Urgent situations sometimes arise, requiring notification of all current guests. This message could inform guests about unplanned building maintenance, emergency storm notifications, or any changes that could affect multiple guests, even at a specific property. But how do you send a message to all current guests at once rather than individually?
Although you can never predict when an urgent situation may arise, it's wise to have message templates and disabled triggers ready in case it does. This way, you can quickly edit the messages, enable the trigger to notify all current guests about the issue, and then disable the trigger afterward. This support article explains how to set that up.
First off, it's important that you create and save these triggers in a disabled state. You don't want this trigger to send your template until you have an actual urgent situation!
If you find yourself in the event that you need to send this sort of notification to all guests, you'll want to do the following:
- Edit your templates to reflect the urgent situation accurately
- Edit the trigger for today's date
- Enable the trigger
- After you send your messages, verify that your templates were sent by checking your Communication History.
- Disable your triggers.
Create an email template by navigating to Settings > Templates > Email tab > click the Create Email Template button > select the "Booking" option. Copy and paste the following values into your new email template.
Name:
Notify All Current Guests About an Urgent Situation Email Template
From Name:
{MYCOFULL}
From Address:
{MYEMAIL}
To Name:
{CFULL}
To Address:
{CEMAIL}
Subject:
Urgent Situation at {PDISPNAME}
Body:
Hi {CFIRST},
We want to notify you about an urgent situation that is currently occurring at {PDISPNAME}.
Insert specific information regarding urgent situation.
We apologize for this inconvenience and hope it does not disrupt your stay at {PDISPNAME}.
{MYFIRST}
Email message preview:
To add a trigger, navigate to Settings > Messaging > Triggers > and click + Create Trigger.
Type:
Scheduled Time
Event:
Before > 1000 days before > Booking departs > at 9:00 AM
Conditions:
Arrival Date is > On or Before > TODAY'S DATE
Departure Date is > On or After > TODAY'S DATE
Email Address on File is One of > Has Real Email Address
Action:
Notify All Current Guests About an Urgent Situation Email Template
Retry:
Every day until departure > Between 9:00 and > 9:00 PM > each day
Description:
Create this trigger in a disabled state - I will activate it later.
Channel Template & Trigger
To create a channel template, go to Settings > Templates > Channel tab > click the Create Channel Template button > select the "Booking" option. Copy and paste the following values into your new channel template.
Name:
Notify All Current Guests About an Urgent Situation Channel Template
Body:
Hi {CFIRST},
We want to notify you about an urgent situation that is currently occurring at {PDISPNAME}.
Insert specific information regarding urgent situation.
We apologize for this inconvenience and hope it does not disrupt your stay at {PDISPNAME}.
{MYFIRST}
Channel message preview:
To add a trigger, navigate to Settings > Messaging > Triggers > and click + Create Trigger.
Type:
Scheduled Time
Event:
Before > 1000 days before > Booking departs > at 9:00 AM
Conditions:
Arrival Date is > On or Before > TODAY'S DATE
Departure Date is > On or After > TODAY'S DATE
Listing Site is > One of> Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo
Action:
Notify All Current Guests About an Urgent Situation Channel Template
Retry:
Every day until departure > Between 9:00 and > 9:00 PM > each day
Description:
Create this trigger in a disabled state - I will activate it later.
SMS Template & Trigger
Create an SMS template by navigating to Settings > Templates > SMS tab > click the Create SMS Template button > select the "Booking" option. Copy and paste the following values into your new SMS template.
Name:
Notify All Current Guests About an Urgent Situation SMS Template
To Phone Number:
{CPHONE}
Body:
Hi {CFIRST}, we want to notify you about an urgent situation that is currently occurring at {PDISPNAME}, insert specific information regarding urgent situation. We apologize for this inconvenience and hope it does not disrupt your stay at {PDISPNAME}.
SMS message preview:
To add a trigger, navigate to Settings > Messaging > Triggers > and click + Create Trigger.
Type:
Scheduled Time
Event:
Before > 1000 days before > Booking departs > at 9:00 AM
Conditions:
Arrival Date is > On or Before > TODAY'S DATE
Departure Date is > On or After > TODAY'S DATE
Phone Number On File Status is > Yes
Action:
Notify All Current Guests About an Urgent Situation SMS Template
Retry:
Every day until departure > Between 9:00 and > 9:00 PM > each day
Description:
Create this trigger in a disabled state - I will activate it later.