WhatsApp sits alongside SMS and email in both the Unified Inbox and your campaigns, but it does not behave like either. It is conversational, guests reply to it, and Meta's rules mean the cost and the freedom of a message depend entirely on who spoke last. Building your guest journey around that is what separates a channel guests engage with from one they block.
The 24-hour window shapes everything
If a guest messages your property first, you can reply freely for 24 hours. Outside that window, anything you send has to use a template Meta has pre-approved, and it carries a per-message cost.
That single rule drives most of the decisions below: why QR codes in rooms are worth putting up, why template approval has to happen before you plan a campaign, and why a missed reply is more expensive than it looks.
Setting the channel up
Set your channel priority in campaign settings: WhatsApp first, SMS second, email as the fallback. This gets you the widest reach without sending the same thing three times.
Build your journeys under Campaigns > Journey. For OTA guests, a trigger around two hours after booking catches them while the reservation is still fresh.
Segment the audience on first-time versus returning, length of stay, rate codes, or corporate agreements, so nobody gets messages meant for a different kind of guest.
Tell guests you may contact them on WhatsApp, in your OTA listing or booking confirmation, for example in your Booking.com privacy notice.
Put QR codes in the rooms linking to your WhatsApp Business number. A guest-initiated conversation opens the 24-hour window and costs nothing outbound.
Where WhatsApp works in the journey
Post-booking welcome to OTA guests, roughly two hours after the reservation.
Pre-arrival essentials: parking, shuttle, breakfast times, check-in and check-out.
Time-sensitive upsells such as room upgrades or late check-out.
In-stay support, handled by a bot or by an Operator.
Post-stay feedback after check-out.
Guest-initiated questions from the QR codes in the rooms.
Automating with the AI bot
The Bookboost AI bot is a paid add-on that answers incoming WhatsApp messages, trained on your property's FAQs, policies, and services.
Match the bot's tone to your brand. A guest should feel they are talking to your team.
Define escalation rules so complaints and complex requests are handed to a person.
Expect it to handle the routine, not everything. The bot is there to take the repeated questions off your team, not to replace them on anything that needs judgement.
Adapting it by guest type
Non-OTA guests. A richer pre-arrival email works alongside the WhatsApp touchpoints, carrying upsell detail that does not fit a short message.
Corporate and long-stay guests. Send less, and make what you do send specific to them.
Everyone else. Rate codes and guest tags are what you build the segments from.
What this does not do
Template approval is not instant. Meta takes anywhere from a few hours to several days. Plan campaigns around that rather than waiting on it.
Outbound messages cost money. Anything sent outside the 24-hour window is charged per message, so frequency has a direct budget effect.
Too many messages damage the channel itself. Guests who block your number lower your WhatsApp Business account health score, which affects delivery for everyone else.
Some OTAs mask guest phone numbers. Those bookings may not be reachable on WhatsApp at all, which is why email needs to stay in the fallback chain.
What to do next
See Best practices for SMS and WhatsApp for the consent, timing, and copy rules that apply to both channels, and Send a WhatsApp campaign via the Inbox for sending a campaign inside a live conversation.
Getting help
Open Talk to Us in the left menu of the platform, or email support@bookboost.io.