GuestJoy Concierge Expander onboarding for boutique hotels
WhatsApp Business Cloud on Meta's official channel, a 62-template library hand-authored by Hotelminder advisors, and a guest opt-in flow written for concierge teams that pride themselves on discretion.
GuestJoy Concierge Expander sits on top of your existing SiteMinder GuestJoy subscription and mirrors each guest thread to WhatsApp Business Cloud alongside a warmer email track. What makes the onboarding non-trivial for a boutique property is not the technical wiring — that is straightforward — but the editorial calibration of the templates and the opt-in flow. This guide is the Hotelminder onboarding sequence, in the order we actually run it.
Prerequisites — what you need before day one
A verified Meta Business account for your property (or the group's holding entity), the ability to receive an SMS verification code on the phone number that will become your WhatsApp Business number, a display name that matches your property's brand as it appears on your website, and an active SiteMinder GuestJoy subscription. The last item is the one that catches people out: the Expander cannot substitute for GuestJoy — it plugs in via the official SiteMinder API and enriches guest threads that already exist in GuestJoy. If you do not currently run GuestJoy inside SiteMinder, tell your Hotelminder advisor and they will scope whether it is worth adding.
Day 1 — WhatsApp Business Cloud setup
Register the phone number your property wants to use with WhatsApp Business Cloud. For most boutique properties this is a dedicated line, not the personal mobile of the general manager — the property's landline number will not work because WhatsApp requires SMS verification. If your property does not have a mobile line, we suggest a low-cost eSIM (Airalo or similar) issued in the property's name. Register the display name with Meta; approval usually lands within 24 hours. Once approved, the Expander connects to WhatsApp Cloud via a webhook — nothing to install on your side.
Day 2 — Template library review
The Expander ships with 62 templates hand-authored by the Hotelminder advisory team across four boutique properties in Barcelona and Berlin. The templates fall into ten categories: pre-arrival (fourteen), late-arrival and early-check-in (six), dietary and preference (eight), pet fees and pet touches (four), room switch by preference (five), honeymoon and anniversary (four), day-before-departure practical (nine), post-departure gratitude (six), lost-and-found follow-up (three), and review invitation (three). Sit with your general manager for ninety minutes and walk each template. Delete the ones that do not fit your voice, adjust the phrasing on the ones that almost fit, and mark the rest as ready.
Day 3 — Opt-in flow
Meta requires an explicit opt-in from every guest before your property can message them on WhatsApp. The Expander integrates a one-line opt-in into the pre-arrival email that GuestJoy already sends: "If you'd like our concierge to reach you on WhatsApp for anything before your stay, tap here." Guests who tap are added to the WhatsApp track for their reservation; guests who do not tap stay on the email-only track. This dual-track design is important — the Expander does not force WhatsApp on guests, and it does not degrade the email track for the guests who never opt in.
Configure the opt-in text in six languages: English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Dutch. Check the phrasing matches your property's voice — the default text is deliberately neutral so you can rewrite it.
Day 4 — First live thread
Point the Expander at the next incoming reservation as a test case. Watch the pre-arrival flow trigger, watch the message land in the Expander dashboard, and confirm the guest reply routes back correctly into GuestJoy. The first live thread is always the one where the small phrasing decisions from Day 2 reveal themselves. Have your advisor on the line for that first thread — it is included in the onboarding.
Week 2 onward — throttling and consent
The Expander throttles WhatsApp sends to a boutique-appropriate cadence: no more than one outbound per fortnight per guest outside a live reservation, and no marketing sends whatsoever unless the guest has explicitly opted in to marketing separately from concierge. All consent decisions are logged and written back to the GuestJoy guest profile, so if a guest asks you to stop, one click updates every downstream module. RGPD-first by design.