Everything Haven sends around a stay, and everything it does on its own, lives on one page: Communication → Message automations (/host?tab=messages&msgView=booking). It is drawn as one timeline — inquiry and request to book first, then booked, the days before arrival, check-in, the stay, checkout, after — with each message on the day it goes out and each automatic action (a refundable hold placed, the balance charged, arrival details unlocking, a door code going live) on the day it happens. Haven's own messages, the ones you added, your PMS's relayed automations, AI replies, and your messages to your team are all on it. When instant book is on for every listing (or the one listing you picked), the request to book row is left off; inquiries stay, since a guest can still send one.
Message automations are not marketing. Use this page for anything about a stay. Marketing → Campaigns is for promotional mail (broadcasts, win-back, Smart offers) to your audience; the link at the end of the timeline takes you there.
- Top: the switches. One bar at the top holds the master Automated guest messages switch and its state — Paused, how many kinds of message are on, or Needs a paid plan. Permissions opens the switch for each kind, grouped Direct bookings and {your PMS} bookings (or Airbnb bookings when no PMS is connected). Each group shows a logo: your small logo on Direct bookings, or Haven's mark if you have not added one, and your PMS's logo on the other (Airbnb's when none is connected). Allow Haven to push your custom automations to your OTA bookings sits under the second group when a PMS supports it. They are the same switches as Settings → Account → Guest communications; turning one on shows what will start sending first. Account-wide settings, beside the state, opens that page: pause every automated guest message at once, and see the few that send whatever the switches say. Stays booked on your Haven site send Haven's messages on any paid plan. Choosing Draft or Send lifts Automated guest messages and turns AI replies on. Choosing Draft or Send lifts the pause so categories already switched on can go out. To keep messages held, leave the bar on Paused and set AI replies to Off. Only Off keeps the pause. Do not set Draft while the bar stays Paused.
- Stays. Choose Direct bookings or {your PMS} bookings (shown as Airbnb bookings when you have no PMS connected). The timeline changes to show only what reaches that kind of stay.
- Lanes. Guest + team shows guest messages on the left and messages to your cleaner, concierge and you on the right. Pick Guest or Team to see one.
- Listings. With more than one listing, open Viewing All listings, just to the right of the stay and lane tabs, and pick one to see that listing's real journey. While one listing is chosen, a dark bar stays pinned to the top of the tab as you scroll to remind you that listing settings you change apply to that listing only; switch listings from its picker, or click Show all listings to go back. Its own settings move or rule out steps — its guidebook reminder days, when its arrival details unlock, whether it asks for an agreement or a refundable hold — and steps it never sends are shown faded with the reason. On All listings, a step that differs somewhere says Varies on N listings. Click it to see which listings differ and how — not sent and why, switched off for that listing, sent on another day, its own version, a different amount or setting — and click a listing in that list to see its journey. With one listing picked, a message card's switch turns that message on or off for that listing only, its timing saves for that listing only (Use account timing puts the account's back), and clicking a channel opens that listing's own version.
- Properties. Each message card has a Properties 3/5 button at the bottom right: how many of your listings it sends on. A dot on it means some listings have their own version. Click it to open a side panel listing every property with its photo. Untick a property to stop that message for its stays, including ones already scheduled; tick it to put it back. A property where the message never sends (instant book on, no refundable hold) says why. Edit beside a property opens the message set to that property, and Own version marks the ones you have already changed. A message that is off for every listing has to be switched on on its card first.
- Each property's own version. Open a message for one property (from Edit in the Properties panel, or by clicking a channel while one listing is picked) and the dialog's Editing pill names that property. What you change there — the email's subject, preview line and body, the text or WhatsApp wording, and the booking-thread wording — is that property's own version; every other property keeps the version for All properties. Switch the pill back to All properties to edit that one. In the full email editor, Reset to default on a property's version puts it back on the version for all properties. Letterhead, brand and which channels are on stay the same for every property.
- Each card says what the message is, who wrote it (Haven, Yours, Your PMS, AI), when it goes, and which channels carry it: Email, Text, WhatsApp, Booking thread. On Direct bookings, the booking thread is the guest's messages in their Haven guidebook. On {your PMS} bookings, it is the Airbnb, Vrbo or PMS conversation, and it only appears when your PMS lets Haven post there (Guesty, Hospitable, Hostfully, Lodgify, and other connections that support it — not OwnerRez or Hostaway). A filled channel is on. Each channel carries a pencil: click it to open that channel's wording, preview and switch. A channel with a dashed outline is on but cannot send yet — hover it for why.
