WhatsApp CRM · Hotels, Villas & Guest Houses
WhatsApp CRM for hotels, villas and guest houses
Written for how hotels, villas & guest houses actually work
Family-run guest houses, small hotels and boutique villas, usually three to fifteen rooms, where the owner or one relative answers WhatsApp between turning over a room, cooking breakfast and driving someone to the station.
A local weekend or Poya booking is often decided in a single evening, sometimes in under an hour. A foreign guest planning a route around the island may take weeks, but is comparing several properties the whole time. Either way the pressure sits on the first reply, so the work is having complete answers saved and the overnight gap covered, not chasing anyone for days.
High season runs in opposite directions by coast: roughly December to April for the hill country and the south, and roughly May to September for the east. On top of all three, long weekends, Poya holidays and school holidays create local getaway spikes that are decided two or three days beforehand.
A normal day in your inbox
- Hi, do you have rooms for this weekend?
- How much per night?
- Family of four coming, we need 2 rooms.
- Rooms available for the Poya weekend?
- Hi, availability for 2 nights from the 14th? Also, is it safe to walk around at night?
- What time is check-in and check-out? We arrive late, around 11pm.
- Sorry for the late message, just checking if you still have a room for tomorrow.
Where the deals leak
- Enquiry
- Dates and guests
- Rate quoted
- Guest's real question
- Availability confirmed
- Advance
- Stay
- Post-stay
The gap between the enquiry landing and a complete answer going out. A local family deciding on a Wednesday night for a Friday Poya weekend books whichever of four properties replies first.
The phone is in your hand while you're doing something else, so the reply is late, or it's a bare number that answers only the price and ignores the safety, breakfast or arrival-time question that was actually blocking the booking. Overnight messages sit until morning, by which time the guest has booked elsewhere.
A board that matches your job
Tag the guest stream on the first reply, because the two need different answers. Keep the nights and room type in custom fields so the card tells you what's promised without scrolling back through the chat at 11pm.
Stage 1
Enquiry
Dates and headcount not yet clear. The only job here is a complete reply, fast.
Stage 2
Rate sent
Room type, nightly rate and whether it's room only, B&B or full board, all stated in one message.
Stage 3
Questions answered
Arrival time, distance, pickup, cancellation terms. For many foreign guests this stage is the real decision.
Stage 4
Advance paid
The dates come off your available list. Before this they are an enquiry, not a booking.
Stage 5
Booked
Nights, room and arrival time on the card, so nobody promises the same room twice.
Stage 6
Checked out
A short thank-you, a review ask, and a note for the next season.
Tags worth having
- Local weekend
- Foreign guest
- Poya weekend
- Repeat guest
- Room only
- B&B
- Full board
- Station pickup
Set it up once
Everything below happens inside WhatsApp Web, on the number you already use. No API, no new inbox.
Add InboxCRM to Chrome- 1
Make the first reply complete, not just fast
Quick replies hold your rate message with the room type, the nightly price and whether it covers room only, bed and breakfast or full board. One tap sends the whole thing, so the guest never has to ask twice about meals — the confusion that loses bookings later in this trade.
- 2
Cover the hours nobody is at the desk
Auto-reply rules answer an 11pm or 2am message with a warm holding reply that asks for dates and headcount, so what you need is waiting in the morning. Keep the wording honest: it says someone will reply, not that a room is held.
- 3
Save the foreign-guest answers separately
Safety, walking distance, late arrival, tuk pickup, hot water, wifi, cancellation terms. These decide it for an overseas guest and are slow to type on a phone. Saved as quick replies, they go out in seconds.
- 4
Keep held dates somewhere you can see
The appointment centre and a pipeline stage for paid advances turn "I think that weekend is free" into something visible. Nothing is a booking until an advance is in, and having it on a board makes it much harder to promise the same room on two channels at once.
- 5
Say something after checkout
A scheduled message the day after departure asking how the stay went, plus a note on the contact about the season they came in. Guests who liked the place do come back for the next long weekend, and this trade almost never asks.
The messages that stall a sale
“How much?”
