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How does the unified Inbox work?

The Inbox is Besty's unified inbox. It pulls messages in from your OTA, PMS, SMS (if set up), email, and WhatsApp (if set up).

Written by Sam Dundas

How does the unified Inbox work?

The Inbox is Besty's unified inbox. It pulls messages in from your OTA, PMS, SMS (if set up), email, and WhatsApp (if set up) — all in one place.

The left panel — conversation list

Every entry in the list is a reservation or inquiry. For each one you can see the guest name, booking channel, property name, and stay status (current, upcoming, past, cancelled, or inquiry). Unread conversations are highlighted in blue.

Search and filters

You can search for any conversation and apply filters including: properties, listing sets, read/archive status, conversation type, residency status, reservation status, check-in and check-out dates, in-house guests, and booking channel.

The four message types

Messages are color-coded so you can tell at a glance where each one came from:

  • Blue — Manual messages sent by your team from the inbox, PMS, OTA, email, or SMS.

  • Yellow — Journey messages sent automatically at key moments (check-in, check-out, booking, etc.).

  • Purple — Autopilot messages. Autopilot only sends automatically when it is 100% certain of the answer. If it's 99% sure, it creates a draft for you to review instead.

  • Green — Upsell offers sent by the AI (early check-in, late check-out, extra nights, etc.).

Contact methods

The phone icon in each conversation shows all contact methods on file — OTA, SMS, and email. For VRBO guests, Besty pulls the email and phone number directly from the PMS. You can add, edit, or delete contact methods at any time, and switch the channel for a one-off message (e.g., send an SMS to a guest you've been messaging via OTA).

Composition tools

At the bottom of the message box you can:

  • Adjust the length, formality, and warmth of your message or draft.

  • Fix spelling and grammar automatically.

  • Translate the message to any language before sending.

  • Load template variables — paste a variable and click the magnifying glass to preview the value it will pull from your PMS or Besty.

  • Upload attachments.

  • Use saved message templates.

Training the AI from the inbox

Whenever your team manually answers a guest question with new information, Besty watches the outgoing message and automatically flags it as a candidate to add to the Knowledge Base. A notification appears in the conversation — click it to review the suggestion, then save. The AI processes it and the entry is locked in, so you never have to answer the same question twice.

If you can't catch these in real time, go to the Teach tab. It stores all pending Knowledge Base suggestions. Aim to keep the pending count at zero — if daily isn't feasible, clear it every other day or end of the week.

The right panel — guest information

The right side shows context for the selected conversation:

  • Guest name and mood emoji (happy, neutral, sad) with a reason summary

  • Return guest indicator — if they've stayed before, how many times and their lifetime spend

  • Check-in and check-out dates, plus tasks scheduled ±3 days around their stay

  • Occasion detected from the conversation (anniversary, mountain biking trip, family reunion, etc.)

  • AI-generated conversation summary

  • Internal notes field

  • Pause/play toggles for journeys, autopilot, and upsells for this specific guest

  • View in PMS button — opens the reservation directly in your PMS

Phone call recording

If a guest calls your Besty SMS number, the call is forwarded, recorded, and summarized automatically — and the summary appears in the inbox for that guest's conversation.

Mobile inbox

The mobile app inbox works the same way. Open reservations from the top-left menu, apply filters, tap the info icon to see guest details, and use the dropdown below the message box for templates, length, formality, and warmth controls.

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