How to use WhatsApp Business for hotels and hospitality
TL; DR: Quick Summary
WhatsApp for hospitality: Learn how hotels can use WhatsApp Business to enhance guest communication and improve service efficiency.
Global communication: WhatsApp offers a seamless, cost-effective way to stay connected with international guests, regardless of their location.
Marketing & lead generation: Boost engagement using WhatsApp’s rich media messages, QR codes, and click-to-WhatsApp ads for targeted campaigns.
AI and automation: Automate bookings, upselling, and customer support with AI agent and Flow Builder, providing a personalized, 24/7 experience.
Trust & security: Gain guest trust with WhatsApp's blue tick verification and secure, encrypted messaging.
Travellers and guests today expect more than just a comfortable stay—they crave:
Personalised service
Instant responses
Seamless interactions
In an era of demanding guest expectations, hotels and businesses in the hospitality industry must adopt innovative strategies to make a lasting impression and indefinitely attract customers. This is where WhatsApp Business for hotels and hospitality comes in.
Importance of effective two-way communication in the hospitality industry
80% of consumers rate their chatbot experiences as positive, showcasing the growing demand for instant, automated responses. To improve communication efficiency in the hospitality industry today, the situation calls for a comprehensive solution that combines technology and human support. When executed well, it can significantly impact:
Customer retention
Reputation
Operational efficiency
Why WhatsApp is the best channel for hospitality communications
WhatsApp is direct, accessible, and user-friendly, offering a range of tools that enhance communication in the hospitality industry. Most importantly, it has:
Global reach: Connect with customers across borders.
User-friendly interface: Simple and effective for seamless communication.
1. WhatsApp has international coverage for overseas guests
Travelling internationally often brings communication challenges, particularly with phone services. Many guests rely on prepaid SIM cards rather than costly roaming services, leading to potential communication breakdowns with hotels and travel agents.
WhatsApp resolves this issue by:
Providing a seamless, cost-free communication channel that works across borders.
Ensuring you can stay in touch with guests regardless of their location.
Allowing you to keep guests updated with any changes in their travel plans.
Enabling timely assistance for travellers throughout their journey.
2. Attractive WhatsApp rich media messages with travel brochures and videos
Visually appealing messaging, complete with travel brochures, promotional videos, and other multimedia content, is what captivates travellers and hotel guests in our highly competitive environment today. While printed brochures and newspaper listings were the way to go in the past, social media content is the most viable option now.
Sharing your hotel’s amenities, local attractions, or special offers with engaging visuals on WhatsApp will reduce the friction for customers to reach out with further enquiries. In other words, prior to placing their hotel bookings or travel plans, they no longer have to make a phone call or fill out a lead form on the website, both of which involve considerable waiting time before they get their questions answered.
3. WhatsApp chatbot to tackle hospitality staff shortages
Staff shortages are a persistent challenge in the hospitality industry, often leading to service delays and diminished guest satisfaction. A hospitality chatbot on WhatsApp automates routine enquiries and requests, freeing up your staff to focus on more complex tasks while delivering quality service 24/7.
For example, a guest from Brazil planning to check in to your hotel in Singapore tomorrow may ask:
There’s been changes with my flight. Is it possible for me to check in earlier, around noon?
During the holiday season, with time differences across countries, your customer support team may get an influx of messages. While they cannot respond to this type of request immediately, you can set up a hospitality chatbot to first collect the necessary information:
Thank you for your request. We're happy to try our best to accommodate an early check-in. However, we can't confirm availability until the day of your check-in. In the meantime, could you please provide the following information?
Your full name:
Your booking confirmation number:
Your arrival date:We will mark your request down along with the booking and get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.
With a template message for hospitality chatbots like the one above, your hotel guests will have a good impression of your services, as they can rest assured their requests have been received. At the same time, your customer support team does not have to stress over unanswered messages or worry about missing client demands.
Beyond simple chatbots, you can further enhance your guest experience with AI
AgentFlow turns your WhatsApp Business account into a high-performing concierge and sales team. These AI agents autonomously execute tasks to boost bookings and guest satisfaction 24/7.
