What you are actually setting up
WhatsApp for hotels runs on Meta's official Business Cloud API. You will end up with a Meta Business Manager account, a Facebook Business ID, a verified brand, an approved display name, one or more approved templates, and a link between all of that and the Profitroom Guest Communications object. Each of these steps has its own review queue at Meta. Budget five to fifteen business days end to end.
Meta Business Manager
If your hotel does not yet have a Meta Business Manager account, create one at business.facebook.com. Use a corporate email at your hotel domain, not a personal Gmail — Meta reviewers reject anonymous or freemail owners. Add the hotel's legal entity, its Polish NIP, and the registered address exactly as it appears in KRS. Discrepancies here are the number one reason a display name gets rejected six days later.
Business verification
Meta will ask you to verify the business. This is a document upload step: a recent utility bill or a certified KRS extract dated within 90 days. Upload a scan, not a phone photo. Review usually takes 2-4 business days. During review, you can already start building templates in draft, but you cannot send.
Official display name approval
The display name is what the guest sees at the top of the WhatsApp thread. Meta enforces strict rules: it must match your brand as it appears publicly on your website and Google Business Profile, it cannot contain a generic word like "Hotel Reservations", and it cannot contain a phone number. For a boutique in Sopot we onboarded, "Hotel Nadmorski" passed on the first try. "Reception — Nadmorski" was rejected. Get the display name right on the first submission or you lose three days.
Facebook Business ID and connection
Once verified, Meta issues a Business Account ID. Copy it into the Room Profit dashboard under Settings, Communications, WhatsApp. We use it to provision your phone number as a WhatsApp Business number. If you want to keep your existing landline as the WhatsApp channel, we can migrate it — Meta requires a one-time voice or SMS OTP to that number to prove ownership.
Template categories and approval
Every message sent outside a 24-hour customer service window must use an approved template. Templates come in four categories: Utility (booking confirmation, check-in reminder, invoice link), Marketing (offers, upsell), Authentication (rarely used by hotels), and Service (in-thread only). We ship 14 pre-written Utility templates in English and Polish for the Profitroom Guest Communications lifecycle — pre-arrival, check-in link, upsell, late check-out offer, invoice, post-stay review request. Meta reviews templates in 12-48 hours. Do not put a link shortener or a promo code inside a Utility template — it will be rebucketed as Marketing and rejected.
Opt-in from the Profitroom Guest Communications profile
You cannot legally message a guest on WhatsApp without a documented opt-in. The Room Profit module reads the "Communication preferences" field from the Profitroom Guest Communications profile. Two paths:
- Booking form opt-in — the guest ticks a WhatsApp checkbox at booking on your direct booking widget or on the Profitroom booking engine.
- Post-booking opt-in — an email goes out with a "Get updates on WhatsApp" button; a click sets the flag on the Profitroom Guest Communications profile.
Message flow across the guest lifecycle
Once opt-in is set, our default flow sends: booking confirmation on the reservation.created event, pre-arrival on day D-5 at 10:00 local, check-in link on day D-1 at 09:00, upsell (early check-in, room upgrade) on day D-1 at 15:00 if inventory allows, invoice link on check-out day, and review request on day D+2. Every message resolves guest name, room type, dates and property phone number from Profitroom.
Handling replies
Replies land in the Room Profit inbox and can be forwarded to a shared reception email, to a Slack channel, or to a mobile app for the duty manager. Any human reply from your side opens a 24-hour customer service window during which you can send free-form messages without a template.
Metrics you should watch
In the WhatsApp module dashboard, three numbers matter. Delivery rate (should sit above 98% for Polish MSISDNs). Read rate (typically 75-85% for pre-arrival templates). Response rate (our onboarding cohort averages 68% on the pre-arrival message five days out, well above the 20-30% typical of pre-arrival email).
Common Meta rejections
- Display name too generic — resubmit with the actual brand name.
- Template contains an emoji-heavy header — Meta reads it as Marketing. Move emojis to the body.
- Template variable count wrong — every variable placed must have a sample value on submission.
- Business verification documents older than 90 days — reupload a fresh copy.