Guest messages

The WhatsApp, SMS and email Barform sends guests about their bookings, notices to the bar, guest replies, the message log and the WhatsApp setup.

On this page

Barform can write to your guests by itself about their bookings — by WhatsApp, SMS and email — and tell the bar when a guest does something nobody at the bar would otherwise see. This page covers what goes out and when, guests' replies, the notices to the bar — and answering a request from WhatsApp — the message log, the settings and the WhatsApp setup. The book itself is on Reservations.

How messages reach a guest

When a booking is made, confirmed, changed, cancelled or seated, Barform queues the right message and sends it within about a minute, on the channel that suits the guest's phone number, plus email when the guest gave one. Barform runs the sending; you switch things on and, for WhatsApp, connect your own number.

Guest messages come with the Reservations add-on, together with the book and your booking page. The add-on includes 1,000 messages a month, as a guide rather than a hard limit (see The message log and Plans and billing). Without the add-on your venue has no reservations at all, and Barform sends nothing for it (see Reservations). With it, messages to guests start switched off: until you turn them on, the back-office book says "Automatic confirmations are off." and the iPad shows "Confirmations are off — see the admin" on every booking with a phone or email.

The channel follows the phone number. A number with the +1 country code (US and Canada) gets SMS. Every other number — Mexico and the rest of the world — gets WhatsApp. A guest who gave an email also gets the email, so a guest can receive the same message twice: once on the phone, once by email.
Text messages (SMS) go only to US and Canadian mobile numbers. A guest with a Mexican mobile gets WhatsApp (once yours is on) and the email, never an SMS.
How a typed number is read: 10 digits is a Mexican number (+52); 11 digits starting with 1 is +1; 12 digits starting with 52, or the old 13-digit form starting with 521, is +52; any other 8 to 15 digits is that international number. Anything else can't be messaged.
Who it comes from: SMS from Barform's US number; WhatsApp from your own connected WhatsApp number; email under your venue's name from reservas@barformpos.com, with your Reply-to email as the address replies go to.
The guest's consent: a web guest who left the texts box unticked gets no SMS and no WhatsApp, whatever your settings say — email only. A booking your team takes has no box: texts are allowed, since the guest agreed on the phone. A request from your own website's form that doesn't send the box is treated like a staff booking.
When a channel can't deliver: a WhatsApp that can't go yet (number not connected, message not approved) goes by SMS instead when Barform can text that number. A WhatsApp reported undelivered goes again by SMS when the number can be texted, or else by email if the booking has one. An email that bounces goes again by SMS to a +1 guest who allowed texts, when SMS is on.
Sending: a message that's refused for a moment is tried again every minute, up to 5 times, then marked Failed. A permanent refusal (a wrong number, not a mobile, not on WhatsApp…) is Undeliverable. A message waiting on something that isn't ready yet — such as WhatsApp's approval — stays Queued with the reason, and goes as soon as it can.
Language: a +1 number gets English. Every other number, and bookings with only an email, get your iPad language (Settings › Venue › Language). The language a guest used on your booking page isn't kept. Times are written in your venue's time zone.
Nothing is sent for bookings that already existed when you switch messages on; only for changes from then on.
Until your WhatsApp is set up and on, guests with Mexican and other international numbers get nothing on their phone — only the email, if they gave one. Each booking's message line shows whether the guest was told (see See whether a guest was told).
The wording is Barform's; there's no box for your own.

Turn on guest messages

Who can do this: admins, at a venue with the Reservations add-on.

In the back office, go to Settings › Reservations › Guest messages.
Flip the switch at the top. It reads "Messages to guests are off", then "Messages to guests are on": "A booking taken at the bar is confirmed at once. A web request is acknowledged, then confirmed when you confirm it."
Check How messages are sent: Email and Text message (SMS) are on from the start; WhatsApp needs its setup (see Set up WhatsApp).
Fill in Reply-to email so a guest's email reply reaches someone.
Send yourself a test (see Guest message settings).

Switching messages off keeps all your settings for when you switch them back on. It also stops what was already waiting: just before it goes, every guest message is checked against your switches again, so tomorrow's reminders, for example, are dropped as Skipped instead of sent.

