Frequently Asked Questions

Click on any question below to see the answer
Skip to specific info for: Guests, or Hosts


General

What is Zaranga?
Zaranga is an only online marketplace for professionally managed properties in getaways around metropolitan areas. It currently has properties in vacation destinations in California.
How does Zaranga work?
Property managers list their properties on Zaranga, and potential guests use Zaranga to search for these properties, and book them by either making offers or at the published rates.
Why should I sign up on Zaranga?
Once you sign up for an account on Zaranga, You are given a personal profile that tracks your offers, messages, pending reservations, and upcoming trips all in one place. This will also sign you up for our weekly newsletter, which highlights our favorite properties and shows interesting upcoming events in our locations.
How do I sign up?
Click on ‘Sign Up’ link on top banner to sign up by using either your Facebook account or with your email.
What profile information is needed to sign up?
If you are using email to sign up, we strongly encourage you to upload your picture. It allows hosts to put a face to a name.

Guests

General
What benefits do Zaranga offer to guests?
The key benefits for guests are:
• Unbeatable prices
• Book properties instantly. Every aspect of the reservation - finding properties, signing terms and conditions etc., booking payments can be done instantly.
• Piece of mind with professionally managed properties
• Easily browse and find the perfect vacation rental
• Hassle free management of security deposits. For any disputes, Zaranga mediates between guest and hosts to arrive at a fair resolution
• Have someone to talk to for vacation consulation or for any issues with your vacation.
How much does it cost to book properties from Zaranga?
The total price for your rental is displayed once you add your check-in and checkout dates, as well as the number of guests. The rental price varies from property to property and also depends on the time of the year.
Reservations / Offers
What are the best ways to search and filter properties on Zaranga?
Specify your destination and trip dates on Zaranga's home page. From there you can refine the results further by using numerous filters such as price, amenities etc. in the search result page.
Why did the price per night change when I entered my dates?
Before entering your dates, we only show the starting nightly rate per night. Sometimes the property managers have higher prices if the reservation is being made within a certain amount of time, or for the number of guests. Others have increased rates for weekends and holidays. It is on a per-listing basis.
Why don’t you always show the exact address of the property in your map feature?
To be frank, so people don’t just show up at a house when they see what nights it is empty. There have been cases where people will just arrive at the door and ask to rent it for the night. This has been a problem for other vacation rental companies in the past and we are doing this to avoid the problem entirely. If you are looking into a property, you can contact us for specific locations.
What is the difference between the Book/Offer listings and the ‘Book Instantly’/’Offer Instantly’ listings?
Book/Offer booking requests need to be approved by the property managers before they are accepted. The host has 24 hours to accept or reject the request. The ‘Instant’ reservations will automatically notify you if your reservation had been accepted or not.
What are the differences between ‘Book Instantly’ and ‘Offer Instantly’ options?
‘Book Instantly’ allows you to book a property at the host specified price. Using this option lets you cancel the booking as per the cancelation policy set forth for the property, in case you have to.  ‘Offer Instantly’ allows you to book a property by making an offer at a price below the nightly price. Once you make your offer and enter booking request, you will instantly be notified if your offer has been accepted or not. If accepted you will be charged for the reservation, if not your will return to the property page and notified it wasn’t accepted. Please note: If your instant offer is accepted, then the reservation in non-cancellable unless you have purchased the cancellation insurance.
How does ‘Book Instantly’ and ‘Offer Instantly’ work?
If a host has opted for Zaranga to handle it automatically, a booking is made or an offer is evaluated with a response immediately. If a host wants to review the booking, you will be notified within 24 hours whether your booking is confirmed or your offer is accepted.  When you request a booking using either ‘Book Instantly’ or ‘Offer Instantly’ option, we place a hold on your credit card for the booking amount till we receive a decision. If the booking request is accepted, we charge your credit card and if rejected , we release the hold. Even though we ask your credit card company to release the hold as soon as a booking request is not accepted, it can take up to three days for some credit card companies to release the hold. Please contact your credit card company if you experience a delay.
Where can I find information about my bookings?
You will be notified by email about all your offers and bookings. In addition, you can find this information on ‘My Account’s page.
What does Zaranga do to make sure that your bookings are protected?
First and foremost we work only with certified and reputable professional property managers, so we know that we are working with the best. Even beyond that, the timing of paying the host by Zaranga depends on their rental history. For hosts, who haven’t had a minimum number of successful rentals using Zaranga, Zaranga does not release the money to them till 24 hours after the check-in date. If you inform us within 24 hours of your rental of any wrongdoing, Zaranga will look into your complaint and ensure a fair resolution.
How does Zaranga handle security deposits?
Zaranga puts a hold on your credit card for the security deposit amount. Hosts have up-to 2 days after rental to make a claim for any security deposit amount they want to withhold. Zaranga determines validity of claim based on evidence and if a claim is valid, the guest’s card is charged for the claimed amount and the money is released immediately to the host.
How does cancellation work?
Cancellation only applies if you book a property at host specified rate (‘Book Now’ option). E.g. if only 50% of the reservation amount is refundable within 30 days of trip start date, Zaranga will abide by that policy and will refund the said amount.
Will I have an option to purchase trip cancellation insurance?
Yes. Zaranga has partnered with TravelGuard and will be offering their trip cancellation insurance. Cancellation insurance works irrespective of whether you have used ‘Book Now’ or ‘Bid Now’ option.

