AI guest messaging for Rent Manager short-term units
TravelPal texts or emails your Rent Manager short-term guests, and your team answers their replies. TravelPal imports only the properties you have flagged as short-term rental.
One Rent Manager connection works in both directions. Each item is explained below.
What TravelPal reads from Rent Manager
Rent Manager is back-office software for United States residential portfolios. They run on long-term leases, tenant accounting, and owner statements. Furnished short-term units are flagged apart from the rest.
Only the short-term side of your portfolio
Rent Manager marks a property with a short-term rental flag. TravelPal keeps the flagged properties and imports the units under them. It never reads long-term apartments, leases, tenant accounting, or owner statements. A large residential portfolio does not fill TravelPal with units no guest will message about. A unit named 4B or Site 112 arrives with its building name in front. TravelPal answers from the unit's short-term marketing description, occupancy, and address: see how the knowledge base works.
Bookings arrive on a schedule, not a signal
Rent Manager does not send anything out, so TravelPal asks. It checks your short-term bookings on a schedule. It picks up new bookings and changed dates from that check. Each stay carries the booked arrival and departure window. TravelPal does not use the arrival your team records when the guest turns up. The guest is quoted the confirmation number they were given, never the internal record number.
The text history, merged into one conversation
Rent Manager keeps texts you received and texts you sent in two separate lists. Each list numbers its texts on its own, and neither knows about the other. TravelPal reads both and keeps the texts on the guest's own number. It puts them back in time order, so a stay reads as one conversation, not two halves. TravelPal then joins a stay already knowing what your team has said.
A guest who books again is the same person
A short-term booking in Rent Manager belongs to a tenant record. A returning guest books again under that same record. TravelPal links each new stay to that record. A second stay starts from what the first one taught it. Examples are the dog, the late flight, and the ground floor unit they asked for. See how guest messaging works.
What TravelPal writes back to Rent Manager
Here is what TravelPal sends through Rent Manager today, and what it leaves to your team.
Texts from your own number, on the guest's record
TravelPal sends through Rent Manager's own texting. It uses one of the text numbers set up on your account. It files every message on the guest's tenant record. Your team opens that tenant in Rent Manager and sees exactly what the guest was told. The message sits where a teammate's text would sit.
Email when there is no textable number
A guest with an email address and no textable number gets an email instead. It goes through Rent Manager's mailer, from your own address or the system address. Email leaves no trace on the tenant record. The text number is what keeps your Rent Manager history complete.
Sales and held questions reach your team
Rent Manager has no note that only your team can read. Its short-term booking cannot be written to, so TravelPal stamps nothing it sells onto the booking. What a guest buys goes to your team in your own channel and by email. So does any question TravelPal holds for a person. Each message carries the stay, the unit, and the amount. Somebody on your side posts the charge. See what it sells.
Connected in four steps
Rent Manager turns on API access for your account. TravelPal does the rest itself.
Ask London Computer Systems to switch Web API access on
London Computer Systems, the company behind Rent Manager, switches Web API access on for your account. So the connection starts with one email or call to your account manager. Have your company code ready. It is the first part of your own API host, the acme in acme.api.rentmanager.com. Rent Manager has no shared host, so that code is part of the connection.
Create a dedicated Web API user
Make a Rent Manager user just for this connection. Do not reuse a person's login. Give it Web API access. Paste its username and password, your location id, and the user's own id. The location id is usually 1 if you run a single location. The user id lets TravelPal recognize its own texts in the history.
Point it at a sending text number
Choose one of the text numbers set up on your Rent Manager account. Guests see this number and reply to it. Replies are the half of the conversation that email cannot give you. A from address for guest email is optional. If you leave it blank, Rent Manager's system address is used.
Check the short-term flags, then confirm the time zone
Only flagged properties import, so set the flag before the first sync. Then nothing else comes across. Next, confirm the time zone for each property. Rent Manager stores an hour offset, not a named time zone. An offset cannot tell Chicago in July from New York in January. So TravelPal asks you and does not guess. Quiet hours, arrival messages, and checkout reminders all use that answer.
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 Rent Manager connection will not do
Know the limits of Rent Manager before you turn anything on. Every property management system has its own limits. TravelPal works inside them, not around them.
There is no channel conversation to answer in
Rent Manager is not connected to Airbnb, Booking.com, or Vrbo, and it has no inbox for them. A guest who booked on a channel is reached by text or email. TravelPal uses the contact details on their tenant record. It does not reply inside the channel's own thread. If you answer most short-term bookings in the channel apps today, that messaging stays there.
Text carries replies, email does not
SMS (text) is the one way on Rent Manager where TravelPal can read the guest's reply. Rent Manager does not tell TravelPal when your team texts back. So TravelPal does not answer a text reply, and never answers over your team. Without a set-up sending number, TravelPal falls back to email. A guest who answers writes into a mailbox, and your team picks that up by hand.
A cancellation is not visible on the booking
A Rent Manager short-term booking has no status field and no canceled date. Rent Manager sends nothing to TravelPal when a booking changes. So a canceled stay still looks like a live one. At setup we agree how a cancellation shows up on your side. It may be a removed row, a tenant change, or whatever your team does today. TravelPal uses that signal, so it does not message somebody who is not coming.
The booking record is read only
TravelPal can read Rent Manager's short-term booking but cannot write to it. Rent Manager also publishes no short-term availability to check against. So a paid late checkout does not move the departure time on the booking. Extra nights are not sold on a booking that came from Rent Manager. TravelPal sells what it can confirm without touching the booking. It sends the rest to your team in writing.
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.
Rent Manager integration FAQ
Do I need Rent Manager to turn anything on before connecting?
Yes. It takes one email or call to your account manager. London Computer Systems switches Web API access on for the account. Everything after that is yours. You make a dedicated Web API user and its password inside Rent Manager. Then you paste those with your company code and your location id. The company code is the first part of your own API host.
Will TravelPal import my long-term apartments?
No. TravelPal reads only the properties flagged as short-term rental in Rent Manager, and the units under them. It never reads long-term leases, tenant accounting, or owner statements. It never messages a resident of a long-term unit.
How does TravelPal reach a Rent Manager guest?
By text from one of the text numbers set up on your account. The text is filed on the guest's tenant record. If there is no textable number, TravelPal sends an email. Rent Manager has no Airbnb, Booking.com, or Vrbo inbox, so there is no channel thread to reply in. TravelPal puts each Rent Manager text reply in your team's inbox and emails your team.
Can TravelPal change a Rent Manager reservation?
No. Short-term bookings are read only over the Rent Manager API. TravelPal does not offer a paid late checkout on a booking that came from Rent Manager. It answers your guests by text and email, and sends what needs a person to your team.
Does connecting Rent Manager cost extra?
No. The price depends on the short-term units that come across. It does not depend on every unit you manage in Rent Manager.
Not the system you use?
TravelPal connects to 33 property management systems. Below are the systems closest to Rent Manager in how widely they are used.
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Rent Manager is a trademark of its owner. TravelPal is not affiliated with or endorsed by Rent Manager.