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Vacation Rental Emails and Listing Sites
If you are currently using either iCal feeds or a Channel Manager, then this announcement is very important to you.

How It Works Now



Bookerville has been suppressing Automatic Scheduled Emails and triggered emails for bookings that originate from external sources like Channel Managers and iCal feeds. This is because some emails just don't make sense depending on where the booking came from. For example, AirBnB collects funds from the guests, so sending them a Payment Reminder email doesn't make sense, and might confuse or even concern the guest. There are many other examples, but suffice to say, to err on the side of caution, Bookerville has not been setting up the Automatic Scheduled Emails, nor the initial "triggered" emails for these bookings, but instead allowing you to go into these bookings and either send the emails manually, or set up an alternative set of Automatic Scheduled Emails, etc.

What We're Doing Next



To improve things, Bookerville has recently added new criteria fields to your Email Templates, which allow you to specify if the email should be sent only for certain listing sites, or suppressed (not sent) for certain listing sites. If you are using iCal feeds, and/or a Channel Manager, it is important that you go in and configure these new Email Template settings soon, because Bookerville is going to turn on Automatic Scheduled Emails and triggered emails for these bookings.

When?



We have not yet determined a date at which we are going to turn on Automatic Scheduled Emails (and initial triggered emails) for external bookings, as we want to make sure our members have enough time to read and digest this news, and go make use of the new criteria feature to set up your Email Templates appropriately for the channels you're using. But we do want to act on this quickly, so that everyone can start enjoying the richer automation.

What You Need To Do



Please go into your Property Setup page >> Emails & Templates tab, and click into each of your Email Templates to see if you want to make use of these new settings.

And of course, reply here if you have questions or concerns.

 
6 Responses:

Cindy Amato, February 23, 2017:

I'm so happy for this new feature! It makes so much sense to be able to do this. It's amazing how as the industry grows and changes, like with all these new channels popping up, how fast software must continue to grow and change with it. John Amato is a top-notch computer programmer. He's fast, and everything works! And I'm not just saying that cause he's my hubby! - Cindy A., Co-Founder, Usability Expert, Wife. PS: Can't wait for my next demo to show this off!
pch, June 1, 2017:

Hello. Long time Bookerville user but new to integrating with Airbnb. My calendar feed is going well although I wish it was instant (!). However, I am wondering how the emails get integrated since all that the ical pulls in are a name and the dates. How will guests receive, for instance, my key swap messages. Also, since no money comes to me for an Airbnb booking until they move in, how will emails that are normally generated based on payment in full be handled automatically? I probably have other questions but I need to get these basics figured out first. I did go in and start to 'supress' some emails but this is as far as I got. Thanks! Pam
John Amato, June 15, 2017:

You have to go and get the email address from your AirBnB dashboard, because they typically don't put that in their iCal feeds. But in some cases I've seen it in the description field, in which case Bookerville does try to pull it.

If you want better integration with the major listing sites, consider using a Channel Manager.
pch, January 10, 2018:

fast forward to 2018....which of the two Channel Managers now has the best, most smooth working process for Bookerville? It seems there were some glitches which is to be expected but which of the two now works the best. Thank You!
John Amato, January 11, 2018:

I can't say that either one of them has a better, smoother working process with Bookerville. Honestly they each have their strengths. Especially if you are focusing on AirBnB, perhaps the biggest difference between the two is the pricing model: Rentals United is flat-fee per month, BookingPal is 100% commission-based.
Tloveland, January 17, 2018:

Hi John - I'm a long time customer of Bookerville and it's been great until Airbnb came along and messed up my process. I did not have good luck with your channel partners so I don't and won't use them. I only use Airbnb for my reservations which, as you know, doesn't populate customer Airbnb email address, rates or payment info. I enter that manually however, I have my Check-In email set to automatically be sent "1-day after booking creation date" so at least I don't have to manually send that one out. Since I only use Airbnb, I have altered my auto emails to make sense to Airbnb guests. But, I notice they still don't go out automatically. Is Bookerville still suppressing emails going to Airbnb? If so, when will you stop suppressing them so they will go out automatically according to my settings? Thanks!

 
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