1. Rentals United
  2. User Guide
  3. Guest Communication
  4. Set-up

Email forwarding

Email forwarding (or email proxy) facilitates the guest communication between property managers and guests in case the sales channel do not offer API-based guest communication service.

Majority of sales channels do not provide API-based guest communication (except for Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo and Expedia). Therefore, if you are connected to any other sales channels, you need to set up email forwarding in order to smoothly communicate with your guests.

Understand the proxy flow

In detail, Rentals United acts as an email proxy. It forwards all incoming and outcoming messages, so that: 

  • Property manager can read the messages and respond to them in Rentals United
  • Guest will receive messages from your email address and can answer them
  • Property manager does not need to log in each channel separately

To enable seamless message flow, Rentals United needs to be granted access to your email account to send messages on behalf of your account.

Note that Rentals United does not have access to read any sent or received emails. It can only forward and send messages on behalf of your account.
Sending a message Receiving a message
  1. You type a message in Rentals United reservation chat.
  2. The message is sent to the guest’s email address.
  3. Rentals United connects to the your email server and sends the message on your behalf.
  4. Guest receives the message from your email address.
  1. Guest writes a message to the host.
  2. The email reaches the host’s email account.
  3. Host’s email account forwards this email to the Rentals United.
  4. Message is displayed in Guest Communication.

Step 1: Connect your email in Rentals United

This step is required to grant Rentals United access to your email.

Before you start

We recommend creating a brand new email account or an email account used solely for guest communication purposes to avoid forwarding unrelated emails. This configuration forwards all emails Rentals United.

Connect email in Rentals United

Follow the steps below to connect your email account in Rentals United. 

Step by step:

  1. Go to Guest Planner. Click the Settings icon.
  2. In Control Panel find the Email setup section.
  3. Select your mailbox provider (Gmail / SMTP).
    • Gmail: Click Connect. You are moved to the Google log-in page. Follow the steps on the screen and log in to your email account in order to give us access to your email address.
    • SMTP (in case your provider is different): Provide the required information that is your email address, mailbox password and the SMTP server address. Click the Connect button. In order to provide what to input in each field, see SMTP details.
  4. The setup in Rentals United is complete.

 

SMTP details

  • Provider: SMTP
  • Email: [full email address e.g. john.doe@exampleprovider.com]
  • SMTP Server: smtp.[providername].com
  • Username: [full email address e.g. john.doe@exampleprovider.com]
  • Password: [app-specific password]

Common SMTP Server Addresses

  • Gmail: smtp.gmail.com
  • Outlook: smtp-mail.outlook.com or smtp.live.com
  • Yahoo: smtp.mail.yahoo.com or mail.yahoo.com
  • iCloud/Apple: smtp.mail.me.com

MFA for Apple users

Make sure that MFA is turned on your Apple account in order to generate app-specific password. Detailed instructions can be found here.

Step 2: Set up forwarding in your mailbox

Follow the steps below to enable forwarding messages to Rentals United, so that you can access them in your Rentals United account and API.

Step by step:

  1. In your email account, go to Settings and find the forwarding options.

  2. Configure automatic forwarding to forward all messages to: inbox@users.rentalsunited.com.

    • Gmail: here
    • Yahoo: here
    • iCloud/Apple: here
    • Outlook: Not supported. Microsoft deprecated the basic username and password authentication. Consider using another email provider. 

    Note that while adding the email address where the messages will be forwarded, Google will prompt you to provide a verification code that has been sent to inbox@users.rentalsunited.com. See the screenshot.

    The verification code is managed automatically and there is no need to provide any information here. So, please, disregard this notification, refresh the Gmail website and the prompt will disappear.

  3. Come back to Control Panel and Test your settings. If you experience unexpected behaviour, please contact the Rentals United Support Team.

  4. Make sure the same address you granted Rentals United access to is set in all sales channels you are connected to.

    If you are using a different email address in the channels, the Guest Communication will not have access to them. See how to update email address in some channels here.

MFA settings in email

If you are using MFA in your inbox, you can continue using Guest Communication as MFA does not influence it.

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