Guests message you through the booking site they booked on, and each site has its own extranet to check. Messages collects those conversations in one list, shows them in the order they last moved, and lets you answer without leaving SERVOS.
Every conversation carries the channel it came from, so you always know whether you are talking to a Booking.com guest or an Airbnb one.
Messages is still being tested, so it is switched on for SERVOS staff only. If you cannot see Messages in the sidebar yet, that is why.
Reading the list
The list is sorted by the most recent message. A conversation in bold with a dot beside it has something nobody on the team has read yet; opening it clears that for everyone, because messages are shared rather than personal.
The chips above the list narrow it:
- All — every conversation.
- Unread — only the ones still waiting on the team.
- One chip per channel you have actually heard from.
Refresh pulls your messages from the channel manager on the spot. You rarely need it: messages arrive on their own within moments, and SERVOS re-reads every conversation on a schedule in case a notification goes missing.
Answering
Type into the box at the bottom of a conversation and Send. The reply appears in the thread immediately and is delivered to the booking site in the background. If the site refuses it, the message stays in the thread marked with the reason, so a failed reply is visible rather than silently lost.
Some conversations are read-only, and the reply box says so. That happens when the conversation reached us but the channel gives no way to answer it.
Conversations and bookings
Most conversations belong to a booking. When the booking is one SERVOS holds, the conversation header links to the order, and shows the guest's dates and room under their name.
Some conversations have no booking behind them. An Airbnb inquiry is a guest asking about dates before booking anything, so it arrives as a conversation on its own. If the guest goes on to book, the conversation links itself to the resulting order the next time it syncs.
Common questions
A guest says they messaged us but I see nothing. Check that the channel is connected under Settings → Sales Channels, then press Refresh. Messaging has to be enabled for your property in the channel manager; if it is not, no conversations arrive at all. Not every booking site supports messaging.
Can I message a guest who booked direct? Not yet. Messages carries booking-site conversations today; email is next.
Who is "Channel" in a thread? The booking site itself, not a person. Airbnb inquiries arrive that way.