What a guest receives, and when

Seven kinds of message follow a booking: request received, confirmation, update, reminder, cancellation, declined, and a thank-you the morning after. A venue that takes deposits adds an eighth, the deposit request (see Deposits for large groups). Each goes out on the guest's channels when the booking changes in a way that calls for it. They're triggered by what your team does in the back office or on the iPad, and by what the guest does on your booking page or their own page.

When you (or the guest)	The guest gets	In the message log as
A guest asks for a table on your booking page	Request received, at once	Request received
Your team adds a booking (back office or iPad)	Confirmation, at once, and the reminder is scheduled	Confirmation
The bar confirms a web request (Confirm)	Confirmation, at once, and the reminder is scheduled	Confirmation
Your team changes the time, party size or table of a booking whose confirmation went out (Edit, +15 min)	Update, at once	Update
The reminder time arrives on a confirmed booking	Reminder	Reminder
Your team cancels a booking	Cancellation, at once	Cancellation
Your team declines a web request that was never confirmed	Declined, at once	Declined
The party is seated, with the thank-you switched on	Thank-you, the next morning	Thank-you
You ask a group for a deposit (Ask for deposit, Send the link again)	Deposit request, at once	Deposit request
A group pays its deposit, on your booking page or by link	Confirmation, at once, with the deposit's terms	Confirmation
A no-show, or the guest cancels themselves	Nothing (the guest's own cancellation is answered by reply or on their page)	—

The words

The messages read like this in English; the Spanish ones say the same:

Request received: "We received your request for a table for (party size) at (venue) on (day and time). We'll confirm shortly."
Confirmation: "Your table for (party size) at (venue) is confirmed for (day and time) ((table)). Reply 2 to cancel."
Update: "Your reservation at (venue) changed — now a table for (party size) on (day and time) ((table)). Reply 2 if you can't make it."
Reminder: "See you today at (venue) — (day and time), table for (party size). Reply 1 to confirm or 2 to cancel."
Cancellation: "Your reservation at (venue) for (day and time) has been cancelled. Was that a mistake? Call us at (phone)."
Declined: "Sorry, we can't take your request for a table for (party size) at (venue) on (day and time)." followed by "Pick another time:" and a link to your booking page.
Thank-you: "Thank you for coming to (venue)! If you have a minute, a Google review helps us a lot:" and your review link.
Deposit request: "To confirm your table for (party size) at (venue) on (day and time), please pay the deposit of (amount):" and the guest's own link, where they pay, then "It comes off your bill."

On a booking with a deposit — a link out, or money paid and not refunded — no message asks the guest to reply 2, because a reply can't cancel it:

The confirmation of a paid deposit says, instead of "Reply 2 to cancel.": "Deposit paid: (amount) — it comes off your bill. Free cancellation until (day and time); after that, or if you don't come, it isn't refunded." Paid inside the free-cancellation window, it says "Deposit paid: (amount) — it comes off your bill. It isn't refundable: the booking is less than (hours) hours away."
The reminder asks only "Reply 1 to confirm.", and the update leaves out "Reply 2 if you can't make it."
A cancellation with a refund adds "Your (amount) deposit is being refunded to your card; your bank can take 5–10 business days to show it."

On each channel:

SMS adds "Changes:" and the guest's own link to every message except the cancellation, the decline and the thank-you. The table's name appears only when one is pencilled in, and the cancellation's last sentence only when your venue has a phone.
Email has a subject such as "Your table is confirmed — (venue)", a card with the headline, "Hi" and the guest's first name, the sentence, a box with When, Guests and Table, and a green button: Change or cancel (the guest's own page), Pick another time on a decline, Leave a Google review on the thank-you, and none on a cancellation. The footer has your venue's name, address and "Call us:" with your phone.
WhatsApp sends the same messages as templates WhatsApp approved for your venue, with the buttons Change or cancel, Pick another time and Leave a Google review (none on a cancellation). WhatsApp messages carry no table name, and the cancellation says "Call us." without the number.
The deposit request carries the guest's link inside its sentence. Its email has the subject "Pay your deposit to confirm your table — (venue)", the headline "One step left: your deposit", a box with When, Guests, Deposit and Pay by, and the button Pay the deposit; on WhatsApp it has a Pay the deposit button. A confirmation for a paid deposit adds Deposit to the email's box.
The links are short bfp.mx addresses on every channel: the guest's own page is bfp.mx/ followed by a short code, and the decline's link to your booking page and the thank-you's review link are bfp.mx/ followed by your public booking address and /book or /review.

