WhatsApp for hospitality
The channel yourguests already answer
An email newsletter is opened by a fraction of the people it reaches. A WhatsApp message is usually read within minutes. We run that channel for your venue: the campaign that fills a quiet Tuesday, the booking question answered from one shared inbox, the guest who came twice and then went quiet.
What it does for the room
Four jobs, all of
them tied to covers
None of this is about sending more messages. Each one is a job a venue already does by email, badly, or does not do at all.
One inbox for booking messages
Enquiries, changes and no-show chasing arrive in a shared inbox rather than on somebody’s personal phone. Whoever is on shift can pick up the thread and see what was said last time.
Fewer bookings lost on somebody’s day off
Broadcasts that fill a quiet night
A dated offer to a segment of guests who asked to hear from you, sent on the morning it matters. The wine dinner on Wednesday, the six seats left at the chef’s table, the long weekend menu.
Covers on the sessions that need them
Win-backs for guests who stopped coming
A guest who visited twice and then went quiet is the cheapest booking you will ever make. We build that list from your own booking data and write the message that brings them back.
Repeat covers without paying for reach
Answers that do not need a person
Opening hours, parking, the set menu, allergens, the deposit policy. Automations answer what arrives fifty times a week and hand straight over to a human the moment the question is real.
Staff time back on the floor
How we run it
Consent, calendar,
covers
The order matters. Skip the first step and the channel is closed to you inside a month.
01
Build the list properly
Opt-in captured at booking, in venue and on the site. Nobody is imported from a spreadsheet they never agreed to.
02
Set up on the WhatsApp Business Platform
Your own verified business number, with message templates submitted for approval before anything goes out.
03
Plan against the trading week
Campaigns built around your quiet sessions and your seasons, not around a content calendar invented in an agency.
04
Report on covers
What went out, who replied, who booked. Read rates are a means to that, not the result.
The part nobody enjoys
Opt-in, or it does not go out
WhatsApp is a permission channel and the platform enforces it. Every contact opts in, every template is approved before use, and every message carries a way out. It is slower to start, and it is the reason the channel still works a year later.
- Explicit opt-in captured at booking, in venue and on the site
- Templates approved by WhatsApp before the first send
- Opt-outs honoured immediately and permanently
- Your number, your account and your list, kept in your name
The tool behind it
YellaCRM, our own platform
We run the channel on YellaCRM, the WhatsApp platform we build ourselves: a shared inbox, contacts, pipelines, broadcasts and no-code automations on the WhatsApp Business Platform. We say that plainly because it is the point. The software and the campaign answer to the same people, so a venue is never stuck between an agency and a vendor.
Visit YellaCRM ↗- A shared inbox, so no thread is stranded on one phone
- Contacts and pipelines, so a guest arrives with a history
- Scheduled broadcasts to a segment rather than to everyone
- Automations for the questions that repeat all week
Questions
What operators
ask us first
Is this allowed in New Zealand?
Commercial messaging here needs consent under the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act, along with accurate sender details and a working way to opt out. WhatsApp enforces its own opt-in rules on top of that. We set the channel up to meet both. It is not legal advice, and your own privacy policy still applies.
Do we need our own WhatsApp number?
Yes, and that is deliberate. The account, the number and the contact list are yours. If we stop working together, none of it leaves with us.
What does it cost?
Two parts. Our fee for running the channel, and WhatsApp’s own per-conversation charges, which vary by country and by the type of message. You get both in writing before anything is set up.
Can the team use it during service?
That is what the shared inbox is for. Anyone on shift can answer from a phone or a laptop, and the conversation stays with the guest rather than with whoever happened to reply first.
Your guests are
already on WhatsApp
Tell us about the room and the sessions you need to fill. We will come back within one working day.
Or write to hello@eyehospitalitygroup.co.nz