If you communicate with your guests through Booking.com's messaging platform, you may notice that links — including your Touch Stay guidebook links — don't always get through. This is because Booking.com has a security feature that filters out any links a host hasn't specifically approved, to help protect guests from phishing scams.
The good news is that this is quick to fix, and once it's done you won't need to touch it again for future guidebooks.
Table of contents:
Why this happens
Booking.com lets hosts control which links are allowed to reach guests through its messaging tools (including the messaging proxy email). Any link that hasn't been approved is automatically stripped out of the message, and the guest sees "[Link was removed]" in its place instead of your guidebook link.
This isn't something wrong with your Touch Stay guidebook — it's simply Booking.com's default security setting, and it applies to any external link, not just ours.
How to allow your Touch Stay links through
You have two options: approve individual guidebook URLs one at a time, or approve the whole domain your guide links use once so that every guidebook link you ever create is automatically allowed.
We strongly recommend the second option. If your guide links use the standard address, approving the domain guide.touchstay.com means:
Every current and future Touch Stay guidebook link on guide.touchstay.com will go through automatically
You won't need to remember to add a new link each time you create a guidebook for a new property or booking
It works whether you're messaging guests directly through Booking.com or via Booking.com's proxy email
Steps to approve the Touch Stay domain
Sign in to your Booking.com extranet account
Go to Property, then Messaging preferences
Click Security settings
Complete the two-factor authentication prompt (required each time you access this section)
Under approved links, click Add a link
Enter the domain:
guide.touchstay.com(or your own domain, see below)
Save your changes
If you manage more than one property under a group account, Booking.com also gives you the option to apply this setting across all your properties in one go, rather than repeating the steps for each one individually.
Only users with admin rights on the extranet account can access these settings. If you're not sure whether you have admin access, Booking.com's help center has more detail on extranet permission levels.
Using a custom domain or sub-domain?
Approving guide.touchstay.com only covers links that use that address. If your guide links use a different address, approve that address instead:
Custom domain (for example guides.yourdomain.com): all your guide links use your own domain, so approve that domain.
Guidebook sub-domain (for example yourproperty.touchstay.com): links for that guidebook use the sub-domain, so approve each sub-domain you use.
You can check which address your links use by copying a guide link from Touch Stay and looking at the start of it.
Where to find Booking.com's own instructions
For Booking.com's official, most up-to-date walkthrough of these settings (including how to manage approved sender email addresses, or block links/emails entirely), see their guide here:
If you've approved the domain and your guidebook links are still being blocked, or you run into any issues with the extranet settings, reach out to our support team and we'll help you get it sorted.
🤝 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.