Property Message Center

A two-way messaging tool that facilitates direct interaction between properties and travelers or agents for a more streamlined post-booking experience.

Once a traveler has completed their booking, it's essential that you and the property work together to deliver a stay experience that makes the traveler want to book again with you both in the future. A key part of this collaboration is seamless communication.

Without this communication, you risk expensive operational inefficiencies like relocations and booking cancellations. By leveraging Property Message Center, you, travelers, and the property can exchange essential information that leads to a better overall stay experience.

Benefits of Using Property Message Center

Streamline the traveler experience

Travelers have the information they need, and properties can consider traveler requests prior to their arrival.

Reduce cancellations and relocations

Property Message Center enables easier booking and arrival confirmation to avoid unexpected cancellations of pay-at-property bookings.​ Property-initiated cancellations drop by more than 30% on reservations where properties have messaged the traveler or a supporting agent.

Reduce customer support calls

Easier online communication means less time spent by agents and travelers managing bookings.

Common Messaging Topics

Two-way messages help you coordinate a seamless traveler hand-off with the property.

Properties may message travelers with:

• Traveler arrival time inquiries
• Welcome messages
• Flight detail inquiry
• Airport transportation needs
• Reservation confirmations

Travelers may message properties with:

• Specific booking/room questions
• Confirmation of available amenities
• Airport transportation questions
• Booking cancellation inquiries
• Late check-in updates

How Property Message Center works

Property Message Center can be configured to enable messaging between the property and the traveler directly by providing a traveler email in the booking request or between the property and your support agents by providing an agent email in the booking request.

Examples of Property Message Center Conversations

1. Property-initiated messaging
   The property wants to inform the traveler that they provide a complementary round-trip shuttle to and from the airport.
   

2. Traveler-initiated messaging
   Traveler requested crib accommodations for their booking and they want to reconfirm this request with the hotel before they arrive.
   

Vacation Rentals

Enabling direct messaging with vacation rental properties is essential: 84% of the vacation rentals available on Rapid API do not have a front desk. These properties often rely on direct messaging to provide guests with:

• Personalized access codes to gain entry to the property
• Guidance on unique or available amenities at the property
• Parking instructions or assignments

If your travelers commonly book vacation rentals, we especially recommend you integrate with Property Message Center to deliver an optimal stay experience.

Best practices for exposing Property Message Center to travelers

Here is some guidance on how you can expose the Property Message Center link to travelers once they’ve completed their booking.

1. Add a “Message Hotel” or “Message Host” button to the booking confirmation page
   This enables travelers who need to make a request or ask for information from the property immediately after making a booking.
   

2. Add “Message Hotel” or “Message Host” button to the itinerary page
   This enables travelers to contact the property directly from their reservation page.
   

3. Add “Message Hotel” or “Message Host” button to reservation emails
   This helps prompt your traveler to contact the property when they receive updates or reminders of their upcoming stay.
   

AI-Powered Re-marketing Suppression and Message Tagging

Property-initiated messages that are identified as “re-marketing” (messages promoting booking direct or otherwise off-platform) are automatically suppressed by Property Message Center.

To unlock the full benefits of Property Message Center, we recommend leveraging property message notifications via Rapid’s Notifications API. The itinerary.message.received notification event triggers when a property sends a message associated with a specific booking. The notification includes the full message text as well as additional information to help you consume the message and determine next steps.

To enable easier, more scalable consumption of property-initiated messages, Property Message Center employs a generative AI-driven model that identifies the main topic(s) of a message and delivers those topics as tags in the itinerary.message.received notification event.

Property Message tags

You can use these tags to automate message prioritization for agents and ensure that travelers and properties have the necessary information for a positive stay experience.

Example of itinerary.message.received notification

{
"event_id": "1aed5641-7285-4c42-b079-f5f2f139d148",
"event_type": "itinerary.message.received",
"event_time": "2023-11-14T02:33:18.860105363Z",
"itinerary_id": "9025254271673",
"email": "john@email.com",
"message": "We accept your request for a river view room. Please check in before 11:00 AM. Looking forward to your visit",
"topic_tags": "Check-in ",
"affiliate_reference_id": "b086d299-2f1f-4134-a23c-f4a1c9286fac"
}

Access the Property Message Center Traveler-Model launch requirements here.

Access the Property Message Center Agent-Model launch requirements here.

Reach out to your Expedia Group representative now to kick off your Property Message Center integration.