Setting	Default	What it changes
Messages to guests and the three channels	Off · Email on · SMS on · WhatsApp off	Whether each message goes, and on which channels. See Guest message settings.
Reminder › Send it	6 h before	2, 4, 6, 12 or 24 hours before the booking.
Thank-you the next day	Off	Needs your Google review link.
Your venue's Phone and Address (Settings › Venue)	—	Used in the cancellation and the email footer.

Request received goes out for a new web booking that isn't confirmed.
Confirmation goes out for a new booking your team takes, and whenever the bar confirms an unconfirmed booking. It goes again each time that happens, so a booking the guest changed is confirmed again in words when the bar confirms again. It never goes twice for the same time, party size and table: confirming again after Remove confirmation sends nothing new. A guest's reply never confirms a web request: only the bar's Confirm does.
Reminder goes only to confirmed bookings, at the time you chose before the booking, and only if that moment is more than 10 minutes away when it's scheduled. It's moved when a confirmed booking's time changes or it's booked again, and dropped when the booking is un-confirmed, cancelled, marked a no-show or seated.
Update goes when the time, party size or table changes on a booking whose confirmation was sent or delivered — unless the same change un-confirmed it (the guest's own change, or the web form sent again). It goes again on every such change.
Cancellation goes when a booked booking is cancelled, unless the guest cancelled it. Declined replaces it when the booking came from the web and was never confirmed.
Thank-you is scheduled when a booking is seated, if the thank-you is on and a review link is set. It goes at 11:00 AM your time the day after the booking's date (or 1 hour after seating, whichever is later), on every channel the confirmation or request receipt actually went on — checked again against today's switches and the guest's consent — or else by the usual route.
When a booking stops being booked (cancelled, no-show, seated), everything still waiting for it is dropped as Skipped, except the cancellation, decline and thank-you that belong to that change.
Each kind of message appears once per channel per booking in the log; sending it again reuses the same line.
With the reminder at 12 or 24 hours before, it arrives the day before but still says "See you today".
+15 min on a booking whose confirmation went out sends an update every time you press it — staff bookings included, since their confirmation went out when they were saved.
Switching the thank-you on later doesn't thank parties already seated.
A WhatsApp thank-you needs its own messages, which are created only when you have a review link. If you add the link after your messages were approved, use Send them again in the WhatsApp card. Until then those thank-yous wait in the queue, or go by SMS when the number can be texted.
Changing the reminder setting moves every reminder not yet sent to the new time before its booking. One whose new time has already passed goes out within about a minute.
Book again on a cancelled booking sends no "it's back on" message; only the reminder, if the booking is confirmed.

Guest replies

The reminder invites the guest to reply 1 to confirm or 2 to cancel; the confirmation and the update invite 2 to cancel. A reply by SMS or WhatsApp changes the booking by itself — except that a reply never confirms a web request the bar hasn't accepted yet. The request receipt, confirmation, update and reminder also carry a private link to the guest's own page, where they can change or cancel (see Reservations).

What the guest does:

Replies 1 (or sí, si, confirmo, confirmar, confirmado, yes, y, ok, confirm, confirmed). On a booking the bar has confirmed, the booking shows Confirmed by the guest, and the guest is answered "Thanks! Your table at (venue) is confirmed." On a web request the bar hasn't confirmed yet, the reply changes nothing and is answered "Thanks! (venue) will confirm your request shortly." The request stays waiting for the bar's Confirm or Decline.
Or replies 2 (or no, cancelar, cancelo, cancelado, cancel, cancelled, canceled). The booking is cancelled by the guest, the guest is answered "Done, your reservation at (venue) is cancelled. See you next time!", and the bar gets a cancellation notice (see Notices to the bar). This works on a request still waiting for the bar too. On a booking with a deposit, a 2 cancels nothing: the guest is answered "To cancel a booking with a deposit, use your link:" and the link to their own page, where they see what happens to the deposit before they cancel.
Anything else is answered "Reply 1 to confirm or 2 to cancel your reservation at (venue)." — or, on a request still waiting for the bar, "Thanks! (venue) will confirm your request shortly." The reply must be exactly one of those words — capitals and spaces around it don't matter — so "1." or "yes please" count as anything else.
On WhatsApp, STOP, ALTO or BAJA stops that booking's messages: everything still waiting for it is skipped and nothing more is sent. The guest is answered once, "Done, you won't get any more messages about your reservation at (venue)."; a second STOP gets no answer. The booking itself stands, and your own alerts about it still reach you.

