Booking/Blocked Off Time messages

We have friends coming to stay at our home free of charge.  I would still like for them to receive the "Welcome" messages and "Check out Instruction" messages, etc before/during/after their stay.  There is important info in each.

Can I just block off time and the messages with triggers will still go out?  Or do I create a booking, change the fees to "0" and allow the trigger messages to go out that way?  Block off time seems easier and cleaner. But I'm not seeing the message options.

We've looked into making changes to this, but, for now, if you want booking-type messages to be sent, it needs to be a booking, not a block.  A $0 charge booking is valid however.