- What reaches PMS guests. On {your PMS} bookings a step offers Email, Text and, where your PMS allows it, Booking thread — never WhatsApp, which Haven only sends to direct guests who agreed to it. The text goes to the phone number your PMS shares for the guest; no texting checkbox is needed, because that checkbox is part of Haven checkout. It reaches the same stays the step's email does: stays you opted into Haven's guest messages, with that kind of message switched on under Permissions. On OwnerRez bookings, a note at the top says Haven cannot post in the OwnerRez booking thread, and steps offer Guidebook instead: the step's message is posted in the guest's guidebook messages. Guidebook uses the same switch and wording as the direct-booking thread.
- Forks. A step that can end several ways — a request to book, an ID check, a refundable hold, a guest form — shows its outcomes under it rather than as separate automations.
- Whenever this happens. Everything that answers something rather than a day of the stay has its own section under the timeline, one row for each thing that sets messages off. The row's name is on the left, then what your guest gets under Guest and what your team gets under Team and you, as on the timeline — so one row shows everyone who hears about a cancellation. Every card reads the same way: the message, what sets it off underneath, its switch and status, and its actions along the bottom. In each column, what already sends comes first and Recommended cards after it.
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Messages — your replies from the inbox (Saved replies opens your saved replies), follow-ups you chained after them, your AI assistant answering on PMS and OTA stays (Choose per PMS sets draft or send), and your PMS's own automations relayed to Haven-site guests (Choose per PMS picks both or Haven only). Choosing Draft or Send lifts Automated guest messages and turns AI replies on. Choosing Draft or Send lifts the pause so categories already switched on can go out. To keep messages held, leave the bar on Paused and set AI replies to Off. Only Off keeps the pause. Do not set Draft while the bar stays Paused. On the team side, Pass on repairs guests report.
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Events — Stay cancelled, Dates or guests change, You issue a refund, Dates taken before payment cleared, A co-traveler is added, You approve a guide request. Under the event's name is what it does to the rest (a cancellation stops everything scheduled; a date change moves it). Haven's notice to your team sits on the same row: Job cancelled beside the cancellation, New time, please confirm beside a date change.
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Money and things guests ask for — every other email Haven sends a guest for you has a row here too, each with its switch and Edit email:
- You give a stay credit — Stay credit, the card with its code. Switch it off to give credits without emailing them, for example a credit your team spends on the guest's tab at checkout. The Give a stay credit dialog can also skip or send the email for one credit; see Give a Stay Credit.
- A guest buys a gift card — Gift card, and A credit or gift card has value left over — Balance on a new code.
- Extras go on the guest's tab — Added to the guest's tab, Tab payment needs the guest, Tab receipt.
- A guest asks for or buys an add-on — Add-on quote, Add-on approved or declined, Add-on payment needs the guest, Add-on purchase receipt, Extra nights refunded.
- You move a reservation to Haven payments — the card request and reminder, Request for a new card, Balance about to be charged, the balance receipt, Balance payment needs the guest, and the cancellation refund.
- The guest signs your rental agreement — Signed rental agreement copy, with the PDF attached. A guest asks for a printable guidebook — Printable guidebook copy; switched off, the guidebook stops offering to email one.
Their wording is yours to edit, and the amounts, items, codes and links in them are filled in for each guest. Until you edit them, the signed agreement copy and the printable guidebook go out in the guest's own language.
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Jobs and schedules — only your team hears about these, so the cards fill the row: a card for each message Haven sends your team about a job, your team automations started by a job or a schedule, and New team automation.
Alongside the messages, the journey shows each thing Haven does by itself during a stay. These cards have a small icon tile on the left instead of channel chips, and sit first on their day, ahead of the messages about them. Click the timing line (a pencil appears when you hover it) to change when it happens; click a chip to change what it holds. On All listings, a listing setting saves to every listing (the button says so), and the switch asks before it changes every listing; pick one listing to change just that one.
- Unanswered request expires (after the request) — on listings with instant book off, a request you have not answered is declined after the hours you choose. The chip sets whether the dates are held meanwhile. Account-wide.
- Guest pays in full / Guest pays N% at booking (booked) — the chip switches between full payment and a deposit plus balance; a split needs both the percent and the day. Balance charged to the saved card then sits on its day before check-in; switching it off goes back to full payment. Haven-site bookings.
