WhatsApp pre check-in and guest onboarding
Endelir collects what your front desk needs before a guest arrives — arrival time and the details a check-in asks for — in a WhatsApp chat, and saves it on the contact record. A guest landing at two in the morning and a guest driving in at six in the evening need different things from your front desk, and reception usually finds out at the door. Endelir asks the questions a few days earlier, on the thread the guest already uses, and puts the answers where the people preparing for the arrival can read them.
Everything is discovered at the counter
The booking tells you a name, a date and a room type. It does not tell you that the flight lands at half past one, that there are two children now, that they want a car from the airport, or that one of the party cannot manage stairs. All of that comes out at the counter, when the guest is tired and the queue is behind them.
The usual fix is a form emailed a week before, competing for attention with everything else in the guest's inbox. The ones that do come back are filled in on a phone, land in a mailbox nobody watches on a Sunday, and are re-typed by hand into whatever system the front desk actually uses. Reception ends up asking at the door anyway, which is where the whole thing started.
Ask on the thread they already answer
Endelir sends the pre-arrival message on your business number and asks the questions in the conversation itself, one at a time — arrival time, how many are coming, whether they need a transfer. The guest replies the way they reply to anyone else. There is no link to open, no password, and nothing to download.
Each answer is written onto the contact record as it arrives, so the information exists as data rather than as a sentence buried in a chat. A flow step can then send those answers to your own system as they are collected, and anything that needs a person — a late transfer, an unusual request — is handed to the right team in the shared inbox instead of waiting for someone to scroll.
How it works
- 1 Your system says the arrival is near Endelir holds no reservations of its own. Your booking system calls the Endelir API a few days out, or your team adds the arriving guests to a group and schedules the message.
- 2 The guest gets the pre-arrival message Sent with an approved template, because the guest has usually not written to you in the last day. It refers to their booking and asks whether they will answer a few questions before they travel.
- 3 They reply and the flow starts Their reply opens the service window, and the rest of the conversation runs as ordinary messages rather than templates.
- 4 The questions are asked one at a time Arrival time, number of guests, transfer required or not, anything else the arrival genuinely depends on. Each answer is saved against the contact as it is given.
- 5 Anything unusual reaches a person A request the flow was not built for is handed to the team that can answer it, with everything collected so far already on the record.
- 6 Operations get the answers A flow step calls your own URL, so the arrival time and the transfer request reach your property system, your sheet or your front-desk board without anyone re-typing them.
- 7 Nobody who ignores it is punished A guest who does not reply keeps their booking and checks in at the desk as they always have. One reminder before arrival is a wait step, not a condition of the stay.
What this looks like in practice
A hotel with sixty rooms was doing this by email. Arrival times were a guess, so the night shift was staffed for a normal evening and the airport driver was booked twice for the same run in one week.
Now the property system tells Endelir, two days before each arrival, who is coming. The guest gets one message, answers three questions in the chat, and the answers go straight back to the property system. Reception opens the arrivals list in the morning and can see which rooms are needed early, who is landing after midnight, and which four cars have to be at the airport. The two guests who asked about a cot were passed to housekeeping the day they asked.
What happens when the guest replies
Who this suits
What to know before you set it up
The first message goes out to someone who has probably not written to you for days, so it uses a message template Meta has approved in advance. A plain pre-arrival request tied to a booking the guest has already made is operational, and belongs in a Utility template. A room upgrade, a spa package or a dining offer is marketing: keep it in its own message, send it only to guests who have given consent for that, and do not dress it up as part of the check-in. Endelir enforces the consent record before a marketing campaign goes out.
Ask for what the arrival actually depends on and no more. A chat is a reasonable place for an arrival time, a head count or a transfer request; it is not the place for passport numbers, identity documents or health details, and this page does not describe a way to collect them. The questions are asked as ordinary messages in the conversation — the form panel that opens inside WhatsApp is not something Endelir offers today. Endelir also holds no reservation system, so it learns who is arriving only when your own system tells it, through the API or through a contact group your team keeps up to date.
