# Connect Rentals United

Rentals United distributes your properties to many channels. Connected to the guest portal, its reservations are imported automatically so each guest gets a portal link for online check-in and payments.

## 1. Get your API keys

Rentals United's XML API authenticates with an **access key** and a **secret key**. You find them in your Rentals United account under the API / integration settings, or your Rentals United account manager issues them for you. Make sure the keys may read your properties and reservations.

## 2. Connect in your dashboard

1. Open **Settings → Channels → RentalsUnited**.
2. Paste the **Access key** and the **Secret key**.
3. Leave **API endpoint** empty to use the standard Rentals United endpoint, unless Rentals United gave you a different one.
4. Tick **Enabled**, click **Save** and then **Test** — you should see *RentalsUnited: connected*.

![Settings → Channels](/site/img/docs/d-settings-channels.webp "Settings → Channels")

## 3. Link your properties

1. Click **Show listings** to see your Rentals United properties with their IDs.
2. For each property open **Settings → Properties → Settings** and paste the ID into **RentalsUnited property ID**.

## 4. Import

**Import now** fetches the reservations; afterwards the import runs every 10 minutes. Name, email, phone, adults and children come from the reservation, and the channel (Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia …) is shown on the booking.

## How the reservation cache works

Rentals United's reservation interface only reports reservations that were **created, changed or cancelled within a time window**, at most one request per minute. A stay booked months ago that hasn't changed since is not sent again. The guest portal therefore keeps its own **reservation cache** for your account:

- Every reservation Rentals United reports is stored, **for all your Rentals United properties — linked or not**. When you link a property later, its bookings appear at once from the cache.
- Right after connecting, the portal also walks back through older changes, one week at a time (up to about four months), every two minutes until done. The channel card shows *loading older reservations…* meanwhile.
- If the server was offline for a while, the missed period is fetched in one-week steps. Should Rentals United refuse a period that is too old, the card says so and the portal re-checks every upcoming stay it already knows, one by one, so cancellations are not missed.
- Cached reservations are deleted 35 days after check-out.

A reservation that isn't in the cache — for example an older stay that hasn't changed since you connected — can be imported with **Import a reservation by ID** in the Rentals United card. Enter the Rentals United reservation number and click **Import reservation**.

Cancelled, rejected and expired reservations are marked as cancelled; requests and leads are not imported. A reservation for several properties appears on each linked property.

## Frequently asked questions

### Are reservations made on other channels included?

Yes — everything that reaches your Rentals United account for a linked property is imported, whichever channel it came from.

### Import now says to try again shortly?

Rentals United allows one reservation request per minute. The bookings already in the cache are applied at once; new ones follow with the next automatic import a few minutes later.

### Test says authentication failed?

Check that you copied the access key and secret key without spaces and that they are active. A new key pair from Rentals United fixes most problems.