You set up Guesty's automated messages so guests would stop asking what you already told them. They still write in with questions the messages did not answer, and your team replies one by one, often at the worst hour.
The messages are working as designed: they send on a plan. A guest does not follow your plan. This guide covers how to structure Guesty's automated messages so they are easy to maintain, and what to do about the questions that fall outside them.
A note on sources. Guesty's help center blocks automated reading, so the product facts below come from Guesty's own public feature pages, checked on 2026-10-02. For exact triggers, variables and plan limits, check your own account or ask Guesty.
What Guesty says its automated messaging does
On its unified inbox page, Guesty describes scheduled messages that "deliver essential information at exactly the right moment", saved replies as "ready-made, customizable templates to set up auto-messages", and "digital access codes and automated reminders". On its automation page, it says Guesty "automatically sends check-in instructions and digital forms as soon as a reservation is confirmed", and describes combining AI with "rule-based workflows for control, reliability, and scale".
That is a solid base for the predictable part of a stay: confirmation, arrival details, access, a mid-stay check, checkout and a review request.
Structuring automated messages so they stay maintainable
These are working practices, not Guesty documentation. Apply them with whatever fields and triggers your account offers.
1. Map the stay first. List the moments in a stay where every guest needs something: booking, a few days before arrival, arrival day, the first evening, checkout day, after the stay. One message per moment, not one per question.
2. Keep the facts in one place per unit. Wi-Fi, parking, trash, quiet hours and access instructions are unit facts. Store them as per-unit values the message reads, so a change is made once. If you paste them into thirty message copies, the next change will leave twenty-nine of them wrong.
3. Write short, one topic per message. A single long arrival message gets skimmed. Separate topics when guests need the information at different times, and give each message one clear purpose.
4. Say what the message does not cover. End with a plain line: "Questions about the stay? Reply here and our team will answer." It sets the expectation that replies are welcome and read.
5. Test on your own booking. Make a test reservation, or use a real upcoming one, and read the messages exactly as a guest would, on the channel the guest uses. Check that names, dates and codes fill in correctly.
6. Audit monthly. Open the messages that went out last month and ask: did any state a fact that is no longer true, and did any trigger a reply asking for what the message should have said? Each "yes" is an edit.
What scheduled messages cannot answer
A schedule answers the question you expected. These come from the guest's own situation:
- "We land at 2:30. Can we get in earlier?"
- "The code is not working."
- "Can we bring a second dog?"
- "Is the unit next door loud? We have a baby."
- "Can we extend by a night?"
Some depend on a house rule. Some depend on whether the turnover is finished. Some belong to a person. For two weeks, tally each question that arrives after an automated message went out, and sort it: a unit fact (put it in the message), a question about the state of the stay (needs the booking and the turnover), or a decision for a person. Only the first group is a template problem.
Illustrative example
This scenario is illustrative, not a customer story. Your arrival message went out yesterday with check-in at 4 p.m. and the access code. At 9 a.m. the guest writes: "We land at 2:30. Is early check-in possible?"
The scheduled message cannot answer. The unit was occupied last night, and checkout is scheduled for 11 a.m. A reply that repeats "check-in opens at 4 p.m." is true and unhelpful. A reply that reads the booking and the turnover, says the team will confirm once the clean is done, and passes the question to a person with the arrival time attached does not promise what the operation cannot deliver.
How InnSync answers the rest
InnSync is the operations layer alongside your PMS. Carmen, InnSync's AI agent, answers from the booking, the unit and your house rules, and hands anything unusual to a person with the stay details. You choose, per channel, whether she replies on her own or drafts for review. The routine behind it covers cleaning confirmed with photo proof, check-in requirements, and exceptions routed to the right teammate.
Keep your scheduled messages for the predictable moments. InnSync covers what arrives between them.
If you use Guesty
InnSync connects to Guesty; reservations, units and guests arrive from it.
See InnSync for Guesty.