Table of contents:
What is Message Hub?
Message Hub is Touch Stay's guest messaging system. Schedule customised emails and/or SMS text messages to guests with a link to the relevant Touch Stay guide. In the new Hub, you'll find it under Messaging & Chat in the left sidebar.
How does it work?
There are three simple stages:
Select and customise the message templates you want to use.
Schedule the messages to send to each of your chosen recipients. You can set and adjust the schedule for each individual message.
Create an invitation for each person you want to send messages to.
How do I create message templates?
💡 Tip: look out for the small help icons (❓) next to each field — hover over them for quick explanations.
1. Select your templates
Go to Messaging & Chat → Templates (legacy Hub: the Message Hub page).
Add message templates with the Add e-mail template or Add SMS template buttons.
Each button opens a list of suggested templates with pre-filled content you can customise. You can either:
Select one of the suggested templates, or
Choose Custom Message at the bottom of the list to start from scratch.
Once you make your selection, a form appears for you to complete. We'll walk you through each section below.
ℹ️ Note: if you used Touch Stay messaging before Message Hub launched on May 11th, 2022, your existing message templates were copied over into Message Hub. You can keep using them, edit them, or archive them and start fresh. If you have multiple guides, Message Hub's template system can help you simplify and consolidate your templates — see Converting from legacy messages to Message Hub templates.
2. Select the message recipient
The Recipient is the person who receives this message. In most cases, you'll want the recipient to be the Primary Guest. The message is then sent to the contact details you'll later add to the invitation.
You can also set a Fixed Recipient, to send the message to:
Yourself
A member of your team
Any third party providing services to your guests
3. Choose your message schedule
The Schedule determines when a message is sent:
Immediate — the message is sent as soon as the invitation is created.
Scheduled Time — the message is sent a number of days or weeks before or after the Arrival Date, Departure Date or Invitation Creation Date (for example, 2 days before the arrival date).
You can also choose the time of day the message is sent.
4. Adjust the sending criteria
The Send Criteria determines which invitations get this message, so you can create different messages for different guides, events or people.
Always Send — the message is used for all your invitations. This is what you'll want in most cases.
Criteria Met — the message is only used for invitations that match the conditions you set (an advanced option).
On Demand — the template isn't added to invitations automatically. You can add it manually to any invitation when you need it, so it's useful for occasional messages.
⚙️ Advanced options: for a detailed explanation of all the criteria options, see Message template criteria explained.
5. Apply template to
When you edit a template, you can choose which invitations it applies to:
New only — applies the template only to invitations created after the change.
New & current — applies the template to all invitations with a future departure date.
6. Customise your message content
The final part of the template is the message content. For email templates, this includes:
Email from name — the name your guests see as the sender
Email message subject — the subject line of the email
Email message body — the main content of your email, edited with the rich text editor
If you'd like guest replies to go to a different email address than the one linked to your guide, see How to set the reply-to email address on Message Hub message templates.
💡 SMS tip: SMS messages are limited to 320 characters. If your message contains an emoji or any special character outside the standard SMS character set, the limit drops to 140 characters, and some emoji count as two characters. Keep SMS messages short and clear so guests can read them at a glance.
Enhance your messages with field codes and deep links
1. Field codes
Each message can include field codes that personalise the content automatically based on the guest or guide details. Details like the link to your guide, the guest's name or the stay dates update automatically, so you don't need to change them every time you send a message.
In practice, field codes look like this:
It's simply a short code in double curly brackets. When the message is sent, the code is replaced with the relevant data. For example, if you add {{guest_first_name}} to your message, it's replaced with the guest's actual first name from the invitation.
To add field codes, use the Insert Field code button next to the relevant text box, or the Field code option in the message body toolbar. For a full explanation, see Field Codes explained.
⚠️ Copied a code with # in front? Older versions of this article showed the examples with # characters in front of the code. The # is not part of the code and is never replaced, so your guests see it as plain text (for example "#Sarah"). Edit your template, delete the # characters and keep just the code in curly brackets.
💡 Tip: don't forget to include the {{invitation_link}} field code (or a deep link, see below) if you want the message to include a link to your guide. All our pre-filled templates, and those copied over from the legacy messaging system, already include it. If you edit these templates or create your own, make sure the {{invitation_link}} field code or a deep link is there.
2. Deep links
Deep links in your message templates send guests straight to a specific category, subcategory or topic in your guide. Use the Create Deep Link option in the message body toolbar.
⚠️ Important: don't paste links from the Get deep link / QR code option in your guidebook content (legacy Hub: Direct Links in Content Hub). Those are Quick Share links and shouldn't be used for invitations.
Learn more in How to add deep links to Message Hub templates.
How do I create invitations?
Go to Messaging & Chat → Invitations and click Invite guests. You can also click Invite guests inside a guidebook and choose Invite — that guidebook is then preselected. Complete the form with:
the details of the person you want to invite
their access dates and lead time
any custom fields
You'll then see the message schedule for this person, based on the templates whose criteria match. For step-by-step instructions, see How to create a guest invitation.
On the legacy Hub, use the Invite by Email/SMS button on the Invitations tab of the Message Hub page, or on a guide's Invite & Share tab.
Click the (⋯) menu next to an invitation to:
View or edit the invitation details
Copy the link for that invitation if you need to share it manually
Delete the invitation — once deleted, the link stops working for that guest
Editing the message schedule
On the schedule screen, each message has a (⋯) menu. Messages that haven't been sent yet can be edited or removed; sent messages can be viewed or resent.
You can also go back to edit the invitation details, or add new email or SMS messages for this person using the options at the bottom of the screen.
Sending your invitation
Once you're happy that the invitation details and messages are correct, click Schedule messages (or Finish if there's nothing to schedule). Message Hub then sends each message automatically on your chosen day and time.
To check the status of each message at any time, click the (⋯) menu on the invitation and choose View/Edit.
🤝 Need help?
Our Fin AI assistant is available 24/7 and typically responds in under 10 seconds. If Fin isn't able to solve your issue, our support team will take ownership of your case from there.
You can also reach out to our team at [email protected], and we'll be happy to help.