A reply counts for the booking that number was last sent a guest message about, on that channel, as long as that booking is still booked and no more than 3 hours past its time. Otherwise it gets no answer.
A reply from your own alert phone (Also alert this phone) is never taken as a guest's reply: it never changes a booking that way and gets no answer, even when that phone also has a booking. On WhatsApp, the alert phone can answer a new request instead — see Answer a request from WhatsApp.
By SMS, STOP is handled by the text-message service itself: the guest gets its standard answer, and later texts to that number fail with "This number replied STOP, so texts to it are blocked."
The answer is in the language of the message being answered.
Email replies aren't read by Barform: they go to your Reply-to email, for a person to read.
Other text replies by SMS or WhatsApp are kept but shown nowhere in the back office or on the iPad: you never see "can we bring a dog?". Your WhatsApp number can't be opened in the WhatsApp app either (see Set up WhatsApp), so there's no inbox for it.

Notices to the bar

Barform tells the bar at once when a guest does something nobody at the bar would otherwise see: asks for a table online, changes a booking, cancels, or pays a deposit. Notices go by email, and new requests and cancellations can also go by WhatsApp or SMS to one phone. Barform also sends one email when your WhatsApp switches itself on. Notices go out whether or not messages to guests are on, and they don't count toward the month's messages.

Who can do this: admins set the notices up.

Get notices by email

Go to Settings › Reservations › Guest messages › Replies and notices.
Keep Tell me when a guest asks on (it starts on).
Type Send notices to, or leave it empty to use the Reply-to email ("Empty: they go to the reply-to email" and the address).

Also get alerts on a phone

In Also alert this phone, pick the country code, type the number and leave the field.
- Use a phone other than your venue's own WhatsApp number: WhatsApp can't send a message to itself. Send a test shows the error at once.
How: Auto (WhatsApp when the number has it, else SMS), WhatsApp or SMS.
Click Send a test. The line says what happened: "Sent by WhatsApp.", "Sent by SMS.", "WhatsApp is not available for this number — sent by SMS.", "WhatsApp is not ready for alerts yet — sent by SMS.", or why it's being held, for example while WhatsApp is still reviewing the alerts.

When a notice arrives, click Open the book in the email (or the link in the text) to land on Service › Reservations on that night, then Confirm or Decline. Replying to a notice email writes to the guest. A new-request alert on WhatsApp can also be answered right there, with its Confirm and Decline buttons or with the word (see Answer a request from WhatsApp). Any other reply to a phone alert — "ok", "no", "1" or "2", or anything by text message — doesn't confirm or cancel anything and gets no answer.

Setting	Default	What it changes
Tell me when a guest asks	On	Off: no notices by email or phone.
Send notices to	Empty (the Reply-to email)	Where email notices go. With neither address, no email notice goes out.
Also alert this phone	Empty (email only)	The phone that gets alerts for new requests and guest cancellations.
How	Auto	How the phone alerts go.
Admin portal language (Settings › Venue › Language)	The language you signed up in	The notices' language.

There are three notices. New table request: a new web request. A guest changed their booking: the guest moved the time or party size from their own page, or sent the booking form again for that night (the booking is unconfirmed again). A guest cancelled: by replying 2 or from their own page. In the message log they read Notice: new request, Notice: guest changed and Notice: guest cancelled.
At a venue that takes deposits there's a fourth, by email only: Deposit paid, when a group pays its deposit and the booking is confirmed — "Deposit paid:" with the guest, the time and the party size, then the amount and "The booking is confirmed." It follows Tell me when a guest asks and goes to the same address. In the message log it reads Notice: deposit paid.
Your team's own changes never send a notice — only the guest's do — except a booking your team saves with Booked by › Website, which reads as a new web request.
The email's subject reads like "New table request:" with the guest, the time and the party size. It has the details (phone, email, notes), what happens next and Open the book. It comes from "Barform POS", with the guest's email as the reply address, and ends "Sent by Barform POS. Turn these off in Settings → Reservations."
Phone alerts go only for new requests and guest cancellations, not changes. On Auto they go by WhatsApp unless the number is +1. A WhatsApp alert comes from your own WhatsApp number, using two alert messages (new request and cancellation) created with your guest messages. Until those are approved, or if the number isn't on WhatsApp, the alert goes by SMS when Barform can text that number; otherwise it waits.
Notices go whether or not Messages to guests is on, and they don't count in the monthly message count.
Notices need an address — Send notices to or the Reply-to email — or an alert phone. Without one, nothing is sent.
WhatsApp is now on: when your WhatsApp setup finishes and Barform switches it on, one email "WhatsApp is now on:" with your venue's name goes to the notices address (or the Reply-to email), once, in your admin language.
A change to the note alone sends no notice, though it still un-confirms the booking.
If the card warns "Barform cannot text this number, so alerts sent by SMS would never reach it…", pick Auto or WhatsApp.

