Intelligent conversation operations
The check-in link before arrival, the door code, the late-checkout offer and the review request — to a guest who booked on Booking.com, never gave you their email, and messages the property from the airport. Arrival logistics are utility and reach every guest; the upsell is marketing and needs their consent.
The category decides everything else: the price, whether it reaches somebody who opted out, and the criteria it is reviewed against.
| Message | Category | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| Booking confirmed, check-in details, door code, Wi-Fi | Utility | About the stay the guest booked. The door code as a variable in a template is fine; the same code pasted into a WhatsApp group with the cleaner is not. |
| Airport pickup: your driver is {{name}}, plate {{plate}} | Utility | Transfer confirmations are the single most-used template in Gulf hospitality, and the plate number is what stops a guest getting into the wrong car at Terminal 3. |
| Tourism Dirham / municipality fee due, ID needed at check-in | Utility | A legal requirement of the stay. Stating the fee before arrival is what keeps the front-desk argument from happening at 1am. |
| Late checkout for 150, spa offer, come back in winter | Marketing | Marketing, and the guest never opted in through the OTA — so it only goes to guests who said yes on your own check-in form. Zanii records that yes as a receipt. |
A guest who booked through Booking.com or Airbnb agreed to that platform's terms, not yours. Their number arrives with the reservation, and sending them the check-in link is fine — it is about the stay they booked and is utility. Sending them a winter offer six months later is marketing to somebody who never consented to marketing from you, and in the UAE that is a TDRA matter, in Saudi a CST one, and in Bahrain and Oman a personal-data-law one. The holiday-home operators who get this right ask one question on their own check-in form — "can we message you about offers?" — and Zanii records the answer as a signed consent receipt attached to the guest, so the winter campaign goes only to the guests who said yes and the record exists if anybody asks.
Hi {{1}}, we're expecting you at {{2}} on {{3}}. Check-in is from {{4}}; your door code and Wi-Fi details will arrive here on the day. Reply with your flight number if you'd like a pickup quote.
Category: Utility
The double braces are variables WhatsApp fills per recipient. Meta rejects a template whose numbering has gaps, and Zanii catches that before you submit it.