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Claude Can Now Run Your TVs and Fill Your Guide Gaps

The BetterSTR Claude connector has grown from 24 tools to 51. Claude can check on every TV you own, put an emergency banner on a whole town's worth of screens, warm the house before a check-in, and work through the questions your guide couldn't answer, all from a chat.

In May we launched the BetterSTR MCP, a small connector that lets Claude work in your BetterSTR account. Hosts have used it to edit guidebooks, look up bookings, drop map pins, text guests and pull their WiFi guest list. The requests that kept coming in were about the TVs, and about the questions guests ask that the guide doesn't cover. So that's what this update is about.

If you already have it set up, restart Claude and the new tools are there. If you don't, the setup guide takes about five minutes.

Fill the gaps guests keep asking about

Every guide has Ask AI, and every time a guest asks it something the guide can't answer, we note the topic. You've been able to see that list under Tools → Ask AI queries for a while. Now Claude can read it too, and do something about it.

What are guests asking that my guides don't answer?A short list per property, most-asked first, with the latest question for each topic.
Go through the gaps for 30c Snowmass one at a time. Ask me for each answer, then add it to the guide.Claude reads the actual questions, asks you what the answer is, drafts a card, files it under the right menu once you OK it, and marks the gap done.
Two of my places keep getting asked about the hot water. Here's what to do when the gas runs out. Add it to both.One answer from you, a card on each guide, both gaps closed.

Claude won't make up the answer. Door codes, which bin goes out on which day, how the heat pump remote works: it asks you. What it saves you is the hunting around, finding the right menu, writing it up neatly and remembering to tick it off.

Your TVs, from a chat

If you run BetterSTR TV, Claude can now see every TV on your account, change their settings, and send them things. TVs check in about once a minute, so Claude tells you a command is queued and can check back to confirm it landed.

Which TVs need attention

Which of my TVs are off or haven't checked in today?Every TV with its live state (on, standby or off), when it last checked in, and which property it's at.
Are any TVs still on an old app version?Grouped by version, so you know which ones to look at.

Change settings across the fleet

Change the welcome heading on every Snowmass TV to "Welcome to Snowmass".Claude lists the TVs, shows each current heading, and changes them once you say yes.
Turn the Plex PIN on for the lounge TV at Atiamuri and hide the Netflix tile.The same settings, and the same checks, as editing the TV in your dashboard.
Use one slideshow on all the Ruapehu TVs and add a weather slide.A screensaver for every TV at properties carrying that tag. Any TV you gave its own screensaver keeps it.

Emergency banners

An emergency banner sits over whatever the TV is showing, whether that's Netflix, live TV or the screensaver. You can put one on a single property, every property in a tag, or all of them, and give it an expiry so it takes itself down.

This is where a chat really helps, because a road closure usually means a banner and a text message:

You:State Highway 49 is closed at Ohakune until 6pm because of snow. Put a banner on every Ruapehu TV and text the guests staying there.

Claude:Your Ruapehu tag covers 6 properties with 7 TVs. Here's the plan. Banner: "SH49 is closed at Ohakune until 6pm due to snow. Check NZTA before you travel." Shows on all 7 TVs and expires today at 6pm. SMS: same message to the 4 bookings staying tonight, 4 recipients, 1 segment each, 40c in total. Want me to go ahead with both?

You:Yes.

Claude:Done. The banner is live and the TVs will show it within a minute. The 4 texts have gone out.

Messages to one TV

Send the Nguyen family's TV a welcome message and switch it on so they see it when they walk in.Claude finds the TV at their property, sends the note, and wakes the TV.
Ask everyone checking out tomorrow for a star rating on the TV.A review request on each TV. High scores see your review link, low scores get a private feedback form instead.

The smart home, through the TV

Earlier this week we added Home Assistant and Shelly control to the TV. Claude can use it too. It reads what each device is doing and queues changes through the TV, which is on the property network and can reach them.

Is the heat pump at Hidden Hollow on? Set it to heat at 21 before the 3pm check-in.Claude reads the latest state, queues the change, then checks the TV's next report to make sure it took.
Turn the outside lights off at any property that's empty tonight.Claude checks the bookings first and leaves alone anywhere someone is staying.

Build and style guides faster

A few smaller additions that make bigger jobs quicker:

  • Whole sections in one go. Claude can now create up to 50 guide entries at a time. Ask for a full Things To Do section with a card for each spot and it shows you the outline, then builds it in a few steps instead of one card at a time.
  • Colours, fonts and host details. Claude can read and change your guide settings for one property, or as the default for all of them. It can apply one of the named colour palettes, and it tells you which properties already have their own setting before changing the default.
  • Tags. Claude can create a tag and add or remove properties. Tags decide where map pins, TV screensavers and emergency banners apply, so this is often the first step.
Make a Ruapehu tag with every Ohakune and National Park property in it, then switch their guides to the Alpine Chalet palette.A tag, a list of properties for you to check, then the palette, in that order.

Careful by design

The TV tools act in rooms where a guest might be sitting right now, so Claude is more careful with them than with a guide edit.

  • Anything a guest could see or feel is shown to you first: the message, which TVs it reaches, and when it expires.
  • Heating, locks, blinds and turning a TV off at an occupied property need your OK for that specific action, even if you've told Claude to stop asking.
  • Claude can't pair a new TV, remove one, or change what you pay for it. Those stay in the dashboard.
  • The Home Assistant key on each TV is never shown to Claude.
  • Commands are queued, not instant, and Claude says so rather than claiming something is done.

Not using Claude?

Everything here is part of the BetterSTR User API, so your own scripts, Zapier or Make can do the same with the credentials from your profile. For example, a flow that posts a banner to every TV in a tag when your local road authority issues a warning. The OpenAPI spec covers every new endpoint, which also means a ChatGPT Custom GPT can use them.

Getting it

  1. Already set up? Quit and reopen Claude Desktop, or start a new Claude Code session, and the new tools appear. If they don't, change @betterstr/claude-mcp to @betterstr/claude-mcp@latest in your config so it fetches version 0.3.0.
  2. New to it? Create API credentials on your profile and follow the setup guide. Or paste your credentials into Claude and ask it to set itself up.
  3. Ask Claude "Which of my TVs are on right now?" to check it's working.

The full list of tools and what each one does is in the tool reference.

Got a job you'd like Claude to do? Every tool in this update started as a host asking for it. Tell us the workflow and we'll look at it. New to BetterSTR? Create a free account →