Guests may request available dates or quotes even with direct integrations or on regional listing sites. Quickly responding with a quote allows immediate booking and clears inquiries from your inbox.
Check out our Template and Trigger Examples support article for other guest messaging ideas.
Email Template & Trigger
Create an email template by navigating to Settings > Templates > Email tab > click the Create Email Template button > select the "Inquiry" option. Copy and paste the following values into your new email template. Or simply click on the +Add Template to My Account.
Name:
Inquiry Reply for Bookable Quote
From Name:
{MYCOFULL}
From Address:
{MYEMAIL}
To Name:
{CFULL}
To Address:
{CEMAIL}
Subject:
RE: {IDES}
Body:
Hi {CFIRST},
Thanks for your inquiry about {PDISPNAME}. I've prepared a quote, shown below, for the dates you requested.
Please use the buttons at the bottom to view more information about the quote or to accept it and checkout. Our checkout form is simple to use and very secure.
{QHCTAB}
{MYFIRST}
_____________________________________________________
{ICOMM}
{IOITAB}
Email template preview:
Create a trigger to send your email message by navigating to Settings > Messaging > Triggers > and clicking + Create Trigger to pull up the new trigger screen. Or simply click on the +Add Trigger to My Account.
Event:
As soon as inquiry is received
Conditions:
Email Address On File Status is one of has real email address
Action:
Inquiry Reply for Bookable Quote via Email
Do you offer Add-on Services? You can easily include the Inquiry {ITAGS} field code tag list in your message templates, along with language that you will follow up separately with the potential guest regarding additional costs and agreements (if necessary) for the Add-on.
Channel Template & Trigger
Create a channel template by navigating to Settings > Templates > Channel tab > click the Create Channel Template button > select the "Inquiry" option. Copy and paste the following values into your new channel template. Or simply click on the +Add Template to My Account.
Name:
Inquiry Reply for Bookable Dates
Body:
Hi {CFIRST},
Thanks for your inquiry about {PDISPNAME}.
Your travel dates, {IARR} to {IDEP}, are available and we'd love to host you.
Feel free to book directly on {ISOURCE}.
{MYFIRST}
Channel template preview:
Create a trigger to send your channel message by navigating to Settings > Messaging > Triggers > and clicking + Create Trigger to pull up the new trigger screen. Or simply click on the +Add Trigger to My Account.
Event:
As soon as inquiry is received
Conditions:
Inquiry Source is one of channel
Action:
Inquiry Reply for Bookable Dates via Channel Message
SMS Template & Trigger
Create an SMS template by navigating to Settings > Templates > SMS tab > click the Create SMS Template button > select the "Inquiry" option. Copy and paste the following values into your new SMS template. Or simply click on the +Add Template to My Account.
Name:
Inquiry Reply for Bookable Dates
To:
{CPHONE}
Body:
Hi {CFIRST}, I got your inquiry for {PDISPNAME}. Your travel dates, {IARR} to {IDEP}, are available. Are you available to discuss? ☕
SMS template preview:
Create a trigger to send your SMS message by navigating to Settings > Messaging > Triggers > and clicking + Create Trigger to pull up the new trigger screen. Or simply click on the +Add Trigger to My Account.
Event:
As soon as inquiry is received
Action:
Inquiry Reply for Bookable Dates via SMS
Variations
You may have wondered about a few things as we walked through the template and trigger configuration above.
For instance, what if the guest submitted an "available and quotable" request but also included a comment or question they want answered before they book? Sending a message without acknowledging their comment might sound confusing, cold, and unprofessional.
Or, what if it's daytime and you have time to respond versus nighttime when you can't? How does that change what you want to send?
All of these scenarios can be dealt with by creating different types of triggers with additional (or different) conditions. Here are a few variations.
If they included a comment and it's daytime
Let's start with the scenario where an "available and quotable" inquiry comes in, but it also has a comment from the guest, and it's in the middle of the daytime. In this scenario, some users or PMs don't want to fire off an auto-reply because they want to read the comment first and then reply manually. Because it's daytime, they know they will have time to read it and respond quickly.
To make this change, adjust the trigger we just created (above) and add some additional settings:
- Add Condition > Contains a Comment: No
- Add Condition > Received after: "8:00 AM"
- Add Condition > Received before: "8:00 PM"
- Action > Mark as Answered: Yes
- Action > Mark as Read: Yes
This will limit the trigger to only apply to inquiries that arrive between 8 am and 8 pm (daytime) and don't have a comment. You can, of course, adjust the received times to whatever hours you want based on your own schedule.
If they included a comment and it's nighttime
But doing a daytime-only triggers means that nighttime inquiries won't be answered at all, so now you need to handle inquiries that come in overnight.
Create a duplicate trigger using the same settings as above, but change the conditions to target nighttime:
Add Condition > Contains a Comment- Add Condition > Received after: "8:00 PM"
- Add Condition > Received before: "8:00 AM"
Action > Mark as AnsweredAction > Mark as Read
Notice that the AM and PM times are flipped around so that you are now targeting inquiries coming in after 8 PM and before 8 AM (or however you change the hours to match your own schedule). Notice that we removed the "contains a comment" condition because we don't care if it has a comment at nighttime - we just want to answer it quickly. We removed the mark as read/answered because we want the inquiry to remain unanswered so that you remember to look at it again in the morning.
You could further refine this to use a slightly different template body that has "An auto-responder sent this. We will answer your question or comment in the morning." to the body of the reply, and use this different reply if the inquiry comes in during nighttime and has a comment. This would give the guest a fast response overnight while also addressing the comment.
Sending too much information; how to limit
There may be situations where you send multiple triggers simultaneously for the same inquiry. It's rare, but it can happen.
The most common scenario is when a direct inquiry comes from your personal website, and the guest includes both their email address and phone number. If you have a trigger set up with an email reply and a second trigger set up with an SMS reply, the guest will get hit with both messages simultaneously - once in their email inbox and again on their phone from the SMS message. Maybe this is what you want, but be careful in crafting messages to accommodate these scenarios. One way of limiting this is to have two versions of the SMS trigger - one that handles when there is an email address and one that handles when there isn't.
The first trigger that handles the situation where there's an email address should use a short message that speaks to the email like this:
SMS Template > Body:
Hi {CFIRST}, I just sent you an email about your inquiry. Let me know if you don't get it, and thanks for reaching out about {PNAME}! ☕
And on the trigger settings:
Add Condition > Email Address on File: Has real email address
The second trigger that handles the situation where no email address was included should assume that the SMS message is the only thing going to the guest and use a message like this:
SMS Template > Body:
Hi {CFIRST}, thanks for reaching out about {PNAME}. Your travel dates, {IARR} to {IDEP}, are available. Are you available to discuss? ☕
And on the trigger settings:
Add Condition > Phone Number on File Status is: Yes
Adding the "Phone Number on File Status" condition on the trigger will ensure that each SMS trigger only goes out once and that they are mutually exclusive.