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Getting your message across is key to optimising the guest experience, whilst at the same time driving additional revenue through in-stay upselling opportunities.
Where there are many third party, paid for "add-ons" for hotel PMS software to improve guest communication, our property management system already provides hotels with the ability to create and schedule custom email and SMS message templates, with the use of "placeholders" such as the first name to personalise guest experiences. Why pay extra for the likes of Zingle, or Duve when Caterbook already provides much of this functionality straight out of the box?
The messaging centre works with 2 types of event triggers which determine when a message will be sent:
Emails are great for longer messages with lots of detail, for example booking confirmation, or where formatting is important. You can also embed images in some emails, for example your property logo, as well as inserting links back to your website and social media. Caterbook allows you to customise different messages based on the booking source (eg your website, OTA), or even the Rateplan the guest has booked (Advance Purchase, Dinner, Bed & Breakfast.)
The most basic requirement of any booking system is a confirmation email, but in the Caterbook Messaging centre you can customise this to match your tone of voice and branding. Where you have different deposit and cancellation policies for each Rateplan, these are also able to be communicated according to the specific booking, rather than reflecting a global policy.
Schedule an email to be sent 2 or 3 days before arrival, with a link to our contactless guest details form enabling guest registration forms to then be pre-printed, reducing contact in reception to help mitigate the risk of Covid transmission.
Schedule an email to go out 6 hours before the earliest possible check in time - at 9am in the morning, to remind guests about their stay, provide directions and other important information about your Covid protocols in place.
Send a payment link email automatically to resident hotel guests at 10pm on the night before departure, enabling the guest to settle their bill online and avoid queues in reception in the morning.
Schedule an email at 8am on the morning of departure reminding guests to leave their key.
Automatically email the guest the day after departure, with a link inviting them to leave a review on Tripadvisor.
If you have the guest's mobile number, SMS messaging can be really useful in cutting through the clutter of email for important messages that a guest might need - such as the PIN code for the front door.
Schedule an SMS message to be sent in real time, 30 minutes after the guest has been checked in by staff, advising of restaurant availability and tonight's specials.
To reduce contact during check in, you can also send a pre-formatted link for a guest to complete your Guest Registration Form, and accept terms and conditions online via SMS - even if they are in reception.
| Included Credits | Monthly fee | Overage |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | £6.50 | £0.08 |
| 300 | £18.00 | £0.07 |
| 500 | £27.50 | £0.07 |
| 750 | £37.50 | £0.06 |
| 1000 | £45.00 | £0.06 |
Note that if you compose very long messages, that as with your mobile phone, these can use up more than one message credit.
With just a few clicks, properties can batch create and then email (or print) all the morning's departure invoices in real time, without having to go into each reservation individually which would otherwise be potentially very time consuming.
Where corporate partner bookings have been made, invoices can be emailed using your dedicated partner invoice email template, and for any periodic statements an additional email template can be created for those.
With an optional SMS plan active on your account, it's possible to send an "out the box" SMS template which links to our guest registration form directly from the Caterbook Dashboard's arrivals panel. So, if you have a guest in reception who has not already completed the form online, you can click to send the link to their phone to complete guest details and accept your terms and conditions in order to reduce contact - removing the need for them to borrow a pen to manually complete and sign a traditional paper form.
As well as being able to send custom email templates to guests, Caterbook also supports sending both email and SMS message templates to the property using the same placeholders and triggers as are in place for guest messaging.
The hospitality industry strives to exceed guest expectations in many ways. Whilst the human touch is always at the core of interactions, being able to automate guest communication through messaging software is one way to streamline operations and free up time for hotel staff to spend interacting with guests in person.
In recent years, third party messaging apps have become available which can interface with PMS software through an API, but these bring with them additional costs for the property. Caterbook hotel PMS has a built in messaging platform, enabling hotels to communicate at all points of the guest journey.
Properties can create custom email and sms text messages, and these can be scheduled to be sent around various milestones - for example on booking, a few days pre arrival, a time interval after check in or before they are due to check out, and also post stay.
Caterbook provides one solution to meet a hotel's requirements for guest messaging, without the need for expensive third party integrations.
