Mews magic links are one-tap URLs that send a guest straight into the Mews guest portal — no login or password required. Hello Hotel can generate two kinds:
Check-in link — opens the guest portal directly into the online check-in flow
Check-out link — opens the guest portal into check-out, so a guest can settle up and leave without stopping at the desk
Digital key link — opens the guest's digital room key, so they can unlock the door from their phone
You can drop these into automated SMS or email messages, or copy them on demand from a guest's contact profile.
You'll need:
Mews connected to your Hello Hotel account
Mews guest portal activated for your property. Activation is per-property and requires the Mews beta flag plus integration permission — your Mews account manager handles this
Digital key enabled (optional, only needed if you want to send digital key links). Off by default — turn it on in Settings → Integrations → Mews → Digital Key Links
If guest portal isn't activated for your property, the check-in link variable falls back to a staff-facing Mews Navigator URL. Worth a quick check with your Mews rep before sending the link to a real guest.
Hello Hotel adds two new template variables to the automation builder:
Name | Inserted as | What it returns |
|---|---|---|
Guest Check-in URL |
| A magic link to the Mews online check-in flow for this reservation |
Guest Check-out URL |
| A magic link to the Mews check-out flow for this reservation |
Digital Key URL |
| A magic link to the guest's digital room key |
These variables are available in any Send SMS or Send Email action, and in the message composer and snippets.
The link resolves into your message like any other variable, but the guest's portal session isn't created until they actually tap it — not when the message is sent. That's why a check-in or check-out link is safe to build into a snippet that sits in your library for weeks, or an automation that runs months from now: the link is always fresh when the guest opens it.
A check-out link stops working 24 hours after departure.
There's nothing to turn on for check-out links. Mews decides which reservations are eligible, property-side.
Open the automation in the workflow builder
Click into the SMS or email body where you want the link
Open the variable picker (the { } button)
Under Reservation, select Guest Check-in URL or Digital Key URL
The variable is inserted at your cursor and resolves to a fresh magic link each time the automation runs
Welcome to The Timberline! Check in here: {{reservation.guestCheckInUrl}}. Once you're checked in, your digital key is ready at {{reservation.digitalKeyUrl}}.
You can also grab a fresh link on demand from any guest's contact panel:
Open the conversation or contact
Find the current or upcoming reservation in the contact sidebar
Click the copy check-in link or copy digital key link icon button next to the reservation
The link is copied to your clipboard, ready to paste into a message or email
Buttons only appear for current or upcoming reservations that are synced from Mews. Past reservations don't show the buttons because the links wouldn't be useful.
A few details worth knowing:
Generated fresh per use. Hello Hotel never caches or stores the URL — every send (or click of the copy button) generates a new link from Mews. The link is treated as a short-lived access token.
One link per request. Each magic link is tied to a specific reservation and guest. Don't share the same link between guests.
Messages always send. If the link can't be generated (e.g., guest portal isn't activated, or the digital key feature is off for your property), the SMS or email still sends — but the variable will be blank or fall back to the Navigator URL. Use the fallback syntax ({{reservation.digitalKeyUrl|please contact the front desk for your key}}) to provide a safety net.
Send the check-in link before arrival — the day before, or the morning of arrival at the latest. A Scheduled automation works well for this, and it gives guests time to complete online check-in before they get to the desk.
Combine with the Online check-in completed trigger. Send the magic check-in link in your "morning of arrival" message, then use the Online Check-in Completed Trigger to send the door code and welcome details the moment they finish.
Test the digital key flow yourself before sending to guests. Create a test reservation in Mews, copy the digital key link from the contact sidebar, and confirm it opens correctly on your phone.
The variable renders blank in the message. Either Mews guest portal isn't activated for your property, the digital key isn't enabled in your Mews integration settings, or the link couldn't be generated (e.g., the reservation isn't synced yet). Use the fallback syntax to handle this gracefully.
The copy button doesn't appear on a contact. The reservation needs to be current or upcoming AND synced from Mews. Past reservations and unsynced ones don't show the buttons.
The guest opens the check-in link but there's nothing to check in. If the reservation has already been checked in — by your team in Mews, or by Mews automatic check-in — the link still opens the guest portal, but the online check-in step is gone because Mews considers the guest checked in. Send the check-in link before you check anyone in at the desk, and if you use Mews automatic check-in, make sure the link goes out well before arrival time.
The check-in link never fills in for a guest who booked through Airbnb. Mews can only create a check-in link for a reservation that has an email address on it, and Airbnb reservations arrive in Mews with no email at all — so there’s no link to generate. Bookings from Booking.com and most other OTAs are fine: they carry a masked alias address, and the link only needs an email to exist, not to be real. This is on the Airbnb side and isn’t something Hello Hotel or Mews can change.
The fix is to route Airbnb guests differently instead of sending them a link that can’t exist. In your pre-arrival workflow, add a Booking Source condition on Airbnb. On the Airbnb branch, text the guest their door code — Airbnb has already verified them and taken payment, so they can skip online check-in — and send everyone else the check-in link as usual. See Using Conditions and Using Door Codes in Automations.
If you don’t use door codes, the alternative is to get an email onto the guest’s Mews profile: text the guest from Hello Hotel to ask for one, open their contact, click View in PMS to jump to their Mews profile, and save it there. Once an email is on the profile, the check-in link works. Mews can also collect and verify an email during online check-in — their write-up is here: Maintaining OTA guest profiles with verified emails.
Still stuck? Reach out via the chat widget in your Hello Hotel app, or email [email protected].
