Messaging and Staying in Touch with Guests

Good communication is most of what makes a booking go smoothly. Here's every way you and a guest can reach each other on Hopscotch, and how to use it well.

Before a booking even exists

A guest browsing your listing can message you directly from the listing page, before they've booked anything — useful for questions about parking, whether a specific date works, or anything else that might decide whether they book at all. Answering these quickly can be the difference between a guest booking your space or moving on to the next one.

Once a booking is made

Every booking gets its own message thread between you and the guest. Use it to coordinate arrival time, parking, gate codes, or anything else specific to that visit. It's also where any automatic notices show up — booking confirmations, reminders, and cancellation notices all post into the same thread, so the whole history of a booking is in one place.

Automatic welcome and thank-you messages

You can write your own welcome message, sent the moment a booking confirms, and your own thank-you message, sent after the visit — set each one once in your listing settings and Hopscotch sends them automatically every time. If you leave either blank, we send a friendly default on your behalf, so guests never arrive to silence.

Getting notified

New messages, booking requests, and reminders show up in your in-app notifications, and we'll also email you — time-sensitive ones (a new booking request, a reminder your booking is coming up) go out by text too if you've opted in, so you're not relying on checking the app at the right moment.

A privacy note

To protect families' privacy, you'll see a guest's name as "First L." (first name, last initial) rather than their full name, and you won't see their children's names — just how many are coming. It's enough to coordinate a visit without exposing more than necessary.

Keep it in the app

Message threads are tied to the specific booking (or inquiry, before a booking exists), which keeps a record of what was agreed to and makes it easy for our team to help if something comes up later. It's also just simpler — one place to check, instead of texts and emails scattered across different numbers and addresses.

Have a listing live and want to make a good first impression? Set your welcome message so it's ready before your next booking comes in.