OwnerRez Integration

9 min. readlast update: 10.17.2023

Touch Stay integrates with OwnerRez to import your properties and then automate the sending of invitations for confirmed bookings.

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Step 1. Authorise Connection

First, you need to authorise your Touch Stay account with OwnerRez. From within your Touch Stay Account page, go to the Integrations tab and click “Connect” underneath the OwnerRez logo.

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This will take you to the OwnerRez authorisation screen where you confirm giving access to Touch Stay.

Step 2. Match Properties

Once authorised, you can match any existing Touch Stay properties to those in OwnerRez. Use the drop downs to select the correct OwnerRez property for each Touch Stay guide. When complete, click “Match selected”. If you don’t have any to match, then just click “Skip” without choosing any OwnerRez properties. If you don’t see any guides on this step then they are already matched and you can move on to Step 3.

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Step 3. Import Properties

If you have any unmatched properties from OwnerRez then the next screen allows you to import those into Touch Stay. Simply check the ones you want to import and click the “Import rentals from OwnerRez” button. If you don’t want to import any, or don’t have any remaining, then just click “Skip” whilst leaving the selections blank.

Touch Stay will import the following:

  • Property Name
  • Property Address
  • Main photo
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Step 4. Check Your Content

Matching or importing rentals won’t automatically sync bookings from OwnerRez, so now is the time to check the content of your welcome books and make sure they’re in tip-top shape and ready to share with your guests.

If you’re new to Touch Stay then check out the Getting Started page for hints and tips on the quickest way to build out your welcome book content.

Step 5. Set up your Message Templates

To send out messages from Touch Stay to guests that come from bookings in OwnerRez you’ll first need to create some message templates using Memo. The bookings from OwnerRez will then follow your message workflow and any default settings as defined by the templates that you create.

See the Memo help articles for how to add message templates and create a notification journey for your guests.

You can also connect your door lock codes and expected check-in/out times from OwnerRez by using custom field codes and add them to your Memo templates. See below for more details about connecting custom field codes.

If you would like to use the OwnerRez messaging system, instead of, or in addition to using Memo then you can choose to send your Touch Stay guidebook links back to OwnerRez. See below for more details about sending links to OwnerRez.

Step 6. Sync and Forget!

Once your welcome books are ready and message templates are in place then you can start syncing with OwnerRez.

The sync settings can be found on the Integrations tab under the Settings option for OwnerRez, select “Reservation Sync Settings”.

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Here you can choose whether to import all your future reservations or have Touch Stay only import new reservations. If you are new to Touch Stay then choose “All reservations”. If you are already a user of Touch Stay messaging before you connect your OwnerRez account then it’s best to choose “New reservations only” to prevent duplicate reservations being imported.

How to add OwnerRez review links to your guide or message templates

You can also choose to send your guidebook links back to OwnerRez. OwnerRez has a unique review page for each booking and you can add links to these to your guide or Memo message templates. The first step is to create a custom field code to hold the unique token from OwnerRez. It’s called the “Form Key” in OwnerRez and this is one of the fields available for mapping to a Touch Stay custom field code.

Head to the Account page Integrations tab and in the OwnerRez settings choose “Custom Field Mapping”. Select “+” and then choose “Form Key” from the dropdown. Now give your custom field code a name such as review_id and then Save.

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You now need to create the link and insert the custom field code, along with a fixed element from the OwnerRez link shortener. The process is the same whether you’re adding the link to some topic content or a Memo message template. Use the link icon in the text entry box toolbar and in the URL box enter the following – note the review_id element must match exactly with the name you chose for your custom field in the first step:

https://orez.io/v1/r/{{review_id}}

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Sending invitation links to OwnerRez explained

When your Touch Stay and OwnerRez accounts are connected and you’re ready to start syncing reservations, you can optionally choose to send each invitation link back to OwnerRez for use in the OwnerRez messaging system, as well as using Memo (or instead of). This can be useful if you want to take advantage of the message triggers in OwnerRez and, for example, only send your guidebook link to guests after they have paid their deposit in full or signed your terms and conditions. If this sounds useful to you, then these are the steps to follow.