Usually means
They are filtering three or four properties on price first because it's the fastest comparison, not because your rate is wrong.What works
Send the rate wrapped in one useful detail and one question back, so the chat keeps moving instead of ending at a number.“Is it safe at night? How far is the town?”
Usually means
A genuine question, often the actual deciding factor for a solo traveller or a family, not a negotiation.What works
Answer specifically — real walking minutes, whether the road is lit, whether you can arrange a tuk — rather than a general reassurance.“Can you give a discount, we're a group?”
Usually means
A normal opening move for a family taking several rooms, not a judgement that you're expensive.What works
Explain what the rate already covers, and offer a genuine multi-room rate if you have one instead of dropping the price on the spot.“Is that full board or room only?”
Usually means
They've been burned before by a rate that turned out to exclude meals.What works
State it every time without being asked, in the same message as the number. This alone separates you from the property that quoted bare.“Can we get a refund if we cancel?”
Usually means
Booking platforms have trained them to expect a stated policy, so an unclear answer reads as risky rather than flexible.What works
State your actual policy plainly, even if it's strict, and put it in writing in the chat.
Quick replies to save first
Copy these, swap the details in [brackets], and save them as quick replies so you stop retyping them.
Rate reply with the meal plan stated
[Room type] is Rs. [X] per night, [room only / bed and breakfast / full board]. Tell me your check-in date and how many guests, and I'll confirm what we have open for those nights.
Foreign guest, arrival and safety
Hi! We have space for those dates. It's a quiet, well-lit area and fine to walk at night. We're about [X] minutes from [landmark], and we can arrange a tuk if you're arriving late. What time do you expect to reach us?
Off-hours auto-reply
Thanks for messaging [property]. Nobody's at the desk right now, but if you send your dates and how many guests, you'll have a proper reply first thing in the morning.
Group or multiple rooms
We do have a rate for multiple rooms. Tell me how many rooms and how many nights and I'll work out the total for you, including breakfast.
Advance and confirmation
To hold [dates] we take Rs. [X] as an advance and the balance is paid on arrival. Bank transfer with a screenshot of the receipt is easiest — please don't send card details on WhatsApp.
Free tools that help here: WhatsApp Link Generator, WhatsApp QR Code Generator.
The parts of InboxCRM you'll use most
Quick replies with photos
The full rate answer, the meal plan and a room photo go out in one tap while you're mid-turnover.
Auto-reply rules
Covers the 11pm and 2am enquiries that are normal in this trade, and collects dates and headcount before morning.
Notes, tags and custom fields
Separates local weekend guests from overseas planners, and keeps nights, room type and pickup needs on the card.
Pipeline boards
Shows which dates are only enquiries and which are paid, so a room isn't promised twice.
Scheduled messages
A post-checkout thank-you and a review ask, sent without you having to remember at turnover time.
Questions from hotels, villas & guest houses
Will the auto-reply make guests think the room is confirmed?
Only if you write it that way, so don't. Keep the off-hours reply to an honest holding message that asks for dates and guest numbers and says when a real reply will come. Auto-reply rules send what you write, nothing more, and quiet hours stop messages going out at times that would look strange.
My phone is what I actually answer on. Does a desktop tool help?
It helps in the windows you're at a computer, which for most small properties is once or twice a day. That is when you set up saved replies, update the board and schedule the post-checkout message. Auto-replies and scheduled sends need Chrome open with WhatsApp Web, so they run while the laptop is on, not around the clock.
Can it track availability across my rooms?
Not as a channel manager. It tracks conversations and bookings, not live room inventory, and it knows nothing about what a booking platform has sold. What it gives you is a visible board of which dates you've quoted, which have an advance paid, and what each guest was promised, which is where most double-promises start.
Can I send an offer to all past guests before the season?
Campaigns are available for lists of people who opted in, with conservative sending caps, quiet hours and a per-contact cooldown. For this trade it works best kept small and specific, such as past guests who asked to hear when the season opens. A generic blast reads as impersonal for a stay someone chooses personally.
Where do guest details end up?
Your CRM notes, tags and board stay in local browser storage on your own machine, with an optional encrypted cloud chat backup if you want one. There's also a one-click privacy blur for when you're sharing your screen or working somewhere guests can see it.