Experience the difference of "Elite".

Trying to get clear on Channel Bridge, Direct Integrations, iCal setup on OR.

JTVRs
Oct 24, 2018 4:13 PM
Joined Jun, 2018 385 posts

I still have not started yet, so I am trying to get REALLY clear on Channel Bridges, Direct Integration, etc. I have poked around, but am not really getting it to a fine level of detail.

I will eventually have a total of 7 properties by April/May.

Is there a clear document/page/description PRECISELY listing all functionality/what happens on: Channel Bridge, the (existing/new) Direct Integrations, and iCal? Regarding updating property descriptions, communications with prospects/guests, how often calendars are updated daily, OTAs, payment/deposit, reviews, and other major functions, whistles and bells?

Chris Hynes
Oct 25, 2018 12:17 AM
OR Team Member Joined Oct, 2012 1400 posts

There's not a page yet (we need to write one but have been changing and adding so much recently that we haven't yet go to that part). Here's the skinny:

Direct integrations...
- booking.com pushes rates and availability, pulls bookings and credit card details, charges payments etc. Content push coming for that in the next few months
- TA pushes rates/availability/content now. We're releasing another update to add booking pull next month
- CanadaStays does everything (rates/availability/content/bookings)
- Airbnb pushes rates only (this is in beta, the rest is iCal/synced for Airbnb)
- We're working on direct integrations with VRBO and Airbnb, should have more news on that by the end of the year

Channel bridge...
- VRBO and Airbnb it will pull bookings (full guest info, full financials including detailed invoices and payments, not just the simplified stuff)
- VRBO, Airbnb, TA it will pull reviews
- Rates push coming for VRBO and Airbnb by the end of the year, possibly TA as well
- Content push coming for VRBO and Airbnb in the next few months
- Manual bulk downloads right now, we are working on automating this as a background process as well

Synced channels...
For synced channels, which is everything else, that's all based on iCal and inquiry parsing. We update every 30 min on all of the iCals, and the listing sites update from us on their own schedule. Airbnb will do a iCal check right before allowing a booking.

Messaging is currently through the listing site before booking. After booking, you'd email the guest through OwnerRez, scheduled/triggered emails etc. We plan to attack pre-booking messaging later next year.