Turn WhatsApp Repair Messages into Buildium Maintenance Requests

This recipe turns repair messages into maintenance requests in Buildium. AeroChat collects what your maintenance team needs and creates the maintenance request for the tenant’s unit. Part of connecting Buildium to WhatsApp and AI chat.

What happens today

A tenant sends a WhatsApp photo of a leaking tap at 10pm. The property manager sees it the next morning, asks which unit and whether someone can get in, and then types the maintenance request into Buildium. Half the details arrive over three more messages, and urgent problems wait in the same queue as small ones.

The flow that works

AeroChat matches the tenant to their lease in Buildium.
It asks what is wrong, where, since when, and for a photo.
It asks for permission to enter.
It sends emergencies to your emergency line.
It creates the maintenance request for the unit and tells the tenant what happens next.

The recipe

Copy this into AeroChat

When a tenant reports a repair or a problem in their unit, follow these steps.

Find their lease in Buildium by phone number or email. If there is no match, ask for their unit address and the name on the lease. Only continue if both match.

If water, gas, electricity or a lock is involved, tell them to call our emergency line (example) and hand the conversation over.

Ask what is wrong, where in the unit, and since when. Ask for a photo.

Ask whether we may enter if they are not home, and the best times to visit.

Create a resident request in Buildium for their unit with the description, where in the unit, the entry permission, the best times and the photo.

Tell them the maintenance request is logged and our team will arrange a visit within two working days (example).

Never promise a visit date yourself. Never tell a tenant who pays for a repair. Reply in the customer’s language.

Change the emergency line, the visit time and the urgent categories to your own before you paste it.

What to connect

Buildium. An administrator switches on the Open API in your Buildium settings, creates an API key with read access to leases and tenants and write access to tasks, and copies its client ID and secret. Paste them in when AeroChat asks.
Your knowledge base. Upload your maintenance policy, emergency contacts and common fixes, such as resetting a breaker, to AeroChat.

After you paste the recipe, AeroChat builds the workflow as a draft and shows a checklist: connect Buildium, add your knowledge base if the recipe uses one, then switch it on. If it built the connection from Buildium’s public documentation, the checklist asks you to check it once against the current docs.

Using a different system? If it has a public API, it connects to AeroChat the same way: describe what you want, paste in its key, and it runs.

Can’t find your tool? Message us in the chat on this page and we’ll tell you how it connects.

What you still decide

What counts as an emergency.
Which category and priority AeroChat gives each request.
Whether AeroChat suggests simple fixes before it logs a request.

The result to expect

Every repair message becomes a complete maintenance request in Buildium, on the right unit, with the details and entry permission, at any hour. Emergencies reach a person straight away.

Measure it with your own numbers: time from repair message to maintenance request, and follow-up messages per repair, for a month before and after.

Next: answer balance and lease questions.

Works on every chat channel

This workflow runs the same way on WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, TikTok, Telegram, the chat on your website and email, with the same Buildium connection behind it. See what each channel does on the Buildium integration page.

Log your first repair from chat

Paste the recipe, add your Buildium API key, and report a test repair from your own phone.

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On Shopify? Install AeroChat from the Shopify App Store.