Hotel guests expect more than clean rooms and quick check-ins. Guests want service that understands their preferences and feels human, even when it’s digital.
Guest messaging via mobile platforms is the most powerful way to initiate personalized conversations with guests. A 2025 report from Cloudbeds found 70% of guests prefer communicating with hotels through digital channels, such as live chat, Whatsapp, SMS, and Facebook Messenger.
This shift to mobile-first experiences has never been more prevalent. “Over 50% of all hotel bookings happen on mobile devices, especially among younger travelers,” reports Filipe Machaz, GuestCentric Co-Founder & VP of North America Operations.
Integrating personalization practices such as hotel guest messaging into standard hospitality services can make providing high-quality service an easy and intuitive process.
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Hotel guest messaging is direct, real-time communication between a property and its guests across channels like SMS, WhatsApp, in-app chat, and social media. Today’s systems unify all messages into a single platform, which streamlines guests’ ability to ask questions, make requests, or share feedback from their mobile device anytime.
Hotel guests often have specific inquiries or requests that require urgent attention. Through hotel guest messaging, guests can contact hotel staff quickly, helping them resolve issues in a timely fashion.
Meanwhile, hotel staff can deliver clear and concise messages about specific situations at a moment’s notice with guest messaging software. Plus, hotel marketing and personalization efforts are far more intuitive and easy to communicate with hotel guest messaging.
Hotels now connect with guests through a variety of messaging platforms, each tailored to convenience and personal preference. The guest journey spans SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and chat channels built into hotel apps. The best systems blend these conversations into a unified inbox, so staff can respond seamlessly whether a message comes from social media, email, or a direct text.
Text remains a direct and highly personal way to reach guests. People expect speedy answers to questions like room requests, breakfast times, or local recommendations. In 2025, hotels using automated text messaging can see open rates as high as 98% (substantially higher than email) and response rates averaging 45%, positioning text as one of the most engaging marketing channels.
Guest messaging today isn’t limited to old-fashioned texts. Engaging with guests via social media platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are increasingly preferred, especially among international travelers and younger guests. With encryption and easy multimedia sharing, guests can quickly communicate, ask for amenities, or get travel tips in the same way they talk to friends. Instagram DM and WeChat are popular as well, depending on location and traveler profile.
Email still plays a vital role in more formal communication and long-form updates. Hotels send confirmations, personalized offers, and detailed itineraries. Email remains the best format for attaching key documents or images, like e-tickets or local area maps, and outperforms all other channels in terms of direct ROI at $36 return per dollar spent.
Custom messaging embedded in hotel apps or booking engines lets guests interact with staff, check amenities, and receive curated suggestions. These platforms often integrate with hotel loyalty programs and can remember guest preferences for future stays.
The latest interactive platforms use smart devices and in-room tablets to give guests easy control—order room service, adjust settings, and chat directly with staff without ever leaving the room. Messaging tools integrated into these systems create true “on-demand hospitality,” powering everything from one-touch requests to personalized local recommendations.
A hotel’s guest messaging toolbox is about flexibility and speed. Combining these channels gives each guest the freedom to communicate however and whenever suits them best, making every stay feel both effortless and personal.
There are many situations in which hotel guest messaging proves invaluable. Here are five of the most impactful. Each provides an opportunity to deliver services, gather feedback, and offer a more personalized stay.
Upon arriving at their hotel, guests may be tired or stressed. A welcome message can make guests feel seen and appreciated, conveying a sense of warmth and hospitality. These messages can also provide critical logistical information such as check-in details, unique amenities, and room features, eliminating the need for guests to find this information themselves.
Hotels can tailor welcome messages based on customer information and preferences. For example, if a particular guest has expressed interest in hotel dining, hotels can include special restaurant offers as part of their welcome messaging. This direct, specific marketing increases the chances guests will use hotel services.
Birthdays, anniversaries, family reunions: these are a few of the special occasions guests may be celebrating while staying at a hotel. By leveraging customer data to provide direct, personal messaging, hotels can celebrate these celebrations with a personal touch — acknowledging a guests’ unique life experiences and personalities while building a rapport that transcends typical interactions between businesses and their customers.
Hotels can also use celebration messages to suggest specific services and amenities to guests. For instance, a message congratulating a couple on their anniversary can also include a special offer for the hotel restaurant. Altogether, messages celebrating special occasions can both make guests feel welcomed at your property and lead to direct ROI.
Service and upsell messages during a guest’s stay have evolved into a dynamic, data-driven strategy. Hotels use messaging platforms to send targeted offers based on guest behaviors and preferences—think last-minute spa appointments when a guest has free time, or a reminder about a rooftop happy hour just as guests return from meetings. Upsell messages are crafted using insights from property management software and CRM systems, ensuring each recommendation feels relevant. Hoteliers can launch timely campaigns for upgrades, late check-outs, and in-room dining directly through SMS, WhatsApp, or in-app chat.
In 2025,”properties using messaging-based upsells are seeing a lift in ancillary revenue of 10–15% on average,” says Jordan Hollander, Co-founder of HotelTechReport. “While individual results vary, reviewing current ROI benchmarks by region or segment is a smart way to set expectations and prioritize feature sets.”
