New Features: Big Update of iGMS Unified Inbox

With users’ insights as powerful inspiration, the iGMS product team is pleased to announce another exciting update. iGMS Unified Inbox prides itself on being one of the most employed and discussed features, designed to help hosts to build an extraordinary guest experience. 

The growth of the vacation rental management market has resulted in guest communication becoming a core component of successful hosting. It’s not enough to simply respond, hosts are expected to reply quickly and with due care and attention. 

To sum up all the changes, we have:

• Brand New Message Template Editor
• Extended Messages Content Setting
• Enhanced Unified Inbox Navigation 

Without further ado let’s take an in-depth look at these exciting updates.

Brand New Message Template Editor

Preparing for the arrival of new guests is an integral part of running a successful vacation rental business. The more organized you are, the smoother your guests’ stay will be.

Having your messaging templates all set and ready to go has become an intrinsic part of the process. With our freshen up messages template editor you now have a few more features to employ:

Super New Look. The new message template editor provides hosts with more flexibility and is adjustable to better meet your needs. You can now sort the templates by the date of creation or in alphabetical order (whichever you find most convenient). It’s time to simplify and fine-tune your guest communication.

There are lots of templates to choose from, but this is no longer an issue. Simply look for the template you need via the search bar:

Automation timeline. Visualize all “scheduled for sending” templates from your Unified Inbox. Remind yourself of the triggers that you’ve set for the property. You can switch to modifying the template’s content and its additional rules by just clicking on the trigger’s name.

New Template Variables. Two more variables have been added to the template editor based on our users’ suggestions. You may use {{reservation_code}} as a smart code to access your property and {{number_of_nights}} to specify the length of stay.  The elements will be automatically replaced by the actual data from the reservation. This allows you to stay focused on the ongoing guest conversation, while the details are taken care of by the system. You can find more details about template variables here.

Extended Messages Content Setting

Attached Images is the highly anticipated feature, allowing you to attach images to templates, is out. 

Once you have enabled automation for the template, you will see the field to attach images. You can send PNG, JPG, GIF formats of images up to 25 Mb for every attachment, not limited to the specific number of images. You can also use this feature to explain in detail how to find your vacation rental and where the key box is located. You can even send a welcoming sweet GIF to your guests.

Enhanced Unified Inbox Navigation 

A new booking request is an event you want to learn about immediately after it has been sent. To facilitate your Unified Inbox navigation and guide you directly to a brand new guest, we have added an option to look for new booking requests in the Inquiries tab. Separated from the rest of the threads, new booking requests will be easier to access and faster to handle, which, in turn, will let you prioritize and organize your resources. As a result, you save time, the guest is taken care of, and you can easily check for further booking requests.

How Do Vacation Rental Managers Benefit From the New Features? 

Guests expect prompt and personalized responses from vacation rental managers, and they often reward fast and smooth communication with a 5-star review.  That’s exactly where the new iGMS Unified Inbox features come into their own. Meet guest expectations, automate your messaging routine and save time and energy to boot! iGMS clients have indicated they save up to 28 hours a week on average, we think that’s pretty impressive! 

More and more vacation rental businesses are turning to automation in a bid to optimize repetitive guest communication, and by doing so, they are also cutting back on human error. Finally, when you have guest communication on autopilot there’s no need to hire more guest support agents to take care of your guests. iGMS automation does that for you, allowing you the time and space to focus on managing your vacation rental business. 

Our product team never sits still! Here at iGMS we are always working on new updates and we plan on releasing more features soon. If you have any ideas or suggestions please share with iGMS Customer Experience Team!