Qualify leads instantly: AgentFlow analyzes guest intent on WhatsApp and automatically scores leads, so your team can focus on high-value bookings like weddings or corporate retreats.
Provide tailored recommendations: Using your brochures and menus, the AI acts as a digital concierge, suggesting specific suites or spa packages based on guest preferences directly in the chat.
Automate your CRM: The AI automatically updates customer profiles in Salesforce or HubSpot and hands off qualified leads to your staff with a conversation summary.
24/7 global engagement: Ensure international guests never wait. The AI handles inquiries and nurtures leads overnight, keeping your sales pipeline active around the clock.
4. Meta verified badge on WhatsApp Business profile to gain travellers’ trust
There are fraud trends in the hospitality industry, and the last thing you want is for customers to assume your brand as scammers.
The WhatsApp blue tick verification serves as a trust signal, assuring guests that they are communicating with a legitimate and trustworthy business.
WhatsApp offers end-to-end encryption for chats, allowing guests to share their personal details with peace of mind.
*Note: WhatsApp has recently changed the verification badge from a green tick to a blue tick, to keep branding consistent across Meta's services. Subscribe to Sleekflow yearly plan to get free support for your official WhatsApp Business blue tick verified application.
5. Unified WhatsApp inbox for travel or hotel agents
SleekFlow has a unified inbox that streamlines customer communication. Here's how it helps:
Multiple agents can reply to customers simultaneously, ensuring faster response times for enquiries.
The centralised platform improves coordination between front-of-house and back-of-house staff, making operations smoother.
6. API to integrate instant messaging into your in-house mobile app
The WhatsApp API lets you integrate instant messaging into your mobile app, enhancing customer service with real-time support. Here's how it compares to email and live chat.
The use of WhatsApp Business has been proven to yield substantial benefits, including a 34x increase in ROI, a 33% reduction in call centre volume, and a 50% improvement in customer satisfaction. - WhatsApp Business
How to use WhatsApp Business for hotel and hospitality industry communication: a seamless guest journey
From pre-traveling excitement to post-service loyalty, WhatsApp Business API can transform your hospitality business with a reliable communication strategy for every stage of the guest journey.
Turn inquiries into bookings with WhatsApp Flow
Guests expect instant, frictionless service — but endless back-and-forth messages and website redirects are costing you bookings. SleekFlow's WhatsApp Flow lets hotels handle the entire guest journey inside a single WhatsApp chat, with no drop-offs and no manual chasing.
Take room reservations 24/7: Let guests pick dates, room types, and add-ons directly through an interactive in-chat form, with instant confirmation sent automatically.
Upsell services without extra effort: Trigger personalised offers for spa packages, airport transfers, or dining upgrades based on booking details guests already submitted.
Capture post-stay feedback automatically: Send structured satisfaction surveys after checkout and store responses in guest profiles for your team to act on.
Sync with your existing systems: Connect WhatsApp Flow to your CRM via webhook so booking data flows in cleanly, with no manual data entry.
Automate the booking flow on WhatsApp
The pre-purchase process for hotels and hospitality businesses is often similar: checking room availability, verifying travel package prices, and finalising their reservations. Using the Flow Builder, you can create a visual, automated flow that guides guests through the booking enquiry process.
Key features to enhance your automated flow:
Interactive chat buttons: Allow prospective customers to choose their preferred language or enquiry type immediately.
WhatsApp Catalog: Showcase services and packages using the WhatsApp Catalog so guests can browse details and prices without leaving the app.
Seamless agent handoff: Guests can drop queries directly into the chat and be automatically assigned to a human agent, or opt for an ideal package and instantly check availability.
Personalised logic: Use branching and conditional logic to provide responses tailored to specific needs, such as room type, destination, and budget.
By implementing these tools, guests and travellers can make reservations quickly and easily from their mobile devices, efficiently increasing your booking conversion.
WhatsApp in-chat payment for a simplified check-out process
WhatsApp can also streamline the checkout process, offering guests a quick, hassle-free way to settle their deposits and bills.
Key benefits for your check-out flow:
Customised payment links: Once a reservation is confirmed, send secure payment links in WhatsApp (e.g., Stripe links).
