Guests are beginning to expect text messages from business as reminders about everything from their oil change to their dentist appointment to, as you know, their hotel reservation. But you’ve seen how some people of your staff write text messages — what with their acronyms (LMK, ILY, G2G, OMW), and with their slang (Bae, Bruh, Yaas, and Shook being some examples). How can you make sure your staff is using the correct tone and style for your brand?

Take control of the messaging at your property by using the Snippets function in HelloShift. Here’s how:

Access the snippets function in HelloShift by going to Menu > Guests > Snippets:

HelloShift gives you some ideas to get you going for snippets, and this is where the text for your Pre-Stay, On-Premise and Post-Stay messages lives. You can edit those messages from this page as well.

Edit an Existing Message

Snippets are used by your staff when replying to guests or while sending bulk SMS. They save your staff time and ensure the responses are correct and consistent. To customize your snippets, you can use a number of parameters: {{firstName}}, {{fullName}}, {{arrivalDate}}, {{departureDate}}, {{roomNumber}}, {{confirmationNumber}}, {{guestType}} and {{description}}. For example, for guest Adam Anderson, {{firstName}} will be replaced with Adam and {{fullName}} with Adam Anderson. Click on the Snippet title and then click on the pencil icon to edit the snippet:

image.png

Begin typing in the box to change the message to say what you want, then click “Update Snippet”:

image.png

Creating New Snippets

On the snippet page, click on the blue “New Snippet” box:



Add the text of your new snippet, then click on the blue “Add Snippet” button:

image.png

PRO TIP: keep your text to under 160 characters to make sure it stays all in one message. Here is a free character count tool you can use.

PRO TIP2: if you are sending a URL, use a URL shortener to make it smaller. You can do that online for free here.

Responding to Guests with Snippets

Now that you have added a snippet and edited your existing snippets, you are ready to use them to send messages to guests!

In any chat with the guest, choose the “Reply to Guest” option and snippets will appear on the bottom left:

image.png

Roll your mouse over a snippet to see the preview of the snippet, and click on the snippet title to insert the snippet into a text message to a guest:

image.png

Sending Bulk Messages Using Snippets

What if I need to send a message to everyone in the hotel? You can do that from the Directory page. Follow these six steps:

image.png

1. Find the on-premise guests at your property by clicking on the In-Stay tab at the top
2. Select all guests on this page
3. Verify that all guests are on premise based on the dates of arrival and departure.
4. Choose the snippet you’d like to send
5. Choose Preview & Send

After that, for Step 6, be sure that everything looks correct, then send the message:

image.png

PRO TIP: You can also use our delay tool to schedule messages to be sent at a specific time. Read about that here.

Conditional Messages

Sometimes you want to send customized messages based on guest attributes. For these situations, you can use conditional messages.

Example: Repeat Guests
You want to send a special note to guests who have stayed at the property before. Your snippet should look like this:

Hi {{firstName}}, welcome {{% if stayedBefore %}}back{{% endif %} to the #1 hotel in the Republic of Zubrowka! Need anything for your upcoming stay? Reply to this text and we’ll get right on it.

Regular Guest gets this message: Hi Jane, welcome to the #1 hotel in the Republic of Zubrowka! Need anything for your upcoming stay? Reply to this text and we’ll get right on it.

Repeat Guest gets this message: Hi Jane, welcome back to the #1 hotel in the Republic of Zubrowka! Need anything for your upcoming stay? Reply to this text and we’ll get right on it.

Example: Special treatment

Hi {{firstName}}, welcome {{% if stayedBefore %}}back{{% endif %} to the #1 hotel in The Republic of Zubrowka! Need anything for your upcoming stay? Reply to this text and we’ll get right on it. {% if guestType == ‘VIP’ %}Your first drink at the bar is on us!{% endif %}

Regular Guest gets this message: Hi Jane, welcome to the #1 hotel in the Republic of Zubrowka! Need anything for your upcoming stay? Reply to this text and we’ll get right on it.

Repeat Guest gets this message: Hi Jane, welcome back to the #1 hotel in the Republic of Zubrowka! Need anything for your upcoming stay? Reply to this text and we’ll get right on it.

VIP Guest gets this message: Hi Jane, welcome to the #1 hotel in the Republic of Zubrowka! Need anything for your upcoming stay? Reply to this text and we’ll get right on it. Your first drink at the bar is on us!

