Reservation Manager Part 1: Unified Communication

Introduction

GuestWisely integrates powerful and essential tools into a cohesive platform designed to optimize vacation rental management. At the core of the platform is the Reservation Manager. Enhanced productivity is achieved through our Integrated Architecture, which uniquely connects feature-logic across the system for maximum impact. The Reservation Manager exemplifies this by triggering more downstream effects throughout your workflow than competing platforms.

Powered by a robust Unified Communications infrastructure, the Reservation Manager centralizes guest communications from all your booking channels—such as Airbnb, Booking.com, and Vrbo—and messaging mediums like email, SMS, and WhatsApp into a single, streamlined interface. This communication layer also incorporates channel-specific messengers directly, while the larger Reservation Manager seamlessly triggers and coordinates tasks across the entire GuestWisely platform.

Much of the Reservation Manager interface will feel intuitively familiar, ensuring a smooth onboarding experience. However, each design choice is intentional, and beneath the intuitive surface lie powerful features that are well worth investing time into as this will significantly  boost GuestWisely’s impact on your business. 

The GuestWisely onboarding experience—featuring training, tutorials, and in-platform guidance—is designed to help you unlock the system’s full potential and tailor it to your unique needs.

This tutorial provides a walkthrough of the Reservation Manager interface, highlighting how guest communication and core reservation features integrate to improve workflow efficiency. Other tutorials will dive deeper into Unified Communications and the inquiry, booking, and payment management workflows.

Reservation Manager User Interface

High Level Overview

The Reservation Manager interface consists of four primary parts: 

1. Portfolio Calendar for viewing availability, tracking guest activity, and taking action without leaving the page.

2. Communications Folders for storing different types of messages to manage inquiries, quotes, and bookings.

3. Message Panel for accessing all messages in a particular folder.

4. Messenger Window for receiving, sending, and storing messages.

Tool Bars are integrated with the Message Panel and Messenger Window. Now, let’s look in detail at each area to see how they all fit together:

Portfolio Calendar

The Portfolio Calendar lets you view and manage all bookings from a single place. Properties displayed and information overlaying booked dates are flexibly configurable. You can create quotes or bookings, block dates for maintenance or owner use, or adjust rates directly from the calendar.An interactive design provides instant visibility into availability, guest details, and booking sources, with clear color-coded statuses that distinguish between quotes (grey), tentative holds (orange), confirmed bookings (red), and operational markers such as early check-ins or late check-outs. Hovering over a reservation reveals stay dates, charges, payments received, and remaining balances and a hyper-link to the booking for further needs. 

This combination of scheduling, communication, and status tracking in a single, easy-to-navigate interface provides a complete operational overview, with the ability to make fast, informed decisions that keep things running smoothly.

For more details, you can explore this tutorial: Reservation Manager Calendar.

Communications Folders

The Communications Folders are an example of purpose-built functionality at work in GuestWisely. Descriptions for each are below. The active folder (in this case Reservations) is indicated by the bold font and vertical side bar:

Note: Inquiries and Reservations folders include advanced productivity tools (not available in Received and Sent folders). We’ll cover those shortly.

Message Panel 

Message Panel in Inquiries

• Unread Messages: indicated by bold font.

• Active Message: a gray background marks the message you’re viewing, with the Message Window active for that guest.

• Message Counters: folder counters show total unread messages. Red circle counters on files indicate the number of unread messages from a sender. 

• Latest messages: at the top. Use property filter, search, scrolling, or pagination to view older messages, as needed.

Tool Bars in Message Panel 

Hovering over Tool Bar icons displays Tool-tips that explain the relevant functions:

Tool Bar functions explained:

Action Icons: the icons below are used to apply actions to select messages or in bulk.

1. Click “select” to trigger the select mode

2. Click the relevant the check boxes

3. Click the relevant icon to apply the desired action:

To apply an action to an entire mail folder, click the action menu on the far right of the tool bar and use the popup shown here to proceed with the desired action:

Note: to delete or mark all messages as “read” enter your Username to confirm the action.

The Message Panel in Reservations

More than just Message Threads

While our interface looks like a conventional messaging platform, each thread also serves as a Reservation File, deeply integrated with our reservation logic and the rest of your booking workflow.

