How to Set Up Guest Notifications in Jervis Systems

Our Guest Notifications feature allows you to send messages directly to guests via templates set up for email and text messages (WhatsApp is also supported).

We recommend using your property management system (PMS) as the primary source for guest messaging whenever possible. Guest Notifications in Jervis are intended as an add-on feature for additional messaging, or for users managing direct connections to Airbnb or other booking platforms through Jervis.

Messaging is billed at $0.10 per sent message, with the exception of high-cost countries. You can see more details on pricing for Guest Notifications on our pricing page. Billing also applies to email guest notifications, where we send direct messages, as we still need to maintain this service.

This allows you to include all the key details for your reservation, embed your Jervis Systems codes, and have peace of mind with tracking notifications via our sending logs.

Note: If you are a MEWS or Tokeet customer, this feature will automatically be enabled in your account.

Here’s how you set up and edit templates:

1. Navigate to the Notification Templates page from your main taskbar and select the Operations menu to edit the notifications for each listing and medium of communication with the guest. You can toggle off the email, SMS, and or WhatsApp templates to focus on editing for a certain channel.

2. From here, you can edit the message template. For emails, you can specify the time you would like the message sent and CC any other team members. At any point, you can preview the message by selecting the Preview button below the template.

3. For SMS templates, you can specify the recipient (role), the conditions for sending time, and the content.

4. For WhatsApp, you can specify the recipient (role), the conditions for the send time, and switch between different template options that can be further edited.

5. You can also update the Templates across listings by selecting the Bulk Update Email Notification button. This will apply the notification template to all listings.

6. You can do the same bulk update for the guest PIN code entry SMS notification. Similar to bulk updates on the email side, updates made here will apply to all listings.

7. Once your messages are created, you can view the notifications scheduled and sent in the History tab. You also have the option to send the notification instantly or view a detailed log of the last notification sent.

8. Selecting View Log shows the expected send date, the time the notification was sent, the status code, and the result. The status code will also give an indication of where to troubleshoot in the event of an error (select the tooltip for more details).

By default, some notifications are sent immediately, and others are scheduled and added to the queue.

When auto-notify is enabled, notifications on the queue will be sent at the scheduled date and time. If the scheduled date has already passed, you must schedule a future date and time for the notification to be sent at. You will be prompted for this when you activate the auto-notify.

After being sent, the notification can be rescheduled. If you reschedule a notification, it will be sent on the scheduled date, if you enabled auto-notify. If not, it will remain in the queue until you enable the auto-notify or you send it immediately.

You can send a notification immediately through the send now operation or using the notifications operation on the reservations list for the specific reservation.

After being sent, the notification is removed from the queue and the auto-notify will be turned OFF.

Note: For last-minute reservations through platforms like Lodgify, we are not actually sending the message directly. We use a property management system’s API in this case to send the message to guests. The platform then sends the message to the guest using the booking platform – Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com, etc.

Our team is currently working on adding direct connections with all booking platforms to be able to do the same as well. We now have a direct connection to Airbnb, and we are working on integrating with VRBO and Booking.com.

Need additional help and support? Check out the additional user guides on our FAQ page. You can also get help by submitting a Support Request via your Jervis Systems dashboard.