- Refundable hold placed on the card (before check-in) and Hold released (after checkout) — the hold's timing, amount and what happens on long stays, and how long after checkout it is released unless you file a claim. A listing whose PMS sets the deposit keeps its own amount. Airbnb, Vrbo and PMS guests who are asked for a deposit in the guidebook show as Guest adds a deposit card in the guidebook.
- Arrival details unlock in the guidebook — Wi-Fi, door code and directions, the days before check-in you choose.
- Door code starts / stops working and Thermostat warms up / back to eco — with a smart lock or thermostat connected: the minutes before check-in time and after checkout time. The switch turns automatic codes (or the climate schedule) on or off. On All listings this also updates your Smart devices defaults.
- Free cancellation ends / N% refund window ends — one card per refund tier of your cancellation policy. Click its timing line to open the policy: the listing's own on one listing, or the policy for every listing on All listings.
- Guest screened and stay protected — Truvi Screen & Protect on synced stays, when Truvi is set up.
- Loyalty points become spendable and Guidebook asks how the stay was — at checkout, each with its switch.
- Your payout is released (team lane, 24 hours after check-in, always on) and Turnover clean due (team lane, at checkout; Set up or Manage opens Tasks → Setup).
- On or off. The switch on the card. Haven's steps are switched off as a whole: the text and booking-thread copies only go when the step does. You can switch off any message Haven sends on its own, including the ones every booking leans on: the confirmation, request and inquiry replies, payment reminders, pre-arrival steps and ID-check results, hold and claim notices, cancellations and refunds, the guidebook at booking, and the money notices under Whenever this happens (gift cards, credit balances, tab and add-on payments and receipts, moved-reservation payments). Switching one of those off asks first. It says what guests will stop getting and what to set up in your PMS so they still hear it. While it is off, its row is tinted red and marked Guests won't get this; open it and hover that label for the PMS step.
- Off folds away. Anything you switch off — a message, something Haven does, a send to your team — folds into one thin row with its name, when it would happen and Off, so the journey shows what still happens. Click the row to open the card: change it, or switch it back on. The arrow at its top right folds it away again. Only the emails that carry something a person sent show Always on: your inbox replies, your inquiry replies, your guide-access approvals, and a guest's co-traveler invitation.
- Greyed out: a switch at the top stops it. While Automated guest messages is paused, or the kind of message a card belongs to is off under Permissions (for example Guidebook or Other stay messages for {your PMS} bookings), every card it stops is greyed out, rows that are already off included. The line under the card says which switch, and hovering the card shows the same. Turn on at the top scrolls up, opens Permissions and highlights the switch (and the master switch when that is off too). The card's own switch still works, so you can set a step up before you turn its kind of message on. Cards that still send while paused stay as they are: Haven's own messages on direct bookings on a paid plan, and what Haven does by itself in the guidebook. On a free plan the cards say See plans instead.
- What a listing changes. A step a listing cannot send is faded with the reason (no refundable hold, no agreement or ID check, Instant book on). A step that still sends, but differently, says so under its name: Check-in instructions (1 day before) on a listing with no instructions written yet skips its email but still sends the guidebook link by text, and in the booking thread if you switched that on; on the {PMS name} bookings lens, a listing with none of the OTA switches on (OTA verification, Screen & Protect, a guide deposit, the guidebook to OTA guests) reaches only the synced stays you opt in with Send now.
- When it sends. Click the timing line. Set the days and, on the steps that take one, the hour of the listing's day — door code (9 am unless you change it), check-in instructions, checkout, the post-stay note, the guidebook reminder. The guidebook reminder and the door code's day are listing settings, so on All listings saving sets every listing.
- Who gets it. The guidebook messages, the door code and checkout can go to Everyone on the stay: the booking guest and every co-traveler who accepted an invitation, each with their own email. Texts stay with the booking guest.
- Channels and wording. The Email, Text, WhatsApp and Booking thread chips on a card are blue when that channel sends and an outline when it does not; an amber chip is on but cannot send yet, and hovering it says why. Click a chip (or the step's name) to open the step with a tab for each channel. Each tab has that channel's own switch. The Email tab shows the email as the guest sees it, and Edit email opens it in the full email editor. The Text and booking-thread tabs let you write the message right there, and it saves as you type. WhatsApp sends the same words as the text message, so there is nothing separate to write — it is on from the start and reaches guests who agreed to WhatsApp messages. On a custom automation, Edit messages opens it in the automation editor.
