ChatGPT MCP: connect ChatGPT to Mangobeds

ChatGPT can read your live Mangobeds data through a connector and answer questions about it in plain language. A ChatGPT MCP connection uses no API key at all: you paste one address, sign in to Mangobeds, and approve. For the background on MCP, or if you use a different tool, start with Connect Mangobeds to AI tools with MCP.

One requirement is worth checking before you begin: connectors need developer mode, which OpenAI offers on ChatGPT’s Pro, Team, Enterprise and Edu plans. It is not available on Free or Plus. If you are on one of those, Claude in your browser connects the same way and needs only a paid Claude plan.

Add the ChatGPT MCP connector

In ChatGPT, open Settings > Apps > Advanced settings and turn on Developer mode.
In Mangobeds, go to Apps > MCP and pick ChatGPT. Copy the MCP server URL.
Back in ChatGPT, add a connector and paste that URL.
When ChatGPT asks how to authenticate, choose OAuth.
Sign in on the Mangobeds screen and approve.

Ask “what properties do I have in Mangobeds?” to check. It should answer without you giving it an ID.

ChatGPT is asking for an API key. What do I enter?

Nothing. Choose OAuth instead. ChatGPT cannot send an API key or a custom header to a connector, so there is no value that would work, and older instructions telling you to add an X-API-Key header were simply wrong. If the only option on screen is an API key, you are probably adding a connector type that is not an MCP server. Go back and add it as one.

Choose what ChatGPT may do

The Mangobeds approval screen asks two things:

Which organization. If you belong to more than one, pick the one this connection is for. ChatGPT never sees the others.
Whether it may make changes. Leave this unticked and it can read everything and alter nothing. Tick it and it can also correct guest details, add a guest to a booking, and send one of your saved messages to a guest.

You can connect again later with different permissions. The new approval replaces the old one.

What you can ask

ChatGPT can list your properties itself, so you never have to look up an ID. From there:

Bookings: “Show the bookings checking in this week” or “Find the reservation for Maria Lopez”.
Availability: “Which rooms are free next weekend?” or “What is my occupancy in August?”
Blocked rooms: “Why is room 4 not bookable next Tuesday?” It tells a sold room from one you blocked, and shows the note you left.
Prices: “What does the double room cost on 20 September?” or “Show me the seasonal rates on this room type.”
Guests: “How many bookings has this guest had?” or “What did they put in the custom fields?”
How Mangobeds works: it can read these help guides, so “how do I set up seasonal rates?” is answered next to what your own rates actually say.

If you allowed changes, be deliberate about one of them: sending a saved message delivers a real email or WhatsApp to the guest. Everything it changes is written into the booking’s activity with your name and the assistant’s next to it.

Managing and disconnecting

Your connection appears under Connected assistants on the Apps > MCP page, showing who signed it in, what it may do and when it was last used. Disconnect ends that one connection and leaves every other integration running. If you leave the organization it stops working straight away.

If it does not connect

Check developer mode is on, and that your ChatGPT plan offers it. On Free and Plus the option is not there at all.
Do not enter an API key. Choose OAuth. A key cannot reach us from ChatGPT no matter what you paste.
Start a new chat. ChatGPT picks up the available tools when a conversation begins, so an older chat may still be working from a previous set.
Check you actually approved. An approval screen closed without clicking Approve leaves nothing connected.