You can drop a guest's door code straight into your automated messages. The code comes from the guest's reservation in your PMS — Mews or Cloudbeds — where your team or your lock system writes it, and it fills in automatically when the automation runs. No manual lookup, no copy-paste.
Door codes are one action in a larger automation builder that triggers on reservation events.
Before You Start
You'll need:
The code on the reservation. Your team or your lock system writes the door code into the guest's reservation in your PMS. On Cloudbeds, an owner or manager picks which reservation field holds it under Integrations → Cloudbeds → Door codes — see Connecting Cloudbeds.
RemoteLock (optional). With RemoteLock connected, Hello Hotel checks the code and the stay dates against RemoteLock, so it knows the code is real and can show whether and when it was used.
An automation that sends an SMS — typically a check-in automation that fires on a scheduled time or a reservation event.
Adding the Door Code to an Automation
Open the automation in the workflow builder.
Click into the SMS message body where you want the door code to appear.
Open the variable picker.
Under Reservation, select Door Code.
The variable {{reservation.doorCode}} gets inserted at your cursor. When the automation runs, it's replaced with the actual code for that guest.
Example template
Hi {{guest.firstName|there}}, welcome to The Timberline! Your room is {{reservation.spaceNumber}} and your door code is {{reservation.doorCode}}. The code is active from {{reservation.checkInDateTime}} to {{reservation.checkOutDateTime}}.
When a Code Isn't Available
Sometimes a reservation doesn't have a door code yet — for example, if your lock system hasn't written it to the reservation. The automation handles this gracefully: the message sends with a blank space where the code would have gone, instead of failing entirely.
Your team will need to follow up manually for those guests. Sending with a blank field is rarely ideal for guest experience, so it's worth a quick scan of any reservations that don't have a code generated by the morning of check-in.
Access Events from RemoteLock
With RemoteLock connected, Hello Hotel also syncs door access events in from RemoteLock. The code, whether it's been used, and when it was last used show on the guest's current and upcoming reservation cards in the web app. When a guest uses their code to unlock the door, that event flows back into Hello Hotel so your team has visibility into when guests actually arrive.
Access events are scoped to the linked reservation — meaning the event surfaces against the guest staying in that room, not as a generic "someone unlocked door X" entry. The room name is resolved from your RemoteLock device list so the event reads naturally (e.g., "King Room unlocked at 3:42 PM" rather than a device ID). If a code is used outside of a guest stay, the event still flows in but isn't tied to a guest reservation.
Tips
Use the picker, not direct typing. The picker inserts the Door Code variable with the correct syntax in one click.
Pair it with check-in date and time. Door codes are typically time-scoped to the guest's stay. Including check-in and check-out times in the same message helps guests understand when their code is active.
Test with Send Test before activating. The Send Test button on any Send SMS action lets you preview the message with sample data, so you can see how the door code lands.