Inquiry & Quote Autoresponders

This support article is out of date. For more current and complete instructions, please see the Trigger Examples support article.

All owners and property managers know that responding quickly to inquiries is vital. Guests are often reviewing many vacation rental options and your quick response may be the key to their decision to book your vacation rental.

Additionally, your timely response to inquiries is crucial as it enhances guest satisfaction, increases the likelihood of bookings, and improves overall customer experience.

In mid-February 2024, Autoresponders were retired in favor of Inquiry Triggers. Triggers can now send automatic responses to inquiries, and any Autoresponders in use were converted to Inquiry Triggers. Additional functionality was added to triggers so that when inquiries come in, they can be targeted like Autoresponders did. This was part of a wide effort to clean up and normalize messaging options across OwnerRez.

Some important distinctions are:

  • Inquiries are not bookings, but can become bookings. 
  • Inquiries can come into the system via widgets, plugins, and/or API connecting listing channels. 
  • Autoresponders respond to Inquiries only

Not to be confused with Triggers, Autoresponders are email messages that can be set up by OwnerRez users to automatically reply to incoming inquiries with 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.

System Inquiry Messages

Users can review the already OwnerRez automated System Messages designed for responding to Guest Inquiries with the following.

  • Send Missing Info Answer to Guest message answers the guest's inquiry but does not include a quote because the inquiry does not have enough information.
  • Send Unavailable Dates Answer to Guest message tells the guest that the requested dates are unavailable and suggests alternatives.
  • Send Answer With Quote to Guest message answers the guest's inquiry with a quote and confirms that the property is available.
  • Send Rule Violation Answer to Guest message answers the guest's inquiry but does not include a quote because the inquiry violated property rules (too many guests, pets not allowed).

Users can customize these System Inquiry Messages by navigating to Settings > Messaging > System Messages.

System Messages

Further down the page, users will find the Inquiry Messages and by clicking on the right-sided Action drop-down list, users can choose from the following.

  • Turn OFF the Autoresponder (not recommended)
  • Change the Message
  • Use another Existing Template instead of the standard OwnerRez inquiry message
  • Preview the System Message

Inquiry Messages Actions

If users choose to Change the Message, they can follow these instructions to customize these System Inquiry Messages.

Create Custom Inquiry Template

Users can create a Custom Inquiry Template by navigating to Settings > Messaging > Templates.

Templates

Users should note that if they want their email template to be automatically sent by an Autoresponder, they MUST create an Inquiry email template as Autoresponders are based on inquiry criteria only

From the +Create Email Template drop-down list on the Email tab, users should select an Inquiry type template.

Create Inquiry Email Template

In the email template editor, users can select Field codes to customize their email message template for each property and each potential guest by clicking on the field code icon Field Code Icon or Insert Field, depending on the section of the inquiry email template.

Inquiry Email Template

Click on the Insert buttonInsert Field Code Button to add Inquiry or Quote field codes to your inquiry email template and the selected field code will be added to your booking email template.

Insert a Field

When users want to see how their email template will appear to guests, they can click on Save, then choose Preview at the top of the screen.

Save and Preview

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.

Inquiry Template Preview

Are some of the text that you copy and pasted into your email template appearing funky during Preview Mode? Users can clear the formatting of any text by selecting the text and clicking on the Clear Formatting Tx icon.

Clear Formatting Icon

Be sure to click on Save and Preview your changes.

Users can adjust and edit their booking email template and then preview it until their booking email template appears as desired.

Create Autoresponder

In mid-February 2024, Autoresponders were retired in favor of Inquiry Triggers. Triggers can now send automatic responses to inquiries, and any Autoresponders in use were converted to Inquiry Triggers. Additional functionality was added to triggers so that when inquiries come in, they can be targeted like Autoresponders did. This was part of a wide effort to clean up and normalize messaging options across OwnerRez.

The Autoresponder settings determine whether the system will automatically reply to incoming inquiries with emails and/or quotes.

When an inquiry is received, all active autoresponders will be evaluated to see if their criteria match. If there are multiple matches, the autoresponder with the highest priority is chosen.

Users can create an  Autoresponder by navigating to Settings > Messaging > Autoresponders.

Autoresponders

Select Create Autoresponder.

Create Autoresponder

On the Create Autoresponder page, users are able to select settings for the following autoresponder sections. 

  • For Inquiries that are Available and Quotable
  • For Inquiries that have Unavailable Dates
  • For Inquiries that Violate Rules

Create Autoresponder

In each of those sections above users can decide how to respond to inquiries and quotes.

  • Users can make the Autoresponder active by selecting the Yes checkbox after Respond.
  • From the Email Template drop-down list, users can select either the default OwnerRez System Message or a Custom Inquiry Template that they have crafted.
  • In the If Commented section, users can decide whether to respond to potential guest comments made at the time of the inquiry or quote.
    • If Still Respond is selected, the Autoresponder will go out automatically.
    • If Do Nothing is selected, the Autoresponder will NOT go out, giving the user the opportunity to respond manually at a later time.
  • Users can Also Send Quote by selecting the Yes checkbox. This option is only available on inquiries that are available and quotable

Autoresponder Options

  • The Criteria section allows users to select the following.
    • Selected Properties
    • Selected Listing Sites
    • The Time Period that they want to send autoresponders, either Any time or Specific time periods.
  • The Options section allows users to determine the following.
    • Select either none or a Custom Inquiry Template from the Send to Double Blind drop-down list for inquiries with both a guest email and a double blind email (i.e. TripAdvisor/FlipKey), also send this template to the double blind email address.
    • Determine the priority by entering a number in this field. If multiple autoresponders match an inquiry, the one with the highest priority will be used.
  • Users can choose to make the Autoresponder Status inactive by deselecting the Active checkbox.

Be sure to click on Save.