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Email addresses are no longer required

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Hi everyone, quick little Monday update...

You can now create bookings and quotes to your heart's content without an email address.

We've always required the email address because a lot of the power of OwnerRez is in the automation and communication that occurs between you and your guests - triggers, payment follow-up etc.

With the increase in calendar syncing, the email address quickly became a hard gating item to creating bookings.  So we tweaked a bunch of things so that you create bookings or quotes without entering an email address.  This also allowed us to import bookings from HomeAway/VRBO as full bookings and not blocked-off time.

That being said, the quote acceptance and Book Now widget still do require the guest to enter an email address, and email addresses are required any time a credit card payment is processed.  That doesn't gum up the booking process though since you can record payments other ways.

And of course, if you want to send email to the guest from OwnerRez (triggers? receipts?) you have to enter an email address when sending the email.  To make that part easier, we've added a little "Save email address" checkbox on the email editor so that when you get an email address, it's that much easier to save for the future.

Additionally, we are working on a lot of updates to further ease the transition between imported bookings, from listing sites, and OwnerRez.  We hope to bring in additional name, contact info, party size and charges from the emails that are sent to you by the listing site.

12 Comments (add yours)

ShenRent
Oct 17, 2016 4:05 PM
Joined Dec, 2009 54 posts

I don't see that 'save as' checkbox when composing messages. Does that only show at a special time?

Michelle J
Oct 17, 2016 4:09 PM
OR Team Member Joined Jan, 2011 582 posts

Yes, only at a special time. It shows when (a) the booking, more specifically the guest, has no previous email address and (b) if the email template has no other TO email address being used. This is done on purpose because we don't want 3rd party alert or other email addresses accidentally be stored for the guest.

Marina's Edge Re
Oct 17, 2016 4:45 PM
Joined Oct, 2012 206 posts

Will it still bring across the long email address when synching from Homeaway or AirBnB?

Sam Westcott
Oct 17, 2016 5:16 PM
OR Team Member Joined Dec, 2009 240 posts

@Marinas Edge: Yes, it will still collect whatever email address it can, even the proxy ones, so that there is at least some temporary mode of communication. This is for listing sites that do not provide ANY email address (like HomeAway/VRBO) in the iCal feed. Airbnb is pretty unique in that they actually provide it.

Sam Westcott
Oct 17, 2016 5:19 PM
OR Team Member Joined Dec, 2009 240 posts

Or for myriad other situations where email address just isn't at hand. A lot of our PM users have walk-in or phone guests where there is no email address. Sometimes elderly guests don't have email. All those situations are now covered. Bookings and quotes are hardened against there not being an email address so that the UI doesn't crash or have problems.

Marina's Edge Re
Oct 17, 2016 5:32 PM
Joined Oct, 2012 206 posts

Outstanding! Thank you...this is great.

Diane F
Jan 13, 2017 1:15 PM
Joined Jan, 2017 1 post

Hello--I am new to this only because calendar sync between Airbnb and Flipkay was dropped, and this is the only way to re establish the syncing feature...I was given a new email from OwnerRez, but I do not see where FlipKey allows another email, besides my primary email..I am only given the option to change my email, which I do not wish to do..I am not especially tekkie, as I am older and basically like to keep things simple,anyone else experience this with Flipkey?

Chris Hynes
Jan 13, 2017 1:46 PM
OR Team Member Joined Oct, 2012 1400 posts

There should be a cc option in there, if you're looking in the Contact settings section. If you look at our support article for inquiry import, it walks you through: https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/inquiry-import#flipkey

Does that help?

Chris Hynes
Jan 13, 2017 2:47 PM
OR Team Member Joined Oct, 2012 1400 posts

To set up communication between FlipKey and AirBnb, or more precisely calendar sharing, the best way is to set up calendar imports for both (https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/calendar-import) and then calendar exports to update their calendars (https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/ical-availability-calendar-listing-sites).

That way, your OwnerRez calendar becomes the central calendar and the others are updated automatically from it.

BlueMtnCabins
Jan 19, 2017 4:57 PM
Joined Jun, 2016 1115 posts

I created a manual quote, and entered person's email, and clicked the box However system did not seem to have saved the email. I had to open saved quote, edit info, and add email again.

Sam Westcott
Jan 20, 2017 1:35 PM
OR Team Member Joined Dec, 2009 240 posts

@BlueMtnCabins: have you seen this happen since then? Can't reproduce that on this side. Wondering if it was type of email address maybe? ~Sam

BlueMtnCabins
Jan 20, 2017 1:38 PM
Joined Jun, 2016 1115 posts

I was able to create quote and email saved yesterday. So maybe it has gone away.