Planyo now connects to BetterSTR, and like every BetterSTR integration it is included in the free plan.
This one came from a customer asking for it, which is usually the best reason to build something. Planyo has been around a long time and it runs a lot of small accommodation businesses: holiday apartments, B&Bs, lodges, campsites, and plenty of operators who also rent out bikes, boats or meeting rooms from the same account.
Your own API key, no gatekeeping
Planyo does the thing we like most in an integration: the API key is yours. You copy it from your own account, paste it into BetterSTR and you are syncing. There is no partner application, no approval queue, no developer app to register.
You will find it in Planyo under Site settings → Integration & API → API key, and you can revoke it from the same page whenever you like. If you have locked your key down to specific IP addresses or specific methods, there are a couple of settings to add on the Planyo side, and the connect page in BetterSTR spells out exactly which.
Running several Planyo sites under a metasite? Use the metasite key and BetterSTR picks up every site on it.
Bookings arrive as they happen
When you connect, BetterSTR registers for Planyo's notification callbacks on your account. That means a new booking, a confirmation, a modification, a cancellation, a check-in or a no-show reaches us the moment it happens rather than whenever a timer next fires. An hourly sweep runs behind it to catch anything a notification missed.
- Resources sync automatically: name, photos, currency, your site's timezone and any custom resource fields you have set up.
- Every booking comes through with guest name, email, phone, arrival and departure times, the assigned unit and the answers to your own booking form questions.
- Only your accommodation is imported. If your Planyo site also handles bike hire or a meeting room, BetterSTR leaves those alone and syncs the overnight resources.
Your custom fields become guidebook shortcodes
This is the part Planyo hosts will appreciate. Planyo lets you define your own custom resource properties and your own booking form questions, and every account uses them differently. BetterSTR reads whatever you have defined and turns each one into a shortcode you can drop straight into a guide, so the parking bay number or the key safe code you already keep in Planyo shows up in the right place in the guest's guidebook automatically.
Those same fields are offered to the AI guidebook generator too, so it can write around your real details instead of generic filler.
One honest note about what Planyo holds
Planyo is a general booking system rather than a short-term-rental PMS, so it deliberately does not store things like your street address, bed counts, bathrooms or WiFi password. Where it does keep an address it is at the site level, shared by every resource on that site.
So expect to spend a few minutes filling those in on the BetterSTR side after your first sync. You do it once, nothing overwrites it afterwards, and everything that Planyo does own keeps syncing on its own.
Every booking gets its own guidebook link
The moment a booking syncs, BetterSTR generates a unique guest guidebook link for that stay, personalised to that guest, that property and those dates. Drop the link into your Planyo notification email template once and every future guest gets their own guide without you lifting a finger.
BetterSTR also writes the link back onto the booking's private admin notes in Planyo, so you can see a stay's guide from inside Planyo. Your own notes are read first and kept, we only add our own line.
It's not just guidebooks
Once connected, the whole BetterSTR stack works off the same booking data:
- Digital guidebooks: branded, multi-language, no app download for guests.
- BetterSTR TV welcome screens: greet guests by name on the in-property TV (more below).
- WiFi QR codes: guests scan and they're online, no password hunting.
- Guest verification: confirm who's actually staying before check-in.
- SMS and email automation: timed messages keyed off the real arrival and departure times.
- Upsells: early check-in, late check-out and local extras, offered inside the guide.
The highlight: your TVs become the guest experience
Planyo has no in-property screen tied to the reservation, and no tablet or TV service of its own. With BetterSTR connected, the TV in every property knows exactly who's staying and when, and turns itself into a five-star welcome:
- Personal welcome screen: greets each guest by name for the exact dates of their booking, switching over automatically between stays.
- Guidebook on the big screen: house info, check-out instructions and local recommendations, browsable with the normal TV remote.
- WiFi QR on screen: guests point their phone at the TV and they're connected.
- Local activities, weather and upsells: things to do nearby, the forecast for their stay, and your extras right where guests are already looking.
- Runs on affordable hardware: any Android TV / Google TV device, or the plug-and-play BetterSTR TV stick from our shop.
Watch the Video
Turn your TV into a 5-star guest experience
See the full rundown on the BetterSTR TV page, or the guest tablet if you would rather put it on a bedside screen.
How to connect (about two minutes)
- Log in to Planyo as the site administrator and open Site settings → Integration & API → API key. Copy the key.
- In BetterSTR, go to Integrations → Planyo and paste it in. If you use a hash key, there is an optional second field for it.
- Your resources and bookings sync straight away, and booking notifications are registered on your Planyo account automatically.
- Fill in the details Planyo doesn't hold (address, WiFi, house info) once on your property, and you're done.
Common questions
Does this cost anything on the BetterSTR side?
No. All BetterSTR integrations, Planyo included, are part of the free plan with unlimited properties.
Do I need a particular Planyo plan?
The API key is a standard part of Planyo's site settings rather than an add-on. If your account doesn't show one, check with Planyo support and let us know.
What if my Planyo site also rents out bikes or meeting rooms?
Those stay out of BetterSTR. Only overnight resources are imported, so your guidebook list doesn't fill up with kayaks.
How fast do booking changes come through?
In real time. Planyo notifies BetterSTR on booking, confirmation, modification, cancellation, check-in, check-out and no-show, and an hourly sync runs as a backstop.
Do guests need to download an app?
No. Guidebook links open in any browser, and the unique per-booking link is generated automatically for every booking that syncs.
Want the full feature rundown? See the Planyo integration page, or browse all BetterSTR integrations.