Answer a request from WhatsApp

When a new web request reaches your alert phone on WhatsApp, you can confirm or decline it right in that chat, without opening the book. Barform makes the same change as the book's Confirm and Decline — the guest gets their confirmation, or the message that you can't take the request, with a link to pick another time — and answers you in the chat: what it did, whose booking it was, and how the guest was told.

Who can do this: the phone in Also alert this phone, on WhatsApp. Any other number — a guest's, a manager's own phone — is treated as before.

Tap Confirm or Decline

The new-request alert reads "New reservation request: (guest), (party size), (day and time). Confirm or decline it below." and has three buttons: Confirm, Decline and Open the book.

Tap Confirm or Decline on the alert. There's no second question: the tap is the answer.
Barform answers in the chat, for example "Confirmed: Colin Jones, 4 guests, Fri, Oct 23, 9:00 PM. Their confirmation is on its way by WhatsApp and email." or "Declined: … They're being told by WhatsApp that you can't take it, with a link to pick another time."

The buttons are part of your venue's own alert, which WhatsApp has to approve first. The alert goes for approval with your other messages when you set WhatsApp up (see Set up WhatsApp). Until WhatsApp approves it, new-request alerts go by SMS when Barform can text your alert phone, or wait.
To see where that stands, go to Settings › Reservations › Guest messages. On the WhatsApp card, Alerts for the bar reads, for example, "2 of 4 approved — WhatsApp is reviewing them", then "4 of 4 approved". If WhatsApp refuses an alert, it says so there, with the reason.
A test alert from Send a test, sent to the phone saved in Also alert this phone, has the buttons too. Tapping one answers "That was a test alert, so there's nothing to confirm or decline. On a real request, these buttons answer it."
When Barform changes the wording of an approved alert, your alert keeps going out as it was until WhatsApp approves the new wording (see the rules under Set up WhatsApp).

Reply with the word

You can also answer by replying to the alert with a word.

In WhatsApp, reply to the new-request alert itself (swipe the alert, or press and hold it, to reply to it).
Send only the word: Confirm to accept the request, or Decline to turn it down.
Barform answers in the chat, as for a tap.

Barform also takes confirmed, confirmar, confirmo, confirmado, confirmada, confírmala, accept, aceptar and acepto, and declined, deny, denied, reject, rejected, rechazar, rechazo, rechazada, rechazado, recházala and denegar. Capitals, accents, spaces and a closing "." or "!" don't matter. Anything more — "confirm it", "confirm the 9 PM one" — isn't an answer.
"1", "2", "sí", "no", "ok", "yes" and "cancel" never answer a request: guests use 1 and 2 for their own bookings, and a confirmed booking is cancelled in the book.
A word sent without replying to an alert acts only when exactly one web request is waiting, from tonight on. With two or more, Barform answers "N requests are waiting. Tap Confirm or Decline on the alert you mean, or reply to that alert with the word."; with none, "No request is waiting for an answer. Open the book:" and the link.
Replying to an alert more than 7 days old counts as sending the word on its own.
It works only on WhatsApp. A text message from the alert phone answers nothing.

When nothing changes

Barform changes nothing, and says why, when the request:

is already confirmed: "Already confirmed, nothing changed:" and the booking. Decline never cancels a confirmed booking — the answer is "Already confirmed, so it wasn't declined:", the booking, and "To cancel it, use the book:" with the link;
is already cancelled or declined, seated or marked as a no-show, or for a night that has passed;
needs a deposit first: "This group needs a deposit, so it wasn't confirmed:" — ask for the deposit in the book, or confirm it there without one;
has a deposit link out to the guest: "The guest has the deposit link, so it wasn't confirmed:" — it confirms itself when they pay. Decline works on both;
isn't one of your web requests: "That request isn't in the book. Open the book:" and the link.

