The Guest Journey (Communication → Message Automations)

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.

Reading the journey

Top: the switches. One bar at the top holds the master Automated guest messages switch and its state — Paused, how many switches are on, or Needs a paid plan. Permissions opens Direct bookings — the Your own steps switch, with your small logo (or Haven's mark if you have not added one) — and one block per connected PMS ({your PMS} bookings, with its logo). Each PMS block has its own switch: whether Haven messages guests whose stay came from that PMS at all. Off, nothing goes to them and every card on that PMS's tab folds and greys. On, the block lists the four things Haven does for those guests — Rental agreement, ID verification, Guest portal auto-send and Door codes — each as All listings, Some listings or Off with on for X/Y counted over the listings synced from that PMS. These are not switches: they read each listing's own settings. Press the count to open a side sheet with your listings (thumbnails, search, select all) and tick the ones it applies to; for the agreement and ID check the sheet starts with Set individually / All on / All off — the same account-wide chooser as Property settings — and the checkboxes work under Set individually. The sheet also sets up what each one needs, for one listing or all of them at once. Rental agreement: each listing shows the agreement its guests sign, or No agreement yet: add one; click it to pick one from your library, edit it or write a new one, and the button under the title does the same for every listing in the sheet. ID verification: each listing has its Selfie match and Returning guests skip ID switches, and Edit settings for all sets them for every listing. Guest portal auto-send: each listing has OTA guest portal sent by, OTA reminder and Details unlock, with the same Edit settings for all. These are the same settings as Sites → Listing settings, so a change here shows there too, and a setting your PMS controls shows a lock. Door codes are a readout: a listing is on when it has a smart lock or PMS-supplied codes, the rest show Connect a lock (to Smart devices), and Details unlock sets when the code appears. When a row is on for any listing, the messages it sends sit beside it as chips (Pre-arrival steps, Welcome, Door code, …); each opens that message's editor. Turning a PMS on shows what will start sending first and also turns on the matching OTA switches under Settings → Account → Guest communications (and lifts the pause); those Account switches stay as the account-wide stop. Allow Haven to push your custom automations to your OTA bookings sits under the PMS blocks when a PMS supports it. 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). With more than one PMS connected, each has its own tab — Guesty bookings, OwnerRez bookings — showing what reaches that PMS's stays: its booking thread (or Guest portal, for a PMS Haven cannot post in) and its AI replies setting. 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 guest portal 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. A line for one listing's guests can go here, or in a per-listing shortcode whose All other listings value is blank — see A note for one listing only. 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. The letterhead itself follows your default brand (Brand → Brand) until you customize it in the email editor.
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 guest portal. 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, OwnerRez, and other connections that support it — not a PMS connected through Airbnb). 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, Booking thread is the conversation the guest is reading in OwnerRez — the Airbnb, Vrbo or Booking.com thread, or a direct guest's email or text 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.
- Messages — on {your PMS} bookings, first, Auto-reply to new inquiries: your "We got your request" message to a guest who hasn't booked (see Auto-reply to new inquiries). Then 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.
- Events — Stay cancelled, Dates or guests change, You issue a refund, Dates taken before payment cleared, A co-traveler is added, You approve a guest portal 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. On {your PMS} bookings, Stay cancelled also has Message when a guest cancels, your own message posted in the booking thread of a guest who cancels a booking from your PMS (see Message when a guest cancels).
- 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.
  - A card payment comes due — the emails of a payment schedule: Card payment: coming up (before each payment after the deposit; 3 days ahead unless you pick Sends N days before each card payment on its card, 1 to 30), Card payment: receipt, Card payment: declined (the pay-now link when a card cannot be charged), Payment schedule: cancellation refund, Deposit received (once the deposit is paid, or recorded on a stay the guest pays you directly) and Final notice before cancelling (the day before Haven cancels a late booking, only on listings set to cancel late bookings; see Late Payments). They send for every listing that takes payments in installments, and for reservations you moved to Haven payments. On a listing with no schedule, each card says it only sends for moved reservations.
  - You move a reservation to Haven payments — the card request and reminder, and Request for a new card. The moved reservation's balance emails are under A card payment comes due.
  - A guest pays you manually — shown once you set up Manual Payments: Manual payment: how to pay you (the guest's confirmation, sent in place of Booking confirmed: the price breakdown, every payment and when it is due, your payment details and your note to guests), Manual payment: next payment due (before each later payment; how many days is set under Payouts → Manual payments) and Manual payment: received (when you record a payment). Haven charges nothing on these stays; your payment details, the amounts and your note to guests are added to each email for you. Booking confirmed goes only to guests who pay by card, a payment link or your PMS while Manual payment: how to pay you is on.
  - 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 guest portal 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.
- 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.