The guest experience benefits too. Instead of generic offers, guests receive alerts about local tours or family activities that fit their travel profile. Picture a business traveler getting a midweek “need to unwind?” message with a discounted yoga class, or a family receiving a tailored invite to a kids’ club event. These interactions show genuine attention to guest interests, driving satisfaction and excess value for the hotel in both the moment and future bookings.
Hotels can bid guests farewell with direct messaging. Staff can thank guests for their time and patronage, providing a unique, personal touch that further develops their connection. Such a measure leaves a lasting, positive impression on the guests, increasing their chance of returning to the hotel.
Hotels can also provide helpful departure-related information and special deals and packages for guests. For instance, if a guest needs fast, speedy transportation to a local airport, hotel staff can connect them with a local taxi or rideshare service with whom they partner. Guests will also appreciate having ready access to critical details such as their check-out time.
Farewell messages are also the perfect space for hotels to solicit feedback and reviews. It’s far more likely that a guest will complete a short survey or provide a comment if they can do it from a text or email window.
Regardless of the quality of your property, no hotel is immune to the occasional mishap. Whether a specific room they requested is unavailable or they share concerns about a particular experience, direct messaging from a hotel to their guests provides a convenient way to deliver an apology. Apologizing to guests for specific inconveniences shows that the hotel cares about their well-being — putting them in a better mood and increasing the chance of conflict resolution.
In-person customer service often requires guests to find hotel staff first, making them leave their rooms or disrupt their activities. Direct messaging avoids disruption to the guest’s plans and occurs in real time, demonstrating a degree of responsiveness that would otherwise be impossible to achieve. Additionally, through messaging, hotels can send additional personnel as needed.
Harnessing messaging at these touchpoints helps hotels move beyond generic interactions, creating connections that feel timely, thoughtful, and distinctly personal.
Here’s a look at some of the best hotel guest messaging software options. These platforms help hotels engage guests before, during, and after their stay. driving satisfaction and revenue with smart, streamlined communication:
Canary simplifies and centralizes guest communication with automated messaging, check-in/check-out notifications, and real-time feedback tools. Its platform is easy to integrate with property management systems and helps hotels reduce staff workload while elevating guest service.
This guest messaging platform specializes in personalization, allowing hotels to send targeted offers, automated upsell messages, and tailored travel recommendations across SMS, WhatsApp, and email. Duve also handles mobile check-in, guest journey automation, and rich guest profiling for true one-to-one communication.
HiJiffy delivers multilingual AI chat, voice assistants, and real-time omnichannel messaging (including website chat, WhatsApp, and Instagram). With deep integration into hotel systems, it boosts engagement, automates upsell offers, and powers fast responses—helping collect reviews and upsell amenities.
Akia uses AI-powered chatbots to answer common guest questions instantly over SMS and WhatsApp, automating everything from FAQs to amenity bookings. Its smart automation helps hotels manage reviews and feedback while freeing up staff for higher-touch service.
Alliants stands out for luxury and large properties with a premium omnichannel messaging suite, built-in sentiment analysis, and support for over 100 languages. Its unified platform centralizes conversation threads, integrates with loyalty programs, and gives leadership instant insight into guest mood and service gaps.
The Connect Messaging platform built into the Monscierge software suite is renowned for secure, patent-backed communication linking guests and hotel staff by SMS, app, or kiosk. The unified dashboard supports both guest messaging and operations coordination, reducing handoff errors and improving the guest journey.
This platform is an AI-powered SMS and webchat solution with predictive personalization, automated service fulfillment, and booking assistance. Major brands use Revinate Ivy to increase upsell conversions and streamline pre-arrival, in-stay, and post-stay communication.
HelloShift connects guests and staff through SMS, WhatsApp, Messenger, and email, enabling two-way messaging as well as collaboration among staff. Automation, scheduled messaging, and integrated task management make it popular for properties focused on operational efficiency.
Bookboost brings CRM functions together with chat-based messaging, supporting multilingual guests via text, email, and app. Strong automation for confirmations, service requests, and real-time offers makes it valuable for hotels looking to boost engagement and conversion.
Integrating directly with Cloudbeds PMS, Whistle provides a comprehensive messaging hub for texts, emails, and chats across the entire guest journey. Automated pre-arrival and feedback workflows save time and create a smoother experience for guests and teams alike.
Selecting the right platform means considering feature set, integration needs, guest demographics, and pricing. Each of these tools brings distinct strengths, ensuring hoteliers can find a solution that fits their brand and their guests.
Connecting with guests starts with a strong digital foundation. Today’s travelers expect smooth, instant communication—on any device, anywhere on the property. That level of service relies on having reliable, high-speed WiFi.
Blueprint RF’s hotel network solutions make guest messaging effortless and interruption-free. With always-on connectivity, hotels can deliver timely answers, proactive service, and the kind of personalized touch that keeps guests coming back. Contact Blueprint RF to learn more.