A reply to anything that isn't a request alert — one of Barform's own answers, say — changes nothing either: "That message isn't a request alert. Tap Confirm or Decline on the alert itself, or reply to the alert with the word."

When no message can go to the guest, the answer says so: "No message goes to the guest (there's no way to reach them, or guest messages are off), so let them know yourself."
If something goes wrong on Barform's side, nothing changes: "Something went wrong and nothing changed. Answer it in the book:" and the link.
While Barform is paused at your venue, or your venue is read-only, nothing is saved and the answer says why.
Declining from WhatsApp sends you no cancellation alert.
Barform answers in your Admin portal language (Settings › Venue › Language), like the alerts.

See whether a guest was told

Each booking shows whether its confirmation went out and how, so the host knows whether the guest heard anything.

Back office: in Service › Reservations, point at the speech-bubble icon on the row. Green means sent or delivered.
iPad: read the small line under each booking in the Reservations sheet, or in its details.
If it failed, check the number, and see the reason in Messages, on the Not sent tab.

It reports the confirmation on the guest's phone channel (or the email, when there's no phone) — not the reminder or the other messages.
The back office says "Confirmation sent by (channel).", "Confirmation delivered by (channel).", "Confirmation queued, going out by (channel).", "The confirmation by (channel) could not be delivered. Check the number.", "The confirmation goes out by (channel) when you confirm the booking." or "No confirmation went out for this booking." A grey crossed-out bubble says "No phone or email on this booking, so nothing can be sent.", "The guest left the texts box unticked, so no SMS or WhatsApp goes out. Email does." or "The guest left the texts box unticked and gave no email, so nothing can be sent."
When messages, or the guest's channel, are switched off, the rows show no bubble and one notice at the top of the page says so: "Automatic confirmations are off.", "SMS confirmations are off.", "WhatsApp confirmations are off." or "Email confirmations are off.", with a Message settings link.
With WhatsApp on, clicking a WhatsApp guest's bubble opens a WhatsApp chat with a ready-written confirmation in the back office's language ("Click to open the WhatsApp chat.").
The iPad's lines read, for example, "SMS confirmation sent", "WhatsApp confirmation delivered", "WhatsApp confirmation queued", "SMS confirmation failed — check the number", "WhatsApp confirmation goes out when confirmed", "No confirmation went out", "No phone or email — nothing can be sent", "Guest declined texts · email only" (or "· no email"), "Confirmations are off — see the admin" or "WhatsApp confirmations are off — see the admin". They show on booked bookings only.
For another night, the iPad shows a line only once that night's messages have been read; it never says nothing went out before it knows.

The message log

Every message to guests and every notice to the bar, in three tabs: what went out, what's waiting, and what didn't go — with the reason in plain words.

Who can do this: admins and managers, to read.

In the back office, go to Service › Reservations and click Messages. (Today's guest-message line and the red "N not sent" badge open it on Not sent.)
Pick a tab: Sent, Scheduled or Not sent. Each shows its count.
Read the columns: When (Goes out on Scheduled), Guest, Message, Sent to (the channel and address) and Status, with the reason under it.
"Showing N of N": click Load more for the next 50.
At the top right, "N of N this month" counts the guest messages sent this month, out of your monthly allowance. Message settings goes to the settings.