What Haven does on its own

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 opens the listing's payment schedule: full payment, or a deposit, up to four payments in between and the balance, each with its days before check-in. Each payment in between then sits on its own day as Payment 2: N% charged to the saved card (change or remove it from the chip), and the last as Balance charged to the saved card (Final payment charged to the saved card when there are payments in between); switching that off goes back to full payment. The emails about each payment are under Whenever this happens → A card payment comes due. Haven-site bookings. Not shown while guests pay you directly — those stays follow your own schedule (Whenever this happens → A guest pays you manually).
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 guest portal show as Guest adds a deposit card in the guest portal.
Arrival details unlock in the guest portal — Wi-Fi, door code, directions and the street address, 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 Guest portal 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).

Changing a step

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. To keep a step's text and drop its email instead — your PMS already emails the guest — switch off its Email tab (below). 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 guest portal at booking, and the money notices under Whenever this happens (gift cards, credit balances, tab and add-on payments and receipts, moved-reservation payments, and the payment requests on stays you collect yourself). 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 guest portal access approvals, and a guest's co-traveler invitation.
Greyed out: a switch at the top stops it. While Automated guest messages is paused, a PMS's switch under Permissions is off (the card says "Haven isn't messaging {your PMS} guests"), or the kind of message a card belongs to is off under Settings → Account → Guest communications, 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 guest portal. 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 guest portal 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 guest portal deposit, the guest portal 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 guest portal reminder. The guest portal reminder and the door code's day are listing settings, so on All listings saving sets every listing.
Who gets it. The guest portal 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. On Booking confirmed, Check-in instructions (10 days and 1 day), Last-minute booking summary, Door code, Checkout reminder and Post Stay Feedback, the Email tab's switch turns off only the email: the step keeps its timing and sends its text and booking-thread copies on their own, for example when your PMS already emails your guests and you want Haven only to text. On every other Haven step the email is the step, so its Email tab has no switch; switch the card off instead. 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 guest portal, and you can have any message about the stay posted in their guest portal 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 guest portal 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 guest portal messages keep the wording you set for guest portal 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. A reservation you moved to Haven from your PMS is the exception for texts: its guest booked in your PMS and never saw Haven's texting box, so its stay texts keep going to the phone number your PMS shared, as they did before the move. WhatsApp still needs the guest's own opt-in. 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 guest portal'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. To point guests at everything you sell, add {offers_link} — a short link that opens their guest portal on the Offers tab.

Full street address

If a booking email looks as if the address is not included — only the city and state, such as The Dock House | Gloucester, MA — that is not because the listing is not live. Haven's default booking emails show city and state on purpose, and the default templates stay that way. In a guest's copy, the Reservation details block's Location row names the city and state. The door code email is the default message that prints the full address, next to the code.

To add the street, switch on that block's Street address row. It prints the full address in place of Location (the two never show together), it is off until you turn it on, and each stay block keeps its own setting. Or add the Property address shortcode {property_address} in the words of the message. It prints the address saved under Space → Location — street, town, state, postal code and country. It fills in on any email about a reservation, and on texts, WhatsApp and booking-thread copies of that message. Until the guest's arrival details unlock it prints only the town and state (Gloucester, MA), so a booking confirmation sent at booking names the town; once they unlock, or from the start on a listing set to Publish exact location, it prints the full address. It is blank when no address is saved there. The steps are in Email Templates and Shortcodes.

