OwnerRez triggers are a mechanism that enables users to automatically initiate the sending of user-created custom email message templates based on booking criteria and/or other certain conditions, such as events and/or time-based conditions being met. Triggers can be set up to respond to a variety of booking events and be very useful in streamlining your vacation rental business processes by reducing errors and improving efficiency by reducing the need for manual intervention.
- Different Types of OwnerRez Communication Prompts
- Create a Trigger
- Trigger FAQs
- My email message template is not available for selection in the Send Template drop-down list. How do I fix this?
- How do I create and send a Welcome Email with a guest's door code?
- How do I create a trigger for inquiries and/or quotes?
- Why aren't my triggers sending my emails?
- Can I create a trigger for my guests to sign my Renter Agreement that booked on other listing sites?
Different Types of OwnerRez Communication Prompts
There are three different types of OwnerRez communication prompts so it is useful for users to know and understand how, when and why an automated email message and/or template is sent to guests.
- System messages are automatic OwnerRez email messages that are sent based on events, such as bookings, blocked-off time, when Renter Agreements are signed, cancellations, etc.
- Autoresponders are email messages that can be set up by OwnerRez users to automatically reply to incoming inquiries with emails and/or quotes.
- Triggers are an OwnerRez tool created by users to automatically reply with a user-created custom email message template that can be automatically sent if the email message template has a corresponding trigger set. Triggers are based on booking criteria only.
- In order to create a trigger, OwnerRez users must first create a custom email message template based on booking criteria to be used for their trigger. Users can navigate to Settings > Messaging > Templates > Create Email Template > Booking.
An example of a custom email message template could be a Welcome Email.
Create a Trigger
After OwnerRez users have created their custom email message template, they can add a trigger to send that custom and personalized message to guests based on specific booking criteria, such as events and/or time-based conditions. Users can create a trigger by navigating to Settings > Messaging > Triggers.
Select Create Trigger.
In the Action section, users can choose the following.
- When the trigger should fire
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As soon as the event occurs
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At a scheduled time which allows for a great deal of flexibility. Users can define whether the customized booking email template should be sent before or after a set time (day and/or time) based on the Booking or Blocked-Off Time
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- What customized booking email template to send
The Criteria section contains many options for users to define specific conditions to be met for the trigger to fire and send your custom email message template, including the following.
- By Booking Status, users can select various options by Payment, Deposit, Security Deposit, Card on File, Selected Manual/Offline Payment Method, Renter Agreement Signed, Email Address On File, Travel Insurance, Adjacent Available Nights (Gap Nights) and Pending status.
- The Booking Fields section allows users to add, and stack, additional conditions that include Arrival, Booked On, Holiday, Departure and Number of Guests, Children, Pets, and Nights criteria.
- The Booking Relationship section allows users to define specific Listing Sites, Properties, Seasons, Has Tags and/or Doesn't Have Tags.
- In the Options section, users can add the Description field, which allows for optional text to help you remember what this is for. If not entered, a description will be auto-generated based on when this is sent and the template used. The default Status checkbox is enabled and the user can disable the status by unchecking the Status checkbox.
Click on Save.
And the completed trigger will appear in the user's trigger list. Note that users can view a forecast of upcoming triggers by clicking on the Forecast button on the upper right side of the screen.
Trigger FAQs
My email message template is not available for selection in the Send Template drop-down list. How do I fix this?
In order for your email message template to appear in the Send Template drop-down list, users must first create a custom email message template based on booking criteria to be used for their trigger such as the Welcome Email Template detailed below.
How do I create and send a Welcome Email with a guest's door code?
Field codes for door locks are Booking types of field codes, so those fields can only be included in a "Booking" type custom user-created email template. Those booking field codes should then populate the custom user-created email template and will then be associated with a corresponding trigger so that the email template can be sent with a trigger.
In order to create a trigger that includes a door code, OwnerRez users must first create a custom email message template based on booking criteria to be used for their trigger. Users can navigate to Settings > Messaging > Templates > Create Email Template > Booking.In the email template editor, users can select specific door code field codes to add to their booking email message template by clicking on the field code icon or Insert Field, depending on the section of the booking email template.
There are a number of door code field codes for users to select depending on the users' specific door lock integration. Click on the Insert button to add the field code to your booking email template and the selected field code will be added to your booking email template.
Go ahead and click on Save, then choose Preview at the top of the screen.
Note that the guest door code has been automatically inserted in the body of the email booking email template. Users can also preview additional emails for other properties and/or guests by selecting from the Property and Booking drop-down lists. Click on Close to exit the preview.
Users can adjust and edit their booking email template and then preview it until their booking email template appears as desired.
How do I create a trigger for inquiries and/or quotes?
Triggers are based on booking criteria only so triggers can not send email templates for inquiries or quotes. However autoresponders can send custom email message templates for inquiries and/or quotes.
Airbnb's messaging platform is not quite as robust as OwnerRez's software capabilities, therefore Airbnb guests will not be able to receive Inquiry templates via an Autoresponder.
Why aren't my triggers sending my emails?
Our trigger system deals with a lot of complicated scenarios, and one of the complications is "missed runs". A booking can have a trigger fail to send for a lot of reasons, the biggest of which is non-match criteria. ie. the booking did not match the trigger criteria (eg. renter agreement not signed) and it doesn't run when at the normal time, but then, later, the criteria matches (eg. the renter agreement finally got signed) so it is eligible to run. It can be very difficult to know whether the trigger is supposed to run, based on booking criteria that didn't match but now does, and the timeline of how long ago the arrival or departure is.
In particular, before arrival triggers with retry until arrival are retried until the day after arrival -- to catch the case where you have a last minute booking at night and a trigger set to send on arrival morning. And after departure triggers don't have a retry until setting, but will retry until 30 days after departure to catch cases like a trigger with a secdep released criteria or reviewed tag criteria and make sure those go out. Triggers automatically don't retry for events that would have occurred before a trigger was created to avoid unexpected emails going out.
Can I create a trigger for my guests to sign my Renter Agreement that booked on other listing sites?
All OwnerRez users have a Send Renter Agreement email template and corresponding trigger to send that Renter Agreement (to 5 listing sites; Airbnb, Booking.com, HomeToGo, TripAdvisor and Vrbo) already set up in their account and appears in their Trigger list. Users can add additional Renter Agreement triggers for other listing sites as well.