Triggers give you a powerful way to communicate automatically. You can respond to guests with personalized messages or notify third parties without lifting a finger! To read more about triggers, check out our Trigger overview and Triggers - Setup & Configuration support articles. We've also created a small library of trigger examples to help get you started.
In this example, we're dealing with a booking for the following scenario:
Scenario: Send Arrival Information to Channel Guest Without Contact Information
Good guest communication is essential for a positive guest experience. Clear and timely communication can greatly influence guests' perceptions and impact their reviews.
This scenario assumes that the guest has NOT provided any contact information or signed a renter agreement.
Note: Why can't you use a platform email or proxy email address like"joe.blow.12345@messages.airbnb.com" or "joe.blow.12345@messages.booking.com?" These platform/proxy email addresses aren't real. If you send messages to them, your message will be collected by the channel, stripped, re-formatted and displayed on the channel's message platform in various ways that typically don't work well for email.
See the Ask Channel Booking Guest Without Contact Info, to Provide Contact Info and Sign Renter Agreement support article for information about how to request that information from your channel guests.
By setting up a channel template and trigger, you can still send a Guest Arrival Information channel message template to guests who booked through a channel. OwnerRez can do that for you with a message trigger.
Here are the steps for how to set up a channel template and trigger for this scenario:
- Create a Booking Message Channel Template to Send Arrival Information to Channel Guest Without Contact Information
- Create a Trigger That Applies to Bookings to Send Send Arrival Information to Channel Guest Without Contact Information
Create a Booking Message Channel Template to Send Arrival Information to Channel Guest Without Contact Information
Go to Settings > Templates to configure the "booking" template type message you want to send to your guest.
Since you have no guest contact information, you only have one choice for the type of template you can create - a channel template. This is the delivery method that will be used for your response. OwnerRez directly integrates with the native messaging platforms at Vrbo, Airbnb, and Booking.com, so this is easy to set up! If you want to send a message on Vrbo, the booking must have come through Vrbo, to begin with, so that our system knows how to deliver your response back to the correct Vrbo thread.
Send by Channel
Even though we assume that the guest has NOT provided any contact information in this scenario, some users and guests still prefer to keep all communications on the channel.
For detailed information about how channel templates work, check out the Channel Templates and field codes support articles.
To create a channel template, go to Settings > Templates > Channel tab > click the Create Channel Template button > select the "Booking" option. This will open a message editor with some sample field codes filled in.
Copy and paste the following values into your new channel template.
Name:
Guest Arrival Information Channel Template
Body:
Hi {CFIRST},
Thank you for choosing {PDISPNAME} for your upcoming {BARR} to {BDEP} stay!
Copy and paste the URL below for the location of {PDISPNAME}.
{PADDRUG}
Check-in is anytime after {BCHECKINSTARTTIME}, {BARRDAY}, {BARR}, and your door lock code is {BDOORCODE}.
{MYFIRST}
Channel templates have a Preview button, so as you type, take a quick look at the preview window to get a sense of how the channel message will look.
Here is a quick look at how the above channel template looks in preview mode:
As you can see, this message is plain (no colors, images, or rich text), but that's good because it will be sent to the guest via the channel messaging platform, and the messaging platforms don't allow anything other than plain text.
Notice how we include instructions to "copy and paste" the plain text URL for the property location with the {PADDRUG} field code? The channel message template converts the {PADDRUG} field code link into plain text that can be copied and pasted by your channel booking guest to get directions to your property.
Again, the channel message is dynamic to the booking by including the arrival {BARR} and departure dates {BDEP} field codes as well as the property name {PDISPNAME} field code. We also included the {BCHECKINSTARTTIME} check-in start time, and the booking door lock code is {BDOORCODE} field code. You want a concise message for the guest to read, and this does the trick!
You could easily include other pertinent field codes for even more automation, such as the Wifi Network Name {PWIFINAME} and Wifi Password {PWIFIPASS} field codes.
Now we have your channel message template created, so it's time to configure the trigger that will send it.
Create a Trigger That Applies to Bookings to Send Arrival Information to Channel Guest Without Contact Information
Since each trigger can only send one message template, you'll need to create a trigger to send the channel message you created.
Go to Settings > Triggers > and click Create to pull up the new trigger screen.
Here is a list of all the settings the trigger needs to have:
- Type: Scheduled Time
- Event: 5 days > Before> Booking has arrived > at 9:00 AM
- Add Condition > Listing Site is > Only: Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo
- Action: Email Templates > Guest Arrival Information Channel Template
Now, let's talk about what the above settings mean!
The Type and Event fields will make the trigger send your email tempate at a scheduled time 5 days before the booking has arrived at 9:00 AM.
Since we are targeting "bookings" for guests for whom we do not have contact information, we want to add a "Condition" to the trigger that will stop it from sending out messages for other bookings, such as direct bookings. Adding the "Listing Site is Only" condition status covers that.
Keep in mind that channels like Airbnb and Booking.com don't provide an email address (or even a phone number) for the guest. See the Ask Channel Booking Guest Without Contact Info, to Provide Contact Info and Sign Renter Agreement support article for more information on that topic.
Note: Why can't you use a platform email or proxy email address like"joe.blow.12345@messages.airbnb.com" or "joe.blow.12345@messages.booking.com?" These platform/proxy email addresses aren't real. If you send messages to them, your message will be collected by the channel, stripped, re-formatted and displayed on the channel's message platform in various ways that typically don't work well for email.
You may want to add other conditions, but for now, this is enough to make our trigger send the Guest Arrival Information channel message prior to their arrival.
Finally, the last thing we select is the "Action" for the channel template we want to send. Since this trigger is supposed to send a channel message, select the channel template and be careful not to select an email or SMS template.
At this point, your trigger should look like this:
Nice and simple!
Click Save, and now you have a trigger ready to go. These actions do exactly what they say. 5 days before your booking has arrived at 9:00 AM, the trigger runs and sends your Guest Arrival Information Channel Template. That's it!