A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.
Moore's expression for the pursuit of improvement is akin to OwnerRez's quest for innovation! Discover more as you scroll through today's product update by delving into our August 9th release with 18 updates, including Ribbon Calendar enhancements and more.
Enhancements & Tweaks
Better Performance and Bookings Filter Added to the New Ribbon Calendar
Remember the Ribbon Calendar Overhaul that we rolled out in March? Upon release, it couldn't do everything the Legacy Ribbon View could do (Bookings Filter, cough cough), so a number of users chose to revert to the Legacy Ribbon View. Revert no more! Come try out the further enhanced new Ribbon View!
With the re-introduction of the robust bookings filter and availability range filter added to the property filter, the new Ribbon Calendar now matches the Legacy Ribbon's functionality.🎉
When users click the Bookings Filter button, they can filter the ribbon by Listing Site, Booked dates, Payment and Security Deposit Status, and more!
After users click Search, the results will display the regular property color while results filtered out will be grayed out. Note how the Bookings filter button has moved to the left, next to the applied filters, just like the Legacy Ribbon View.
Need to clear a filter? Simply click on the X next to the selected filter, click on Show All or choose Clear (Show All) from the Reset dropdown menu.
The Bookings Filter addition to the Ribbon Calendar provides significant advantages to those users that manage multiple properties, as it can filter on various booking data.
Users could filter by property since the new ribbon calendar's launch but it's still a useful feature to point out.
Need to filter on availability? You can now on the new ribbon view; just click on the filter icon located within the Filter properties search box.
And the Filter Properties pop-up appears allowing users to search for booking availability (and more) across all or select properties.
Need to clear your selection? Just click on the Show All link.
But that's not all! We condensed and streamlined the new ribbon view so moving the handle is much smoother and more efficient. And we optimized it for numerous devices and browsers!
However, it's important to note that YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary), based on factors such as your device, operating system, internet speed, browser, and other variables.
Lastly, in the previous version of the Ribbon Calendar, we occasionally observed that date headers and bookings didn't sync up correctly and the booking date placement was off by one day. We corrected that as part of this release also.
Still not sold on the new Ribbon Calendar? Users can still revert to the Legacy Ribbon View for the time being.
Want to see more? Read all about it in the Ribbon View section of the Main Bookings Display support article.
Canadian Business Number BN-9 SMS Brand Support Added
Due to ever-changing SMS regulations, OwnerRez has added SMS brand application support for our Canadian users with the addition of the Canadian Business Number BN-9 in the SMS Brand application process. The Canadian Business Number BN-9 is a 9-digit business identifier used in Canada to which businesses can register their business accounts with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
We have removed the old CCN format as it is no longer accepted as part of an SMS Brand application.
Read our SMS Overview support article to learn more.
Bug Fixes
Add Edge Case Checking for Airbnb Publish Status and Clear Pending Publish Flag on Airbnb Check Status if Possible. This Airbnb bug occurred where a listing could be both in a "pending sync" but somehow also a "published and active" status. We fixed this by adding some validation checking that will unpublish and republish the listing and then update the listing status in OR.
Alphabetize Templates Dropdown in Trigger Forecast Filter. The Email Template subset dropdown list in the trigger forecast filter has been updated to now display in alphabetical order.
Blocked-Off Time Cancellation Should Report User That Cancels (Could be Portal User). Blocked-off time cancellations initiated by Portal users generated email system alerts that incorrectly displayed that the OR account user canceled the blocked-off time. This bug was rectified and email system alerts will now accurately display the name of the user who initiated cancellations for the blocked-off time.
Clear Review Body if Air Specifically Does. Our Airbnb review webhook handling initially would only update a review body if Airbnb provided one, but wouldn't clear a review body once set if Airbnb provided an empty body. We found some cases where guests entered bad reviews that Airbnb subsequently removed. OR now looks for any hidden reviews that contain empty bodies, and clears the review body out on the OwnerRez side as well, so the user will no longer see contested (and removed) bad reviews.
Don't Clear Car Suitability on Location Tab When Editing Amenities on Amenities Tab. We found that the car suitability text that was set on the location tab was being cleared upon saving in the amenities tab. We fixed this issue and saving the amenities tab will no longer clear the car suitability text (which used to be on the amenities tab, but now is on the location tab).
Don't Set Standard Max Nights for Air So That Allow RTB Above Max Option Works. Even though OR was sending the information, Airbnb was ignoring the "Allow request to book above max nights" setting in the Airbnb API connection, which was added in a late June release, if users had their max nights set to less than 28 nights. We have resolved this issue by no longer sending the calendar max nights to Airbnb if it's the same as the property and improving the label displayed in the Airbnb API connection to "For this setting to apply, the property must have a max nights rule of 28 nights or more and no seasonal or calendar max nights overrides."
Fix Bay Grande Single Property Layout. The Bay Grande hosted website template for single properties was encountering header text display overlaps. This bug has been corrected and header text will now display correctly for new single property hosted websites using the Bay Grande template.
Fix Issue Where Hosted Certificate Could Get Stuck Halfway Through Installation. OR continually monitors the hosted website certificate process and noticed that hosted site certificates were not always installed on all necessary servers due to an error. This error was fixed to allow hosted certificates to install elsewhere even if the certificate errors first on a different server.
Improve Hopper Cancellation Endpoint. In preparation for the public beta of the Hopper Homes API integration, we improved the cancellation endpoint after feedback garnered from the private beta.
Rework Airbnb Listing Nickname Truncate to 40 Chars. A user alerted OR that their Property Name was truncated after syncing their Airbnb API-connected property. We noticed that Airbnb supports more than 20 characters now and OR has increased it to 40 characters. While not displayed to guests on Airbnb, the listing nickname is referred to as the property "Name" in OwnerRez.
Send Profile Changed Alert to Old Email Address Too. OR always sends a system email alert to the newly changed profile email address on a user's account, but for security purposes, we now cc (carbon copy) the old email address on the alert sent to the new email address.
Set {PAYTYPE} Field Code for Credit Card Payment Type. The PAYTYPE (Payment Type) field code never included "Credit Card" so if the payment type selected was "Credit Card", that field was blank on booking confirmation, payment confirmation, etc. email templates sent to guests and users. If Credit Card is the PAYTYPE (Payment Type) selected, it will be correctly displayed on booking confirmation, payment confirmation, etc. email templates sent to guests and users.
Show a "No Phone Number" Error on Booking SMS Triggers if There's No Phone. SMS users that had not yet reserved an SMS phone number and subsequently created SMS triggers to send a template upon a booking creation were receiving incorrect error tooltips detailing why the SMS template was not sent in the Booking's messages tab. This issue has been resolved and users will now see a tooltip explaining that the message will not send due to "You have not reserved an SMS number."
Show Booking Listing Site on Portal if User has Permission. While Listing sites were displayed to portal users when hovering the booking on any calendar view (Ribbon, Month, Year), that information was not included in individual booking details. This has been fixed by adding the channel name under General Info if the portal user access includes "Can View Source/Listing Site."