Vacationhomerentals migrated to Flipkey platform

Do we need to change our settings for email parsing etc now to Flipkey?

@BlueMtnCabins: TripAdvisor has been steadily closing all the independent VR brands they own (VacationHomeRentals, FlipKey, Niumba, HolidayLettings) and merging them into the TAVR platform so that all brands are fed by TAVR listing data. They have been contacting owners and sending refunds for VHR listings over the past few months. We do not have any updates yet about what the VHR inquiry emails will look like, so we can't update our parsing engine yet. At the moment, the VHR inquiries remain the same. Only the owner dashboard side of VHR has been turned off.

I am A VHR subscriber, and I have not been contacted to close my listing nor sent a refund. Only thing change is that when I log in to VHR it takes me to TA dashboard. All VHR and TA side reviwws have been combined and now seen on both sides. Thanks

They've contacted users in the event that they can't figure out which VHR listings match up with TA listings. If you don't have TA listings, they probably just moved your VHR over. No need to refund or call you in that case. My information here is from users and 3rd parties, not TA itself, so it may not be 100% correct. I'm just reporting what we know on this side. If you start getting new inquiry emails with a different format, please forward that to us (or let us know the OR # or URL of the inquiry) so we can get a hotfix going for the parsing.

I just sent myself a test inquiry. You can use it for format. Where you want it forwarded?

If it doesn't parse through correctly (into OR as an inquiry with all the fields filled in) just let us know the inquiry number or URL. You can send that to the ticket system at help@ownerreservations.com. And thanks!

here is update. If you are a VHR owner, your listing has been migrated
To TA/FK interface. everything, to me , looks like FK. Except you do see travelers contact.
You still need to log in and make some updates:
Tax rate; cleaning fee; booking deposit; features etc.
What I did is I set up "other" email address with "inquiryspot" address.
On OR side, you need to set it up as "Flipkey" listing site and make sure you enter FK/TA property number there. It works. moreover, inquires originated on FK version of your listing will come to OR as "flipkey". Inquiries from VHR site will show as "Tripadvisor".

issue with FK/TA side of things 9at least for me) - is that a) they can only allow to define booking deposit as a percentage of total (mine is fixed number $300) and b) they only allow to define "weekend" as Fri Sat or Fri Sat Sun. My weekends are Thu Fri Sat or Thu Fri Sat Sun. So quote displayed on Ta side will NEVER match the OR quote because FK/TA treats Thu as weekday (weekday price). I expect traveler complaints.

The listing sites - not just TripAdvisor but HomeAway and the rest too - almost never have enough settings to let you control your rates and policies the way you really need to.

I'd recommend using the Additional Rules box in TripAdvisor to type out exactly what all you require. That way, when the guest inevitably contacts you about the difference in quote or policy, you can point to that spot to show that you showed what was required.

well, I did that, but as we all know most people do not read ANYTHING :)

No doubt! Most guests don't bother even reading the listing, let alone the notes and additional info! But at least this lets you cover yourself against accusations of false advertising.

here is another tidbit. So it does work with OR auto responder (good). But what happens since auto response email is sent to the inquirer directly, now there is a ticking clock in the TA dashboard that expects owner to respond or send quote via their dashboard. which means owner still has to log in and at least send some meaningless response via dashboard to the inquirer to stop the clock (bad).

Check your email contact information, they changed my log in email to the OR one, so I was on the phone for 30 minutes to be able to log in. Email was different than what I had or is in the system. They also think I have another account so my main business email that is listed in there isn't assigned to me... anyway check your contact information.
Wendy