When you’re traveling, you want your experience to be as smooth and seamless as possible. Part of that involves staying aware of what to do and where to go. Short message service (SMS) texting improves the guest experience by providing additional convenience and empowering your staff to work more efficiently.
Hospitality messaging can keep your guests in the loop on booking details and your in-house services. They also let you send bulk texts across hotel departments, speeding up tasks like room service and maintenance requests.
Taking advantage of the updates coming to the SMS industry can give your hotel a competitive edge and make your customer service stand out. In our guide, we’ll discuss the benefits of SMS for hospitality and how to implement it for efficient workflow and a better guest experience.
Quick Guide to SMS for Hotels: 5 Benefits
SMS is convenient, concise and cost-effective, making it an excellent choice for customer communication in hotels and other hospitality businesses.
1. Increased Guest Engagement
Email and other traditional communication channels are far from the most effective tools you can use to effectively engage with guests.
Vacationers are unlikely to check their email inboxes after receiving the initial confirmation message. And while guests traveling for business are more likely to see your emails, they’re also probably reading and responding to a flood of work-related messages daily. Your email can easily get lost in the crowd.
To increase engagement with guests, it’s best to meet them where they are. Now that people carry their phones with them everywhere, text messages are hard to beat and have an incredibly high open rate—98% of SMS texts get opened! Receiving proactive updates, reminders and personalized interactions can also make guests feel valued and more likely to engage with your messages.
2. Cost and Time Savings
Here’s why texting is one of the most cost-effective forms of communication businesses can use:
- Each message only costs a few cents to write and send.
- Instead of spending time drafting long emails, you can keep texts short and attach additional resources as needed.
- Automation allows you to reduce labor and overhead costs while boosting your profitability.
SMS is even more affordable than email, one of the other most popular communication channels for hospitality businesses. Hotel text messages can help you build stronger customer loyalty and improve your bottom line.
3. Increased Potential for Revenue Generation
SMS is an effective tool for upselling and cross-selling. You can use personalized templates to automatically recommend offers and services to specific customers. For example, you can:
- Remind guests of the perks that come with joining your loyalty program.
- Advertise the day’s meal and drink specials in your in-house restaurant.
- Provide an attachment listing other amenities and services, such as spa treatments and pay-per-view entertainment.
With promotions and upselling, SMS can become the gateway to more sales for your hotel. You can even keep in touch with guests after their stay—inspiring them to book again in the future.
4. Streamlined Communication
SMS is fast and convenient for anyone who owns a cell phone. Because messages get delivered directly to the recipient’s phone, you can reduce the chances of your messages getting buried in your guest’s inbox or junk folder.
Plus, if guests need to get in touch with your staff for any reason, all they have to do is respond to your initial message. No need to go hunting for a specific extension or wait on hold for the services they need!
5. Improved Operational Efficiency
SMS can reduce the workload on your hotel staff members. You can automate hotel texts to send SMS in seconds and save a ton of time. You can also encourage customers to respond with two-way SMS, which lets you quickly address guest needs and resolve issues through text rather than phone calls, which can be bothersome and time-consuming.
How to Use SMS for Hotels
SMS is highly versatile in hotels and hospitality. Need some inspiration? Here are our best examples.
1. Prearrival Messages
When implementing SMS, make opting-in part of the booking process. That way, guests can book their stay while consenting to SMS messages. Address the benefits of SMS alongside the consent area, such as exclusive offers and fast updates, so they can see the value of signing up.
2. Check-In Reminders
Reminders can lower your no-show rates and make check-in a lot smoother. No-shows mean missing out on potential revenue and make it difficult to figure out which rooms are available. Ensuring guests remember to be on time for their reservations can help.
You can use SMS texting to ensure your guest list is always up to date by:
- Sending confirmation texts: Once the guest’s reservation has been confirmed, send a short confirmation message letting them know their stay is officially booked.
- Asking for guest confirmation: To prevent no-shows, send a text prompting guests to confirm their intent to stay at your hotel. Ask them to respond with a Y for yes or an N for no.
- Sending upcoming reservation reminders: One or two days before their stay, send guests a brief reminder of their reservation. Include important information for checking in, like a link to directions or what ID to provide.
