The conversations inbox: all of a guest's channels in one place
By GuestChat Team ·
The same guest might write to you on Airbnb, on your own chat from their link and, if they booked on your website, by email. If each channel lived in a different place, replying well would be impossible. That's why in Conversations everything from one guest opens on the same screen, with one tab per channel.
The tabs in each conversation
Depending on where the guest has talked to you, you'll see:
- All: the messages from all their channels mixed by time, each with a label saying where it came in. It's read-only: it's there to understand the full story.
- Public chat: what they've said in your own chat, from their link.
- The booking site's tab (Airbnb, Booking.com...): the booking site's thread.
- Web booking: the email conversation for a booking from your own website.
- Sent emails: the record of emails the system has sent them (instructions, notices). You read it, you don't write in it.
- SMS and Invoice, when there are any.
To reply, go to the tab of the channel you want the message to go out on. You can't reply from All, precisely so that you always know where it's going out.
The list
In the list, each conversation tells you the property, the guest, what stage the booking is at (Inquiry, Upcoming, Current or Cancelled) and, where relevant, a mood tag. Inquiries from someone who hasn't booked yet show up as a potential guest.
The header
At the top of each conversation you have the essentials without leaving it: dates, check-in and check-out times, booking number, the guest's language and whether they're verified (by virtual key, by SMS or by phone). Under More you see the property's address and parking.
Translation
Everything is shown in your dashboard's language. If there are messages to translate, a button translates them all at once. Hovering over a translated message shows you the original.
The AI indicator
Each conversation tells you whether the AI is replying or paused, and why. From there you turn it on or off for that guest.
Work through the inbox in ten minutes
- Look first at what has unread messages.
- Start with the conversations tagged Critical or Tense.
- Then, the ones with Current bookings: these are guests who are staying there right now.
- Next, the Upcoming ones arriving today or tomorrow.
- Inquiries last, unless you have gaps to fill that week.
Common mistakes
- Replying on the wrong channel. If the guest booked through a booking site, reply in that site's tab: that's where they expect the answer and where there's a record of it.
- Reading only the last message. Open All before replying to something sensitive: sometimes the context is in the other channel.
- Mixing up the two email tabs. Web booking is the conversation with the guest; Sent emails is just the record of what the system has sent them.
- Not knowing why you can't write. If your user only has read-only access to a conversation, the screen tells you so.