Guest messaging and upsells for Direct Software
TravelPal connects to Direct with the API key and organization ID Direct issues. It answers guests and sells paid extras on each stay's private guest page.
One Direct connection works in both directions. Each item is explained below.
What TravelPal reads from Direct
Direct, from Vacation Rental Partners, is used by US vacation rental property management companies. Their portfolios include buildings and resorts where one address holds many units that guests can book.
Units become properties, buildings do not
In Direct, the property is the building or the resort. The unit is what a guest books. So a property with eight units arrives as eight properties in TravelPal. Each has its own name, description, occupancy, bedrooms and bathrooms. The building's shared features carry onto every unit, next to the unit's own features. The address and the photos come across too. A reservation names the property and the unit together. That keeps a stay on the right door when twelve units share one street address.
Reservations, with the code the guest actually quotes
Direct announces reservations created and reservations updated. A cancellation arrives as an update, not as its own announcement. So TravelPal reads the flags on every change and does not wait for a cancel notice. Each record has the stay dates, the party size, and the planned arrival and departure times. It also has the channel the booking came from. It has the booking code the guest quotes, which is not the same as Direct's own record number. Status is three separate flags: canceled, confirmed and archived. A canceled booking keeps its confirmed flag. So TravelPal reads canceled first, and a canceled stay never gets a live guest page.
Availability and request-only nights stay in Direct
TravelPal does not read availability from Direct. Direct marks some nights request only, so somebody on your team must approve the stay. It publishes rates as defaults, overrides and length-of-stay bands, not one price per night. Your own prices tell TravelPal what a paid extra costs. See how upsells are sold.
The quote, line by line
Every charge on a Direct booking arrives as its own line, at its exact cent amount. The Booking Total summary row is left out, so the guest's bill is never counted twice. TravelPal adds up the accommodation fare from those lines. It does not use Direct's whole-dollar totals. So what TravelPal reports to you matches what Direct billed, to the cent.
What TravelPal writes back to Direct
Here is what TravelPal sends through Direct today, and what it leaves to your team.
One place: the Direct conversation
Direct documents one way to reach a guest: the conversation on their booking. A message goes out as the Direct user attached to that thread. There is no separate email or SMS send. The whole exchange sits in the one place your team already reads. Some bookings have no conversation yet, and Direct publishes no way to open one. For those, first contact stays with your team. Direct does not tell TravelPal when your team replies in a conversation. So TravelPal cannot see a person's answer, and it does not answer in Direct. See how the messaging works.
Upsells closed on the private page, at your prices
The offer, the guest's answer and the confirmation all happen on the guest's private page. The guest pays there by card. The sale is recorded on the stay. It goes to your team with the unit, the time and the amount on it. Direct's own quote lines stay exactly as your team left them. On the Flat plan TravelPal takes no share of what it sells.
The door code stays yours
The one reservation field that Direct documents as writable is the door code. TravelPal never writes it. Direct returns the code on every reservation read. TravelPal drops it and keeps no copy of your locks. Nothing TravelPal does changes a rate, a date or a lock on a Direct booking. Your system of record reads exactly as your team left it.
Connected in four steps
Direct turns on API access for your account. TravelPal does the rest itself.
Ask Direct for a key
Direct issues API keys on request. There is no screen for it in your Direct account. Send one email to engineering@getdirect.io, the address Direct publishes for this in its own reference. They send back the key and your numeric organization ID. It is a short note to the people who already run your account. It is the only step where you wait for someone.
Prove it on staging first
Direct has a public staging host, and the TravelPal connection has an environment setting for it. So you can test the connection from start to end on staging while production access is arranged. Later, moving it to production is one field on the same connection.
Paste the key and the organization ID
Your organization ID is a number. It sits in the address of every call, not in a header. One wrong digit points at a different organization. TravelPal checks it against Direct with a single read the moment you paste it. Nothing imports until that read comes back clean.
Direct points the event feed at you
Direct switches on reservation events from its side. You give them the callback address that TravelPal gives you, and they register it. From then on, new and changed bookings arrive. Your units import in the background, and every stay gets its own private guest page. Direct publishes no time zone on a property or a unit. So you confirm each one once during setup, and quiet hours follow it after that.
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 Direct connection will not do
Know the limits of Direct before you turn anything on. Every property management system has its own limits. TravelPal works inside them, not around them.
Guest messages are checked, not announced
Direct's event list covers reservations, properties, rates, availability, promotions, statements and reviews. Messaging is not on it. So TravelPal checks your conversations on a cycle. A guest's first line is picked up on the next sweep, not the second it is sent. Direct also publishes one request budget per key: two a second and twenty every ten seconds. It is counted across every call, whatever the call is for. The reservation sync and the message check both draw on it. If you run several hundred units, ask about a higher limit in that same email.
A paid time change does not land on the booking
Direct publishes no check-in or check-out time on a property or a unit. The only documented update to a reservation is the door code. On a booking that came from Direct, TravelPal offers no paid late checkout, early check-in or extra night. Direct's API offers no way to change a date.
Nowhere in the thread that only your team can see
The single write that Direct publishes into a conversation makes a line the guest reads. That same call is the only way to reach the guest at all. So there is no quieter place to fall back to, and TravelPal does not invent one. When a guest writes, it says nothing in the Direct thread and holds the stay. It asks your team in your own channel and by email. See what it holds and why.
Nothing numbers the guest across bookings
The customer on a Direct reservation is a name, an email, a telephone number and a location. It has no identifier. Direct's conversations do carry a customer number. Nothing Direct publishes joins that number back to the customer on a booking. So no key follows a person from one stay to the next. The profile TravelPal builds runs inside the stay. The history across stays that your team keeps elsewhere stays where it is.
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.
Direct integration FAQ
Does Direct have to switch anything on before TravelPal can connect?
Yes, and it is one email. Direct issues API keys by request to its engineering team. There is no self-serve screen. They send back the key and your numeric organization ID. Their API reference is public, and they run a staging host. So you can test your connection on staging while production access is arranged.
My Direct property has twelve units. How does that map to TravelPal?
As twelve properties, one per unit. In Direct, the property is the building and the unit is what a guest books. A reservation names both. So TravelPal follows the unit. The building's shared amenities carry onto each one, next to that unit's own features.
Where do TravelPal's replies appear in Direct?
Nowhere in Direct today. TravelPal answers the guest on their private page instead. Your team replies in the conversation on that booking. If a booking has no conversation yet, Direct publishes no way to start one. Then first contact stays with your team.
Can TravelPal change a Direct reservation?
No. The only reservation field Direct documents as writable is the door code, and TravelPal never writes it. TravelPal does not offer a paid time or date change on a booking that came from Direct. It answers your guests and sends what needs a person to your team.
Does connecting Direct cost extra?
No. A unit in TravelPal is a unit in Direct. So the count you are billed on, at the flat monthly price, is the one you already know.
Not the system you use?
TravelPal connects to 33 property management systems. Below are the systems closest to Direct in how widely they are used.
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Direct Software is a trademark of its owner. TravelPal is not affiliated with or endorsed by Direct Software.