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Schedule messages to guests

Write one message for each stage of a stay, from booking confirmed to the review ask, and Otto prepares it for every stay on its day.

Updated 2026-10-24

For short-term units, Rentals can prepare the messages a host sends every stay: the booking confirmation, check-in details, a hello on arrival day, a mid-stay check, a checkout reminder and a thank-you that asks for a review. You write each message once. Otto fills it in for each stay and prepares it on its day.

Write your messages

  1. Open Rentals and choose the Messages tab.
  2. Each stage has its own message. Change the subject and the text, then press Save.
  3. For Before check-in and After checkout, pick how many days.
  4. Turn the switch on for each stage you want.

When each one is prepared:

  • Booking confirmed: when a new booking arrives. Bookings made before you switched it on are not greeted.
  • Before check-in: the number of days you pick before arrival, or later if the booking came in after that.
  • Morning of check-in: on the arrival day.
  • Mid-stay check: halfway through a stay of three nights or more.
  • Day before checkout: the day before checkout, for stays of two nights or more.
  • After checkout: the number of days you pick after checkout.

Messages are prepared from 9:00 in your business's time zone, never during the night. Each stage is prepared once for each stay, never twice.

Placeholders

Words in curly brackets are filled in from the stay and the unit. The list sits under the messages on the Messages tab. For example, {guest_first_name}, {unit}, {check_in_date}, {check_in_time}, {check_out_date}, {check_out_time}, {address}, {check_in_instructions}, {wifi_name}, {wifi_password}, {door_code}, {house_rules} and {guest_page}, the link to the stay's guest page.

A word Otto does not know is refused when you save, so a typo never reaches a guest.

Store each unit's guest details

  1. Open the unit.
  2. Under Guest details, fill in the check-in time, the door code, the wifi name and password, check-in instructions and house rules.
  3. Press Save.

Otto never makes up a door code or a password. If a message uses one that the unit has not stored, the message is held back and the stay says Blocked, with the detail that is missing. Once you add it, Otto prepares the message on its next pass.

How messages reach the guest

Each upcoming stay under Guest messages on the unit shows how its guest is reached:

  • Through Hostaway or Through Guesty: once you connect your channel manager (see how to connect Hostaway or Guesty), the message goes into that reservation's own conversation.
  • By email: for a stay read from a listing's calendar link, press Pick the guest's contact and choose them. The message is emailed to them.
  • If there is no way to reach the guest, the stay says so in a sentence. A calendar link carries no guest address, so Otto cannot message those guests until you pick their contact.

A guest who unsubscribed or whose address bounced is not emailed, and the stay says why.

Approving messages

Every message waits in Reviews until someone approves it. You can change its text there before it goes. To let scheduled messages go on their own, set Sending scheduled messages to rental guests to Auto under Settings → Rules.

If a stay is cancelled before its message is approved, approving it sends nothing and says the stay was cancelled.