Sent holds sent and delivered messages, newest first. Scheduled holds queued and sending ones, the next to go first. Not sent holds failed, undeliverable and skipped ones, latest first. The page opens on Sent, or on Scheduled when nothing has ever been sent but something is waiting.
The statuses are Queued, Sending, Sent, Delivered, Failed, Undeliverable and Skipped. For SMS and WhatsApp, Delivered comes back from the phone network or WhatsApp; a WhatsApp that was read counts as delivered. An email shows Delivered once the guest's email provider accepts it.
The messages are named Request received, Confirmation, Update, Reminder, Thank-you, Cancellation, Declined, Deposit request, Notice: new request, Notice: guest changed, Notice: guest cancelled and Notice: deposit paid.
Reasons are written in your back-office language, for example "WhatsApp is still reviewing this message.", "This number is not on WhatsApp.", "The email bounced: the address does not accept mail.", "There is no text sender for this country yet." or "WhatsApp held this message back (marketing message limit)." — with "The email copy still went." or "It went by text instead." when another copy got through.
The monthly count includes guest messages sent or delivered since the start of the month; notices aren't counted. The allowance — the add-on includes 1,000 messages a month — is a guide, not a hard limit: messages keep going after the count passes it.
There's no way to retry or resend a message, and nothing can be edited or deleted here. To reach a guest whose message failed, fix the booking's number (an edit sends nothing by itself unless the time, party size or table changes) or contact them yourself.
Skipped isn't a failure: the booking changed before the message went (cancelled, seated, un-confirmed), a WhatsApp was sent as SMS instead, your switches no longer allowed it when it was due, or the guest replied STOP on WhatsApp.
A message waiting for WhatsApp's approval sits in Scheduled with its reason, not in Not sent.
A message sent twice (a confirmation sent again, for example) is one line, showing its latest send.
Today's line "N guest messages did not go out this week" also counts messages stuck in the queue, which this page lists under Scheduled, so the Not sent tab can show fewer. The red badge counts only Failed and Undeliverable.

Guest message settings

The switchboard for everything on this page: the main switch, the three channels, the WhatsApp setup, the reminder, the thank-you, where replies and notices go, and two test buttons. Changes save as you make them ("Saving…", then "Saved").

Who can do this: admins, at a venue with the Reservations add-on. Managers don't see the Reservations settings tab; opened by its address, the page is read-only and has no test cards.

In the back office, go to Settings › Reservations › Guest messages.

Switch guest messages on or off: flip the switch at the top.
Choose channels: under How messages are sent, flip Email, Text message (SMS) or WhatsApp.
Set the reminder: under What your guests receive › Reminder, pick Send it: 2 h, 4 h, 6 h, 12 h or 24 h before.
Turn on the thank-you: flip Thank-you the next day and paste your Google review link ("From your Google Business Profile: Ask for reviews → copy the link.").
Say where replies and notices go: under Replies and notices — Reply-to email, Tell me when a guest asks, Send notices to, Also alert this phone and How. See Notices to the bar.
Send yourself a test: in Send yourself a test, type a +1 phone number or an email and click Send. You see "Test sent." The test is a confirmation for 4 guests two days from now, and nothing is logged.

Setting	Default	What it changes
Messages to guests	Off	On: "A booking taken at the bar is confirmed at once. A web request is acknowledged, then confirmed when you confirm it." Off, your settings below are kept for when you switch it back on, and messages already queued are dropped as Skipped when they come due.
Email	On	"Every guest who leaves an address. Sent under your venue's name."
Text message (SMS)	On	"Guests with US and Canadian numbers (+1)."
WhatsApp	Off	"Guests with Mexican and other international numbers." Locked until the setup is ready ("Step N of 4" — "Finish the setup below; it switches on by itself"); it switches itself on once ready.
Reminder › Send it	6 h before	When the reminder goes.
Thank-you the next day	Off	The thank-you the morning after a seated booking. It needs the Google review link, which must start with http:// or https:// (anything else is refused with "Invalid input").
Reply-to email	Empty	"Where a guest's email reply lands. Empty: no reply-to."

Just before it goes, every guest message is checked against these switches again. With Messages to guests off, the guest's channel off (judged by the guest's number: +1 by Text message (SMS), any other by WhatsApp), Email off, or the thank-you off (or its review link removed), a message already queued — tomorrow's reminder, say — is dropped as Skipped. So is any guest message once your plan no longer includes guest messages. Your notices to the bar follow Tell me when a guest asks, as before.
Changing Reminder › Send it moves the reminders not yet sent to the new time.
The test: a +1 number gets the SMS, in English; an email address gets the email, in your back-office language. If the screen says "Mexican numbers get the messages by WhatsApp, so this test cannot text them. Send it to an email address instead.", send it to an email. The link in the test reads "[each guest's own link goes here]".
To try WhatsApp, book yourself with a Mexican number once WhatsApp is on.
Guests get their messages in the language described in How messages reach a guest.

Set up WhatsApp

Connect your own WhatsApp number so guests with Mexican and other international numbers get their messages by WhatsApp, from your venue's name. There are four steps on one card: the profile guests see, the number, getting the messages approved by WhatsApp, and the switch — which flips by itself, with an email, when everything is approved.