Your guests can now tell you how they want to be reached. Add a channel preference question to a digital reception form and the guest picks email, SMS, or WhatsApp. Bookboost saves that choice on their profile, and when you switch on channel preference for a campaign or broadcast, it sends through the channel the guest asked for, falling back to your usual order only if that channel cannot be used.
What it does
Channel preference works in two parts: capture and honour.
You capture the preference through a digital reception form. When you add a channel preference question, the guest sees the channels you have chosen to offer, from email, SMS, and WhatsApp, and picks one. Their answer is stored on their profile, so you only need to ask once.
You honour the preference in a campaign or broadcast. When Prioritise guests channel preference is switched on and the guest's chosen channel is one of the channels that campaign is using, Bookboost sends to that guest through their chosen channel first. Your own channel order still applies to everyone else.
That order is also the fallback for the guest, used when their chosen channel cannot be reached, for example when the guest has not opted in to it, you do not hold a number or address for it, or the message fails to send.
If you already sync a guest's channel preference from your PMS, for example Mews, campaigns honour that synced value in the same way. You do not need to add the form question as well, though you can.
How to set this up?
To capture channel preference on a form:
Open the digital reception form you want to change, in the form builder.
2. Add a Channel Preference block. There are two versions, radio buttons and a dropdown; choose whichever suits the form.
3. Choose which channels to offer: email, SMS, WhatsApp, or any combination of the three.
4. Save and publish the form as usual.
To honour channel preference in a campaign or broadcast:
Open the campaign or broadcast in the editor.
Switch on Prioritise guests channel preference.
Make sure the channels you want to prioritise are among the channels the campaign is already set to use. Channel preference only affects channels the campaign is sending on.
The Channel Preference blocks are being rolled out gradually. If you do not see them in your form builder yet, contact support.
What this does not do
Channel preference is off by default on existing campaigns. It only takes effect once you switch on Prioritise guests channel preference for each campaign or broadcast that should use it.
The form question offers email, SMS, and WhatsApp only. There is no free-text option and no other channels. If a value other than these three reaches the field, it is ignored rather than saved.
There is no screen yet for viewing or editing a guest's channel preference directly on their profile. Today it is set through the form question or synced from your PMS.
Common questions
A guest chose WhatsApp, but the campaign still went out by email. Check three things: that Prioritise guests channel preference is switched on for that campaign, that WhatsApp is one of the channels the campaign is using, and that the guest is reachable on WhatsApp (opted in, with a number on file). If any of these is missing, Bookboost falls back to your configured channel order.
Do I need to switch this on for every campaign? Yes. The toggle is per campaign and per broadcast, and it is off by default on existing ones.
We sync channel preference from Mews. Do we still need the form question? No. If your PMS feeds the value, your campaigns honour it once the toggle is on. Use the form question when you want to capture the preference directly from guests instead.
What if a guest never answers the question? They have no stored preference, so your campaigns reach them using your configured channel order, exactly as before.
Getting help
Open Talk to Us in the left menu, or email support@bookboost.io. Include the campaign or form in question and what you expected to happen.