Create and send custom automatic responses

Use Lodgify's Custom Automatic Responses to create custom messages and configure for each message when it should be sent and to whom. For example, you can configure a message that will automatically be sent 5 days before arrival to all guests who booked via Airbnb.

💡 Note: If you want to request information such as guest details, check-in time, and legal ID, you can also use the online check-in form.

Read about:

• Creating custom automatic responses
• Editing custom automatic responses
• Disabling and deleting custom automatic responses

⚠ Important: Custom automatic responses are always sent out in the timezone of the associated rental property and may take a few minutes to reach your guests.

Creating custom automatic responses

To create a custom automatic response, follow these steps:

1. Go to your Main Menu in the top left corner and select Settings.
2. In the sidebar menu, click on Custom automatic responses.
3. Click on the green Create custom automatic responses button.
   💡 Note: The button is in the top right corner of your screen if you have already created custom responses.
   
4. You will now see an empty response template. Start by adding a Name, so that you can always easily identify this custom automatic response, should you want to edit or review it later. 
5. Set the Schedule for when the response should be sent, by choosing the number of days before / after the guest's arrival / departure, and the time when you would like the response to arrive. 
6. Define for which bookings the custom automatic response should be sent:
   • Choose the Recipients:
     • the Guest;
     • the Rental Contact (the contact information set in the rental's Contact section);
     • the Account Contact (the information set in your My Account section).
       
   • Choose the Channels (= booking source) for which the automatic response should be sent. (For example, Airbnb and VRBO.)
     
     
   • Choose the Rentals.
     
7. Then create the message content using the rich text editor where you can insert pictures, hyperlinks, etc.. Here you can also use {{Messaging placeholders}} to insert booking/rental-specific information. Find here a list of placeholders and their use.
8. If you click on the three dots in the top-right corner of the editor, you can select to send test email. This generates an example of what your email looks like when sent out to a guest. The test email will be sent to the account owner's email address.

💡 Notes:

• To send the same message to multiple recipients, you will need to configure the automatic response separately for each. For example, to send the same message to guests who booked through two different channels, create the automatic response twice, using the same Recipient and Content, but varying Channels.
• If you offer your website in multiple languages, be sure to create your custom automatic responses for each of your offered languages. To do so, simply save the content of a custom automatic response in one language, and then select the next language from the Languages drop-down in the same response template.
• Adding a custom automatic response does not override existing automatic responses.

Editing custom automatic responses

Once you have created a custom automatic response, you can always edit it. To edit a response:

1. Go to your Main Menu in the top left corner and select Settings.
2. In the sidebar menu, you will see a section Messaging, here you need to click on Custom automatic responses.
3. Locate the custom automatic response you want to edit, and click on the little pencil icon next to it.
   

Disabling and Deleting custom automatic responses

Newly created custom automatic responses are by default enabled (= turned on). If you do not want a custom automatic response to be sent out, you can disable it by switching the lever to the left. You can always turn the automatic response back on again by switching the lever back to the right.

To permanently delete a custom automatic response, click on the little pencil icon. Once you are on the message template, click on the three dots in the top-right corner of the editor, and select Delete automatic response.

💡 Note: Deleted custom automatic responses cannot be restored.