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How do I approve links and emails in Booking.com's messaging security settings?

  • Updated

Booking.com's messaging security settings are an anti-phishing control that lets you decide which links and which sender addresses may reach your guests through Booking.com's messaging platform. Once the link allow-list is switched on, any link you have not approved is stripped out and your guest sees [Link was removed] instead. Approve the smoobu.com domain and your online check-in and guest guide links get through again.

Before you start

You need all of these before you can open the settings:

  • Admin rights on your Booking.com Extranet account. The settings are not visible without them.
  • Two-factor authentication on that account. Booking.com asks for it both to open the settings and to change them.
  • A different symptom? If the online check-in link is missing from your messages and you are not sure Booking.com is the cause, start with The check-in link is missing from your messages. That article works through the template placeholder and link expiry as well.
  1. Log in to the Booking.com Extranet.
  2. Go to Property > Messaging preferences > Security settings and complete two-factor authentication.
  3. In the Your approved links section, click Add a link.
  4. Enter either one specific address, such as www.example.com/xyz.html, or an entire domain, such as example.com. For Smoobu's links, enter the domain smoobu.com. Use + to add more entries.
  5. Click Add domain.

Approve the domain rather than a single link. Smoobu builds a separate online check-in and guest guide address for every guest, so an approved single address covers that one booking and nothing after it. The domain covers all of them.

Check it worked

The entry appears in the Your approved links section of the settings page. Send yourself a test message from a booking that carries the link, then open the conversation in the Extranet: the full address shows instead of [Link was removed].

Common problems

Check the Block all links option on the same page. When it is on, Booking.com blocks every link including the ones on your approved list. Switch it off, and keep your approved entries. If links are still stripped with the domain approved and Block all links off, the decision sits with Booking.com: contact Booking.com Partner Support, who own the filter.

Your emails to guests are not arriving either

The same page carries a second, independent allow-list for email. Any message you send from an address that is not registered there never reaches the guest. Click Add an email address, enter a full address such as example@example.com or a whole domain such as @example.com, then confirm with Add email address. A domain entry approves every address on it. There is also a Block all email communication option, which blocks all guest email including the approved addresses.

You manage several properties

Log in to your group account, select one property from the homepage, set the approved links and emails as described above, then click Apply to all properties and confirm in the pop-up. The settings then apply to every property on the account.

You want to remove an entry

Open the settings page and complete two-factor authentication again, then click the trash-can icon beside the entry you want gone. To switch the control off altogether, delete every entry and switch Block all links off.

Send it to them from your own email program instead. Mail you send yourself never passes through Booking.com's messaging platform, so neither allow-list applies to it.

Still stuck?

If these steps didn't fix it, contact the Smoobu team: open the Help menu to open a ticket or book a call slot, or use the chat bubble in the bottom-right corner. To get the fastest answer, please include:

  • Your Smoobu User ID (in the profile-icon menu, top right).
  • The property name or ID, if it's about one property.
  • The Booking ID, if it's about one booking (Bookings, then View more).
  • The channel name, if it's about channel sync (Booking.com, Airbnb, Vrbo, and so on).
  • A short step-by-step: what you did, what you expected, and what happened.
  • Screenshots or a short screen recording of the problem.
  • Your browser and operating system, if something looks wrong on screen.

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