The short answer
Hotels and hosts use WhatsApp for questions with a short, fixed answer: arrival, parking, check-in code, breakfast, luggage. Payment details, ID documents, cancellations, invoices and serious complaints do not belong in the chat. Outside the 24-hour window, you may only write to guests first with templates that Meta has approved. If an AI replies, the guest must be able to tell.
Key takeaways
- On WhatsApp, answer questions with a short, fixed answer: arrival, parking, check-in code, breakfast times, luggage.
- Payment details, ID documents, cancellations, invoices and serious complaints do not belong in the chat.
- Outside the 24-hour window, you may only write to guests first with templates that Meta has approved in advance.
- If an AI replies, the guest must be able to tell, under Article 50 of the EU AI Act (KI-Verordnung).
- A question your team types several times a week becomes a template or an entry in the knowledge base.
On WhatsApp, answer guest questions whose answer is already settled and which concern the coming days: directions, parking, check-in, breakfast, luggage. Anything involving money, documents, contracts or a serious complaint is not answered in the chat, but by email, by phone or at the front desk.
This applies whether your team writes alone or an AI concierge for recurring guest questions helps answer. What a concierge takes on in general is covered in the overview of the concierge in hotel operations; here the focus is the WhatsApp channel and Meta's rules.
Answer these guest questions on WhatsApp
| Guest question | On WhatsApp | Why |
|---|---|---|
| When can I check in? | yes | fixed answer, usually asked shortly before arrival |
| Where do I park, and what does it cost? | yes | answer with a photo or a map link |
| What is the code for the key box? | yes, on the day of arrival | time-critical and only for the booked guest |
| Can I leave my luggage after check-out? | yes | fixed house rule |
| May I come with a dog? | yes, if the rule is fixed | a person decides exceptions |
| Is a room free at the weekend? | only with a link to the booking | availability and price belong in the booking flow |
With these questions the answer is fixed before the guest asks, which is why they can be prepared. For availability and prices, send the link to the booking: a confirmation in the chat does not land cleanly in the system and creates double maintenance, and double maintenance leads to overbookings.
Do not answer these questions in the chat
Payment details: no card numbers, and no requests for prepayment via WhatsApp. If your guests know this, scam attempts that pretend to be your property fail.
ID documents and registration data follow the route provided for them, and invoices and cancellations go by email, because both sides need to be able to look them up later. For a serious complaint, call the guest and confirm what was agreed in writing.
As a rule for the team, one sentence is enough: what you would say on the phone you may write; what must be documented in writing does not belong in the chat.
What Meta's rules mean for templates
When a guest writes to you, a 24-hour customer service window opens. Within it you reply freely, and according to Meta such replies are free [Q1]. If you write first, for example three days before arrival, you can only do so outside this window with a template that Meta has reviewed and approved [Q2].
Every template belongs to a category: authentication, marketing or utility, meaning service related to an existing booking [Q2]. The category determines the price. Since 1 July 2025, Meta charges per delivered template; according to Meta, utility templates within an open window cost nothing [Q1].
Arrival information, check-in instructions and departure notes are service related to a booking. An offer for next winter is marketing, even when it sits in the same text; keep the two separate.
If an AI replies, another rule applies that does not come from Meta: the guest must be able to recognise that they are writing with an AI system, under Article 50 of the EU AI Act [Q3]. Our article on Article 50 explains what this means in detail.
Four templates that answer the most frequent questions
- Arrival information, three days before: directions, parking, check-in window and what to do if arriving late.
- Check-in instructions on the day of arrival, if you work with a key box or code: number sequence, photo of the door, light switch.
- Departure notice on the evening before: check-out time, where to leave the key, luggage storage.
- Reply outside service hours: when messages are read again and which number applies in an emergency.
Write in the language your front desk uses, and end with a real question: "Please let us know roughly when you expect to arrive" brings a reply the team can plan with.
What this looks like for a 30-room hotel
| Item (example based on assumptions) | Value |
|---|---|
| Occupied nights at 70 percent occupancy (30 × 365 × 0.7) | 7,665 |
| Stays at 2.5 nights per stay | around 3,070 |
| Queries saved if every second stay does not ask | around 1,530 |
| Time at two minutes per query | around 51 hours a year |
Set against this are half a day for the templates and the fees per delivered template, whose rates Meta lists per country and category on its pricing page [Q1]. All values are assumptions; replace them with your own figures after one month.
What this looks like for five holiday apartments
Without a front desk, the check-in instructions carry most of the load. Five apartments at 55 percent occupancy come to around 1,000 occupied nights a year in our worked example; at an assumed four nights per stay, that is about 250 arrivals. If the instructions save a phone call of three minutes per arrival, that is around 12.5 hours a year, mostly in the evening. The bottleneck here is not the fees but your availability.
How implementation with HOHEIT works
If an AI concierge is to reply via WhatsApp as well, HOHEIT sets it up in three to five weeks; most of the time goes into the knowledge base. You supply the property data, that is check-in times, parking, house rules and breakfast, and release them. The concierge answers on the website, WhatsApp and email only from this information, identifies itself as an AI and hands over to the front desk when it has no reliable answer.
Which questions were asked and how they were answered appears in the monthly report; whatever repeatedly goes to the front desk becomes the next template. Set-up starts at EUR 5,000 according to the pricing page; operation is included in the monthly fee.
When WhatsApp is not worth it for guest questions
If nobody staffs the channel, leave it closed: a WhatsApp account that nobody checks disappoints more than it helps. If your guests mostly call or email, an additional channel is effort without value.
And while it is still unclear on what legal basis you may write to guests and how long chat histories are kept, wait. That depends on the individual case and needs a specialist review.
Next, match the guest questions of the last two weeks to the rows of the table, then read how HOHEIT sets up WhatsApp; for a conversation about your property, you can book a call directly.
Sources and further reading
Häufige Fragen
Can I use my staff members' private mobile numbers?
From an operational point of view we advise against it, whatever the legal assessment. Guest contacts on a private phone are unavailable when someone is ill or leaves, and chat histories cannot be handed over. The usual approach is a business account with the property's own number, which several people can access according to the duty roster.
How should I handle voice messages from guests?
Accept them, but reply in writing when the answer contains details the guest needs to refer back to, such as an address, a code or a time. A voice message is hard to listen to while driving or carrying luggage, and nobody remembers a number sequence for the key box from memory.
What if Meta rejects a template?
First check whether the category and content match: an arrival notice with an attached offer is no longer a pure service message. Shorten the template to its purpose and resubmit it. If you send the offer at all, send it as a separate template in the appropriate category.
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