The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.
When it comes to achieving goals, the secret sauce is all in the planning and preparation. Plan to check out this product update February 21st release with 8 updates to set yourself up for success in all things OwnerRez, including updates to the Airbnb API Connection!
Enhancements & Tweaks
Airbnb API Updates for Photos, Security Deposit Options, and Unpublishing Reasons
OwnerRez's powerful Airbnb API integration enables users to automatically sync bookings, rates, rules, amenities, and more while benefiting from Airbnb's marketing reach.
We regularly plan and prepare to update API connections when needed, and the time came to move to a new Airbnb API version - where OwnerRez and our users can benefit from new features and fixes. Here are the key changes from the new version:
- Removing the last photo from an active listing will no longer result in the listing being deactivated. Instead, a validation error will be returned.
- Photo caption fields will be limited to a maximum length of 250 characters.
- The "Airbnb" option in the security deposit section of the OwnerRez Airbnb API connection has been removed as security deposits can now only be "None" or "OwnerRez" (i.e., using security deposits as configured in OwnerRez). The in-app help text has been updated to "Find out more about using OwnerRez security deposits on Airbnb in our help documentation."
- Users can now specify the reason for disconnecting their properties in the Airbnb API connection in OwnerRez by selecting one of the options from the Disconnect Listings pop-up. You can also choose to simultaneously unpublish the listing(s) on Airbnb.
- If a user selects "I have another reason" in any category section or "I have other reasons" under "Other," there is a place to enter the custom reason.
- If the user chooses to disconnect more than one property at at time, the same reason for disconnecting is applied to all properties.
Bug Fixes
Fix Bug When Applying Inquiry Triggers Based on Status. Following last week's Inquiry Triggers Added release, Inquiry Triggers with "Rule Violation" criteria were being sent to some quotable inquiries. OR quickly fixed this bug, and Inquiry Triggers with "Rule Violation" criteria will fire correctly and as expected.
Fix Crash on Listing Quality Analyzer When Using "Professional Host" Property Type Without a Channel Integration. Users with special property types considered "professional hospitality businesses" (e.g., Bed and Breakfast, Hotel) before completing their Airbnb API connection encountered Listing Quality Analyzer (LQA) crashes. We resolved this issue to ensure that users with special property types considered "professional hospitality businesses" before completing their Airbnb API connection will receive LQA warnings but not crash.
Fix Default Legal Agreement Template to Have Correct Field Code for Check-in Time. The default OwnerRez Legal Agreement contained the incorrect field code {CHECKINTIME} rather than the correct {BCHECKINTIME} in the Check-in Time field. We corrected the default OR Legal Agreement Check-in Time field to contain the correct {BCHECKINTIME} field code.
Fix Missing "Book Now" Button on Bay Grande Hosted Website Template. The Bay Grande Hosted Website template encountered header text display overlaps, resulting in a missing Book Now button. This issue has been resolved, and the Book Now button will be displayed correctly on the Bay Grande Hosted Website template.
Fix Preview for Team User Invite When Using MYPORTTITLE Field Code. A user who edited their Send Invite to Portal User System Message to add the {MYPORTTITLE} field code discovered that the {MYPORTTITLE} field code was not being replaced in some scenarios. OR resolved this glitch, allowing users to properly preview the Send Invite to Portal User System Message after adding the {MYPORTTITLE} field code.
OR Contact Us Form Submission Sometimes Gets Stuck After reCAPTCHA Failure. In rare cases, our Contact Us form may become stuck in the "submitting" status. OR has improved the form to prevent this from happening in the future.
Google Vacation Rentals Private Beta:
- Discounts Not Always Reflected Properly Depending on Seasonal Settings. Google Vacation Rentals (GVR) Private Beta properties that used dynamic pricing would sometimes cause Google Price Accuracy checks to fail. We resolved this issue by decreasing the time between a dynamic price update in OwnerRez and the corresponding price update in GVR.