Airbnb Integration

Touch Stay integrates with Airbnb via Hospitable Connect to import your listings and then automate the sending of guidebook links for confirmed bookings.

Login to your account

Sign-up for your 14 day free trial

The steps to complete your integration:

• Step 1: Connect your Touch Stay & Airbnb accounts
• Step 2: Match Airbnb listings
• Step 3: Import Airbnb listings
• Step 4: Complete guide creation (new Touch Stay customers only)
• Step 5: Personalisation settings
• Step 6: Guide sharing settings
• Step 7: Sync bookings

Demo video

Watch this demo to show you how to connect your Touch Stay and Airbnb accounts in less than 10 minutes.

Step 1. Connect your Touch Stay & Airbnb accounts

Go to the Integrations page in your Touch Stay account. On the Partners tab click “Connect” underneath the Airbnb logo.

Follow the next prompts to take you to the Airbnb connection flow where you confirm giving access to Touch Stay. You will need your Airbnb login to complete this step.

Step 2. Match Airbnb listings

Once connected, you can match any existing Touch Stay guides to your Airbnb listings. On the Match tab, use the drop downs to select the correct Airbnb listing for each Touch Stay guide. When complete, click “Match selected”. If you don’t have any to match, then just click “Skip” without choosing any Airbnb listings. If you don’t see any guides on this step then they are already matched and you can move on to Step 3.

Step 3. Import Airbnb listings

If you have any remaining unmatched listings from Airbnb, click on the Import tab to import them into Touch Stay. Simply check the ones you want to import and click the “Import Selected” button. If you don’t want to import any, or don’t have any remaining, then just click “Skip” whilst leaving the selections blank.

Touch Stay will import the following:

• Listing name
• Listing address

Each accommodation imported will create a new Touch Stay guide.

Step 4. Complete guide creation (new Touch Stay customers only)

Now you need to check your guide content and make sure they’re complete and ready to share with your guests. You need to do this step now before you sync Airbnb bookings.

If you’re new to Touch Stay then check out the Getting Started page for hints and tips on the quickest way to build out your guide content.

Step 5. Personalisation settings

You can connect custom field codes created in Touch Stay to fields provided through the Airbnb integration. This will then mean any values/data for these fields set in Airbnb will pass into Touch Stay and can be added to your Memo message templates or guide content. The available fields are as follows:

• Guest first name
• Guest last name
• Arrival date
• Departure date
• Guest contact phone number*

*Airbnb does not provide the guest email address so only the guest phone number is available through this integration.

To connect any of these fields to Touch Stay head to the Custom data mapping tab on the Integrations page and click the '+Add new mapping' button. 

From here you can select the Airbnb field to connect, choose a name for your custom field code and any substitute value. Substitute values are used in the case of data missing when the field code is used, see this article for more detail about field codes.

Once the custom fields have been created, then any future bookings which sync from Airbnb will have the relevant data automatically populated on the invitation record. 

Step 6. Guide sharing settings

With this integration you can send messages from Touch Stay to guests through the Airbnb message inbox.

There are 5 fixed templates available that include the guest name, host name and the relevant guide name and access link.

Go to the Memo page and select the Add Airbnb Template option to setup your templates:

You can schedule these messages to be sent to guests based on their booking date or to be sent immediately after booking. We recommend the below schedule:

• Post booking message: set schedule to immediate
• Pre-arrival message: set schedule to 3 days before arrival date
• Post-departure message: set schedule to 2 days after departure date
• Guidebook link: set schedule to immediate
• Guidebook link reminder: set schedule to 2 days before arrival date

The guidebook link and guidebook link reminder templates only contain information about your guidebook are are designed to fit into your existing Airbnb message schedule if you already have one set up. You can mix and match the 5 available messages based on how you would like to share your guide with guests and how you like to communicate.

Your messages will now be sent to guests via the Airbnb inbox based on the schedule you have set. You can adjust these schedules any time.

This booking information that is automatically populated in your Airbnb message templates is shown as a field code. There are 4 field codes you will see in your Airbnb message templates:

These two field codes come from Airbnb:

• %guest_name% (this wil be replaced by the name of the guest staying with you)
• %host_first_name% (this will be replaced by your first name set in your Airbnb profile)

These two field codes come from Touch Stay:

• {{guide_name}} (this will be replaced by the name of the guide)
• {{invitation_link}} (this wil be replaced by the unique link for this guest)

Special note about sending messages to Airbnb:

Airbnb doesn't provide guest email addresses to hosts. To share your guides automatically with guests you will need to use the Touch Stay Airbnb templates. You can still continue to send manual, ad hoc messages to guests through the Airbnb message inbox.

Airbnb do share guest phone numbers so you can use Touch Stay's SMS text messaging feature to automate additional messages to guests.

Go to the Memo page and select the Add SMS Template option. You can configure the messages the same way you configure the Airbnb message templates but now you can edit existing template content and create your own templates so there is more flexibility.

Using the SMS text message option is a great way to build a more comprehensive guest communication flow and gives you the option to add links to specific sections of your guide, so you can direct guests to discover more of your guidebook. The SMS templates are totally flexible so you can adapt them to your needs.

An important note on SMS messages and Airbnb

If you are already using Memo to send SMS text messages to guests before you connect your Airbnb acocunt to Touch Stay, these messages will automatically be sent to your Airbnb guests if the Send criteria for your SMS text message templates is set to Always Send.

You can adjust the send criteria or create new SMS text message templates specifically for your Airbnb guests. 

Step 7. Sync bookings

Once your guides are ready then you can start syncing with Airbnb

Go to the Sync reservations tab on the Integration page. Select the guides you want to sync using the checkboxes.

Use the “Select All” option at the top right of the page to select all in one go. Click Sync selected to submit.

Here you can choose whether to import all your future reservations or have Touch Stay only import new reservations.

• If you are new to Touch Stay then choose “All reservations”
• If you are already a user of Touch Stay and using Memo to send messages to guests choose 'New reservations only', to prevent duplicate bookings being imported 

Now your Airbnb account is connected to Touch Stay and your guide links will automatically be sent to guests through the Airbnb inbox.

If you have any issues completing your Airbnb integration, please send an email to: support@touchstay.com