Guest Messaging Issues

Message Not Delivered

Message filtered/The message was flagged by a SPAM filter and was not delivered. This is a temporary condition.

• Oftentimes these are false positives from the carrier’s end, especially if it’s one of your automated messages that was sent to multiple guests in a short period of time with links.

• To prevent the carriers from believing your Akia number is spam, please do not send the exact same message to the guest. Instead, change the verbiage so that the carriers know that it’s a real person communicating with the guest.
• For example, the message that was filtered was “Hello John Doe, we cannot wait for your stay at The Grand Budapest Hotel tomorrow. In preparation for your stay, please sign the registration card here: ____”
• We would recommend changing the verbiage to something like “Hello John, for your stay tomorrow at The Grand Budapest Hotel please sign the registration card here: ___. Let us know if you have any questions by texting us back at this number.” - Different phrasing but still sharing the relevant information with the guest.

The ‘To’ number ____ is not a valid phone number/Landline or unreachable carrier

• The guest miswrote their phone number when making the reservation, or provided a landline number which cannot receive SMS messages.

• Our team uses this website to quickly check the validity of a guest’s phone number: https://www.phonevalidator.com/. If the number is capable of receiving text messages, we suggest retrying the message after a few minutes, and if the error persists, switching the platform to email and contacting them that way.

Invalid message recipient (WhatsApp)

• The guest in question doesn’t have the phone number registered on WhatsApp.

• We would recommend changing the platform to email so the guest can receive the messages.

Unreachable destination handset/Unknown destination handset

• The guest might be outside of cellular service, their mobile device is powered off, or the number may no longer exist (if you reach out to the guest after an extended period of time).

• We suggest retrying the message after a few minutes, and if the error persists, switching the platform to email and contacting them that way.

Attempt to send to unsubscribed recipient

• The guest previously unsubscribed to your messages with the STOP keyword. They will need to reply START in order to begin receiving text messages again.

• STOP is a carrier-wide keyword and cannot be overwritten by anything on Akia. If you need to reach the guest, we suggest switching their platform to Email or calling their phone.

Booking.com - Action needed: Your email did not reach the guest

• To ensure emails are sent to Booking.com email addresses, please follow the steps below
1. Sign into your extranet account.
2. From the main menu, go to Property > Messaging preferences > Security settings and authenticate yourself if needed.
3. On the security settings page, go to the section titled Your email addresses and click on the button Add email address.
4. Add your Akia Hotel Email as an email address

Can’t See the Guest’s Message on WhatsApp

• We are currently unable to process the following types of messages sent on the WhatsApp platform in Akia
• Reaction Messages: WhatsApp users can press and hold on a message to "react" with an emoji. This function is not fully supported, so those reactions actually come in as blank messages.
• Location Messages: When a user sends thier location, these messages come in blank.
• Disappearing Messages: If a user activates disappearing messages, they will come in as normal messages but with blank bodies. The user would need to deactivate the disappearing message feature in order to fix this.

Phone Number Not Being Copied to Guest Profile

The phone number is from an Online Travel Agent (OTA)

• Akia automatically blocks OTA numbers since the messages sent would never reach the end-guest.

Akia has blocked this number from your property as requested by one of your users previously.

• Send a message to our team in your Inbox or help@akia.com to confirm if the number in question was blocked due to a previous request.

The phone number is already in use by another Akia profile under a different last name.

• We will copy the reservation details to the same profile if the phone number and last name on the reservation match the phone number and last name of the existing profile in Akia. This is to prevent issues with owners making reservations for guest of owners with the owner’s phone number, or OTA/group bookings.

• If the last name on the reservation does not match the last name currently in Akia for that number (e.g. John Doe vs John Smith), Akia will only create the guest profile on the email platform - not SMS and email platforms.

The guest didn’t specify a phone number/no phone number was provided to Akia from your PMS.

• If there is a phone number in your PMS but not in Akia, then most likely the number is blocked for the reasons above.

Chat Disabled

No phone number was provided for the Guest.

• See the above for possible reasons why a number has not populated.

Guest previously replied STOP

• STOP is a carrier-wide flag that prevents you from texting the guest until they opt back in. The guest will need to text START to your Akia number to opt-in and begin receiving messages again.
• You, Akia, nor the carriers can override STOP, the guest needs to opt back in themselves.

If it’s an international number, WhatsApp might not be enabled for your account.

• Learn more about the WhatsApp onboarding process here: WhatsApp

• If WhatsApp is enabled for your account, then you might be outside of the 24-hour free-form message window (WhatsApp Business Policy). You will need to send a WhatsApp template via the Templates button (left of the Assign to Me button).

Messages Going to Guests Have the Wrong Information

If it’s a Scheduled Message, check if the automation is using a Message Token or if you need to manually update the text.

• If the automation is using a Custom Attribute (will look like {{custom.___}}), go to the Custom Attributes page in settings to modify the replacing value.

• If the automation is referencing a token we get from your PMS/3rd pary (such as {{customer.check_in_code}}) or {{escapia_arrival_instructions__c}}), please double check in your PMS if the value is correct.

If your Macro has the wrong information.

• Go to the Macros page in Settings to modify the verbiage.

If an Automated Reply is sent with the wrong information.

• Go to the Responder tab in Automation to modify your automated response verbiage.

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