To Setup SMS or WhatsApp Messaging in MyPMS, you must subscribe to the SMS Module and have your site enabled for Messaging by BookingCenter Staff. Please contact us at or submit a support ticket to to get started. See Messaging | Pricing
Requirements for the Messaging Module:
- Only MyPMS customers can subscribe to the 1-way and 2-way Messaging services. Both MyPMS and Channel Manager customers can subscribe to the AI Chat Bot service.
- When the Messaging is activated, a country will be required for all Guest's who have mobile numbers entered into a Booking (on the Booking Data tab). It is not required that a mobile number be provided for all bookings. But if one is, it must have the country selected.
- BookingCenter assumes that the country of your property is the 'default' country code for your mobile phone numbers, if one is not selected. You can order countries to appear in the list as you want them.
SMS Module
Key Concepts to Know About Messaging from BookingCenter
- Pricing: An SMS 'message' is always at least one segment. Each segment is 153 characters. If a Property writes a SMS that is 154 to 306 characters, that is a 2-segment message; 307 to 460 is 3 segments; and so forth. WhatsApp is different and has no restrictions on message length
- Messaging Sender Phone Number: All 1-way SMS messages will be sent from a BookingCenter number and that number is not unique to your business. Guests cannot reply to that number. If a Guest replies to the BookingCenter SMS number with a SMS response, we will auto-reply to the Guest with this message: "This is an Automated Service, we will do our best to forward your message to the property you are staying at", but we recommend you contact them directly" . For 2-way and AI Chat Bot services, BookingCenter will register you a unique telephone number that will be used for SMS and WhatsApp. If you already have a unique number for SMS and/or WhatsApp service, we can <usually> use that number, but we must check with our telco provider as not all phone numbers can be ported to our service.
- WhatsApp service. Meta (the company that owns WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, etc) has changing rules around service support. Basically, they have two tier software service: for properties under 20 rooms (WhatsApp Business) and for larger properties with 21+ rooms (WhatsApp Business Platform). In addition, Meta has rules for how many 'Business initiated' (ie, marketing and promotional) messages can be sent to guests vs 'Service' messages in total. And they have automated tools to check for compliance. It is outside BookingCenter's scope to inform and manage Meta's rules for our customers, so do the research and comply or loose the privilege of messaging for free via WhatsApp.
- Responses to 1-way Messages: BookingCenter will send via email all responses to a 1-way SMS that we can 'map' back to your property (we attempt do this via the phone number replying to our SMS - if we can identify it to your Guest and Booking, we know who to send the reply to). But BookingCenter makes no assurance that either failures or replies will be sent to your email.
- Responses to 2-way Messages: customers of this service will receive 'push notifications' of incoming messages, and messages will be viewable in the MyGuest Requests Dashboard, as well as the MyGuest tab of the booking in the PMS, and will notify the User(s) set up as part of the MyGuest iOS/Android app and at manage.bookingcenter.com.
- Responses to AI-Chat Bot Messages: guests using this service will receive immediate responses via the' chat bot' and they can copy/save their chat for later use and to 'resurrect' their past chat service.
- Failed Messages: BookingCenter will send via email all FAILURES to an SMS you send. Most often, this will be becuase you have either entered a wrong number, or formatted the mobile improperly. BookingCenter will email to the main email address we have on file the exact error so you can try a different method of communication.
An example of a failure email might be:- The message failed to send to because...Unable to create record: The 'To' number +1+17074681393 is not a valid phone number. This usually occurs because the mobile number or country code are wrong, so we recommend that you do not attempt to send again without correcting.
- Automated Messages: If you have set a Message to auto-send for Self-Checkin 'day of arrival', we will assume the Guest is in the time zone of the Property and send that SMS between 8 am and 10 pm of the time zone of the Property.
- Message Logging: For 1-way messaging, all 'outgoing' messages (and errors) are logged under the Letters tab of the Booking so you can review the messages that were sent as part of that booking. For 2-way messages, they can be viewed in the MyGuest tab of the booking and in the MyGuest iOS/Android app and at manage.bookingcenter.com.
MyGuest Integration: Automatic SMS messages that create MyGuest Request tickets:
- When a Self Checkin Letter Generated
- When SMS Messages are sent.
- When an e-Sign Letter is Generated
Overview
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