3. Room Service Requests
Ordering room service over the phone is often inconvenient, especially for younger guests who may feel uncomfortable making phone calls.
Instead, you can automate the room service process by allowing guests to send their orders directly to the kitchen using a dedicated hotel text line. The kitchen can send a confirmation message when they receive the order, and your guests can rest easy knowing their food is on its way.
4. Concierge Services
During peak season, concierge desks can become overwhelmed by the number of calls they receive. And the more people wait for service, the more frustrated guests can become.
You can use an automated chatbot to answer FAQs and other simple questions. Guests with complicated requests—or anyone who asks to speak to a human—can automatically get forwarded to the live concierge.
For instance, a guest might text your customer service team asking for more towels or cleanup services for a spill. In addition to allowing you to respond quickly, SMS makes this process easier and more convenient.
5. Staff Communication
You can use SMS for more than communicating with guests. It’s also a great tool for quickly distributing information to members of your staff, including valets, housekeeping staff, kitchen staff, security teams and more.
Using internal SMS to manage your team can help you:
- Boost service efficiency: SMS lets managers and team leaders send updates and reminders to their staff, which enables faster response times and improves customer service. For instance, the front desk could send messages to maintenance or housekeeping, notifying them about guest issues. You can handle guest requests fast and free up time for more pressing issues.
- Streamline attendance management: Two-way SMS communication enables employees to contact management when they need to call off or request a schedule change. Management can then text other team members to find coverage and alert them of scheduling updates, preventing no-call-no-shows.
- Enhance the employee experience: More efficient communication keeps everyone in the loop, reducing the risk of miscommunication and improving collaboration. You can also use SMS to recognize high-performing employees for their hard work, which can boost morale and reduce employee churn.
6. Contractor Collaboration
Your hotel works with many external contractors, including caterers, electricians, plumbers and entertainment companies.
Managing all those contacts can get confusing, especially if you provide multiple numbers for each part of your hotel. An SMS solution provides one dedicated number contractors can use to get in touch with the right people, which helps your hotel staff stay organized and prevents costly miscommunications.
7. Weather Announcements
With SMS, you can send bulk messages with the click of a button, making sure guests remain aware of weather patterns. This might be especially beneficial if people stay at your hotel to visit nearby outdoor attractions, such as an amusement park like Disneyland or a national park like Yellowstone. You can keep guests in the know about rain, wind and other elements.
8. Special Offers for In-House Services
SMS can help you promote your hotel services, whether that’s happy hour at your hotel restaurant or rewards guests can enjoy by signing up for your loyalty program. Make your SMS campaigns specific to ensure guests know about your services and want to take advantage of them.
For instance, if you’re promoting your spa services, let guests know where the spa is located in your hotel, what services are available and how to schedule. Then, send confirmations and reminders so they don’t miss their appointments.
9. Greetings and Farewells
A friendly welcome is essential for making a good first impression, especially with new guests. You’ll want to send several messages throughout the guest’s journey:
- Greeting: Welcome your guests to your hotel with a short, warm text that tells them how excited you are to serve them. You can send this message before the guest arrives or after they check in.
- Farewell: The day before the guest leaves, send a quick message telling them how grateful you are to have hosted them. Remind them when checkout time is and include recommendations for what to do on their last night.
- Post-stay: After the guest departs, send a final message thanking them for their stay. Let them know you were glad to serve them and that you hope they return soon. Include a link to a guest survey to gather their feedback.
Asking guests to give a post-stay review shows you care about their input and helps your business pinpoint opportunities for improvement. And with SMS, attaching links to surveys, social media pages and review websites is easy.
5 Text Message Templates for Hotels
Here are some sample templates you could use to communicate with guests. Just swap out guest names, business names and times to match your requirements.
1. Friendly Welcome Message
There’s nothing like a warm welcome when you’re settling into your hotel room, and a quick SMS is an easy way to make guests feel more at home. For example, you could send an online check-in SMS notification several hours before a guest’s arrival:
- “Hello, [Name]! This is [Hotel] with a quick reminder that check-in today is from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Safe travels, and we’ll see you very soon!”