Step 1. Create the Custom Field Definition that will be used to store the link on the OwnerRez booking. From within your OwnerRez account, head to the Settings page on the navigation bar and then scroll down to find “Custom Field Definitions” (it’s in the “Workflow & Devices” section). Click on “+ Create Field Definition”.

Be sure the Type is set to “Booking” and then give your field definition a Name and a Merge Code, then click Save.

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Step 2. In Touch Stay, map the field and activate the sync. Go to the Account page, then the Integrations tab and within the Settings menu for OwnerRez find the “Reservation Sync Settings” option.

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Next, set the “Send links to OwnerRez” option to “Yes” and then from the dropdown, choose the Custom Field Definition created in Step 1 above. Select which guides are to have the sync active by marking the check boxes, note the “Select All” option at the bottom left. Click Save when ready.

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Step 3. Add the Merge Code for your Custom Field Definition to any relevant message templates in OwnerRez. Wherever you place this merge code in an OwnerRez message template it will be replaced by the link to your Touch Stay guide when the message is sent out.

Pro-tip: if you add your merge code to a link in your OwnerRez message template then this will create a clickable link for your Touch Stay guide in your OwnerRez message. To do this you will first need to copy your merge code and then use the link icon on the OwnerRez message template toolbar. Select “Custom Web address” for the link Type and then paste your merge code into the URL box.

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Contact OwnerRez support if you need any help in creating message templates and using Custom Field Definitions in OwnerRez.

WARNING: A note about OwnerRez message timing: there will be a slight delay between the booking arriving in OwnerRez and the link being sent back from Touch Stay whilst our respective systems process the booking, generate the link and pass it back. Therefore we recommend NOT adding your "Touch Stay Guide Link" custom field to OwnerRez messages that are sent out as soon as the booking is received. Instead, we recommend adding a message ~1 hour later or perhaps the next day that's dedicated to introducing guests to everything they'll find in your guide book.

What happens if I’m already using Memo? If you’re already using Memo, then when you activate the “Send links to OwnerRez” option (Step 2 above) we’ll send the link for all your future bookings to your chosen OwnerRez Custom Field Definition. Note that we won’t change any of your existing invitations in Touch Stay, so your Memo messages will all continue to send from Touch Stay as scheduled.

If you want to stop using Memo for future bookings then you would need to archive the relevant Memo message templates. This prevents them from being added to any future bookings that come in. See this article for more details about archiving your Memo message templates. Note that archiving message templates won’t affect any existing invitations, if you want to cancel any Memo messages that are already scheduled then that will need to be done manually by removing each message from the relevant invitation.

If you decide to stop using Memo for some, or all, of your messages, it will likely be easiest to transition away from using Memo and allow existing guest invitations to complete their Memo message journey, rather than deleting scheduled Memo messages and then trying to set up messages in OwnerRez to catch each guest at the correct point in their message journey. 

How to connect custom field codes with OwnerRez

You can connect custom field codes created in Touch Stay to additional fields through the OwnerRez integration. This will then mean any values/data for these fields set in OwnerRez will pass into Touch Stay and can be added to your Memo message templates. The available fields are as follows:

  • Door code (data type: Text)
  • Expected Check-in Time (data type: Text)
  • Expected Check-out Time (data type: Text)
  • Booking ID (data type: Number)
  • Form Key (data type: Text) – this can be used to create links to the OwnerRez review page for each booking.

To connect any of these fields to Touch Stay head to the Integrations tab and within the OwnerRez Settings select “Custom Field Mapping”.

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Next, click on the “+ New Custom Field” button:

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From here you can select the OwnerRez field to connect, choose a name for your custom field code and any substitute value. Substitute values are used in the case of data missing when the field code is used, see this article for more detail about field codes.

Once the custom fields have been created, then any future bookings which sync from OwnerRez will have the relevant data automatically populated on the invitation record. 

 

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