Reduce manual check-in communication for Booking.com reservations. Best Guest gives you two ways to connect, and they work well together.
- Automated messages — Booking.com’s scheduled message templates deliver your registration link before arrival.
- iCal sync — Best Guest imports every Booking.com reservation from your property calendar.
Estimated setup time: 5–10 minutes.
Before you start
- Booking.com Extranet access with an active property
- A Best Guest account
- Your Best Guest registration link, e.g.
https://app.bestguestapp.com/l/your-listing?channel=booking
(Use your real link. ?channel=booking records the reservation origin.)
Using the right link: every listing — each apartment, room, tent, RV, or whatever counts as your smallest bookable unit — has its own unique registration link. If you manage more than one listing, double-check you’re copying the correct one. Find all your links in Best Guest under Properties → [property] → Listings → Copy listing link, or grab them during the Listings step of onboarding.
Path 1 — Automated pre-arrival message
Important: approved links
Booking.com may restrict external links shown inside guest messages. Before relying on automation, confirm your messaging settings allow your registration URL — some setups require adding the domain to an approved/allowed links list. If guests report a missing link, check approved links first and test with your own reservation.
Steps
- Open the Booking.com Extranet.
- Go to Property → Messaging preferences → Message templates to create and define your template.
- Create a template named “Best Guest Registration”.
- Add your message and use Booking.com’s own guest-name placeholder from the editor.
- Go to Property → Messaging preferences → Template scheduler to set when the template sends.
- Set delivery to 3 days before arrival (2 days for short stays; immediately for same-day bookings).
Recommended message:
Hello (guest name),
Thank you for your reservation. To prepare your arrival, please complete your
online guest registration before check-in:
https://app.bestguestapp.com/l/your-listing
It takes about 2 minutes. We look forward to welcoming you.
Best practice: Keep formatting plain — Booking.com messaging handles plain text more reliably than rich formatting. Avoid special characters or excessive punctuation that might trigger link filtering.
Multi-language templates: If you create templates in multiple languages (for different guest markets), verify that the registration link is included in every language version. Don’t skip the link in non-English versions — guests expect it regardless of language.
Recommended: a reminder one day after arrival
Best Guest automatically reminds the main guest if they started registration but haven’t finished it. If a guest never opens the form at all, though, that reminder can’t reach them — so it’s worth scheduling a second message template, timed 1 day after arrival instead of before it, using only the link:
Hello (guest name),
Everything alright? Did you fill out all your forms and is the data correct?
Please follow this link if you still need to add/change some information:
https://app.bestguestapp.com/l/your-listing
Path 2 — iCal sync
To import Booking.com reservations into Best Guest’s Reservation Verification:
- In the Extranet, open Rates & Availability → Calendar (or Sync calendars).
- Find the Export calendar option and copy your property’s
.icslink. - Paste it into Best Guest for the matching property.
Best Guest then shows every Booking.com stay and flags any that still lack a completed registration.
Recommended timeline
- Reservation confirmed → confirmation only
- 3 days before arrival → registration link
- 1 day before arrival → arrival instructions
- 1 day after arrival → reminder for guests who haven’t completed registration
- Checkout day → thank-you
Booking.com guests tend to read fewer operational messages than Airbnb guests, so keep it short and send fewer, clearer messages.
Troubleshooting
No link received — check approved links / messaging security, that the template is enabled and assigned, and test with a booking.
Reservation missing in Best Guest — verify the URL and the ?channel=booking parameter.