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Tags, times and channels: the details that make an automated message arrive right

By GuestChat Team · 2 October 2026

A well-written automated message can fail because of one detail: a tag with no data, a time that has already passed, a channel that wasn't checked. These are the details that raise the most questions, and how to get them right.

Tags

In each message's editor, Insert a tag opens the palette, organized into four groups: Booking, Property, Links and Price. When you tap one, it's written where your cursor is, and when the message is sent it's replaced with the details of each booking.

The most useful ones:

• Booking: name, check-in and check-out dates and times, the expected arrival time the guest gave, number of nights and of guests, booking code and channel.
• Property: name, full address or split into parts, Google Maps link, Wi-Fi name and password, parking space and garage map, emergency phone and house rules.
• Links: the virtual key, the arrival info and the 24h chat.

If a piece of data is missing, no odd gap gets sent: the whole sentence containing that tag is removed. That's why every piece of data you use should be in the property profile.

A tag with a warning

The Wi-Fi password comes marked with a warning: it writes a password into a thread that's kept forever. There are reasons to use it (the guest needs it on arrival, when they may not have mobile data yet), but it's good to know this before adding it. For the door, the virtual key link is better than a code written in a message.

How times are calculated

Each message has a moment (after the booking is confirmed, before or after check-in or check-out, on check-in or check-out day, after a cancellation) and a timing (minutes, hours, days or a fixed local time).

Two common traps:

• A "before" message with zero time never goes out: it points to the exact instant, and by then it's no longer "before." Set at least one minute, or a fixed time on that day.
• A "0 days before check-in" message with a fixed time equal to or later than the check-in time of one of the properties isn't sent for that property, because the guest would already be in. The editor warns you about it.

Which channels it goes out on

Each message decides three things separately:

1. The booking sites: all of them, or only some of the ones you have connected.
2. Manual bookings you create yourself: off by default.
3. Bookings from your website: on by default.

Bookings with no booking site behind them (your website or manual ones) get the message by email, in a thread that stays in Conversations and that the guest can reply to.

Languages

Each message has a Spanish and an English version; Auto-translate to the other language saves you writing the second one. If the guest writes in a third language, the message is translated into theirs when it's sent.

Checklist before turning it on

• Every tag you use has data in the property profile of each property you've selected.
• No "before" with zero time.
• The fixed times make sense with each apartment's check-in and check-out times.
• You've decided whether it includes manual bookings and bookings from your website.
• You've read it in both languages, out loud if needed.

One last tip

When you change something in the property profile that appears in a message (the Wi-Fi, the garage address), you don't need to touch the message: the tag picks up the new data when it's sent. That's the big advantage of using tags instead of typing the details by hand.