notification tag is not replaced with accomodation notification

[Andre Flores]

This reply has been marked as private.

[AM Realty]

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[Andre Flores]

This reply has been marked as private.

[JJW]

Thanks for making this a private conversation…

Tags are still not replaced as it should: yesterday an automatic mail was sent to complete payment 14 days in advance. Using 1.1.6, now updated to 1.1.7

tags:
<p>Beste %customer_first_name% %customer_last_name%, <br /><br />

result:

It’s hard for me to keep my client on the same page when all these bugs are there, all of the time, introducing new ones when fixing others or when you implement features nobody is asking for…

It makes my client look like amateurs towards their guests, its not good for business. When bugs are reported, most of the time we get a first reply ‘cant replicate the issue’, in other words: it’s your configuration that’s causing the problems.

On further investigating: oh yeah, there is a problem… Can’t tell you when it will be fixed, because the team is working on some other important feature..

On some issues it takes a whole year or longer, with multiple updates to implement a feature the right way (for instance the buffer issue that is still not fixed). I suggest you take some more testing with your team of 2 developers before you release an update to the public. People are relying on this software for there business…

[JJW]

This morning the payment request plugin triggered an email, again with the missing %customer_first_name% %customer_last_name% tags. But the payment request was triggered on a Airbnb buffer… Whatsupp?

So, this mail is been sent, with the request to pay € 0,-

Why send a payment request on a buffer, why send a payment request for € 0, why sent something in the first place on a imported booking… why is the tag still not replaced… so many questions about this piece of software… My client is fed up with it… And it is getting hard to stay supportive of your developer.
I think we will move to some other plugin, because with every update there will surface new problems…

[Andre Flores]

Hello there,

The conversation was made private because I have received a private reply from one of the users, so I had to respond in private message as well.
Have you updated the Hotel Booking plugin to the latest version (v. 3.9.12)? It is required along with the Payment request update to have it functioning properly. I have just checked automatic notification sent by Payment Request with Payment Request v. 1.1.7 and Hotel Booking 3.9.12 and all the tags were replaced: https://prnt.sc/1rorvfo.
As for sending notifications to imported bookings, this is the first time such kind of issue is reported, I will gladly take a closer look at the issues you are facing if you submit a request to our Help Desk providing temporary access to your WordPress dashboard.

Regards,
Andre

[AM Realty]

@JJW: If it is of any help, we were having a similar issue with the tags not being replaced, but it was fixed in our case when we updated the Hotel Booking and Payment Request plugins. We are also running the Notifier plugin version 1.1.0 if that helps.

For our use case, the ability to send automated messages to imported bookings was very, very useful because we still need to collect payment from bookings made at OTAs such as Booking.com or TripAdvisor. Our site serves as the main system of record for all bookings across all platforms, and can now collect payment for all sources. We also need to send messages before and after the stay to all of our bookings regardless of source, so the Notifier plugin now works for all stays.

Some last thoughts… again, just in case they help since we were in a similar position when the tags were not being replaced…

You seem to be facing 3 issues:
a) Imported bookings are being sent emails
b) Tags are not being replaced in the emails (name for example not showing)
c) Bookings with no balance due are getting a Payment Request email

For (a) and (b), in our system imported bookings do NOT import the guest name or email address. If that is also the case for your client, then perhaps no emails are being sent to the customer, only a copy to the system admin? (If you check the emails sent, is the customer’s address in the TO field?) That is also why perhaps the name field is empty in the email you shared–it doesn’t exist in the booking. Not a solution, but perhaps comforting to know that customers are not being impacted?

We haven’t experienced (c) above, but we turn off the payment emails for AirBnB and VRBO bookings and only send them messages from the Notifier plugin. Perhaps MotoPress can simply add a checkbox in the Settings page to control whether or not Imported bookings should get an email from the Payment Request and the Notifier plugins?

I hope this helps. Good luck!

[JJW]

@AM Realty, thanks for your detailed response.

We have:
Hotel Booking 3.9.12
Hotel Booking Notifier 1.1.0
Hotel Booking Payment Request 1.1.7

Airbnb and Booking.com are our external OTA’s. Reservations from their platforms are paid there and synced to our Hotel Booking calendar.

In our case it’s a pain in the # that buffers are applied to imported bookings and stripped from exported bookings. But more about that here…

For the bookings made on our site we charge 50% upfront when the booking is made en the other 50% is requested 14 day’s before the booking date. Therefore we used the payment request plug-in, but now we disable it on all bookings because it is not working flawless on cron. Every booking we are unsure if the software will work as advertised, so it’s back to manually sending payment requests.

3 days in advance we used to trigger a notification with a welcome and instructions about the property. Also this is back to manually because of the tag replacement errors we encounter when the message is sent by cron.

So for now we have disabled some nice features because the are not functioning reliable. The buffer problems are costing us money. The notification tag problems give us stress.

I understand all user cases are different but I’d like to see Motopress spending less energy in releasing new features and more development hours on resolving bugs and better testing before releasing updates.

[Author]

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