Spend ten minutes in r/AirBnB or r/ShortTermRentals and you will see the same question over and over: “What are you all using to message guests?” The answers vary by tool, but the reasoning behind them is remarkably consistent. Hosts are not chasing features for their own sake. They want to stop re-typing the same five messages, and they want those messages to actually get read.
Here is the consensus, grouped the way hosts actually talk about it.
What hosts are really optimizing for
Across threads, the same priorities come up:
- Automation tied to the booking. The message should fire off the reservation itself, not a reminder you set by hand.
- Personalization that does not feel robotic. Name, property, dates, check-in details, filled in automatically.
- A sequence, not a single blast. Booking confirmation, pre-arrival instructions, a check-in nudge, a mid-stay check, a checkout note, a review request.
- A channel guests open. This is the one that quietly decides everything, and we come back to it below.
- Reasonable price and a setup you finish in an afternoon.
The categories hosts recommend
All-in-one PMS with built-in messaging. Tools like Smoobu, Lodgify, Guesty, and Hostaway handle your calendar, channels, and automated messages in one place. Hosts with several listings lean here because everything lives together. The tradeoff hosts mention: the messaging is solid but it usually goes out over the Airbnb inbox or email.
Messaging-focused automators. Some hosts add a dedicated tool purely to orchestrate message timing and templates. These do the sequencing well, but again, the delivery channel is typically the platform inbox or email.
Channel-specific delivery. This is where the recurring Reddit gripe turns into a category of its own. Hosts repeatedly report that guests skim the Airbnb app, ignore email, and miss the exact message that would have prevented a 11pm “how do I get in” call. The fix hosts reach for is WhatsApp, because guests already live there and open rates are far higher than email.
Where the channel decides the outcome
You can automate a perfect five-message sequence and still lose if it lands somewhere guests do not look. That is the honest reason WhatsApp keeps coming up. It is not a different message, it is the same message somewhere guests actually read it.
That is the specific job Notify My Guest does. It connects to the PMS you already run and turns every confirmed booking into a personalized WhatsApp welcome from your own number, then covers every follow-up after that. You keep your PMS for the calendar and channels, and close the “guests missed it” gap on the part that matters most.
How to choose for your setup
- One or two listings, want simple: start with your PMS messaging, then add WhatsApp delivery if guests keep missing things.
- Several listings, operations-first: keep the PMS as your hub and layer WhatsApp on top for the guest-facing messages.
- Direct bookings in the mix: you will want messaging that works no matter where the booking came from, not just Airbnb.
Want the messages guests actually read? Start your 14-day free trial and send your next booking a WhatsApp welcome automatically. No credit card required.