Adding a step

Press Add under any day. Choose the guest or your team:

For the guest, on Haven-site bookings: choose how it starts. At a time on the stay: name it, pick Email or Text, and set when — days, weeks or months after booking, or before or after check-in or checkout. A week is 7 days and a month is 30 days, up to 365 days; the field shows the day count it saves. It reaches every confirmed booking that has not checked out yet, the ones already booked (reservations you moved to Haven included) as well as new ones, whenever its time is still ahead: a step 3 days before check-in reaches a stay arriving next week, not one arriving tomorrow. Write it on the confirmation opens the step so you can write what it says. When something happens: a payment landing, the agreement signed, a form answered, an add-on bought, the guest writing in, the door code going live and more — Continue opens a new custom automation on the full trigger picker (see Start a custom automation).
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. A step added for Haven-site bookings does not reach stays synced from your PMS, so it appears on the Direct bookings tab only.
For your team: this opens a new team automation. See Team Automations.

Last-minute bookings

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 guest portal 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.

Send only for some stays

A message can be limited to some stays: a summer welcome and a winter one, a pet note only when pets are coming. (For a message that every guest gets but that should read differently for some of them, such as a thank-you for returning guests, split it by guest instead; see A different message for repeat guests.) Every card that can take a condition has a small Some stays only button in its notes; once a condition is set, the card says Only and its name instead (for example Only Winter (Dec–Feb)). Click either to open the condition.

Change a season's months right on the card. When the condition is a season (check-in months, or a yearly range like Jun 15 to Sep 5), clicking Only … opens a small calendar of the twelve months under it instead. Click the first month, then the last: the range saves at once and wraps past December, so September then March is September to March. Click one month twice for just that month. A yearly range shows its two days to change instead. A season you changed reads by its months on the card (Only March–June). More options… under the months opens the full condition below.

Quick picks. One click each, starting with Guest (repeat guests, first-time guests, Tagged with… for your own tags), then Seasons (Summer Jun–Aug, Fall Sep–Nov, Winter Dec–Feb, Spring Mar–May — the months are in the name, so pick the ones that are summer where your listings are), Holidays (year-end, stays with a night between Dec 20 and Jan 2), Length of stay (weekend check-ins Fri or Sat, weekday check-ins, 1–2 nights, 7+ nights, 28+ nights), When they booked (3 or fewer days ahead, 60+ days ahead) and Who is coming (children, infants, pets, 8+ guests, 2 or fewer). A quick pick saves straight away. Its rules are copied in, so you can change any of them afterwards.
Your own rules. Build a condition from any rule: the check-in month or day of the week, a check-in date range (specific dates, or one that repeats every year, like Jun 15 to Sep 5, including ranges over New Year), a stay that includes a night in a yearly range, nights, days booked ahead, guests, children, infants, pets, prior stays with you, how the balance is paid (card on file that Haven charges, paid to you directly, paid in full already, or through the PMS or OTA), and anything about the guest in your contacts (tags, lists, audiences). Rules combine with and or or. Press Apply to save them.
Saved conditions. Save for reuse names the rules you built (for example "Peak season") and links the message to it. Saved conditions appear under Saved on every message's condition, so you set a season once and use it everywhere. Editing a saved condition changes every message that uses it. A saved condition can only be removed once nothing uses it; if something still does, Haven lists what.
Every stay puts the message back to sending for every stay.

Which messages take a condition. Your custom automations that start from a booking, every step you added, and these Haven steps: Check-in instructions (10 days and 1 day), Checkout reminder, Post Stay Feedback, Enhance your stay and Guest form — before check-in. Messages a guest needs whatever their stay looks like never take one: the confirmation and other booking status emails, payments, refundable holds and refunds, cancellations, the rental agreement and ID check, and the door code. Team automations that start from a stay can be limited by the stay too (check-in month, nights, guests), but not by the guest.

How it is checked. The condition is read when each message goes out, against the stay as it is then, for every listing. If a stay's dates move out of the window (a February stay moved to March for a winter-only message), that message is not sent. If a stay's dates move into the window, messages timed against the stay (before check-in, during the stay, checkout) reach it from then on; a message that fires once when the booking is made does not fire again. A rule about the guest needs the guest in your contacts: a stay whose guest is not there does not match it.

