Pre-Arrival Communication Is the Most Underused Tool in Hospitality
Most properties think about guest experience as something that starts at check-in. The room, the welcome, the service - that’s where the experience happens, and that’s where the attention goes. The period between booking confirmation and arrival is treated as dead time. A waiting room.
That’s a missed opportunity. In my experience, the properties that handle pre-arrival communication well create a meaningfully better guest experience - and they do it before the guest has even walked through the door.
What the gap between booking and arrival actually is
When a guest books, they’re invested. They’ve chosen your property over alternatives. They’re anticipating the trip. That’s a high point of engagement, and it’s immediately followed by weeks or months where most properties go completely silent.
Then, a day or two before arrival, they send a check-in instructions email. Sometimes it’s warm and well-written. Often it’s a form letter from the booking platform, formatted in a way that has nothing to do with the property’s brand, with information buried in paragraphs that the guest has to search through at the airport.
There’s a better way.
A simple pre-arrival sequence
You don’t need to automate anything complicated. A sequence of three well-written emails, sent at the right moments, does most of the work.
The confirmation email. This arrives immediately after booking and is usually generated by your booking engine or OTA. Most properties let the default template do the job, which is a mistake. If you can customise it, do. Thank them for choosing the property. Remind them why they made a good choice. Keep it brief, but make it feel like it came from a person.
A pre-arrival email, sent about a week before. This is where you earn goodwill. Tell them what to expect at check-in: exact address, parking instructions, what to do if they arrive early or late, who to contact if something goes wrong. Include two or three specific recommendations for local restaurants, things to do, or places that guests often ask about. Not a generic “nearby attractions” list - real recommendations, written the way you’d give them to a friend.
This email reduces check-in friction, cuts the number of “how do I find you?” calls, and creates the impression of a more attentive, personal property. The content takes a few hours to write once and then runs forever.
A day-before reminder. Short and practical. Check-in time, how to collect keys, a number to call if needed. Nothing more. The goal is to make sure no one arrives stressed because they couldn’t find the information they needed.
Why this matters for direct bookings too
There’s another reason to get pre-arrival communication right: it’s one of the primary tools for converting OTA guests into future direct bookers.
Booking platforms own the guest communication channel during the booking itself. Once someone has arrived and stayed, you own the relationship - but only if you’ve built one. A pre-arrival sequence that feels personal and attentive is the beginning of that relationship. It gives guests a reason to remember your property as a brand, not just a listing on a platform.
When you follow up post-stay with a direct booking link and a reason to return, you’re building on a foundation that you laid before they even arrived. That’s what turns a one-time OTA booking into a repeat direct booking.
Getting started
If your current pre-arrival process is a single automated email from your booking platform, that’s the place to start. Write a proper pre-arrival email with real local recommendations and clear arrival information. Send it manually at first if you need to. Once you’ve written it, automating it is usually straightforward through your booking engine or a simple email tool.
It’s one of the lowest-effort, highest-return improvements most properties can make.