How do I use Scheduled Messages and Quick Replies when communicating with my guests?
With Your.Rentals Messages, you're able to exchange messages with guests when they make a booking.
You might find that there are certain messages that you send very frequently, for example:
- A standard welcome message
- Directions to your property
- List of rules or instructions for guests
To save time, you can create Scheduled Messages and Quick Replies.
When to use Scheduled Messages and when to opt for Quick Replies
Use Scheduled Messages to automatically provide the same information to every guest of a certain property at the same time in relation to when the booking was made or the check-in date. Note that you can add customised fields to the message templates to personalise the message for each guest.
Use Quick replies to insert a standard text when you respond in a 1-1 message thread with a guest. For example “how to get to the property from the airport”.
Creating a Scheduled Messages
To create a Scheduled Message Template, go to your Messages page and select “Scheduled Messages”.
Give your Scheduled Message Template a name that you can understand. This name is for your own reference and the guest will not see it.
Then, write the message content. The English version is mandatory, and you can also add the content in other languages. The system will automatically recognise the language of the guest and send them the message in the correct language. If the specific language version of the message is not available, then the message will be sent in English.
When writing the content, you can also add dynamic fields. Dynamic fields are placeholders that will later be replaced with real data. For example, you can use “#guest name” in your template. Once the actual message is sent to the guest, the “#guest name” will be replaced with the actual name of the guest. To add the dynamic fields, type # and choose the option from the list of available dynamic fields.
Pro tip: remember grammar rules!
When you add a dynamic field to your message, the system will automatically make the space after that field. If you want to add a comma or another punctuation, you might want to remove this space. Remember to always follow the grammar rules of the language in which you are writing the message!
You can add file attachments to your message. Attachments are language-specific. This means that you should add separate attachments for each different language. For example, if you are writing a message in English and German, you should attach a file to each language version. Supported file formats are JPG, JPEG, and PNG.
As the next step, you can add the automation rules to your template. This means that the system will automatically send the message to the guest following the rules you set, and you don’t have to do anything manually.
To add the automation rules:
- Tick the checkbox: Send the message automatically
- Choose the event that will trigger the message. There are 3 events available:
- Booking confirmed
- Check-in
- Check-out
- Choose the timing when the message should be automatically sent to the guest.
Lastly, you can specify listings to which the message template applies. When the guest books the listing that is connected to the Scheduled message template, the guest will receive the message.
Creating and using Quick Replies
Quick Replies can be added to any 1-1 message conversation with a guest so you don’t need to type the same content over and over again.
To create a Quick reply open one of the conversations with the guest. From conversations menu choose “Quick Replies”. First, give your Quick Reply the name so you can easily find it later. Then, write the content of the Quick Reply. You can also add the attachment to it.
Once you save the Quick Reply, you will be able to access it from every conversation.
To use your Quick replies in a specific conversation with the guest, open the list of Quick Replies by choosing “Quick Replies” from the conversations menu. Then select the Quick Reply you want to use and choose “Use Quick reply”.
