Automations can do more than send. The Guest question step texts the guest a message with numbered options, pauses the workflow until they reply, and then follows a different path depending on what they answered — so "How was your stay?" can send a happy guest a review link and route everyone else to a person. On hellohotel.co this is the guest survey feature.
Add a Guest question step to a workflow, after the trigger and any delay you want
Write the message and give it two to five numbered options — for example, Reply 1 if everything was great, 2 if it was okay, 3 if something went wrong
Build a path for each option. There are also two extra paths: Other for any reply that isn't one of the numbers, and No reply for guests who never answer
Put your follow-up actions on each path — a review link on path 1, an internal note tagging a manager on path 3, and so on
The workflow waits at the question step until the guest replies or the question closes. Set how long to wait with Wait for a reply up to on the step — 1 hour, 6 hours, 1 day, 3 days (the default), or 7 days. The first reply of any kind closes the question: a number from your options takes its path, anything else takes Other, and if the time runs out with no reply, the No reply path runs. A number the guest texts after that is treated as an ordinary message. The question also closes, with no path running, if the workflow is paused or the run is cancelled or fails while it's waiting.
The guest's answer is available to later steps as the Guest Answer variable ({{variables.answer}}). It holds the number the guest replied, and it's empty on the Other and No reply paths. Use it anywhere a variable works — a note, a message, or the request body of a webhook action — so a rating can be posted straight to your CRM or a spreadsheet. See Setting Up Zapier and Webhooks.
A bare number (1–5, within the options you offered) is treated as an answer to the question. It still appears in the conversation thread, but it does not show as unread, does not send a push notification, does not set off other automations, and does not flag the conversation as awaiting a reply — the workflow handles it
Anything else — a sentence, a question, a number outside the options — comes through to your team like any normal message and sends the workflow down the Other path, so a real reply is never swallowed by the automation
STOP is handled as an opt-out first, before the question looks at the reply
Trigger: Guest checked out, 3 hours after checkout (see Guest Checked Out Trigger).
Question: Hi {{guest.firstName|there}}, thanks for staying with us! How was your visit? Reply 1 if it was great, 2 if it was okay, or 3 if something went wrong.
1 → Send SMS: So glad to hear it! If you have a minute, we'd love a review: {{organization.reviewUrl}}
2 → Add Internal Note tagging the front desk to follow up
3 → Add Internal Note tagging a manager, and Add Tag "Recovery"
Other → nothing extra; the reply is already in your inbox for a person to answer
No reply → nothing
Set your review link once under Organization Settings and {{organization.reviewUrl}} inserts it as a branded short link wherever you use it. See Variables.
One open question per guest at a time. A conversation can't have two questions waiting. There's also a cooldown that stops the same guest from being asked again too soon, even by a different workflow
Reply matching works over SMS. If a guest answers on another channel, the reply is treated as a normal message rather than an answer
The guest needs a phone number. If there's none on file, the workflow run fails at this step and you'll see it in the Needs Attention widget rather than it skipping quietly. See Needs-Attention Notices
Merging two guest records cancels any open question on the merged conversation
It's one question, not a survey. There's no scoring and no reporting across guests — the answer routes this workflow for this guest. For "wait a while" rather than "wait for an answer," use a delay instead: see Using Delays
10DLC applies. Like any automated text, the question only sends once your messaging registration is approved. See Setting Up 10DLC Messaging Compliance
Use the chat widget in the app, in this help center, or on hellohotel.co, or email us at [email protected].