Hosts

General
What benefits do Zaranga offer to hosts?
Key benefits for hosts are:
• Risk free listing with no fees
• Boost revenues by improving occupancy. Get properties booked for open dates and last minute vacancies by configuring your discount strategy with Zaranga
• Eliminate overhead expenses. Zaranga works seamlessly with your property management software to eliminate administrative overhead with listings and reservations
• Run your business your way with Zaranga using your terms and conditions, cancellation policy etc.
• Increase exposure of your properties by using Zaranga to market them to your target audience
• Get expert advice from Zaranga to increase desirability of your properties
Why will automating inquiry response and facilitating discounts and instant bookings increase my vacation rental occupancy?
According to VRBO, you can increase your bookings by responding to inquiries within 24 hours and replying within 3 hours increases the likelihood to book by 54%. Think about the impact of inquiries being responded immediately by Zaranga – Guests not only get to see more up-to-date property details, but also can make reservations at that very instant!
Furthermore, according to a recent survey done by Homeway, 72% of guests mentioned that discounts are the most important criteria for property selection. Imagine how many bookings you are losing out by guests not knowing that you may be open to negotiating a price. Additionally, negotiating today requires interacting with a live person, which means that you lose business if it originates outside of your business hours!
How much administrative cost savings can I expect from using Zaranga?
Depending on the number of properties, the savings could be quite substantial. Our studies show that for every property, hosts spend about 5-10 hours every week managing inquiries, booking reservations etc., which translates to a cost of $5,200 - $10,400 at a modest rate of $20/hour.
How much does it cost to sign up and list properties with Zaranga?
Nothing. Listing your properties with Zaranga is completely free.
What is Zaranga's service fees for bookings?
Our service fee is 3% of the total booking which is used to cover the cost of processing guests' payments. It is a true pay for performance model, where we do not get paid unless and until we are able to generate bookings for you.
Payments
When do I get paid?
The timing of payments depend on whether you are deemed a trusted merchant by Zaranga. If you are a “Zaranga Certified Host” (ZCH), Zaranga will release the funds to you when the booking becomes non cancellable as per your properties' applicable cancelation policies. If a booking is done using ‘Bid now’ option, you will get the funds immediately. If a booking is done using ‘Book now’ option, funds will released as per your applicable cancellation policies when the booking becomes non cancellable.
If you are not a “Zaranga Certified Host” (ZCH), Zaranga will release the funds to you 24 hours after the check-in date.
How do I become a Zaranga Certified Host (ZCH) and what are the benefits from a ZCH status?
It is quite simple – when last 10 reservations of your properties are completed without any complaints from guests, you will be accorded a ZCH status. Only complaints such as trying to switch properties, jacking up price, or something just not being on par will be used to determine ZCH status. We expect these complaints to be very rare, but want to make sure that the guests are protected.
ZCH status can also be accorded to you if you have an established property management business. These are handled on an one-off basis. Please contact us for additional details.
Benefits from having a ZCH status include quicker payments, preferred position of your listings and indication of your status to guests which will result in increased desirability of your properties.
How do I claim the security deposit when a guest causes damage or otherwise breaks ‘house rules’?
You notify Zaranga of the amount to be retained from the security deposit within two days of rental end date. Zaranga determines validity of claim based on evidence and if a claim is valid, the guest’s card is charged for the claimed amount and the money is immediately released to you.
How are payments remitted to me?
Zaranga currently mails checks to your provided address. We are also working on adding capabilities around wiring money to your bank account.
Listings
How do I list my properties at Zaranga?
Currently, we are selectively accepting hosts. Please send an email to sales@zaranga.com and someone will contact you to add your properties.
Where can I view and edit my properties?
Go to ‘My Account’ page and then navigate to ‘My Listings’ page. ‘My Listings’ page will display all your properties and allow you to edit any attribute including price.
Will property address be displayed to guests?
It will not be displayed to guests unless you want it to.
Can I specify different rates for different times of the year?
Absolutely. We understand that not every day is created equal and you have the option to specify different rates at different times of the year.
What do I need to specify regarding how Zaranga will handle offers made for my properties?
You specify full price, minimum acceptable price, how you handle discounts and what you want Zaranga to do when an offer is made on your property. You can specify these parameters and test your pricing at ‘My Listings’ page.
