Product Updates: New Customization and Automation Features
- Anu Metsallik
- May 15
- 4 min read
This is a summary of our latest releases packed with enhancements to give you more flexibility in guest registration, automation, and communication. These updates help you personalize the customer journey, improve your workflow, and improve the overall guest experience.
More Customization Options on the Guest Registration Form
Disable Address Fields: If you don’t require guest home addresses, you can now disable the Guest Home Address and Home City fields: Settings → Guest Info
Optional Contact Information for Accompanying Guests: Adding the email and phone number of additional guests is no longer mandatory. Guests can choose to include this information if they want their companions to access the hotel’s self-service area.
Improved Room Upgrade Display: Room upgrades are now shown only when higher-category rooms are available. Additionally, the remaining room count (e.g., "5 rooms remaining!") is no longer displayed for a cleaner user experience.
Arriving by Car Field: This field can now be toggled off if it’s not relevant. Manage this in: Settings → Arrival Info
Driver’s License as a Document Type: You can now include a driver’s license as a valid document for online check-in.
To ensure accurate mapping in your PMS, align the fields in the PMS Values section:
Settings → PMS Values → Mapping → Document Type
Next, enable it in the guest journey flow:
Settings → Guest Journey → Documents → Document Type
Your guests can now use driver's licence to check-in 
Set up rules for accepted document types and specifics by regions or countries
Better Guest Communication
Keeping guests informed and engaged is now even more efficient with our updated communication tools.
Custom Chat Notification Intervals: Adjust the frequency of chat message notifications per hotel to ensure you don’t miss important updates. If you feel that you're missing important chat messages or would like to receive notifications more frequently, contact us with your preferred settings.
Personalized SMS Numbers: From June 15th, all SMS messages will be sent from your hotel’s own phone number instead of a generic HotelBuddy number, improving response rates and guest engagement.
Automatic Welcome Emails: In-house guests will automatically receive a “Welcome to Hotel” email when their email address is added or corrected during or after check-in. Just make sure to add HotelBuddy Approved (HBA) to the reservations for guests you want to have access to the HotelBuddy self-service platform.
You can customize the email text to match your brand's tone and messaging, include a personalized greeting from the General Manager, and highlight the services you want guests to use during their stay.
Set up automatic welcome e-mails for guests who check in
Automation Rules Updates
Our enhanced automation engine now supports more advanced and dynamic rules, enabling you to customize workflows to match your hotel's unique business logic. With the improved automation system, you can now automatically apply specific attributes to reservations, reducing manual input and ensuring consistent operations.
Key features:
Set up rules to send online check-in invitations to all or selected guests.
Mark reservations as prepaid when they meet criteria such as specific rate codes or reservation notes.
Control room category changes during online check-in, allowing or restricting them as needed.
To set up these automation rules, navigate to: Settings → Automation Rules
Example scenarios:
To block room upgrades for corporate bookers with pets:
Set attribute “Room upgrade” → Prohibited
Condition 1: Rate code equals CORP
Condition 2: Note contains "PET"
Auto-apply prepaid status:
Rate code in: non ref, ta1, ta2
Note must contain "Virtual Credit Card"
Note must not contain "Payment in hotel"
Automation Rules for Every Scenario
HotelBuddy’s automation rules enable you to manage hotel operations efficiently according to your setup. Rules are triggered whenever a new reservation is received from the PMS or an existing one is modified. Case sensitivity is ignored when comparing condition values (e.g., ‘BEST’ and ‘best’ are treated the same).
Automation rules can be configured to take input from the following fields:
Rate Code
Reservation Notes
OHIP-specific fields: Market Code, Source Code, Reservation Type, Travel Agent ID
HotelBuddy’s automation engine ensures that tasks are performed accurately and consistently. If you want to automate a field that is not currently supported, please contact us to discuss the feasibility of adding it to your setup.
Other Workflow Improvements
Drag & Drop for Extra Services: Easily rearrange your service items using the new drag-and-drop interface in the admin view. You can also set a 7-day cancellation period for specific items.
Edit and reorder all your extra services in a few clicks. New Payment Integrations: In addition to Stripe and Everypay, we now support also Payfast and CallPay, expanding your payment processing options.
Disable Online Check-Out: If you prefer that guests check out at the reception, you can now disable the online check-out option in the guest app: Settings → Guest Journey → Dashboard
Customize all steps of the guest journey, including online check-out
Introducing HotelBuddy Lite
HotelBuddy Lite is a completely free, web-based platform designed to boost guest engagement and drive revenue from extra service sales. It’s easy to use and accessible via a link or QR code—no PMS integrations required.
HotelBuddy Lite includes:
Digital Guest Directory: Provide all the essential information guests need, from location, contact details, Wi-Fi access, and breakfast hours to details about facilities such as parking, spa treatments, and restaurant menus.
Webshop: makes it easy for guests to discover and book extra services before or during their stay. Guests can make reservations or purchases directly through the webshop by adding the selected items to the cart, completing the payment, and instantly receiving a confirmation email for the booked services.
More info & Sign up: https://www.hotelbuddy.eu/hotelbuddy-lite
White-Label Solutions for Hotel Chains
For hotel groups that need a fully branded, customized solution, we offer white-label options. These include:
Adding your hotel’s logo, colors, and design elements to all guest communications and the app interface.
Developing tailored features to match your operational needs.
This solution ensures a consistent, high-touch guest experience across multiple properties while maintaining strong brand recognition.
Contact us to explore customization options and transform your hotel's operations and guest experience with HotelBuddy!
