AI guest messaging for BookingPal channels
TravelPal reads the channel conversations that BookingPal sends back: Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, and Expedia. Connect it only if your team works in BookingPal every day.
TravelPal does not reply to guests in BookingPal yet. Your team does. Each item is explained below.
What TravelPal reads from BookingPal
BookingPal sends units out to the booking sites for rental brands and property management companies. They sell through Marriott Homes and Villas, Google Travel, Hyatt, and Amex Travel, and the big booking sites. BookingPal says its network has more than 100,000 properties.
Bookings announce themselves
BookingPal sends a notice the moment a booking is made, changed, or canceled. The notice holds the booking itself, so nothing needs to be fetched before the guest is greeted. Every notice repeats the key BookingPal issued to your account. That is how TravelPal knows it is yours, and it turns away anything else. A cancel notice is the only place BookingPal says a booking has ended. TravelPal treats it as final and stops writing to that guest.
Reservations read back one unit at a time
BookingPal gives the bookings for one unit at a time, not a list for your whole portfolio. So TravelPal checks unit by unit to catch anything a notice missed. Each booking shows its channel and the guest's own confirmation code from that channel. It also shows the dates and the party size as adults plus children. BookingPal marks a booking confirmed or fully paid once the guest is coming. It marks it provisional while it is still an inquiry. So an inquiry is never treated as a stay. The accommodation fare has no currency on the record. TravelPal shows the figure exactly as BookingPal gives it and adds no currency.
The channel conversation, and the stay it belongs to
A thread is one conversation with a guest. Each thread arrives with its channel and every message already on it, oldest first. So the concierge reads the conversation in the order it happened. Each thread names the booking it belongs to. That is the only way a message is tied to a stay. BookingPal gives no guest identity of its own. So a guest who books twice arrives as two separate stays.
What BookingPal says about a guest, and what it does not
The name arrives as one string with a comma in it. Which half is the surname is not the same from booking to booking. So TravelPal repeats the name exactly as BookingPal gives it and does not guess. A BookingPal booking has no language field. So on the private page, TravelPal answers in the language the guest writes in. The address on a booking is sometimes the channel's own relay and not the guest's. That is one more reason nothing here is sent by email.
What TravelPal writes back to BookingPal
Here is what TravelPal sends through BookingPal today, and what it leaves to your team.
Replies land in the channel conversation
BookingPal has one way to send, and it is the thread itself. Your team answers an Airbnb guest inside Airbnb, and a Booking.com guest inside Booking.com. BookingPal has no email, SMS, or WhatsApp path. TravelPal will not switch to one, even when the booking has an address. That address may be the channel's relay and not the guest's.
Every line you write reaches the guest
BookingPal sends every message on a thread on to the channel. So there is no place on it for a line meant for your own staff. That line would go out to the guest's Airbnb or Booking.com conversation. TravelPal writes no such line into BookingPal. Anything meant for your staff is raised with your team away from BookingPal. That means a recorded sale or a question TravelPal is holding for a person.
Nothing else in BookingPal is touched
TravelPal puts only messages into BookingPal. It creates no units, changes no rates, and writes no availability. The system that pushes your units into BookingPal sends them again on its own schedule. It would undo anything written from this side.
Connected in four steps
BookingPal turns on API access for your account. TravelPal does the rest itself.
Ask BookingPal to switch partner access on
There is no self-serve key and no developer signup screen. BookingPal gives out access through its partner program. One email or call to your BookingPal account manager starts it. TravelPal handles the technical side of that program. Ask for the API host issued to your account. Include any version path, and leave off a trailing slash.
Paste the four values into TravelPal
The API host, the partner key that authorizes the connection, and your own BookingPal login email and password. TravelPal checks them against your account right away. You see a wrong one while you are still on the screen.
Have BookingPal point reservation notices at TravelPal
BookingPal sets up those notices on its own side. You do not do it. It gives your account a unique key and repeats it inside every notice. Paste that key in as well. Until it is there, every notice is turned away. That is the safe default, not an error.
Match your units once
Your properties come from the system that pushes them into BookingPal. During setup, each BookingPal unit is paired with one of them. After that, TravelPal reads a guest's conversation on whichever of the four channels they booked through. The price is the same whether a unit sells on one channel or five.
TravelPal shows the connection at every step: connected, last update, and any error in plain words. To see the other setup steps, read what onboarding involves.
What the BookingPal connection will not do
Know the limits of BookingPal before you turn anything on. Every property management system has its own limits. TravelPal works inside them, not around them.
Your unit list cannot come from BookingPal
BookingPal takes units in from the system that owns them. It gives no way to read them back out. So TravelPal cannot build your property list from it. Your properties come from your own system of record, which you will find on the integrations list. Each BookingPal unit is paired with one of them at setup. A unit you add later needs the same one-time pairing before its guest conversations are read.
A sale does not move the BookingPal booking
BookingPal has no way to write a change onto a booking. On a booking that came from BookingPal, TravelPal offers no paid late checkout, early check-in or extra night. An extra clean or damage waiver is still sold as an upsell, at your prices. It is recorded against the stay, and your team is told.
Four channels carry a guest thread
Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, and Expedia conversations come back through BookingPal. Those are the guest conversations TravelPal reads. BookingPal also sends units to Marriott Homes and Villas, Google Travel, Hyatt, and Amex Travel. A stay booked on one of those is left with your team. TravelPal cannot confirm that a reply on those routes reaches the guest.
Bookings are announced, messages are not
A new or changed booking reaches TravelPal the moment BookingPal sends the notice. Nothing announces a guest message. So TravelPal re-reads BookingPal threads on a schedule. Your team is alerted after that check, not at the moment the guest writes. The gap also runs the other way. When your team types in the BookingPal inbox, nothing reaches TravelPal. So TravelPal cannot see when your team has answered a BookingPal guest. It leaves every conversation to your team and never interrupts them.
When TravelPal's AI is not sure, it stops and asks your team instead of guessing. This rule is the same on every system: see the safety guardrails.
BookingPal integration FAQ
Do I need BookingPal to switch something on before TravelPal can connect?
Yes. BookingPal gives out API access through its partner program, not from a self-serve screen. It starts with one email or call to your BookingPal account manager. They issue the API host and the partner key that authorizes the connection. TravelPal handles the technical side of their program. You supply your own BookingPal login and the notification key they give you.
My reservations live in a property management system and BookingPal only distributes my units. Which one should I connect?
Connect the system where your bookings and your guest inbox live. BookingPal only sends your units out. Connecting it reaches the same units with one more party in between. It cannot give TravelPal your unit list. BookingPal is the right connection when BookingPal's own dashboard is the screen your team works in. Our integrations page lists every system we connect to.
Which channels can TravelPal answer on through BookingPal?
None today. BookingPal sends back Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, and Expedia conversations. TravelPal reads them, and your team replies inside them. A stay booked on any other channel BookingPal sends units to is left with your team.
Can TravelPal change a BookingPal reservation?
No. The connection reads bookings and conversations and sends guest messages. A sold paid extra is charged at your price and recorded against the stay. Your team makes the change in the system that owns the booking. TravelPal also leaves rates and availability alone, because your own system sends both to BookingPal again.
Not the system you use?
TravelPal connects to 33 property management systems. Below are the systems closest to BookingPal in how widely they are used.
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BookingPal is a trademark of its owner. TravelPal is not affiliated with or endorsed by BookingPal.