Make the Inbox feature similar to other messaging apps and inboxes

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Hi

I am considering moving from Lodgify to OR and one thing i really like about Lodgify is the inbox tool from https://www.lodgify.com/unified-inbox/ 

All inquiries from customers are pipped in to the booking so i can see all emails to/from the guest so when it comes to processing a guest at my vacation home I can see all conversations in the past that I have had with the guest within their booking summary page and not have to search through my emails or guest notes.

I also have a inbox folder with all messages from all customers with their unified inbox.

We are moving in the direction of offering a unified inbox by degrees, but there are many disparate pieces to that so it will evolve over time.

As someone who left Lodgify about a year ago, you won't regret it!  Better support, US based servers and event triggers that happen in your timezone, NOT Lodgify's UTC timezone.  Plus I'm paying less for 6 homes than I did for 2 with Lodgify... and no annoying annual contracts.  When I moved over, VRBO was running very slow on moving API connections from one PMS to another, so when you're ready to pull that trigger the sooner you get started the better.  Plus contact VRBO for their current timeline.

@Ryan H, you are not wrong, Vrbo API connections were quite slow, about a year ago. Luckily, they are now quite quick, a few days, up to a week, or so, is the norm, depending whether you are adding a new property to an existing connection, or creating a new connection. 

[Another topic was closed as a duplicate of this topic (https://www.ownerrez.com/forums/requests/receive-inbound-email-from-guests-on-my-ownerrez-site)]

[Another topic was closed as a duplicate of this topic (https://www.ownerrez.com/forums/requests/email-replies-from-guests)]

[Another topic was closed as a duplicate of this topic (Ability to log emails in OwnerRez by including a unique BCC email)]

This sounds so good - would make customer communications much easier

@Adria H

I'm glad to hear things are moving much quicker now for VRBO!  Thanks for the update!

[Another topic was closed as a duplicate of this topic (Redesign the Inbox!)]

I love OwnerRez in general, I really do. To put it bluntly, if you want OwnerRez to be the go-to place for messaging, you need to design it better. Otherwise all that effort is wasted because no-one is going to use it. There is often a disconnect between what a web developer thinks will be handy and what the end-user actually needs.  I hope you will take this seriously coming from an active user.

• Inbox on the main menu, not tucked under CRM with two other rarely-used items Reviews and Contacts. Access needs to be quick, navigating menus is more tedious than you realize. 
• Use a split-screen like all modern email systems do, so I can quickly click through messages looking for anything important. 95% of messages are clutter and do NOT need to be acted on. Your current interface requires me to click each message to mark it Read, or check boxes next to messages then click "Mark As" then click "Read". Tedious and clunky.
• Add Property name so we know which property the message is in relation to.  Also add stay dates.
• Convert AirBNB, VRBO, and SMS to icons.
• Add a "Quick reply" box so we can easily reply without leaving this view.
• Waste less screen space. Make everything tighter.

Here are some marked up screenshots with some suggestions:

Those are great, succinct suggestions!!  I agree with all the posted pain points. For me the most important and helpful are making the inbox front and center, and adding additional meta to the message preview (platform, stay dates, etc)

100% agree with this. 

I agree 💯, I never use OR inbox, I dislike it enough that I go to Airbnb or VRBO directly, rarely do I look in the OR box. It just doesn't work for me in function and UI, I've been considering doing what others do and use Hospitable for communication.

I switched from guesty for hosts to OR because it was always glitching, but I miss the Guesty Unified Inbox , all communications in one spot including sms and then you can go to each guest individually as well. There are a few things from it I miss but OR overall is a much better more powerful player but it does need to catch up or out do others in a few areas.

I love OwnerRez in general, I really do. To put it bluntly, if you want OwnerRez to be the go-to place for messaging, you need to design it better. Otherwise all that effort is wasted because no-one is going to use it. There is often a disconnect between what a web developer thinks will be handy and what the end-user actually needs.  I hope you will take this seriously coming from an active user.

Tim, you hit every major thing right on the head!  Your list of stuff is already on our internal UX tasking re: unified inbox, along with a bunch more, so it's like you have inside access to our project boards! 😱

If I made a list of the top 10 items that are most needed for the Inbox, it would be almost exactly your list - reading pane, make it a top menu, don't waste so much space, move the columns to resemble inbox norms, etc. There are some functional needs (eg. push notifications) but UI-wise, you are spot on that this is the minimum stuff that has to change.

Thanks for the nudge and taking the time to draw those pictures.

Since this Feature Request has become the dominant one, about the Inbox design, I've re-titled it to remove Lodgify from the title and broadened the language.

I really love the suggestions, Tim.  Right on the button for a much easier and simpler to use inbox. Presumably this will also integrate emails coming back from the guests right into the box, so that we don't have to copy and paste into Owner Rez from our own email inbox?   

is there any plan to add booking.com to the unified inbox?

Yes, hopefully later this year, although it may get pushed into early next year.