Flexible refunds: Easily arrange refunds if a guest changes their mind within the grace period.
Broadcast pre-arrival details with personalised information via WhatsApp
Pre-arrival communication is critical to ensuring a smooth guest experience. By using WhatsApp's broadcast feature, you can send personalised booking reminders and essential pre-arrival details to multiple guests at once, without revealing their contact information to each other.
Key ways to use WhatsApp broadcasts:
Prepare guests for arrival: Send personalised messages with directions, check-in procedures, or hotel dining options to ensure they feel valued and well-prepared. This can also generate revenue for other hotel services and give you insight into guest interests.
Provide in-stay support: Allow guests to chat with you during their stay for extra amenities, room service, or local recommendations, offering immediate assistance without requiring a call or visit to the front desk.
Encourage repeat bookings: Schedule future broadcast messages based on personalised interests for seasonal promotions or relevant events, strategically encouraging past guests to book another stay or try new services.
Schedule WhatsApp messages to collect valuable post-service feedback
After check-out, you can send your guests a personalised thank-you message to express appreciation for their stay and reinforce a positive experience. Later, use WhatsApp to gather feedback.
Gain valuable insights: Guests are more likely to share their thoughts on a platform they are comfortable with, making it easier to gather insights to improve your services or address potential issues before they become negative reviews.
Source marketing materials: Positive feedback and glowing reviews can be used as social media marketing materials.
Encourage word-of-mouth: With a healthy communication and customer-experience ecosystem, guests can easily share recommendations with friends and family.
Segment customers using WhatsApp CRM
Social CRM features like chat labelling and Custom Object can also be utilised to organise guests based on their preferences, past interactions, and booking history. For example, you can:
Target with precision: Label frequent suite bookers as "Luxury Guests" to provide them with exclusive offers or early access to promotions.
Refine your segments: Use detailed criteria like travel dates or services used to sharpen your targeting.
Integrate for a total view: Connect with your existing CRM systems to gain a comprehensive view of your customer profiles.
From then on, you will be able to send highly targeted updates or promotions to effectively increase engagement and repeat bookings.
Extra tips: WhatsApp marketing for hospitality businesses
Beyond hospitality industry communications, WhatsApp Business for hotels can also serve as a powerful marketing tool, generating leads and driving conversions.
Use WhatsApp QR to expand customer database at events or check-ins
WhatsApp QR codes are a great way for customers to initiate a chat with your hotel or hospitality business. Here are some great spots where you can put your WhatsApp QR code:
Front desks
Event registration tables
Check-in brochures
Elevators and hotel rooms
Greeting cards or promotion vouchers
Once connected, they can receive welcome messages, exclusive offers, or further information about your services. You can also save costs and benefit from the monthly 1,000 free WhatsApp service conversations.
Find out how to calculate WhatsApp costs from our complete guide.
Publish Click to WhatsApp ads to drive customers from social media to WhatsApp
Click to WhatsApp ads on Facebook and Instagram are designed to drive direct interactions with potential customers who are already interested in your hotel and hospitality services. By embedding a "click-to-WhatsApp" button within your ads, you make it seamless for interested users to start a conversation with your team.
You can create a marketing campaign using click-to-WhatsApp ads; for instance, you could:
Prompt prospective customers to reply to your ad to receive a promo code for travel packages.
Run a simple lucky draw where they reply “I’m interested” to your WhatsApp ad to participate.
Track campaign results for an accurate retargeting strategy
Effective marketing requires accurate data tracking, and WhatsApp’s integration with analytics tools enables it. Open rates, response times, and engagement levels help offer insights into what works and what doesn’t.
Key benefits include:
Comparing campaign results at different times of the year.
Promoting the most appropriate countries to travel to based on insights.
Improving retargeting accuracy over time to generate higher-quality leads and conversion rates.
Monitor the performance of travel agents and create incentives
WhatsApp isn’t just for customer-facing interactions; it can also be used to monitor the performance of your travel agents and other partners. By analysing their response times, customer interactions, and conversion rates, you can identify top performers and areas needing improvement.
