Reply automatically out of hours

Screen /agents · Roles: Admin (an agent:manage seat)

Every other automation in the Agent Hub is triggered by something you did - a booking confirmed, a check-in approaching. An auto-response is triggered by something the guest did, and it lands inside the conversation rather than as a notification.

That is the point: a guest who writes at 2am and hears nothing until 9am is a guest who has messaged somebody else by breakfast.

1. Open /agents and add an auto-response rule.

2. Write the message. It is rendered from a template you control, so it says what you would say.

3. Set when it applies - the hours when nobody is at the desk.

4. Enable it, and watch the first few on the run history.

What it can and cannot do

An auto-response may only append to a conversation that already exists, with a body rendered from your template. It carries a capability of its own (agent:auto_respond) rather than the general power to send messages, so enabling it does not hand every automation your team’s entire send power.

It cannot start a conversation, cannot message somebody who has not written to you, and

• like every automation in Stay N Host - cannot move money or release a door code outside the dual gate.

An auto-reply is a reply, and your inbox should show it

The message appears in the thread as sent by the system. When your team opens the inbox in the morning they see the guest’s question and the acknowledgement that went out, so nobody answers “sorry for the delay” to a guest who was never left waiting.

Write it as an acknowledgement, not an answer

The rule sends what you wrote, every time, to every guest who writes in that window. “Thanks - we have your message and someone will reply first thing” is right. Anything that reads as an answer to a specific question will be wrong for most of them.

What’s next

• Work the inbox.
• Message templates.
• Narrow a rule with conditions.