Two versions on the same day. When two or more messages on the same day each have a condition, the timeline shows them as one card, 2 versions by condition, with each condition's name underneath. Click it to see and edit each message. To send Haven's check-in instructions in summer and your own version in winter, set Haven's step to Summer (Jun–Aug), add your own step on the same day, and set it to the winter months. Splitting one message by guest (below) does the same in one card and keeps one timing for both.

A different message for repeat guests

Any message that can take a condition can also be split by guest: one version for some guests, and the message's own words for everyone else. Every guest still gets the message, on the same day and on the same channels; only the words differ. Returning guests are the first choice, so a returning guest can be thanked for coming back while a first-time guest gets the usual thank-you.

Post Stay Feedback is split already. Haven's thank-you after checkout has a Repeat guests version out of the box: "Thank you so much for choosing to stay at {property_name} again. We loved having you back." followed by "If you haven't already left a review for your last stay, we would really appreciate one for this stay," with the same Leave a review and Google review buttons. First-time guests get the usual thank-you and review request. Edit either version, or remove the repeat one, from the card.

How to split a message.

On the message's card in Communication → Message automations, click + Split by guest in its notes.
Pick Different message for repeat guests, or one of the other quick picks (first-time guests, a season, length of stay, when they booked, who is coming).
The email editor opens on the new version, starting from the message's own words. Change what it says; it saves as you type.

A split card shows its versions in its notes, for example Repeat guests · Everyone else. Click a version for Edit this version, Who gets it… (the same condition sheet as Some stays only, with every quick pick, your own rules and saved conditions) or Remove, which sends everyone the message's own words again. A version for a season (for example September–March) opens its months instead, the same way as a season on Only …: click the first month, then the last, and it saves; a version still named after its months is renamed with them. Edit this version, More options… (the condition sheet) and Remove sit under the months. Click Everyone else to edit those. + adds another version. When a stay matches more than one version, the first one listed is the one that sends. In the email editor, Message for at the top switches between the versions of the message you are editing.

Text, WhatsApp and booking-thread copies send the version's own text wording when it has one, and the message's text wording otherwise.

Give repeat guests a next-stay credit. A version of one of Haven's messages can give each guest who gets it a stay credit, for example $100 off their next stay. In the email editor, with that version open under Message for, click Add a next-stay credit, enter the amount and how long it can be used (6, 12, 18 or 24 months, or no end), and press Save. Each guest gets their own CREDIT- code when the message sends, shown in the email's Card and code block (the Repeat guests thank-you has one already; add it from the palette's Stay details group on a version of another message). The amount is in each stay's currency. The credit is issued once per stay, so a retried send shows the same code, and it does not send a separate stay credit email. It applies at checkout when the guest books directly while signed in with the same email, or when they enter the code. See Stay credits. Nothing is issued, and the block stays empty, when the stay's listing takes payment through your PMS or you collect payment yourself, or when the guest only has a booking-site relay address. Steps you added can be split by guest, but carry no credit.

Who counts as a repeat guest. A guest who has a stay with you that ended before this one began. Haven recognizes them by their Haven account, any email address the booking, your PMS or their guest form gave, the contact their guest form links to, and stays you imported. An earlier Airbnb or Vrbo stay counts when its guest email matches. A guest Haven cannot recognize (an Airbnb guest with only a relay address and no guest form) gets the message for everyone else, never nothing.

Trip members. The version is chosen for the guest who booked. Trip members who get their own post-stay email get the message for everyone else.

Try it with a stay

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, or its condition rules this stay out). A last-minute booking is where a journey that reads fine on the template loses half its messages. Under the stay buttons you can set the check-in month, guests, children, pets and Stayed before, to see which conditioned messages a summer family or a returning guest would get. A message split by guest says which version this stay gets (for example Repeat guests version or Main message). A message with a rule about the guest says Depends on the guest, because a made-up stay has no contact to read.

