Messages Between Guest and Restaurant

Guests can write about their booking through the booking link, and you read and reply in its message thread. Questions and agreements stay together with the booking.

The feature is off by default. Not every restaurant wants guests to be able to write, and an inbox nobody reads is worse than no inbox at all.

Turn it on

1. Go to Bokning → Inställningar → No-show & SMS
2. Find the card Meddelanden från gäster (Messages from guests)
3. Turn on "Låt gäster skriva om sin bokning" (Let guests write about their booking)

Settings save automatically and require permission to change restaurant settings. The following options are available:

Addresses are kept if you turn the email notice off – turn it back on and the list is still there.

What the guest sees

The guest writes from their booking link, the same page where they cancel or modify. The link is in the confirmation SMS.

Guests can write while the booking is pending (Väntande), confirmed (Bekräftad) or waitlisted (Väntelista), provided messaging is enabled. Seating the guest closes the compose field. It is also closed for completed, cancelled and no-show bookings. Automatic completion is a separate optional setting.

Guests write through the booking link. The SMS notification points to the thread; it is not a channel for replying to the message.

What you see

New messages reach you three ways:

• The notification bell in admin – "2 unread messages from guests"
• A dot in the POS – the message appears among POS notifications
• Email – if you enabled it

You read and reply in three places, all showing the same thread:

Who read it, who replied

Every message shows who handled it: "Läst av Anna 14:32" (Read by Anna) and "Svar av Anna" (Replied by Anna).

The read mark is recorded for whoever opens the thread first and is never overwritten. The question that matters is has someone seen it? – not who looked last.

In the POS the PIN-signed-in staff member is recorded, not whoever happens to be logged into the till. A till is shared by the whole shift, so the login says nothing about who actually tapped.

You never see whether the guest read your reply. There is no read receipt from the guest's side, and we would rather show nothing than something that is right half the time.

Replying requires permission

Anyone who can see bookings can read messages. Replying requires the Redigera bokning permission – the same one needed to change a booking. Without it, the thread shows without a compose field.

If you turn the feature off

Messages already received do not disappear. They stay and can still be answered – otherwise an ongoing conversation would break mid-way. What changes is that the guest no longer sees a compose field.

FAQ

Can guests send images? No, text only. Up to 1,000 characters.

What does it cost? Receiving is free. If you reply with SMS notifications enabled, SMS is charged according to your agreement. Message length and characters can affect the number of parts. Turn the SMS notice off if you would rather trust the guest to check themselves.

Can AI help us reply? Yes. With AI-förslag på svar enabled, Förslag till svar provides a draft when a guest is awaiting a reply. Read it, press Använd, edit if needed and use the send button. Nothing is sent automatically. If the guest requests a change, you must also edit the booking itself: a message does not change its time or party size.

Related: Manage a booking, Enable and customize SMS messages, Guest self-service