Here’s how you can use these insights to motivate your team:
Create incentive programs based on performance metrics.
Reward agents who consistently drive bookings.
Recognise those who provide exceptional customer service through WhatsApp.
These strategies encourage high standards and boost overall employee morale.
Real-world use cases of WhatsApp in hospitality
Atlas Beach Fest manages high inquiries while maintaining service quality
Atlas Beach Fest, Bali's largest lifestyle destination, needed a way to manage its massive volume of customer inquiries while building brand awareness. Their existing systems were inefficient, making it hard to maintain service quality and build customer loyalty.
Disjointed communication channels and an ineffective CRM system led to slow response times and an inability to execute targeted marketing. This made it difficult to build long-term guest relationships and stand out in a competitive market.
Atlas implemented SleekFlow to unify communications from WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook into a single omnichannel inbox. They also used smart segmentation and automated workflows to send personalized, relevant messages to different customer groups.
Faster response times: Dramatically reduced wait times for guests.
Higher engagement: Increased customer interaction through targeted campaigns.
Intriq Journey achieves a 20% increase in operational efficiency while personalising travel experiences
Intriq Journey is an expert in elite holiday and luxury tours, dedicated to providing bespoke experiences for high-net-worth clients globally. Their business relies on high-touch communication across multiple social channels like WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram.
The team struggled to manage fragmented inquiries using traditional emails and single-device WhatsApp accounts. This manual approach led to slow response times, "one-phone-login" bottlenecks, and missed opportunities to connect with demanding clientele.
They have incorporated an automated hospitality chatbot on WhatsApp to automate their chat flows. Hosting multiple WhatsApp Business accounts on a unified platform, they cater to diverse client bases in Hong Kong and Singapore while maintaining a consistent brand identity.
Achieved an impressive 75% message open rate.
Increased operational efficiency by 20%.
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Pearl Holiday expands customer reach and generates over 2,000 new leads in a single campaign
Pearl Holiday, a leading travel agency in Malaysia, traditionally relied on newspaper ads and SMS broadcasts for marketing. As digital trends evolved, these methods became less effective and were often perceived as spam.
Their traditional outreach suffered from low open rates, and attempts to use the free WhatsApp Business App for bulk messaging led to account bans. This limited their ability to effectively reach their audience and generate leads for major events like travel fairs.
The agency has equipped itself with SleekFlow's WhatsApp chatbots for the hospitality industry. They set up WhatsApp QR codes during events and efficiently collected customer details, even when the staff was unable to attend to all visitors.
Reached over 10,000 contacts
Generated over 2,000 new leads
Achieved a 70-80% reply rate
SleekFlow helped us set up WhatsApp chat buttons for gauging the customers’ interest and we managed to obtain a satisfying reply rate of around 80%.
The Marketing Team
Pearl Holiday
WhatsApp Business pricing for hotels: what you actually pay for
When using WhatsApp Business, there are several important pricing details to consider:
Per-message pricing: The WhatsApp Business Platform charges on a per-message basis, with different categories:
Marketing messages (e.g., promotional offers)
Utility messages (e.g., shipping updates)
Authentication messages (e.g., OTPs)
Service messages (e.g., customer support)
Service messages are free: There is no charge for service messages sent within the 24-hour customer service window.
24-hour window resets: The 24-hour window resets with each new user message, allowing businesses to continue providing customer support without additional charges.
72-hour free entry: Click-to-WhatsApp ads and Facebook Call-to-Action buttons include a 72-hour free entry for each conversation.
To estimate pricing, check out our WhatsApp pricing calculator.
Opt-in and policy compliance for WhatsApp messaging for hotels
Clear opt-in consent: Hotels must obtain explicit consent from guests before sending messages on WhatsApp.
Approved templates only: Businesses can only initiate conversations using WhatsApp-approved templates.
Opt-out workflow: Include opt-out keywords such as “STOP” or “UNSUBSCRIBE” in your messages. This reduces complaints and helps maintain a high template quality rating.
By adhering to these best practices, hotels ensure compliance and enhance the guest experience.
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Book your personalised demo with SleekFlow today and unlock the potential of seamless communication
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