Messages Between Guest and Restaurant
Information used to travel one way only: you sent confirmations and reminders, and the guest could only add requests when booking. If they wanted to say something afterwards, the phone was the only option – and then the information lived in the head of whoever answered.
Now the guest can write about their booking, and you reply where you already work.
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
- Go to Booking → Settings → No-show & SMS
- Find the card Meddelanden från gäster (Messages from guests)
- Turn on "Låt gäster skriva om sin bokning" (Let guests write about their booking)
You can then choose three things:
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| SMS to the guest when you reply | On | The guest gets an SMS that you replied, with a link to their booking. Costs SEK 0.89 per reply. |
| Email us on a new message | Off | One email per incoming message, to the addresses you list. |
| Recipients | Empty | Who gets the email. An empty list means no email is sent, even if the notice is on. |
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.
The channel stays open as long as the booking is active. Roughly an hour after the sitting, the booking is automatically set to Completed and the message field closes by itself. You never get an inbox that stays open forever.
Guests cannot reply to SMS. Our sender is called "Vendion" – a name, not a phone number – and such senders technically cannot receive replies. That is why the guest's route is always the booking link.
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:
| Where | How |
|---|---|
| Booking → Messages | Its own tab with an unread count. Bookings with unread messages sort first. |
| POS → booking view | The Meddelanden button with the same count |
| On the booking | The thread sits at the bottom of the detail panel |
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 booking.edit capability – 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 and the SMS notice is on, it costs SEK 0.89 per reply – the same as other booking SMS. Turn the SMS notice off if you would rather trust the guest to check themselves.
Can AI reply for us? Not today.
Related: Manage a booking, Enable and customize SMS messages, Guest self-service
This feature is part of Vendion Booking.
Curious how it looks in practice? Read more about the product or book a short demo.
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