Guest communications settings

Settings → Account & Profile → Account → Guest communications is the account-wide gate for every automated message Haven sends your guests — email, text, WhatsApp, and posts into your PMS booking threads.

Open it from /host?tab=account-security&accountSub=account#guest-communications.

These switches sit on top of each editor. A message sends only when both this page and its editor allow it. Messages to guests who booked through your PMS or an OTA are never turned on for you. Marketing starts on, so the campaigns on Marketing → Campaigns send when their own switch is on (see New hosts and existing hosts).

Automated guest messages and the custom-automations switch for Haven bookings are also at the top of the guest journey under Communication → Message automations: the master switch on the bar, the other under Permissions. Both places are the same switch, and turning one on asks first in both. PMS and OTA guests are set up differently there: Permissions has one switch per connected PMS — whether Haven messages that PMS's guests at all — and under it the agreement, ID check, guest portal and door codes as on for X/Y listings, read from each listing's settings. Turning a PMS on there turns on the five OTA switches on this page too (and lifts the pause); the five here remain the account-wide stop for those messages. Account-wide settings on that bar brings you back here.

What the switches do

Automated guest messages — the master switch. Off stops every switch below at once. Turning it on asks you to confirm first. You do not have to turn it on before the others: switching on a kind of message while it is off lifts it in the same step, and the confirmation says so. Only that kind starts sending — the rest keep whatever you have set. The same is true from the feature's own screen: setting a PMS to draft or send under AI replies turns on the AI replies switch here and lifts this pause, so you never have to come looking for it. Choosing Draft or Send lifts the pause, and categories already switched on can start sending. Only Off keeps the pause. Do not set Draft or Send in order to stay paused.
Guests who booked through your PMS or an OTA — guest portal auto-send, door codes, pre-arrival steps (agreement and ID), Other stay messages (booking, check-in, and checkout messages, steps you added, booking-thread posts, and your PMS's own automations when Haven relays them), AI replies (your AI assistant answering those guests in their booking thread), Auto-reply to inquiries (your "We got your request" message, posted in the booking thread the first time a guest who hasn't booked writes), and Message when a guest cancels (your message posted in the booking thread when a guest cancels a booking from your PMS). With AI replies off, nothing is drafted or sent, whatever each PMS is set to under Message automations. See AI replies to OTA guests, Auto-reply to new inquiries and Message when a guest cancels.
Marketing and automations (all guests) — rebooking and win-back (which includes the rewards emails about loyalty points), Smart offers, campaigns and broadcasts, and custom automations on Haven bookings.

See exactly what sends, and when

Click Configure on any row to open that switch's panel. It lists every message the switch covers — its name, when it goes out (for example "1 day before check-in"), and which channels it can use — and messages that have their own on/off in their editor carry that same switch right there, so you can turn one message off without leaving the page. Messages without one show Always on or Only what you create (broadcasts and campaigns send only what you build). The panel also holds the row's switch and an Open editor link to where the timing and wording live.

Turning something on asks first

Turning on a switch — or the master switch — opens a confirmation that lists the exact messages that will start sending, when each goes out, and how many guest emails are already scheduled in the next 30 days. When the switch you turned on also lifts the master pause, the confirmation names that too. Those scheduled emails go out at their scheduled times once you confirm. Messages skipped while the switch was off are not sent later. Turning a switch off is immediate and stops anything that has not gone out yet, including texts and broadcast recipients still in the queue.

Always sends

The Always sends list at the bottom shows what goes out without a switch:

On every plan — inquiry replies, messages you type yourself (in Haven, by replying to a notification, or in your PMS inbox), an AI draft you chose to send, Send to guest now, Resend guest portal link, approving a guest portal request, marketing and text-message permission requests you send, add-on approvals and quotes, and refund, deposit and add-on payment notices. Without a paid plan these go by text or in your PMS booking thread only — Haven sends no email to your guests.
On a paid plan — messages for bookings on your Haven site (confirmation, payment, check-in, checkout, cancellation, and their texts), and replies to something a guest just asked for (popup discount codes, business card and group offers).

Every test send goes to you, not a guest, and always sends.

Your PMS's automations

When your PMS sends a message to a guest whose address Haven masks, Haven relays it. A message the PMS says a person typed is relayed as yours. A PMS automation — or any relay where the PMS does not say who wrote it, such as OwnerRez email — is gated under Other stay messages and needs a paid plan.

New hosts and existing hosts

New hosts start with Marketing and automations on (rebooking and win-back, Smart offers, campaigns and broadcasts) and every switch for Guests who booked through your PMS or an OTA off. Each campaign still sends only while its own switch on Marketing → Campaigns is on, only to its audience, only to guests who have not unsubscribed, and within your email spacing; Smart offers also need their own switch. Messages to PMS and OTA guests about their stay start off because your PMS may already send them. Hosts who were already sending when this page launched were set to on, so their existing editors kept deciding what sends. A switch you turn off stays off. Open this page any time to see what each switch sends and when.

Hosts without a subscription

Haven emails your guests only on a paid plan. Without one, Haven sends your guests no email at all — not inquiry receipts, not the replies you type, not refund notices — and no automated message. Only the On every plan messages above still go out, by text or in your PMS booking thread, so a guest with neither gets nothing from Haven. The section shows an Upgrade button and locks the switches.

Every change is recorded

Each switch change is logged with who made it and when, including a teammate or Haven support acting on your account.

When a type is off, or needs a plan, the matching editor (Message automations, a flow, a campaign, a broadcast, guest portal auto-send, the reservation Door code card) shows a notice naming the switch. Where the fix is a switch you could flip here, the notice offers Turn on right there — it opens the same confirmation this page shows (what will send, and that it lifts the master pause when it has to), so you never have to come to Account settings first. A notice caused by a plan offers Upgrade, and one caused by a PMS messaging permission links to Message automations instead.

A broadcast you try to send while campaigns and broadcasts are off shows the reason instead of sending. A scheduled broadcast that comes due while they are off is not sent and shows as Paused; turn them on and press Send again.