Advanced Example: Multiple conditional parameters

Occasionally, properties have the need for complicated if/then statements in their snippets. Examples of this would include things like, if the room number is X, send this message, but if the room number is Y, send this message.

**Please Note: HelloShift will be happy to help you set up the logic statements for your snippets — just contact us using the chat box at the bottom of the page! **

**Example: **

Hi {{firstName}}, it’s great to welcome you to the Grand Budapest Hotel. Your room number is {{roomNumber}} and your wifi password is
{%- case roomNumber -%}
{%- when ‘#104’ -%} 104aaa
{%- when ‘#105’ -%} 105aaa
{%- when ‘#205’ -%} 205aaa
{%- when ‘#321’ -%} 321aaa
{%- else -%}
{%- endcase -%}

Guest in room
104 gets this message: Hi John, it’s great to welcome you to the Grand Budapest Hotel. Your room number is
104 and your wifi password is 104aaa.

Guest in room
105 gets this message: Hi John, it’s great to welcome you to the Grand Budapest Hotel. Your room number is
105 and your wifi password is
105aaa .

Guest in room
205 gets this message: Hi John, it’s great to welcome you to the Grand Budapest Hotel. Your room number is
205 and your wifi password is
205aaa.

Guest in room
321 gets this message: Hi John, it’s great to welcome you to the Grand Budapest Hotel. Your room number is
321 and your wifi password is
321aaa.

Cheat Sheet for writing snippets:

Parameters:

{{firstName}} Inserts the guest’s first name only.

{{fullName}} inserts the guest’s first and last names.

{{arrivalDate}} inserts the guest’s arrival date

{{departureDate}} inserts the guest’s departure date

{{roomNumber}} inserts the guest’s room number (if available in HelloShift)

{{confirmationNumber}} inserts the guest’s confirmation number (if available in HelloShift)

{{stayedBefore}} data is only true or false, usually used as an if/then condition

{{guestType}} data can be entered in the Guest Type Field when adding a user manually or by using the customized fields under your name > Admin > Customizations tab. Guests can then be categorized with those labels.

What are snippets and how do I use them? – HelloShift

How Can We Help?

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Guests are beginning to expect text messages from business as reminders about everything from their oil change to their dentist appointment to, as you know, their hotel reservation. But you’ve seen how some people of your staff write text messages — what with their acronyms (LMK, ILY, G2G, OMW), and with their slang (Bae, Bruh, Yaas, and Shook being some examples). How can you make sure your staff is using the correct tone and style for your brand?

Take control of the messaging at your property by using the Snippets function in HelloShift. Here’s how:

Access the snippets function in HelloShift by going to Menu > Guests > Snippets:

HelloShift gives you some ideas to get you going for snippets, and this is where the text for your Pre-Stay, On-Premise and Post-Stay messages lives. You can edit those messages from this page as well.

Edit an Existing Message

Snippets are used by your staff when replying to guests or while sending bulk SMS. They save your staff time and ensure the responses are correct and consistent. To customize your snippets, you can use a number of parameters: {{firstName}}, {{fullName}}, {{arrivalDate}}, {{departureDate}}, {{roomNumber}}, {{confirmationNumber}}, {{guestType}} and {{description}}. For example, for guest Adam Anderson, {{firstName}} will be replaced with Adam and {{fullName}} with Adam Anderson. Click on the Snippet title and then click on the pencil icon to edit the snippet:

image.png

Begin typing in the box to change the message to say what you want, then click “Update Snippet”:

image.png

Creating New Snippets

On the snippet page, click on the blue “New Snippet” box:



Add the text of your new snippet, then click on the blue “Add Snippet” button:

image.png

PRO TIP: keep your text to under 160 characters to make sure it stays all in one message. Here is a free character count tool you can use.

PRO TIP2: if you are sending a URL, use a URL shortener to make it smaller. You can do that online for free here.

Responding to Guests with Snippets

Now that you have added a snippet and edited your existing snippets, you are ready to use them to send messages to guests!

