Messages is your inbox for guest conversations. Every booking has exactly one conversation, so you always see the full history with a guest next to the stay it belongs to.
How Guest Messages Arrive
Guests do not need an account to write to you. There are two ways a message reaches your inbox:
- From the guest portal: Every confirmed booking comes with a private link to the booking. Guests open it and write to you from there.
- By email: Guests can reply to the booking emails they receive from you. Their reply lands in the matching conversation instead of a personal mailbox.
Either way, the message shows up in the same thread — you do not have to switch tools.
Conversation List
The left column lists all conversations, newest activity first.
Each entry shows:
- Guest: Name of the guest
- Preview: First line of the most recent message
- Date: When the last message arrived
- Property: Which accommodation the booking belongs to
- Booking status: Upcoming, Active, Past or Cancelled
- Unread marker: A dot on entries you have not opened yet
Filter
Property: Show only conversations for one accommodation, or all of them.
Booking status: Upcoming, Active, Past, Cancelled — or all.
Unread only: Hides everything you have already read.
When you open Messages, the first unread conversation is selected automatically. If everything is read, the most recent conversation opens.
Urgent Flag
Some conversations carry a small red dot next to the guest name. It means the latest guest message was flagged as urgent — typically something that reads as time-critical.
The flag is a hint for you and nothing more. It does not change the booking, does not notify anyone, and does not trigger any action. You decide what to do with it.
Reading and Replying
Open a conversation to see the full history. The header shows the guest name, booking status, property, stay dates and — if provided — the guest's phone number.
Each message is labelled with how it arrived:
- Dashboard: Written here, or sent by the guest from the guest portal
- Email: Sent or received by email
Sending a Reply
Write
Type your reply in the box at the bottom of the conversation.
Send
Press Enter to send, or use the send button. Shift + Enter inserts a line break instead of sending.
Delivered
Your reply reaches the guest by email and stays in the conversation, so the whole history remains in one place.
Conversations for stays that are over or cancelled are marked as archived. You can still read them and still reply — nothing is locked.
Reply Suggestions
When a guest has written to you, Stayoa can prepare a suggested reply based on the conversation so far. It appears above the compose box as a suggestion, never as a sent message.
You have two options:
- Insert: Puts the suggested text into the compose box, where you can edit it freely before sending
- Dismiss: Hides the suggestion
Nothing is ever sent without you pressing send.
There is also an optional automatic reply, configured per property from the button in the conversation header. It is switched off by default.
→ Message Assist for reply suggestions and automatic replies in detail
Unread Count
The number of unread conversations also appears on your Open Items page, so you notice new guest messages without opening the inbox.
Related Pages
- Manage Bookings – Booking details, guest access and cancellation
- Open Items – Everything open at a glance