Finding Your BookingDirect API Key
Connecting BookingDirect takes one thing: your API key. GuestsKey asks for it during setup and handles everything else itself.
Getting the key
In BookingDirect, open Integrations in your dashboard and generate a key under the GuestsKey section. It starts with bdp_ and is shown to you exactly once — copy it before you navigate away. If you lose it, generate a new one; the old key stops working when you do.
Paste it into GuestsKey when prompted. It’s checked immediately, so you’ll know straight away if it didn’t take.
Treat the key like a password. Don’t email it around, and regenerate it in BookingDirect if you think it’s been exposed.
You don’t need to set up a webhook
There’s nothing to configure on BookingDirect’s side beyond the key. GuestsKey registers for booking updates itself using your key, and unregisters if you disconnect. If you’ve set up webhooks for other tools before and are looking for that step here, there isn’t one.
Those updates are signed, and GuestsKey rejects anything that isn’t — an unsigned or badly-signed message never reaches your locks.
If booking updates ever stop arriving, the BookingDirect card in your Integrations panel shows an error, and an hourly sync keeps new bookings flowing in the meantime.
What comes across
Your published properties import automatically, along with bookings in the upcoming arrival window. Guest phone numbers arrive with the booking, which is what codes are generated from.
The one behaviour worth knowing about: a code is scheduled once a booking’s payment succeeds, not when it’s first created. A pending or unpaid reservation won’t produce a door code. That’s deliberate — it’s the same line BookingDirect draws for a confirmed stay — but it does mean a booking can sit in your dashboard briefly without a code attached while payment settles.
Once a cancellation is approved, the code comes down. Change the dates and the code window moves with them. A refund issued in BookingDirect is treated the same way as a cancellation.
If you also use OwnerRez
Some hosts push BookingDirect reservations into OwnerRez and connect GuestsKey to OwnerRez instead. If you connect BookingDirect directly while that’s still running, the import recognises properties GuestsKey already manages through OwnerRez and skips them rather than bringing in a second copy — it won’t double up codes on a door it already manages.
You can run both connections, but if you only need the bookings, connecting BookingDirect directly is the shorter path.
If a booking doesn’t get a code
Check payment status first — it’s the most common answer. Next, make sure the booking carries a guest phone number; that’s what the code is generated from. After that, confirm the property is mapped to a lock and that guest automation is switched on for it, the same two settings every integration depends on.