In any chat with the guest, choose the “Reply to Guest” option and snippets will appear on the bottom left:

image.png

Roll your mouse over a snippet to see the preview of the snippet, and click on the snippet title to insert the snippet into a text message to a guest:

image.png

Sending Bulk Messages Using Snippets

What if I need to send a message to everyone in the hotel? You can do that from the Directory page. Follow these six steps:

image.png

1. Find the on-premise guests at your property by clicking on the In-Stay tab at the top
2. Select all guests on this page
3. Verify that all guests are on premise based on the dates of arrival and departure.
4. Choose the snippet you’d like to send
5. Choose Preview & Send

After that, for Step 6, be sure that everything looks correct, then send the message:

image.png

PRO TIP: You can also use our delay tool to schedule messages to be sent at a specific time. Read about that here.

Conditional Messages

Sometimes you want to send customized messages based on guest attributes. For these situations, you can use conditional messages.

Example: Repeat Guests
You want to send a special note to guests who have stayed at the property before. Your snippet should look like this:

Hi {{firstName}}, welcome {{% if stayedBefore %}}back{{% endif %} to the #1 hotel in the Republic of Zubrowka! Need anything for your upcoming stay? Reply to this text and we’ll get right on it.

Regular Guest gets this message: Hi Jane, welcome to the #1 hotel in the Republic of Zubrowka! Need anything for your upcoming stay? Reply to this text and we’ll get right on it.

Repeat Guest gets this message: Hi Jane, welcome back to the #1 hotel in the Republic of Zubrowka! Need anything for your upcoming stay? Reply to this text and we’ll get right on it.

Example: Special treatment

Hi {{firstName}}, welcome {{% if stayedBefore %}}back{{% endif %} to the #1 hotel in The Republic of Zubrowka! Need anything for your upcoming stay? Reply to this text and we’ll get right on it. {% if guestType == ‘VIP’ %}Your first drink at the bar is on us!{% endif %}

Regular Guest gets this message: Hi Jane, welcome to the #1 hotel in the Republic of Zubrowka! Need anything for your upcoming stay? Reply to this text and we’ll get right on it.

Repeat Guest gets this message: Hi Jane, welcome back to the #1 hotel in the Republic of Zubrowka! Need anything for your upcoming stay? Reply to this text and we’ll get right on it.

VIP Guest gets this message: Hi Jane, welcome to the #1 hotel in the Republic of Zubrowka! Need anything for your upcoming stay? Reply to this text and we’ll get right on it. Your first drink at the bar is on us!

Advanced Example: Multiple conditional parameters

Occasionally, properties have the need for complicated if/then statements in their snippets. Examples of this would include things like, if the room number is X, send this message, but if the room number is Y, send this message.

**Please Note: HelloShift will be happy to help you set up the logic statements for your snippets — just contact us using the chat box at the bottom of the page! **

**Example: **

Hi {{firstName}}, it’s great to welcome you to the Grand Budapest Hotel. Your room number is {{roomNumber}} and your wifi password is
{%- case roomNumber -%}
{%- when ‘#104’ -%} 104aaa
{%- when ‘#105’ -%} 105aaa
{%- when ‘#205’ -%} 205aaa
{%- when ‘#321’ -%} 321aaa
{%- else -%}
{%- endcase -%}

Guest in room
104 gets this message: Hi John, it’s great to welcome you to the Grand Budapest Hotel. Your room number is
104 and your wifi password is 104aaa.

Guest in room
105 gets this message: Hi John, it’s great to welcome you to the Grand Budapest Hotel. Your room number is
105 and your wifi password is
105aaa .

Guest in room
205 gets this message: Hi John, it’s great to welcome you to the Grand Budapest Hotel. Your room number is
205 and your wifi password is
205aaa.

Guest in room
321 gets this message: Hi John, it’s great to welcome you to the Grand Budapest Hotel. Your room number is
321 and your wifi password is
321aaa.

Cheat Sheet for writing snippets:

Parameters:

{{firstName}} Inserts the guest’s first name only.

{{fullName}} inserts the guest’s first and last names.

{{arrivalDate}} inserts the guest’s arrival date

{{departureDate}} inserts the guest’s departure date

{{roomNumber}} inserts the guest’s room number (if available in HelloShift)

{{confirmationNumber}} inserts the guest’s confirmation number (if available in HelloShift)

{{stayedBefore}} data is only true or false, usually used as an if/then condition

{{guestType}} data can be entered in the Guest Type Field when adding a user manually or by using the customized fields under your name > Admin > Customizations tab. Guests can then be categorized with those labels.