Connect Claude to Your BetterSTR Account (MCP)

You can connect Claude (Anthropic’s AI assistant) to your BetterSTR account and manage it by typing what you want in plain English. Claude can edit your guidebooks, look up reservations, create guest payment links, add map pins, text guests, check your WiFi and export your WiFi guest list.

It works through the BetterSTR MCP, a small connector that runs on your own computer. MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard that lets an AI assistant use real tools, so Claude does the work in your account instead of only describing how you might do it.

What you need

• A BetterSTR account (most tools work on the free plan).
• Claude Desktop or Claude Code.
• Node.js 18 or newer installed on your computer. Run node -v in a terminal to check.

Step 1: Create API credentials

1. Go to your profile and scroll to API Credentials.
2. Click New API Credentials and give the pair a name, such as “Claude”.
3. Copy both values. The client id starts with bsc_ and the secret starts with bss_.

Step 2: Add the connector to Claude

Claude Desktop

Open your Claude Desktop config file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

Paste this in, replace the two placeholder values with your credentials, then fully quit and restart Claude Desktop.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "betterstr": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@betterstr/claude-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "BETTERSTR_CLIENT_ID": "bsc_your_client_id",
        "BETTERSTR_CLIENT_SECRET": "bss_your_client_secret"
      }
    }
  }
}

The npx command downloads the connector the first time Claude starts it and caches it after that. Nothing else needs installing.

Claude Code

One command in your terminal registers the connector:

claude mcp add betterstr -- npx -y @betterstr/claude-mcp \
  --env BETTERSTR_CLIENT_ID=bsc_your_client_id \
  --env BETTERSTR_CLIENT_SECRET=bss_your_client_secret

Or let Claude install it for you

If you’d rather not edit config files, open Claude Desktop or Claude Code and paste this, with your real values swapped in:

Set up the BetterSTR MCP for me. The npm package is @betterstr/claude-mcp.
Use client id bsc_your_client_id and client secret bss_your_client_secret,
add it to your config, restart, and then list my properties to prove it works.

Your credentials only go into the config file on your own computer. If you’d rather not paste a secret into a chat, create a separate credential pair just for this and revoke it later.

Step 3: Check it works

Ask Claude “List my BetterSTR properties”. It should come back with your active properties. If it does, you’re connected.

Things you can ask Claude

You don’t need to know any tool names. Describe what you want and Claude picks the right one.

• Guidebooks: “Add a Restaurants section to all my Queenstown properties with five good local places.”
• Reservations: “Who is checking in to Snowmass this weekend?” (read-only)
• Payment links: “Make a $50 payment link for the late checkout on booking HM12345.” (needs Stripe connected; nothing is charged until the guest pays)
• Map pins: “Add the nearest supermarket to the map for 30a Snowmass.”
• SMS: “Text tomorrow’s arrivals their guidebook link with a welcome note.” Put {guide_link} in the message and each guest gets their own short link.
• WiFi: “Are there any unauthorised devices on the network at the beach house?”
• WiFi guest list: “Export everyone who opted in to marketing since July as a CSV.”

Built-in safety checks

• It asks which one you meant. If a name matches several properties, Claude lists them and waits instead of guessing.
• It shows the plan before changing anything. Creates, edits and deletes are summarised first. Say “go ahead without asking” to skip this for a request or the whole session.
• Deletes always re-confirm, even after you’ve given blanket approval.
• SMS is quoted first. You see the recipients, segments and total cost before anything is sent. Claude can only text guests with a reservation on your account, and guests who reply STOP are excluded automatically.

Troubleshooting

• The BetterSTR tools don’t appear: fully restart Claude Desktop after editing the config, and check the JSON has no trailing commas. In Claude Code, run claude mcp list. Both need Node.js 18 or newer.
• “invalid_credentials” or “credentials_revoked”: create a new credential pair in your profile and update the config.
• Rate limit errors: the message tells you how many seconds to wait. Guidebook Premium raises the limits.
• Using ChatGPT instead: ChatGPT doesn’t run local MCP connectors, but a Custom GPT Action can call the BetterSTR API directly by importing openapi.json.

The connector only talks to api.betterstr.com. It has no analytics and stores nothing on disk.