Documentation
Amax Connect puts your live Stora units, prices, availability and online booking straight onto your own WordPress website. Customers browse and book on your domain, under your brand, while everything stays in sync with your Stora account automatically. Amax Connect is set up and fully managed for you by Amax Marketing. It is not a plugin you buy or install yourself, it is available by booking a demo.
- What Amax Connect does
- How it helps your business
- How it works
- Requirements
- Installation
- Connecting to Stora
- Displaying your units
- Shortcode reference
- Customising the design
- Data handling and privacy
What’s new in v1.2.0
Amax Connect v1.2.0 introduces two significant improvements for operators:
Instant live availability via webhooks
Unit availability on your website now updates the instant something changes in Stora, rather than waiting for the cache to expire. This is handled automatically via a webhook connection and requires no changes to your setup. Existing connections pick up the new behaviour automatically.
Abandoned booking lead capture
When a visitor starts the booking journey but drops off before completing payment, they are automatically saved as a contact in your Stora CRM. This is an opt-in setting (off by default) and can be enabled from the Booking tab in the Amax Connect admin. It uses a find-or-create approach so existing contacts are never duplicated.
OverviewWhat Amax Connect does
Amax Connect is a WordPress plugin that links your website to Stora, the self storage management platform. Once connected, it pulls your unit types, sizes, prices and live availability from Stora and shows them on your own pages through a simple shortcode or block. When a customer chooses a unit, they are taken through to secure online booking and the reservation is recorded in Stora. You continue to manage your facility in Stora exactly as you do today. Amax Connect simply gives that information a home on your own site.
Why use itHow it helps your business
Bookings on your own domain
Customers reserve and pay without being sent off to a third party directory, so you keep the relationship and the data.
Always in sync
Prices, sizes and availability mirror Stora automatically, so your website is never out of date, even overnight.
Your brand, not a template
The display uses your colours, fonts and styling, so it looks like a natural part of your website.
Better for search
Your units live on pages you own, which can rank in Google, rather than sending traffic to a directory that competes with you.
Less admin
No spreadsheets and no double entry. Update once in Stora and your website follows.
Built to convert
Clear unit cards with live availability cues help customers move from browsing to booking.
The basicsHow it works
- Connect to StoraWe connect your website to your Stora account, so your live units, prices and availability flow straight through.
- Choose what to showWe set up which unit types, layouts and details appear, matched to the pages you choose.
- Match your brandWe style the units in your colours, fonts and buttons so they look like a natural part of your site.
- Customers bookVisitors view live units on your site and move through to secure online booking, with the reservation flowing back into Stora.
What is neededRequirements
- A self hosted WordPress site, version 6.0 or newer
- PHP 7.4 or newer
- A Stora account
- An SSL certificate (https) on your site, recommended for secure booking
Done for youInstallation
- We install it for youAmax Marketing installs and activates Amax Connect on your WordPress site. There is nothing for you to download or upload.
- We configure everythingWe set up the Amax Connect dashboard and get it ready to connect to Stora.
- You stay hands offYou do not need to touch any code or settings. We handle the technical work from start to finish.
Done for youConnecting to Stora
- We link your Stora accountWe set up a secure, managed connection between your site and Stora, so your live data can flow through.
- Your live data flows inYour unit types, sizes, prices and availability then load automatically from Stora.
- We check it before launchWe confirm the connection is live and your units display correctly, so everything is right before you go live.
The connection to Stora runs through a secure proxy managed by Amax Marketing. No Stora credentials are stored on your website, and nothing sensitive is exposed on the public side of your site.
On your pagesDisplaying your units
Your live units are placed on your pages for you, using a simple shortcode that we configure. It can be set up in many ways, for example a filterable grid of unit types like this:
[amax_connect_units columns="3" filter_bar="true"]Three shortcodes are available:
[amax_connect_units]shows your units as cards or a list[amax_connect_count]shows a live count of available units[amax_connect_price_from]shows your lowest starting price
ReferenceShortcode reference
The main shortcode is [amax_connect_units]. The most useful attributes are below. All are optional, so you only add the ones you need.
| Attribute | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
columns | Number of columns in the grid | columns="3" |
layout | Display as a grid or a list | layout="grid" |
filter_bar | Show the size and availability filter bar | filter_bar="true" |
show_price | Show prices on each unit | show_price="true" |
show_image | Show or hide unit images | show_image="false" |
show_availability | Show live availability status | show_availability="true" |
size_guide | Show a size guide | size_guide="true" |
pricetype | Which price to show, for example weekly or monthly | pricetype="weekly" |
orderby and order | Sort order of the units | orderby="size" order="asc" |
limit | Maximum number of units to show | limit="12" |
type or id | Show a specific unit type or single unit | type="..." |
booking_url | Override the destination of the booking button | booking_url="..." |
Not sure which attributes to use? The Shortcode Builder sets all of these for you with a visual preview, so you rarely need to type them by hand.
Make it yoursCustomising the design
We match the units to your brand using the Design controls, which include:
- Set your Primary, Background and Accent colours, each with a matching text colour
- Choose the card style, corner radius and typography
- Set the booking button background and text colours
- Add Custom CSS for anything bespoke
Your design choices apply everywhere your units appear, so the display always stays consistent with your website.
PrivacyData handling and privacy
Amax Connect is designed to handle as little data as possible.
- What is fetched. The plugin requests non personal facility data from Stora, namely your unit types, sizes, descriptions, prices and live availability. This is the same catalogue information you already publish to customers.
- What is stored. To keep pages fast, the plugin may briefly cache this display data on your own server using standard WordPress transients. No customer personal data is collected or stored by the plugin.
- Bookings and payments. When a customer books, they are handed to Stora’s own secure checkout. Amax Connect does not see, process or store customer or payment details. That is handled entirely by Stora.
- Credentials. Because the link to Stora runs through a secure proxy managed by Amax Marketing, no Stora credentials are stored on your website or exposed on the front end.
- Your policies. Because bookings complete in Stora, your existing Stora privacy policy and terms continue to govern customer data. We recommend linking to them from your site.
In short, facility data flows from Stora to your website for display, and customer and payment data is handled by Stora at the point of booking. The plugin itself stores no personal data.
HelpSupport and updates
Amax Connect is set up, managed and supported by Amax Marketing. To get started or to ask a question, email [email protected] or book a demo, and we will take it from there.