Actions are the steps in your automation that actually do something — send a message, tag a guest, notify your team, or call an external service. You can chain multiple actions together, and combine them with conditions and delays.
Sends a text message to a guest or team member.
By default, the SMS sends from the phone number associated with your workflow. Toggle "Using different number" to send from a different number on your account. You'll see a warning if you switch: "This action will send from a different number than the workflow trigger."
Choose who receives the message:
Guest — sends to the guest's phone number on file
Team Member — sends to a specific team member's personal phone number on file. Select the team member from the dropdown.
Write your message in the text box. Use variables to personalize the message with guest and reservation details.
As you type, a live segment estimate appears below the message field. SMS messages are billed per 160-character segment (or 70 characters for messages with emoji or special characters), so the estimate is a quick check on whether a message will go out as one segment or split into several. Variables are resolved with sample data while estimating, so the count reflects what the guest will actually receive.
Click the { } button to open the variable picker. Variables are organized into two groups:
Guest variables:
First Name, Last Name, Full Name
Email, Phone
Reservation variables:
Check-in Date, Check-out Date
Check-in Date & Time, Check-out Date & Time
Check-in URL, Payment Link, Pre-Authorization Link
Space Number, Space Category, Status
When you select a variable, you can set a fallback value — this is what appears in the message if the variable is empty for a particular guest. For example, set "Guest" as the fallback for First Name, so a message reading "Hi {{guest.firstName}}" becomes "Hi Guest" instead of "Hi " if the name is missing.
Good to know: Fallback values are strongly recommended for guest-facing messages. If a variable has no value and no fallback, that part of the message will be blank.
Each Send SMS action has a Conversation Status setting that controls whether the automated message surfaces the conversation for your team.
On — "Mark conversation as new." After sending, the conversation is marked unread (New) and surfaces in the inbox. This is the right choice for guest-facing messages someone should see and respond to.
Off — kept quiet. The message still sends and shows in the conversation timeline, but the conversation keeps its current status and doesn't bump in the inbox. Good for passive updates — a confirmation that a check-in step ran, or a routine reminder.
A couple of details on how status is handled:
Follow Up (pending) conversations keep that status. If you've flagged a conversation Follow Up, an automated send won't override it — it stays Follow Up either way.
When it's off, existing conversations keep their status — a closed conversation stays closed, and a new conversation the message starts is created quiet rather than as a new unread thread.
Good to know: Properties with high automation volume often turn this off for routine automations so the inbox stays focused on conversations that actually need a response.
Sends an email to the guest from a connected email account. Configuring it is covered in Sending Emails from Automations.
The action re-checks the guest at send time: if their address has bounced before or they've unsubscribed from your emails, the step fails with the reason and the rest of the branch still runs — the same way an SMS to an opted-out guest does.
Adds a tag to the guest's profile. Select an existing tag from the dropdown, or type a new tag name — new tags are created automatically.
Good to know: Adding a tag may trigger other automations that are listening for that tag via the "Guest Tag Added" trigger. This is useful for chaining automations together, but be mindful of it to avoid unintended loops. Hello Hotel limits automation chains to 5 levels to prevent infinite loops.
Removes a tag from the guest's profile. Select the tag to remove from the dropdown.
Unlike Add Tag, removing a tag does not trigger any other automations.
Sends data to an external service when this step runs. This is a more technical action — it's used to connect Hello Hotel with other tools in your tech stack, and typically requires a developer or a third-party integration platform (like Zapier) to set up the receiving end.
URL — the destination URL (must be HTTPS for security)
Method — POST or PUT
Body — a JSON template. You can use the same variables as SMS messages. Variables are automatically formatted for JSON. The body must be valid JSON or the webhook will fail.
Headers — optional custom headers (Content-Type is always set to application/json)
Send reservation data to your revenue management system when a guest checks in, or notify a Slack channel via a webhook URL when a VIP guest arrives.
Good to know: If you're not sure what a webhook is, it's essentially a way for Hello Hotel to automatically send data to another app when something happens. Your team or a developer will need to set up the receiving end.
Writes a staff-only note on the guest's conversation — the same kind of note your team leaves by hand, so it lands in the thread everyone already works from. Guests never see it.
Write the note in the field, using the same variables as an SMS ({{guest.firstName}} and so on) so the note carries the guest's details
Tag teammates with @ to alert them. Anyone you tag gets a Tagged for you entry on their dashboard and a push notification on their phone — exactly as if a colleague had tagged them. See Internal Notes on Conversations
The note shows as written by the workflow (for example, Post-stay follow-up (automation)), so nobody wonders which person left it
Works from any trigger. For message and call triggers the note goes on that conversation; for reservation, schedule, and tag triggers it goes on the guest's conversation on the workflow's phone line
Good to know: Add Internal Note replaced the older Create Alert action. If you see a note-style step where you expected an alert, this is it — and it's more useful, because it carries text and can tag a specific person.
If an action can't complete — for example, a Send SMS action for a guest who has no phone number on file, or a message that fails to deliver after sending — it no longer fails silently. You'll get a notice in the Needs Attention widget on your dashboard naming the automation, the guest, and the reason, so you can follow up. See Needs-Attention Notices.
To avoid skips in the first place, add a condition that checks for the required data before the action runs — for example, a Guest Profile → Has Phone condition before a Send SMS. See Using Conditions.
Chain actions together. You can add multiple actions in sequence — for example, send an SMS to the guest, then add a "Contacted" tag, then add an internal note tagging the manager on duty.
Use conditions before actions. Always check that the guest has the required contact info (phone number, email) before trying to send a message. This prevents failed deliveries.
Combine with delays. Add a delay between actions to space them out — for example, send a welcome message immediately, then wait 2 hours and send WiFi details.