What to watch
- How many guests reply to the pre-arrival message at all
- How many answer every question rather than the first one
- How many arrivals have a known arrival time the day before
- How many transfer requests arrive early instead of at the desk
- How long a guest takes to reply after the message goes out
- How many conversations had to be handed to a person
- How much is still being asked at the counter
Related
Questions people ask
Can a hotel send a pre-check-in form through WhatsApp?
Endelir asks the questions in the conversation rather than in a form. A chat flow sends one question at a time — arrival time, how many are coming, whether a transfer is needed — and saves each answer onto the guest's contact record as it is given. To the guest it reads like a short exchange with the hotel rather than a form to fill in, and it happens on the thread they already use. The form panel that opens inside WhatsApp itself is a separate thing, and Endelir does not offer it today; anyone who needs that specific format should ask us where it stands rather than assume it is there.
What information can a hotel collect before arrival?
The practical things an arrival depends on: expected arrival time, how many adults and children are coming, whether they want an airport transfer, bed or floor preferences, and anything your own operation has to plan for such as a cot, a wheelchair-accessible route or a dietary requirement for breakfast. Keep the list to what someone will actually act on before the guest arrives. Do not use an ordinary chat to gather passport numbers, identity documents or health information; that belongs in your own systems, under your own privacy notice, and Endelir does not provide a way to collect it here.
When should the pre-check-in message be sent?
You choose, and the timing is tied to the arrival date rather than to a fixed day of the week. Two or three days out is a common choice: far enough ahead that the guest is thinking about the trip and can answer without hurry, and far enough ahead that housekeeping, the front desk and the transfer team can act on what comes back. The trigger comes from your side — your booking system calls the Endelir API when an arrival is that many days away, or your team adds the week's arrivals to a group and schedules the message. A single reminder closer to the date is a wait step in the same flow.
Is a pre-check-in request Marketing or Utility?
A plain pre-arrival request about a booking the guest has already made is operational, and fits a Utility template — you are asking when they will arrive so you can be ready for them. A room upgrade, a spa package or a dining offer is marketing, whatever else the message contains. Keep the two apart: send the operational request on its own, and send the offer as a separate marketing message only to guests who have given consent for it. Endelir checks that consent record before a marketing campaign goes out and refuses the send without it. Meta decides the category when it reviews the template, so a promotional line inside a Utility template is a problem you create for yourself.
What happens if the guest does not complete pre-check-in?
Nothing happens to the booking. The reservation stands on your own rules, and the guest checks in at the desk exactly as they would have before. Pre-check-in is a way to learn things earlier, not a hurdle in front of the room. You can set one reminder closer to the arrival date, and it is worth leaving it at one. Reception simply collects what is missing on arrival, which is the position you were in anyway.
Can guests request an airport transfer during pre-check-in?
Yes, where you offer transfers. The flow asks whether one is needed and takes the flight time or arrival time with it, and the answer is saved against the guest rather than left in the chat. If the transfer needs a price, a vehicle check or a manual confirmation, the conversation is handed to the team that books the cars and a person confirms it. The flow does not promise a car that has not been arranged.
Can pre-check-in information reach hotel operations?
Yes, in two ways, and both are worth setting up. Everything collected sits on the guest's contact record in the shared inbox, so reception and housekeeping can read it without asking the person who ran the conversation. Beyond that, a flow step can call a URL you control the moment an answer is given, which is how arrival times and transfer requests reach a property management system, an operations sheet or a front-desk board without anyone re-typing them. That step posts to your own endpoint — Endelir has no packaged connector for a specific property system, so your side of it has to accept the call.
Know what your guest needs before they reach reception.
Tell us how your arrivals are booked and we will set the pre-arrival flow up with you on a call, including the one connection that sends the answers back to your own system.
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