One reservation

The reservation drawer has Messages to this guest, behind Automatic messages in the conversation's header: 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. On a booking or inquiry notice it also emails your notification addresses. The door code resends the stay's current code.

Steps you added

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. Switching a step back on, or changing when it sends, reaches the stays already booked again, except a send you cancelled for one guest under Messages to this guest, and any guest whose emails you paused. Haven's own steps cannot be renamed or deleted, only switched off.
When it sends. Click the timing line and set the days, weeks or months before or after check-in or checkout, or after booking (a month is 30 days). 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, and it reaches the stays already booked as well as new ones, so read the email through before its first send, or switch the step off while you write. A step still left blank when its time comes is not sent.

Checkout Is Already Covered

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.

When to Add Your Own Booking Message

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

How to Add a Booking Message

Step 1: Open Message automations

Go to Host Dashboard → Communication → Message automations.

Step 2: Start a custom automation

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.

Step 3: Choose when it sends

Pick what starts it. The picker groups every start by kind — chips along the top (Stay moments, Payments, Guest actions, OTA bookings, …) narrow the list, and search looks across all of them. Each card carries its own mark and one line on when it fires.

A moment of the stay

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
Before checkout	A number of days before the guest leaves you choose (1 for the day before)
Check-out day	The day the guest leaves
Stay dates or times change	When a confirmed stay moves, or its check-in or checkout time changes

Money on the stay

Trigger	When it sends
Deposit paid	The first payment on a stay is recorded: paid at checkout on your Haven site, the first installment, or the first payment you mark received
Balance paid in full	A stay paid in parts is now fully paid: the last installment goes through, or you mark the last payment received
Any payment comes in	Every payment as it lands (the email can use `{payment_amount}`)
A payment fails	A scheduled charge on the card on file is declined or needs the guest
Security deposit held	The refundable hold is placed on the guest's card

The guest does something

Trigger	When it sends
Agreement signed	The guest signs your rental agreement
Guest verified	The guest passes ID verification or screening
Form answered	The guest answers one of your guest forms (pick one form, or any)
Add-on bought	The guest buys an add-on (`{add_on_name}`)
Add-on requested	The guest asks for an add-on you approve by hand
Guest writes to you	The first time the guest writes to you about the stay — on your site, by text, on WhatsApp, or through your PMS thread
Co-traveler added	A co-traveler is added: invited from the guest portal, or listed under Who's coming? at checkout
Door code goes live	The stay's smart-lock code is live
Guest portal opened	The guest opens their guest portal for the first time

Three more are offered here but go out as marketing mail, since by then the booking no longer stands: You issue a refund, Security deposit released and Review left. Pick one and the automation is filed under Win back guests and sends only to guests who opted in; the card says so.

To send one day after check-in, choose During the stay and set it to 1 night. To send something a set time after a trigger — the get-to-know-you form 15 minutes after the deposit is paid — start from Deposit paid and put a Wait step of 15 minutes in front of the email in the editor (a wait takes days, hours or minutes).

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. To limit it by season, length of stay, party or returning guests, give it a condition from its card; see Send only for some stays.

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 guest portal sent to OTA guests, an OTA rental agreement or ID check, Screen & Protect, or a guest portal 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 guest portal, 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. Marketing campaigns under Marketing → Campaigns are different: they reach a PMS guest whenever Haven has a real email for them, with no opt-in on the stay (see Who Each Campaign Reaches).

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.

Step 4: Write the email and turn it on

Write the email in the editor, then turn the message on. It sends to every stay that matches from then on.

Good to Know

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. A booking message rests on a booking the guest still holds. A start that comes after the stay — a refund, a released deposit, a review — is still offered, but the automation is filed under Win back guests and sends as marketing mail. After check-out and Gone quiet live under Marketing → Campaigns → Automations.
One reminder, two versions by how they pay. Add a Branch step on How the balance is paid (under Your own rules): Card on file (Haven charges it) one way, Paid to you directly the other. A 40-days-out balance reminder can then tell a card guest the charge is coming and give a bank-transfer guest your account details and a deadline.
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.