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WhatsApp: guests, owners and residents talk to the property

The property's WhatsApp number answers the questions people actually ask — my booking, my balance, towels, a late check-out, a leak in the bathroom, where are you, my fees, a gate pass for a visitor — in Arabic or English, from the person's own stay, and hands the rest to a colleague. A number on a guest or owner record is recognised at once; anyone else is asked for the booking reference and the phone on the booking before hearing a word about a stay. Every message is kept, with what answered it: a rule, the assistant or a person.

For:Guest-relations officerFront-office agentGeneral managerOwner-relations officer

Where:WhatsApp › Dashboard · Conversations · Messages · Rules · Simulate · Configuration › Accounts

The WhatsApp dashboard: today's conversations and messages, who answered — rules, the assistant, a person — who is waiting for a colleague, opt-outs and the first-response time.
The WhatsApp dashboard: today's conversations and messages, who answered — rules, the assistant, a person — who is waiting for a colleague, opt-outs and the first-response time.
Conversations: who wrote, whether they are identified, their stay, the last message, unread and waiting.
Conversations: who wrote, whether they are identified, their stay, the last message, unread and waiting.
A conversation as the guest sees it, Arabic right to left, with the stay, the folio, the tickets and requests it raised, and the box to reply as a colleague.
A conversation as the guest sees it, Arabic right to left, with the stay, the folio, the tickets and requests it raised, and the box to reply as a colleague.
The rules: the words that pick each answer, in English and Arabic, and who may use it.
The rules: the words that pick each answer, in English and Arabic, and who may use it.
Simulate: write as a guest, an owner or a stranger and see exactly what the property answers — nothing is sent to WhatsApp.
Simulate: write as a guest, an owner or a stranger and see exactly what the property answers — nothing is sent to WhatsApp.

Before you start

WhatsApp › Configuration › Accounts: one account per number. Leave Property empty for a number that answers for every property (hotel, village and compound), or pick the one it belongs to.
Start in Simulate mode: rules, the assistant and the simulator work without a Meta account, and nothing is sent.
Set the Home Country (a number typed as 010… is read as an Egyptian number), the default language, the opening message in both languages, the directions and the map link.
Hand-offs To: the colleague who gets the to-do when someone writes "agent". Empty: a guest-relations user.
Going live: in Meta Business, create the WhatsApp number and a permanent system-user token; paste the Phone Number ID and the token on the account; in Meta › Webhooks paste the Webhook URL and the Verify Token shown on the account and subscribe to "messages"; paste the app secret so every call is checked; press Test connection; switch the account to Live.
Journey steps on WhatsApp (Guest Experience › Journeys) are delivered through the account. Outside the 24 hours after the guest last wrote, Meta accepts only an approved template: put its name in the step's WhatsApp Template.

How to

Understand who is writing

  1. WhatsApp › Conversations: every number that wrote or was written to. "Who" says guest, owner, resident or unidentified; "Identified by" says how — the phone on the guest profile, the phone on the contact, or the booking reference and phone the person sent.
  2. A number that matches exactly one guest or contact is identified at once. Several matches or none: the person is asked for the booking reference (e.g. AZH-000123) and the mobile number given when booking, and identified when both match the same booking. After five wrong tries the conversation goes to a colleague.
  3. An unidentified person only gets the public answers: where we are, check-in and check-out times, and "book" to ask for a room. Nothing about any stay, bill or unit.

See what the number answers

  1. In house: my balance (the folio, charges, payments and what is due), towels, amenities or room service (a guest request on the stay, handed to housekeeping), late check-out (the property's offer — YES posts it to the folio with its service charge and VAT — or a request to the desk when no offer applies), a problem in the room (a help-desk ticket on the unit, routed to engineering or housekeeping by its category).
  2. Arriving: my booking (reference, dates, unit type, status), check-in time — "arriving 18:30" writes the ETA on the stay for the desk — and directions.
  3. Owners and residents: my statement, my fees (from the ownership account when the Community pack is installed; otherwise a polite "the owners' office will send it"), a gate pass for a visitor (a visitor invitation for the unit, for security to approve), a problem in the unit.
  4. Anyone: "book" with dates and guests makes a reservation inquiry (source WhatsApp) held like a website request, with the online price when the dates are bookable; "agent" hands the conversation to a colleague.

Answer as a colleague

  1. The dashboard lists the conversations waiting for a person; the colleague in Hand-offs To also has a to-do.
  2. Open the conversation, read the thread, type in "Reply as a colleague" and press Reply. It goes out on WhatsApp, counts as answered by a person, and closes the to-do.
  3. The smart buttons open the stay, the folio, the tickets, the requests and the booking inquiries the conversation raised. Refresh the stay after a check-in or a room move.

Teach the number your own words

  1. WhatsApp › Rules: each rule has a handler (what it does), a scope (anyone, identified, in house, owners, residents), and keywords in English and Arabic. The first active rule in sequence whose keywords are in the message answers.
  2. Add the words your guests use ("chalet", "الشاليه", "مناشف") to the right rule; one spelling is enough — أ إ آ, ة and ى are folded and Arabic-Indic digits read as digits. A rule with exact matching fires only when the whole message is a keyword (hi, thanks, STOP).
  3. A fixed reply (breakfast hours, Wi-Fi) is a rule with the handler "A fixed reply" and its texts in both languages; {first_name}, {property} and {phone} are filled in.
  4. A question no rule picks goes to the assistant for an identified person: it may only use the tools about that person — their folio, their booking, tonight's rates — and an answer that did not come from a tool is thrown away. "How full is the hotel?" from a guest gets the menu, not the occupancy.

Try it before going live

  1. WhatsApp › Simulate: pick a guest, an owner or a resident in "Write as" (or type any number to write as a stranger), type the message, press Send. The answer, and the whole conversation, appear below.
  2. The same engine answers as on WhatsApp — requests, tickets, gate passes and inquiries are really raised — so use a test guest when you try a request.

Opt-outs

  1. STOP (or إيقاف) opts the number out at once: no answer, no journey message and no reply by a colleague until it writes START. When Someone Sends STOP chooses between a last confirmation and silence.
  2. Opt in again on the conversation is for the rare case the person asked in writing; the button asks you to confirm.

Questions the desk asks

Does the demo send anything to WhatsApp?

No. The account is in Simulate mode: every answer is stored on its conversation, marked "simulated". Only a Live account posts to Meta.

A guest writes from their spouse's phone.

The number is not on the booking, so the bot asks for the booking reference and the mobile number given when booking; with both it knows the stay and answers.

Why did the bot not answer a message?

The number opted out, or it sent more than the account's messages-per-hour limit (30 by default) — the refusal is logged and shown on the message.

Can the assistant tell a guest who else is in house?

No. On WhatsApp it only runs the tools about the person writing; every other tool is refused, and any answer that is not a tool's answer is discarded.

Where do the requests go?

Towels and room service become guest requests (Front Desk), problems become help-desk tickets handed to engineering or housekeeping, gate passes become visitor invitations (Access), bookings become reservation inquiries (Reservations), a late check-out YES becomes a folio charge.

See also: Guest experience: journeys, upsells, loyalty, complaints and satisfaction Help desk: tickets from guests, owners and residents The assistant Front desk: arrivals, in house, departures Access & Security — passes, the gate, visitors, vehicles and patrols

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