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Blog Category: Announcements

 

Vacation Rental Multi-Property Search Tool

Bookerville's Multi-Property Availability Search Tool Updated



Bookerville's popular and useful Multi-Property Search tool has been updated with new features.

Email Results to Prospects



You can now easily hand-pick from the results, and effortlessly send them in an email to your prospects. Just check the boxes next to the ones you think are the best fits for your prospect, and click to send those in an email to them. The email they receive looks and works just like the results you see on your screen, with photos and buttons to explore more or jump right into booking (or requesting).

More Customizable



We've also made the tool (which is also a "widget" you can share & publish on your website) more customizable.

Set your own accent color to match, put your custom header banner image at the top, and also control which features & amenities appear in the expanded filter. Whole sections can now be removed, and also individual options within each section can be omitted, if you want to focus on just the few that you think will matter most to your audience.

Multi-Property Search Video Demo



Watch this video to see how powerful and intuitive this is: Multi-Property Search Video


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Owner Contracts
November 22, 2022, by John Amato

Vacation Rental Owner Contracts
Do you have your vacation rental owners sign annual (or other) contracts for your property management service? Would you like those contracts, their history and their electronic signing process to be automated seamlessly into your PMS dashboard?

Bookerville has developed a new feature that enables you to create your own custom owner contract templates - these can be unique per property - and send the owners a link to digitally enter the data (custom, whatever data you choose to require) and sign them. You get notified by email when they complete their signing, and the owner is then notified when you sign it. The history of these contracts is made available to you and your owners for posterity, downloading, printing, etc.

Customized



The contracts can be 100% customized: you probably already have one that you've been using, either on paper or elsewhere electronically (PDF, Docusign, etc.). We can help you set these up with proper formatting, and your pre-populated information, and also custom fields you want your owners to enter.

We have added a new template in the Property Setup page >> Emails & Templates tab, look for the button called "Owner Contract". It is here you would enter your contract text, and it is here you would likely require our assistance, which we are happy to provide.

Custom Questions, Owner-Options, Data Collection



The contract template can contain optional fields - text, dates, and simple yes/no check boxes - that are associated with questions or info. you need from the owner about the new contract period. Asking them to choose their open and off season dates, whether they would like winterization/spring cleaning, or open-ended questions like what work they plan to do to the home for the next year, etc.

Bookerville will make each of these required before the owner can sign the contract, and the answers are retained and made available to you for reporting, so that you can organize and keep track of which properties are participating in certain activities, options, etc.

Multiple Owners per Property



Our new feature supports multiple owners per property. Set these up as "sub-users" in your Dashboard >> Account Settings tab, in the Members With Permissions box. Make sure the "Owner" box is checked, this is how Bookerville determines which person is an owner, and pulls their contact info. into the contract.

Digital Signing



Their full name, date, and SSN (or EIN / ITIN) is required for them to sign the contracts, and this is stored and presented. Sensitive data is encrypted and stored securely.

Emailing Owners to Sign



You can create new contracts, and then send owners an email alerting them to go sign it. This is done in the new Owner Contracts Management page, which you can get to in your Dashboard >> Account Settings tab at the bottom.


Update 2023-02-07: There is now a new video, walking you through how this works: Owner Contracts Video

 
3 Responses:

Pine Hollow Lodging, November 30, 2022:

hey John,
This sounds like a REALLY great idea. Owner contracts can, indeed, and frequently are, a pain in the butt.
Questions:
Is the contract renewal monitored at all. Like, will we be be informed somehow if the contract is about to expire, has expired, has been signed and returned, etc.?
I didn't see the Owner Contracts Management at the bottom (or anywhere) on the Accounts Settings tab/page. (although it wouldn't be the first time I missed something each of the three times I looked :0 )
The only thing I saw at the bottom of the page is Advanced Settings which I was strongly urged to not touch anything or else something unusually bad will happen to me - or perhaps the universe (not sure, the warning seemed intentionally vague) :-)
Thanks,
Jason
John Amato, November 30, 2022:

Great questions Jason - it doesn't notify anyone of "expired" contracts, but we might be talked into something like that. For most PMs, this seems to be a simple annual process, that is campaigned each year.

It does notify the owner when you click the button to send it, with a link to agree to it. It emails you (the PM) when the owner signs it, and it then emails the owner when you sign it.

I've emailed you separately about finding this new tool, etc....
John Amato, February 7, 2023:

There is now a new video, walking you through how this works:

Owner Contracts Video

We would love to hear your feedback!

 
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Property Deletes No Longer Permitted
January 13, 2020, by John Amato

Just a quick heads-up: Bookerville is no longer permitting properties to be deleted.

Too many times people have accidentally deleted a property that they didn't intend to, or they deleted the wrong one, or realized later that even though the property may no longer be active, they still need the data from it to report on for year-end taxes, etc. And it is nearly impossible for Bookerville to reliably recover properties once they have been deleted.