- The booking thread on direct bookings. A guest who booked on your site has their guidebook, and you can have any message about the stay posted in their guidebook messages too — the confirmation, payment and deposit notices, pre-arrival steps, check-in details, the door code, checkout, the thank-you, a cancellation or refund. Each one is a short note in the thread (you see it in your inbox as well) and never shows as unread. It starts on for every message about the stay, so a direct guest reads each one in their guidebook messages too; the add-ons offer stays off until you switch it on. On the {PMS name} bookings lens the booking thread is the Airbnb, Vrbo or PMS conversation, and it starts on the same way once a PMS that can post there is connected, for the listings it syncs. Open a card's Booking thread tab to switch it off for that message, or to change what it says. The two guidebook messages keep the wording you set for guidebook delivery, and a step you added has no wording until you write it.
- What starts on. Every message about the stay starts with its text, WhatsApp and booking-thread copies on, so a guest hears on every channel you have details for; switch any of them off on the message. Win-back, offer, points and smart-campaign messages keep text and WhatsApp off until you switch them on. Every automated text or WhatsApp goes only to guests who agreed to it; anyone who has not just gets the email, and a guest who agreed to both gets one copy on their phone, not two. The confirmation text (and its WhatsApp and booking-thread copies) ends with a line offering early check-in or late checkout and a short link to the guidebook's Offers tab whenever the listing sells either — the
{early_late_offer} shortcode, blank when it sells neither, so your own wording can carry it too.
Press Add under any day. Choose the guest or your team:
- For the guest, on Haven-site bookings: name it, pick Email or Text, and set when — days after booking, or before or after check-in or checkout. It is added to every confirmed booking from then on; Write it on the confirmation opens the step so you can write what it says.
- For the guest, on Airbnb, Vrbo or PMS stays: this opens a new custom automation, the kind Haven can also post into the booking thread.
- For your team: this opens a new team automation. See Team Automations.
A guest who books a few days before arrival lands after your earlier pre-arrival emails were due, and Haven never sends an email whose moment has passed — so a guest booking two days out never gets the 10-day check-in email. Last-minute booking summary, on the Booked row, closes that gap: at booking, when check-in is close, it sends one email with the booking details, anything left to do before arrival (agreement, ID check), the arrival details, the house rules, checkout details and the guidebook button. The door code and wifi appear only once the listing's arrival details have unlocked, exactly as in the check-in email; before that, the email says they come closer to arrival.
- How close counts as last minute. The card reads Only when booked 3 days or less before check-in. Click the number to change it, from 1 to 14 days. It saves as you choose.
- What it says. Edit email opens it in the full email editor — "Thanks for booking last minute!" is only the starting heading. Its text, WhatsApp and booking-thread copies start on, like every message about the stay.
- Which bookings. Haven-site bookings, instant or approved requests, at the moment they confirm. A reservation you move from your PMS is not a new booking and never gets it, and neither does a stay whose dates you change later. The guest still gets every later email that is not past, such as the 1-day check-in email.
Try it with a stay redraws the journey against a stay you pick — booked today for one night, two weeks out, two months out — with the date and hour each message would land, and a list of what would not send and why (already past when the guest books, switched off, paused). A last-minute booking is where a journey that reads fine on the template loses half its messages.
The reservation drawer has Messages to this guest: every Haven message on that stay as it actually went — sent (and opened), scheduled, not sent and why, failed, or cancelled — and what its text, booking-thread and guidebook-messages copies did. Resend sends one the guest lost again; the door code resends the stay's current code.
Steps you add for Haven-site bookings, and your Custom automations, appear on the timeline as Yours cards on the day they send.
- Rename or delete. The ⋯ menu beside a step's switch has Rename and Delete. Deleting stops it on stays already booked too; what it already sent stays on the threads. Haven's own steps cannot be renamed or deleted, only switched off.
- When it sends. Click the timing line and set the days before or after check-in or checkout, or the days after booking. The new time stands on its own, whatever the step waited for before. If it comes before a step of yours that Haven has to reach first, Haven says so and keeps the old time, because the step would never send.
- What it says. Its Email, Text, WhatsApp and Booking thread chips open the same tabs as Haven's steps. Edit email opens the full email editor, where the writing assistant can draft the email from a sentence about what it should say. A step is on from the moment you add it, so read the email through before the next booking reaches it, or switch the step off while you write.
