Guest Messaging Feauture

It's in the drop-down right above where you type your message.

WhatsApp and email are not explicitly supported though. Although sending a message through the OTA typically cc's the guest via email (on the OTA side).

SMS is supported if you buy a phone number to associate to your account. That feature is still in beta though so you might need to contact support to get access to it.

I’ll add that the SMS feature is very new and I still haven’t wrapped my head around how it is supposed to work. I have used it, but I am not sure where I am receiving replies. I look forward to their being better SMS integration going forward.

​@Eli Stoughton I've tested it. The replies that a guest sends via SMS come to you as being integrated with the Hospitable messaging thread. 

Just a quick note: SMS from the Inbox, which is currently in Pilot, is available in the US only.

Is the SMS feature only being used with direct Booking’s. My concern is that AirBNB changes the phone number to a dummy phone number and we’ll see if we send communication via SMS to our AirBNB guests. I look forward to your response.

Good question. I see it for Direct and VRBO, but not for Airbnb and Booking.

​@Eli Stoughton ​@Tom Beerley ​@tkw1enterprises ​@Apple 
 

This is such an important point, especially once you start managing guest communication at scale.

We’ve been working on exactly this challenge with Una by Polydom — keeping the guest context in one place while allowing communication across channels such as WhatsApp, email, voice and messaging, with a human able to step in whenever needed.

For us, the real value is not only choosing a channel, but making sure the guest doesn’t have to repeat the same conversation when that channel changes.

Happy to share what we’ve learned from implementing this with STR operators if useful.