019 8 posts

cool. what it hard for you to figure out? how long have you been on OR. are you tech savvy?

Chris Hynes
Jan 23, 2020 6:30 AM
OR Team Member Joined Oct, 2012 1400 posts

@Rich -- yep, we get the real email as part of the signing process automatically :-D

CWV
Jan 24, 2020 2:36 PM
Joined Nov, 2019 57 posts

We're new to OR - we collect names, ages of everyone in the group, cell phone #, unmasked email address, and vehicle information. We created a Jot Form (free). The link goes out in an email triggered once an reservation is made.