The parameters around how you handle discounts is important as Zaranga uses them to calculate the expected price for a rental and uses that information to manage offers. See questions on Reservations/Offers for more details on this.
Can owner and property manager list the same property at Zaranga?
No, only one property for an address can exist in Zaranga. If you are a owner of a property and want to list your property at Zaranga, talk to your property manager and ask him/her if you can list the property.
Integration with Property Management Systems
Which property management systems does Zaranga integrate with?
Zaranga currently integrates with Overview, V12.NET, PropertyPlus, FirstResort and Entech via ISILink.
Zaranga plans to integrate with every major property management system. If you do not see your property management system here, please contact us for our plans for it.
What benefits do I get from Zaranga's integration with my property management system?
All your listing information such as calendars, rates etc. are synched with Zaranga so that you never have to manually manage them. Furthermore, all bookings from Zaranga are instantly confirmed and updated in your system so that there is never a chance of double booking or the need for you to manually manage these bookings.
Reservations / Offers
How am I notified of booking requests?
If you chose to manually manage your offers, Zaranga will send you an email about your booking requests. For offers, you will be notified only if an offer price is above your minimum acceptable price.
If you have opted for instant bookings, we will notify you as soon as a booking request is confirmed and accepted by the system. This would be purely informational as you do not have to do anything for these requests.
Can Zaranga manage booking requests automatically so that I do not have to be involved in this process at all?
Absolutely, Zaranga can manage booking requests for your properties automatically. During your account set-up, you can specify how want Zaranga accept your booking requests, including any offers.
Automatically accepting booking requests is very desirable for guests as they do not have to wait up to 24 hours to know the outcome of their booking. Guests are made aware of it and they will likely use it to select your property over others.
How much time do I have to respond to booking requests if I am handling them manually?
You will have 24 hours to respond to an offer. But, the sooner you respond the better it is because your responsiveness information will be made available to guests and they can use this as one of the criteria for selecting properties.
What do I have to do when I am notified of a booking request if I am handling them manually?
Once you get the notification about a booking request, you will need to review and accept them. To assist you with this process, we will provide you information on the full price (rental and other charges), your minimum acceptable price, and a calculated fair offer price which is determined based on discount attributes that you specified for a property.
Can guests book my properties at full price?
Absolutely. For every property, guests are given an option to ‘Book now’, which is booking the property at published price.
What are the advantages for guests to book properties at full price as opposed to asking for a discount?
Booking at full price lets guests cancel the reservation as per the cancelation policy set forth by you for the property. In contrast to that, discounted price booking is non-cancelable
How does Zaranga handle security deposits?
Zaranga puts a hold on the guest’s credit card for the security deposit amount. You have up-to two days after rental to make a claim for any security deposit amount they want to withheld. Zaranga determines validity of claim based on evidence and if a claim is valid, the guest’s card is charged for the claimed amount and the money is released immediately to the host.
How do Zaranga manage my properties’ terms and conditions?
As part of setting up your property for listing, you specify the terms and conditions that you want the guest to sign. Guests will be required to sign the terms and conditions before they can book the property.
How does cancellation work?
Cancellation only applies if a guest books a property at the published rate. Your cancelation policy will be applied for all cancellations. E.g. if only 50% of the reservation amount is refundable within 30 days of trip start date, Zaranga will abide by that policy and will refund the said amount.
Guests cannot cancel a property if they used the ‘Bid now’ option to book a property.
Will guests have an option to purchase trip cancelation insurance?
Yes. Zaranga has partnered with TravelGuard and will be offering their trip cancelation insurance.
How do I avoid double bookings between reservations made in Zaranga and phone-in reservations?
For automatic management of booking requests, there is no question of double bookings as Zaranga will confirm availability with your property management system before going through the booking. For manual management of booking requests, Zaranga will notify you of the booking requests and requires you to accept these requests. This allows you to ensure that there are no double bookings. If there is a double booking, please let Zaranga know as soon as possible so that a mutually agreeable option can be worked out.
If Zaranga is not integrated with your property management system, it is your responsbility to keep the calendar in Zaranga up-to-date.