If there is a property that is no longer active, simply turn it off-line in your Dashboard >> My Properties tab. You can also remove it from your Master Calendar view by un-checking that box there.

You may also want to un-check the "List this Property Publicly" box and the "List this property on Bookerville's listing pages" box in the Property Setup page for properties that are no longer active.

As always, if there is any confusion or concern about this, email us.

 
2 Responses:

pmicentraloregon, March 29, 2021:

I have two properties OFFLINE but they still have a life feed online. I need those deleted.
John Amato, March 30, 2021:

Hi pmicentraloregon - please email me about this, we can take care of it.

 
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Bookerville's New Maintenance App
January 4, 2020, by John Amato

Vacation Rental Maintenance Mobile App

Richer, more automated Work Orders await you!



You've had the ability to create, manage, and report on Work Orders for a while now. But Bookerville has now produced a Maintenance Mobile App that your maintenance personnel can use to navigate to the property, see any photos of the issue(s) submitted for that work order, provide estimates, final amounts, and report as completed.

Setting Up Maintenance Users



Step one is setting up one or more sub-users and assigning them "Maintenance" permission for one or more properties. This is done in your Dashboard >> Account Settings tab, look for the "Members With Permissions" box. Once you do this, that user will then have access to the new Maintenance Mobile App.

Creating & Assigning Work Orders



Once you (or your housekeepers/inspectors) have created a work order, you'll need to set the status to Approved, and set a scheduled date for it. We have also improved this: the pop-up date-picker calendar shows you booked dates so that you can more easily choose a scheduled date in between bookings when needed. You also must assign the work order to the maintenance user. Once that's done, they will then see the work order appear in their prioritized list in their Maintenance App.

Completing Work Orders



Your maintenance personnel can then mark work orders as completed, and your dashboard is updated to reflect the latest statuses. They can also create new work orders as they see needs for things while they are in the field, and these can then be reviewed and approved by you before they can commence work and mark as completed.

Give Us Your Feedback



As always, Bookerville thrives on feedback from actual active users. If you're using this new feature, please don't be shy about your ideas to improve it.

 
6 Responses:

Buffalo Creek, January 23, 2020:

I am having a hard time finding this app in the app store. What is the exact name? Thanks
Harmsen, May 7, 2020:

can't find the app?!
John Amato, May 7, 2020:

Apologies for the delay, espcially Buffalo Creek!

The link can be found on your Dashboard >> Master Calendar, lower-left area, look for the "My Clean/Inspect Property List".

And/or just click here: Housekeeping App

Or copy & paste this into an email/text: https://www.bookerville.com/CleanInspectPropertyList

Also - the link is already in the standard "Cleaning Crew" Email Template, if you're using that.

As always, write back if you need help, or email support@bookerville.com
Carl Nagle, May 2, 2021:

Hi John?
Unfortunately, while I thought I had read somewhere that there was an ability to "launch a script", I cannot find that as an option in any of the Account or Property forms right now.

So right now, it appears I cannot attempt to launch a custom integration or script for any of the activities on Bookerville.
Is that a correct assessment?

Carl

John Amato, May 3, 2021:

Hi Carl - "launch a script" could mean a lot of things, so I'm not sure what you're looking for. And especially in relation to the Maintenance app. This might be something best handled in email, until we have it distilled down to something the masses would benefit from.
Carl Nagle, May 3, 2021:

Done.

 
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Automated Refunds Are Here!
December 2, 2019, by John Amato

Vacation Rental Automated Refunds

Refund payments with a click. Or even set them up to be completely automatic



It's been a long time coming, but at long last, you can now initiate refunds for electronic payments in the Bookerville dashboard, without having to log in separately to your Lynnbrook/BridgePay dashboard.

Lynnbrook: The Recommended Payment Processor



This can only be achieved through our recommended payment processor, the Lynnbrook Group, of course. If you don't have a Lynnbrook merchant account, there is no better time or reason to switch than now. Learn more about Lynnbrook

How Do I Refund In Bookerville?



In the Booking Details page, if you have a Lynnbrook merchant account, any payments made through them will now show a 3rd action icon, a green $ with a circle-arrow around it:


Vacation Rental Automated Refunds



Clicking that (and confirming for safety) will cause Bookerville to attempt to refund that payment, and you'll see the results right then and there in a pop-up.

And How About Totally Automatic Refunds?



We're so glad you brought that up! As a matter of fact, we are looking for a few members to beta-test a new feature that will automatically refund refundable security deposits X number of days after the departure date, unless you have gone in and marked it for retention (in whole or in part). If you are interested in pilot-testing this next-level of automation, please email us:





When we turn it on for your testing, look for this in the Property Setup page:


Vacation Rental Automated Refunds



More To Come!



Our next phase in this richer integration with Lynnbrook is to let you (optionally) auto-charge the card-on-file for subsequent, scheduled payments. We will announce that when it is ready.

Your Bookerville experience is constantly improving!

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Automatic Emails and Listing Sites
February 10, 2017, by John Amato

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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