You can follow that message up with a quick greeting when the guest checks in. Here’s an example of a short but sweet welcome SMS for hotels:
- “Welcome to [Hotel]! We’re excited to have you with us. If you have any questions or special requests, please respond to this message at any time.”
Two-way texting capabilities will give guests an easy way to contact you if and when they need any assistance.
2. Checkout Reminder
Ensuring guests check out at the right time is essential for keeping business moving, which is why a checkout SMS reminder can be a valuable tool. Here’s a sample automated checkout text message for hotels:
- “We hope you’ve enjoyed your stay at [Hotel]! You can check out any time tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Please return your room key to the front desk and ensure you have all your belongings before you leave!”
You could also personalize the message by including the guest’s name:
- “Hi, [Guest Name]! Just a reminder that checkout is at 10 a.m. tomorrow morning. We’d like to thank you for choosing [Hotel], and we hope you visit again soon!”
3. Room Service Order Confirmation
While room service is one of the ultimate luxuries of staying in a nice hotel, calling the front desk during peak hours and waiting to speak with the concierge can take a long time. SMS solutions change that.
Guests can quickly place a room service order via text using your dedicated number instead of spending extra time on hold. An automated SMS solution can then trigger a confirmation message once the order has reached the kitchen:
- “The kitchen has received your room service order! Now sit back and relax—your food will be ready in 20 to 30 minutes.”
Then, when the food is on its way, send a quick notification so guests know when to open their doors:
- “Your room service order is on its way to [Room Number]! We hope you enjoy your meal.”
4. Reservation Reminder
It’s easy to forget appointments and reservations when you’re traveling, and no-shows hurt your business. Prevent no-shows and late arrivals with proactive, personalized texts.
For example, you could use SMS to manage reservations at your hotel’s in-house restaurant. Shortly before their scheduled arrival, send a reminder to ensure guests remember their upcoming reservation:
- “Just a reminder that your reservation for two at [Restaurant] is scheduled for tonight at 6:30 p.m. Please respond with a Y to confirm or an N to cancel.”
You can also use SMS to manage walk-ins during peak hours. Ask guests to leave their name and phone number when they put their name on the waitlist, and send a notification when their table is ready:
- “This is [Restaurant] letting you know your table is ready! Please make your way to the host stand at the front of the restaurant to be seated.”
5. In-House Service Promotion
From luxurious day spas to thrilling casinos, hotels often provide multiple in-house experiences to generate additional revenue and enhance the guest experience.
Promotional SMS for hotels is a great way to advertise your services to new and returning guests and reward them for their patronage. For example, you could include a discount in your greeting for a loyalty club member who has used your hotel spa during past stays:
- “Welcome back, [Guest Name]! We’re so glad to see you again. We know you love a little self-care while you’re on vacation, so we’re giving you 10% off any service in our first-floor spa.”
Or, for a new guest, you could simply attach a list of all the services you offer:
- “Hi, [Guest Name]! We’re happy you’re here. Click this link to view all the services and experiences you can enjoy during your stay. Questions? Simply reply to this text for answers!”
Best Practices for Implementing SMS
These best practices can help you find the right SMS platform, start building your contact list and send out messages to enhance the guest experience.
Choose the Right SMS Platform
While it’s important to ensure you choose the solution that makes the most sense for your business and budget, you should be aware of certain must-have features.
Look out for the following features and capabilities when evaluating SMS solutions:
- Easy opt-in and opt-out: Consent is everything in customer communications. An SMS solution that provides a clear, easy process for opting in and out of your mailing list gives your guests a sense of agency over their preferences.
- Automation: Simple automation capabilities take the burden of repetitive, time-consuming tasks off your employees’ hands, allowing your team to focus on immediate guest concerns.
- Personalization: Customers expect businesses across virtually every industry, especially hospitality, to deliver personalized communications and services. An SMS solution should allow you to change fields like guest name, party size and reservation date to create messages that are relevant to each guest.
- Integrations: Your SMS solution should seamlessly integrate with your hotel’s other tech tools, such as your customer relationship management (CRM) solution, your reservation software and your property management systems (PMS). These integrations enable data to flow between platforms, which makes personalized messaging possible.
