Guest messaging for a boutique hotel group, from pre-arrival to the review

Three days out: one useful message

A workflow runs each morning and reads arrivals three days ahead. There is no property management system integration, so the arrivals list comes through the generic API block if the system has an API, with the key stored as a workspace secret, or from a Google Sheets export the front desk updates daily.

For each guest who opted in to WhatsApp at booking, the workflow sends one approved template with Send Template: arrival time, a quick-reply button for airport pickup, and a line asking about dietary needs. Messages a business starts on WhatsApp must use approved templates, which also keeps the tone consistent across properties.

Replies arrive on the WhatsApp webhook trigger and are written to a guests table in Tables. The front desk sees "pickup needed, arriving 14:30, one vegetarian" on the morning arrivals list instead of scrolling a chat.

During the stay: requests that reach the right team

When a guest writes during the stay, a second workflow starts on the same trigger. An agent block reads the message and sorts it: housekeeping, maintenance, food and drinks, front desk, or needs a manager. One message can hold two requests, so it splits them.

Each request becomes a row in a requests table with property, room, type and time, and a post in that property’s housekeeping or maintenance channel in Slack or Microsoft Teams. Because the guest wrote first, the workflow can answer right away with Send Message inside WhatsApp’s 24-hour window: a short acknowledgement that says what happens next. Staff mark the row done when it is.

A dashboard on the requests table shows open requests by property and type, and how long each took. A monitor re-checks as often as every 5 minutes and alerts the duty manager when a request has been open longer than you set, for example 30 minutes for housekeeping.

After checkout: reviews someone reads

Most review sites email a notification when a new review is posted. Point those emails at one shared Gmail or Outlook inbox. The guest relations Relay watches that inbox, checking every few minutes, and for each new review it:

• reads the review and finds the stay in the guests and requests tables, which a Relay can read and query;
• drafts a reply in the hotel’s voice, using the voice guide in its instructions;
• for low ratings, adds an internal note on what went wrong and whether it has come up before.

The draft arrives in the duty manager’s chat with the Relay, with a notification. The manager edits if needed and posts the reply on the review site. No review site integration ships, so posting is a person’s step, and a useful one.

What the Relay may do, and what it may not

The Relay also watches the requests table for rows marked "needs a manager": a complaint, a special occasion, a question about extending the stay. For those it drafts a WhatsApp reply or an email to the guest.

Relays run under one of three autonomy levels. This one runs in Assist: it reads tables and inboxes freely, but any call that writes, such as sending a WhatsApp message, waits for approval of the exact message. Email always needs approval under Assist and Operate. Its allowlist holds WhatsApp, Gmail and Slack, and nothing that moves money. Because guests have their own email domains, the recipient policy is set to anyone, which makes the approval step the control that matters. Approvals expire after 24 hours by default, and a kill switch pauses the Relay at once.

A Relay handles 25 tasks a day and two at once by default, which suits a three-property group. Every proposal, approval and sent message is written to the audit log, and workflow runs are in Logs, so a manager can trace any guest conversation. PII redaction masks phone numbers in logs, and row-level access keeps each property’s staff to their own guests.

Where to start

Start with pre-arrival messages at one property for two weeks. Add in-stay routing once the housekeeping channel trusts the posts. Switch on the Relay last, in Observe mode for a week so the manager can read drafts without anything being sent, then move it to Assist.