Shortcodes: Personalize Any Guest Text

A shortcode is a small token — {guest_first_name}, {property_name}, {gate_code} — that you write once and Haven fills in for each guest. Write "Welcome to {property_name}, {guest_first_name}!" and every guest reads a greeting addressed to them, at your property, without you touching the text again.

Anywhere you see the Shortcodes pill (the small braces chip beside a text field), that field supports them. Click the pill to search every shortcode available to you and insert it at the cursor.

Where shortcodes work

• Emails and text messages — every CRM automation, booking message, and broadcast.
• Guidebook text — check-in and checkout instructions, directions, house rules, Wi-Fi details, gate codes, "during your stay" notes, and the guest access section.
• Welcome message — the Welcome card on your guide's Home tab.
• Custom pages — page bodies, and the URL of a Link or Embed card (a per-stay smart-lock link like https://lock.example/?code={reservation_code} becomes the guest's real code before they tap it).
• Guest tasks — custom pre-arrival steps, including their links.
• Guest forms and polls — the intro, question prompts, hints, and thank-you screen.
• Rental agreements — anywhere in the agreement body. See below for how signing works.
• Welcome booklet — printed booklets resolve your property-level shortcodes when the document is generated.

The three sources

Haven built-ins. Reservation facts Haven already knows: {guest_first_name}, {guest_name}, {guest_email}, {guest_phone}, {guest_phone_last4}, {property_name}, {check_in_date}, {check_out_date}, {stay_dates}, {num_nights}, {host_first_name}, {guidebook_url}, and more. These resolve per reservation with no setup.

Your custom shortcodes. Define your own keys — {parking_spot}, {trash_day}, {hoa_wifi} — under Dashboard → Shortcodes. A custom shortcode holds one value per host, so updating it in one place updates every email, page, and agreement that uses it.

PMS shortcodes. With a connected Hospitable or OwnerRez account, Haven syncs that platform's per-reservation fields (Hospitable enrichment values, OwnerRez custom fields) and lists them in the same picker. Their values are fetched live from your PMS at send or view time, so a door code generated the morning of arrival still resolves correctly.

How resolution behaves

• An unknown token stays visible as literal braces — that is your signal the key is misspelled or not defined, not a silent blank.
• Sensitive per-stay values (door codes, lock links) resolve only for the guest on the reservation, honoring the same arrival-details reveal window as the rest of the guide. Public visitors never see them.
• A Link or Embed card whose URL cannot fully resolve renders its empty state rather than a broken link.
• Surfaces with no reservation attached — a printed booklet, a public page — resolve {property_name} and your custom shortcodes; per-guest tokens wait for a real stay.

Shortcodes in rental agreements

Agreements deserve a special note because they are legal documents. Write the template with tokens ("This agreement covers the stay of {guest_name} at {property_name}, arriving {check_in_date}"), and Haven substitutes real values when the guest opens the agreement in their guide. The signed record — the stored snapshot and the PDF — keeps the substituted text, so what the guest signed is exactly what they read, and a later change to a custom shortcode never rewrites an existing signature.

The Preview button in the agreement editor shows example values, so you can check the flow of a clause before a guest ever sees it.

Related Articles

• Rental Agreement & Digital Signatures
• Smart Locks
• Guest Communication
• Guest Portal