- Support: Whatever SMS vendor you choose, ongoing technical support is important for getting the most out of your investment. Make sure you have a reliable way to contact your vendor’s support team any time you run into a technical issue.
- Two-way texting: Effective communication is a two-way street! Two-way texting capabilities allow guests to respond to your messages, providing a convenient channel for making customer service requests.
- Templates: Pre-built templates eliminate the need to spend time drafting each message individually, saving your team valuable time and effort when reaching out to guests.
Build Your SMS Contact List
To build a quality SMS contact list, you first need explicit consent from guests. Let them opt in to receiving texts while they’re booking or when they check in or out. Explain why you are sending texts and how often guests can expect to receive them. This transparency can help you build trust with your customers. Along the same lines, make it easy for guests to opt out of SMS to let them know you respect their preferences.
Craft Effective Messages
Your guest messaging should be short and to the point—you’ll want to get your texts out in as few words as possible so guests have the information quickly. Make sure your texts are professional and without jargon, and include the guest’s name to personalize the experience. And, of course, remember your call to action so they know what to do next, whether you’re trying to get them to book a spa service or upgrade their room.
Automate SMS Workflows
Automating SMS can make your life and other hotel staff members lives’ a lot easier. Use the platform to trigger certain messages based on guest actions or events, whether that’s receiving confirmation after they book or reminders for check-in times. You can even set up automated responses to common questions guests ask—all you need is to set a trigger for certain keywords.
For instance, if you get a lot of texts about fun “activities” guests can do while staying at your hotel, you can send a prewritten response to that keyword with exciting places to visit in the area.
Ensure Compliance
While SMS has many benefits, you’ll need to comply with privacy laws when using it. This means following the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and other relevant regulations. Keep records of consent and opt-out requests so you can show that you are complying when needed, and prioritize protecting your guests’ personal information.
By monitoring your KPIs, you can measure the success of your SMS initiatives and adjust them for the best guest experience. Key metrics you can track with SMS include:
- Response time: Measures how long it takes staff to respond to guest requests through SMS. A shorter response time means faster service.
- Issue resolution time: Tracks how long it takes to resolve guest issues through SMS, such as complaints or maintenance requests.
- Task completion rate: Measures the percentage of tasks assigned to staff through SMS they complete within a set time frame.
- Customer satisfaction (CSAT) score: Reveals how satisfied your guests are with your SMS messages based on feedback on their quality and convenience. You can gather this data using short post-interaction surveys.
- Opt-out rate: While a low opt-out rate is great, tracking the reasons guests decide to opt out can tell you where your SMS ran short, whether that’s sending messages too often or sending messages that are not relevant. With this information, you can adjust aspects of your messages to make them better.
Looking into these KPIs can help you design an effective SMS campaign and contribute to a better guest experience.
The Future of SMS for Businesses
Application-to-person (A2P) messaging is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 3.4% from 2025 to 2031—from $72.48 billion in 2024 to $91.59 billion by 2031. More small businesses will likely adopt it as more affordable and advanced text-messaging solutions arise.
We’ll also likely see artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) play a massive role in shaping this industry, especially as customer service becomes more personalized and chatbots are increasingly used to engage with customers.
To make the most of all this growth, picking the right SMS platform is key. You’ll want something that’s reliable and can grow with you. The platform should also provide you with rich analytics, comply with regulations and integrate nicely with your customer tools and relationship software.
Improve Efficiency and the Guest Experience With CompleteSMS
Ready to transform your guest experiences and boost efficiency? SMS gives you a direct line to your guests, streamlining everything from prearrival greetings to on-property requests and post-stay feedback. By embracing a mobile-first strategy, you can meet the evolving needs of today’s travelers and create a more personalized and convenient environment.
With more than 20 years of experience, CompleteSMS is a leader in business SMS solutions for hospitality businesses, restaurants, entertainment companies and many more. Our solution integrates with your existing tech, so you can send personalized SMS messages from any device at any time. Plus, bulk SMS capabilities enable you to create templates in advance for easy text blasts, such as maintenance updates.
Our solution can provide a competitive edge for your hotel. Discover how CompleteSMS can help you enhance guest satisfaction, optimize operations and build lasting relationships. Learn more about CompleteSMS and request a demo today to see if it’s right for your business!
