Connect your Host Port account to BetterSTR with one API key. Every Host Port listing becomes a BetterSTR property, your bookings come across with each guest’s name, and every guest gets a personal digital guidebook and a TV that welcomes them by name. The Host Port connection is new and marked beta: if anything looks wrong, email support@betterstr.com and we’ll look at your account with you.
Before you start
- You need a BetterSTR account. Create one free if you don’t have one yet.
- Host Port’s data connections are part of its paid plan, and only the account that owns the listings can create one. A co-host can’t.
- BetterSTR can only be connected to one PMS at a time. If you’re on another integration, disconnect it first.
Step 1: Create a data connection in Host Port
- Sign in to Host Port and go to Settings → Data connections, then click New connection.
- Tick every listing you want in BetterSTR.
- Tick Bookings and Calendar. You don’t need Reviews or Earnings.
- Turn on include guest names and contact details. Without it, bookings reach BetterSTR with no guest names, so guides and TVs can’t greet anyone by name.
- Click Create connection and copy the API key. It starts with
hpk_. Host Port shows it only once, so copy it straight away. You won’t need the data link (hpl_…).
Missed a listing, a box or the guest details? Create a new connection with the right boxes ticked and paste its key into BetterSTR instead.
Step 2: Paste the key into BetterSTR
- In BetterSTR, go to Integrations → Host Port.
- Paste the key into API key and click Connect Host Port.
BetterSTR checks the key with Host Port before saving anything, and tells you if the connection can’t read Bookings.
Step 3: Your listings import
- Right after connecting, BetterSTR imports your listings and then your bookings in the background. They appear on the Host Port page within a minute or two, and the list refreshes by itself.
- Each listing becomes its own BetterSTR property, switched on. Bookings from 60 days ago onwards come across; Full Sync pulls in three years of history.
- Switch off any listing that doesn’t need a guide or TV. Only switched-on properties send guides, show on the Reservations page and appear on TVs.
Step 4: Add your property details
Host Port shares each listing’s name and timezone, but not its address, photos, WiFi or check-in times. Open each property in BetterSTR once and add:
- the address, so weather and local activities show for the right place;
- a photo;
- your check-in and check-out times (until you do, BetterSTR uses 3pm and 11am);
- your WiFi name and password, for the WiFi QR code.
Syncing never overwrites what you enter here. BetterSTR fills in the currency and country from your Host Port bookings when they’re empty.
Step 5 (optional): Instant updates with a webhook
Without this, BetterSTR checks Host Port every 10 minutes. With it, new and cancelled bookings reach BetterSTR within a minute.
- On the Host Port page in BetterSTR, click Connection and copy the webhook address shown under Instant updates.
- In Host Port, open your data connection and click Webhook. Paste the address and tick New booking and Cancelled booking. Host Port sends a test message and saves the webhook when BetterSTR answers.
- Copy the signing secret Host Port then shows (it starts with
hpw_), paste it into Signing secret in BetterSTR and click Save.
Editing the webhook in Host Port gives it a new signing secret and stops the old one straight away. When that happens, paste the new secret into BetterSTR.
Sending guests their guide
Host Port’s connection is read-only, so BetterSTR can’t save the guide link on your Host Port bookings or message guests through Host Port. Guests get their guide from BetterSTR’s own email and SMS rules, when the booking carries their email address or phone number.
Airbnb bookings through an iCal link
If your Airbnb listing is linked to Host Port with an iCal (calendar) link, those bookings carry the guest’s name but no email address or phone number. The TV and guide still greet the guest by name, but BetterSTR can’t email or text them the link.
Send the guide link in your Airbnb messages instead (for example in a scheduled check-in message), or connect Airbnb to Host Port with its two-way connection.
What syncs
- Listings: name and timezone. New listings appear by themselves; a listing you remove from the data connection is removed from BetterSTR.
- Bookings: dates, status, channel, adults and children, total, and the guest’s name, email and phone when the channel shares them. Pending bookings come through as pending; cancellations and no-shows as cancelled.
- Not available from Host Port: address, photos, WiFi, check-in and check-out times, house rules and door codes. Add them in BetterSTR once.
How syncing works
- Every 10 minutes: BetterSTR reads any bookings that changed since the last check.
- Webhook (optional): new and cancelled bookings arrive within a minute. Changed dates still come through the regular check, every 30 minutes while the webhook is working.
- Daily: your listings are re-read, and stays from two days ago to three months ahead are double-checked.
- Sync buttons on the Host Port page re-read on demand: Sync Properties, Sync Reservations and Full Sync.
Host Port allows each data connection 500 requests a day. BetterSTR uses well under that and slows down by itself if it gets close, so your key won’t run out.
Disconnecting
On the Host Port page in BetterSTR, choose Disconnect in the left menu. BetterSTR deletes your API key and removes the synced Host Port properties and reservations from your account. In Host Port, turn off or delete the data connection (and its webhook, if you added one). You can also turn the connection off in Host Port at any time; BetterSTR then shows Host Port as needing to reconnect.
Troubleshooting
“Host Port didn’t recognise that API key.” Copy the whole key again, starting with hpk_. If you no longer have it, create a new data connection; Host Port shows each key only once.
“That Host Port connection can’t read Bookings.” Create a new data connection with Bookings ticked and paste its key.
Bookings have no guest names. The data connection was created without include guest names and contact details. Create a new one with it turned on, then click Connection on the Host Port page and paste the new key.
A listing with no bookings doesn’t show up. The connection doesn’t include Calendar. Create a new connection with Calendar ticked and paste its key.
“Host Port says this account’s subscription has lapsed.” Data connections need Host Port’s paid plan. Syncing resumes once the plan is active again.
The webhook stopped. If you edited the webhook in Host Port, paste its new signing secret into BetterSTR. Host Port pauses a webhook after repeated failed deliveries and emails you; press Resume in Host Port once it’s fixed. Bookings still sync every 10 minutes in the meantime.