Restore SMS Template Access and Email/SMS Toggle in Guest Communication

1. Summary

Recent updates to the OwnerRez guest communication interface removed the ability to (1) access SMS templates when initiating an SMS from the guest screen and (2) toggle between Email and SMS when composing a message. These changes disrupt established workflows and reduce communication efficiency.

2. Problem Statement

The guest communication panel now treats Email and SMS as isolated actions. As a result:

• Selecting SMS from the guest screen opens a basic message window with no SMS template access.
• Selecting Email provides no option to switch to SMS, despite this capability existing in previous versions and still appearing in some areas of the system.
• The consolidated guest screen makes it difficult to reach any interface that supports both SMS sending and SMS template selection.

This creates unnecessary friction and prevents users from leveraging standardized, template‑based communication.

3. Requested Modifications

3.1 Enable SMS Templates When Initiating SMS

When the user clicks SMS from the guest screen, the system should provide access to SMS templates, consistent with how email templates are handled.

3.2 Add Email ↔ SMS Toggle

When composing a message from the guest screen, the interface should allow switching between Email and SMS without leaving the screen. Message content should persist when switching channels.

3.3 Unified Communication Behavior

The guest communication panel should function as a unified messaging interface where both Email and SMS are always available communication modes.

4. Closing

Restoring SMS template access and reintroducing the Email/SMS toggle will streamline communication workflows, reduce manual effort, and align the interface with prior functionality and user expectations.

Thank you for your consideration.

Great suggestion—thanks for submitting! Know anyone else who'd benefit from this? Send them the link so they can add their vote and show there's interest in making this happen.

Hi Ed,

If you're inside of a booking, you can find the SMS option in the Messages panel of the booking overview page if the guest has the appropriate contact info available.

You can also hit the Inbox button in the header here to get to a filtered view of the inbox for that guest.

To start a new thread, hit the Compose button and type in the guest's name in the "To" field. This will find any message threads associate with that booking. Note you can also just just straight to the inbox to get to Compose. No need to start from the booking.

If the guest already has existing message threads, you'll see them here. Clicking on the channel icon will bring you directly to the existing channel thread, but clicking to the left of those icons just on the text itself will give you an option to start an SMS thread, assuming that the guest has proper contact info available to send to.

From the inbox, you can select your SMS templates once you've opened that SMS thread.

>When composing a message from the guest screen, the interface should allow switching between Email and SMS without leaving the screen. Message content should persist when switching channels.

We are in the process of building out the architecture that will allow for email in the Unified Inbox. Once that work is complete, we will add email to the thread types so you can switch between the SMS thread and Email thread as needed. The project is a large undertaking so I'm afraid I have no ETA on the work at this time.