The Checkout row is on for every host. The day before a guest leaves, it sends the checkout time, key return, and the listing's checkout checklist, which you edit under Edit Listing → Arrival → Checkout & tasks. The email's heading Checkout instructions and the paragraph under it are the listing's Checkout notes, edited only at Edit Listing → Arrival → Checkout & tasks → Checkout details, in the field labelled Checkout notes. Opening the row changes the email heading, when it sends, and the channel switches. Rewriting the Checkout row or pasting a new template does not change that paragraph. Its text and WhatsApp legs start on (they reach guests who agreed to texts or WhatsApp), and its PMS thread leg starts on once a PMS that can post into booking conversations is connected. Guests who booked through your PMS or an OTA get it once that stay is opted into Haven's guest messages and Other stay messages is on; a guest with no email from the PMS gets it in their booking conversation. See Checkout Tasks.
- A check-in follow-up the day after arrival ("How's everything going?")
- A door-code or parking reminder the morning they arrive
- A local tips email a few days before check-in
- A mid-stay offer for late checkout
- A checkout-morning nudge on top of the built-in Checkout message
Go to Host Dashboard → Communication → Message automations.
Press Add under a day, choose the guest with {your PMS} bookings selected (it reads Airbnb bookings when you have no PMS connected), and press Continue — or add a step for direct bookings right there, as above.
Pick what starts it:
| Trigger | When it sends |
|---|
| Booking requested | When a guest sends a request to book |
| Booking confirmed | When a stay is confirmed (Instant Book or paid), or a new booking arrives from your PMS |
| Before check-in | A number of days before arrival you choose |
| Check-in day | The morning the guest arrives |
| During the stay | A number of nights into the stay you choose |
| On a weekday during the stay | The weekday you pick, to guests staying that night |
| Check-out day | The day the guest leaves |
To send one day after check-in, choose During the stay and set it to 1 night.
On a weekday during the stay suits a trash-day or recycling reminder: pick the day before pickup if the bins go out the night before. It sends at 8 AM local time at the listing, to guests who have that night booked (the arrival day counts, the checkout morning does not). A stay of more than a week gets it on the first matching day only. It can be limited to certain listings, but not by booking source.
You can also limit a message to certain listings or to where the booking came from: Any booking, Direct only, OTA only, or Specific channels. Specific channels lets you pick the sites whose guests get it (Haven site, Direct, Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, Other channels), for example Vrbo only.
Which PMS stays a custom automation reaches. A stay synced from your PMS starts or receives one only when all three hold: the stay is opted into Haven's guest messages (the guidebook sent to OTA guests, an OTA rental agreement or ID check, Screen & Protect, or a guide deposit on that listing, or Send now on the stay); Haven has a real email address for the guest (one the guest confirmed in the guide, or a PMS address that is not an Airbnb or Vrbo relay); and Other stay messages is on under Settings → Account → Guest communications. Booking confirmed fires when the booking first arrives (or when a request is accepted), never for stays that were already booked when you connected your PMS. Any booking includes these stays, so an automation set to Any booking reaches them too. Blocks never do.
Once it is saved, you can change where it goes from its card on the timeline, without opening it. With a PMS connected, each custom automation's card shows two logo buttons beside Edit messages: Haven's mark for direct bookings and your PMS's logo for {your PMS} bookings. A lit logo means it sends to those bookings. Press one to add or remove those bookings: the card then shows on, or leaves, the Direct bookings and {your PMS} bookings timelines, with the same trigger and timing. With both lit, each booking gets it once. One logo always stays lit; to stop it altogether, use its switch. An automation limited to Specific channels shows its logos without letting you press them; change it in Edit messages.
Write the email in the editor, then turn the message on. It sends to every stay that matches from then on.
- Any booking mode. Custom automations work the same for Instant Book and request-to-book listings. There isn't a separate "instant booking flow" to change. Add a message with the trigger you want.
- Sent whatever the guest chose about marketing. Message automations go to guests with a booking, even if they unsubscribed from marketing, so keep them about the stay.
- Only for bookings that still stand. Triggers like After check-out or Gone quiet are marketing and aren't offered here. Build those under Marketing → Campaigns → Automations.
- PMS connected? If your PMS also emails guests, Choose per PMS on the Your PMS’s own automations card under Whenever this happens (with Direct bookings selected) opens Allow PMS automations on direct bookings, which controls whether both send or only Haven does. Allow Haven to push your custom automations to your OTA bookings is under the PMS group in Permissions at the top.
- Answering guests, not only messaging them. An automation sends what you wrote, when you scheduled it. The AI replies to guests card under Whenever this happens, with your PMS's bookings selected, answers what a guest asks in their booking thread. See AI replies to OTA guests.
- Cancellations. A guest's own cancellation and one you (or Haven support) make send different emails — Booking cancelled and Booking cancelled by you — so you can say sorry when it was yours to make.