Messaging Overview support article yet, we recommend that you do that first.
What messages are included in the Unified Inbox? The Unified Inbox includes all channel messages from Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, and, if enabled, SMS messages between you as the host and your guests, cleaners, maintenance team, or others. For now, email is not part of the Unified Inbox. However, emailing your guest through the use of email templates, triggers, and individual Bookings > Email this Guest continues to be the best option for email messages.
Inbox Navigation
The Unified Inbox is located in-app on the left navigation menu.
Many aspects of the Unified Inbox will be familiar but enhanced, along with several new features.
- Side-by-side message list and reading panes
- Mobile responsive
- Improved screen real estate
- Real unread message counts
- Message folder selection (e.g., Inbox, Sent, Archived, All Mail)
- Expanded filters, including:
- Contacts
- Date Ranges
- Sources (e.g., Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, SMS)
- Statuses (e.g., Read, Unread, Starred, Unstarred)
- Property/ies
- Simple bulk select/unselect all or individual messages as needed
- Star/unstar messages
- Guest information pane includes details of booking with links to the individual booking and transactions
- Message Activity timeline
Vrbo Booking or Inquiry Received Placeholders
Vrbo message placeholders of "Booking confirmed" or "Inquiry received" appear in the message pane upon receiving a Vrbo booking or inquiry.
Compose Message
To write a message, click on the Compose button.
In the middle Inbox pane, a New Message will appear. In the To field, you can start typing your guest name.
When you select the guest, you can choose the message source type you want to send. In this case, we messaged Amy on both Vrbo and SMS messaging and we can continue the guest conversation either Vrbo or SMS by selecting "Continue Conversation" on Vrbo or "Continue SMS Conversation." Notice that both options include the listing channel icon or SMS icon to help identify the message source type.
After you select the message source type you want to send, it will be displayed at both the left top and bottom right of the message pane. But even if you selected one of the message source types earlier, you can easily change the message source type by using the dropdown menu at the top left of the message pane that will list all of the source types that you've communicated with the guest in the past.
When chatting via SMS, your character limits and segment count are clearly displayed just above your new message field. Next to the Send button, there are icons to attach a file or select a template for your guest message.
Select Templates
The ability to select different templates in the Unified Inbox ensures consistent messaging, and streamlines your workflow, thereby improving your guest's experience.
But what if you have multiple bookings, inquiries, or quotes for a single guest at different properties? OwnerRez addressed this challenge by enabling you to choose a specific booking after selecting a particular template both in the Unified Inbox and the Guest Conversation.
Guest Information
When a guest message is selected, the right-side Guest Information pane displays booking information for the guest's upcoming, current, or past booking. You can click on the booking total downward caret to expand or close the booking charges or select the Activity Timeline to reveal your guest message timeline.
When you click on the Charges and Transactions buttons, the Booking Charges and Transactions pages will open in another tab.
On mobile devices, users can click on the double downward arrow to expand or close the Guest Information pane.
And here's that mobile Unified Inbox Guest Information expand and collapse processes in action.
Activity Timeline
In the Activity Timeline, your guest communication is displayed in descending order with the message source type icons and guest or host initials icons. When a guest opens an email, the blue "Opened" label is displayed. Click on the upper right Full View to open the full Guest Conversation in a new tab.