1. Double-click a file to open the Booking Editor to view or manage any and all aspects of your quote or booking, including payments:

2. Single click on a reservation to view guest messages in the Messenger Window without leaving the main page. Click Details on top right (shown below) to see reservation info.

   • Editable information here can be accessed by clicking the Edit icon .

   • For all other needs, click the Manage Booking icon to access the full Booking Editor in a new window. Full Booking Editor tutorial available here.

3. The Reservation File is your all-in-one hub for managing the guest’s messages, booking info, payments, and more:

For Example: In the above Reservation File, you can quickly spot:

• Unread Messages: there is one unread message from this guest.

• Lead Source: the booking originated with Airbnb.

• Booking Status: the square below the lead source is red, indicating that the booking is confirmed. 

• Payment Status: The question mark is a payment status icon indicating payment is pending, but not overdue.

• Tags: the user has included flags as special tags. These are defined by you, and you can use up to four for each booking.

• Widget: click the three-dot menu to manage tags, manage the booking or mark the message as unread.

Booking Status Indicators

Booking status is indicated throughout the system, starting with the Reservation File in the Manager and on the Booking Report. Statuses are shown as follows: 

Booking Statuses
	= Available
	= Booked
	= Quote
	= Tentative Booking
	= Block
	= Owner Booking
	= Housekeeping done
	= Early check-in
	= Late check-out

*Triangles indicate check-in and check-out dates, leaving a half day available. 

Payment Status Icons

Payment Status icons for quotes and bookings that appear on Reservation Files:

Reservation Filters 

Use the Reservations Folder toolbar to filter by:

• Booking Type

• Booking Status

• Payment Status

• Flags

• Lead Source

Messenger Window

Functions & Layout

Click a Message/ Reservation file to open its conversation in the Messenger Window.

1. Tool Bar: Click the guest name to view/edit contact info, use the search icon to find messages. Alongside Archive and Delete icons, the Inquiries Tool Bar includes action buttons to Quote or Decline.
   

2. Inbound messages align with the left and have a white background.
   

3. Outbound messages (including automated ones) align right with a light grey background, although it will, of course, be white on the recipient end.
   

4. Message details (date, time etc) are at the bottom of each message box.
   

5. Hovering over a message reveals icons to Reply, Reply All, or Forward it.
   

6. Click Reply to message.. to open the Message Composer and respond.

Message Composer Functions

As shown in the image immediately above:

1. Top Right Icons: these enlarge and close the Message Composer.
   

2. Built-in Editor: this allows you to apply creative styling and add attachments or hyperlinks to your message.
   

3. Language Widget: this lets you change between the different languages. (You can have up to six set-up in the system.)
   

4. Format Widget: use this to choose between Email, WhatsApp, Text Messaging, Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com Messenger communication mediums.
   (See our Unified Communications tutorial for more on setting up these various mediums.)
   

5. Mail Tool Icons next to the Send are for accessing shortcodes and email templates, and uploading attachments and images. 

Returning Guest Badge

Every returning guest is a chance for lasting loyalty, and GuestWisely helps you spot that opportunity more easily. With instant visibility into guest booking history when guests inquire or book, you can elevate their experience from the start.

The Workflow

• Open a reservation or select a conversation in your Inbox.

• Spot the returning guest badge located directly next to the guest name.

• Click the badge to view their detailed booking history with your properties.

Note: GuestWisely automatically displays this information without additional configuration.

What It Means

• Identify returning guests instantly to deliver tailored service.

• Turn guest recognition into loyalty to increase retention rates.

Congratulations! You’ve just explored the heart of GuestWisely’s Reservation Manager, but this is only the foundation. What truly sets GuestWisely apart is how seamlessly it connects your inquiries, reservations, and financial transactions into one unified, intelligent workflow.

In Part 2, we’ll take you beyond message management and show you how to turn inquiries into confirmed bookings, customize every reservation detail, automate guest communications, and effortlessly track payments from start to finish.

If you want to see how these tools come together to simplify your workday, improve guest experience and deliver total control over your business, you won’t want to miss what’s next.

Discover Part 2: The Complete Reservation Management Workflow.