When guest replies don't show up in your Smoobu inbox, the most common cause is that your Smoobu sender email address isn't set up, so replies can't find their way back. Set that up first. If one channel's incoming messages have gone missing, pull them in with Import messages on that channel's settings.
First, check
- Your message won't send at all (it fails, hangs, or never leaves)? That's a different problem: see message-wont-send.
- The messages are in Smoobu, but you weren't alerted about them? Adjust your notification settings instead: see notification-preferences.
Replies to your emails don't come back into Smoobu
If guests answer your messages but their replies land in your personal email inbox (or you can't find them at all), your account is probably sending from your own email address instead of a Smoobu sender address. Replies only flow back into your Smoobu inbox when your host.smoobu.com sender address is set up: with it, messages go out from that address and every guest reply lands in Messages. Without it, replies go wherever the guest's email program sends them, and Smoobu never sees them. Set it up in Experience > Communication; the steps are in use-your-own-sender-email.
The conversation is happening on the channel, not at the guest's own email
For a booking that came through a channel (Airbnb, Booking.com, and so on), Smoobu exchanges messages with the guest through the channel's own messaging relay, an address like the guest.booking.com kind, not through a private email entered on the booking. Changing the email on the booking doesn't reroute this. Two practical consequences:
- The guest's replies reach Smoobu through the channel connection and appear in the same Messages thread.
- If you wrote to the guest's private email from your own email program, the reply goes back there. It never enters Smoobu.
For direct bookings (entered manually or made on your website), the email on the booking is exactly where messages go and where replies come from.
One channel's guest messages stopped arriving
If a channel's connection is healthy but its incoming messages are missing from Messages: not having message templates is never the cause. Templates only control what you send out, not what comes in. To pull the missing messages in:
- Open Channels in the left sidebar.
- Open the affected channel's Edit screen.
- Use Import messages.
If the same channel keeps losing messages, disconnect and reconnect it. If messages still go missing after a reconnect, contact the Smoobu team with the affected booking and a screenshot of the guest's message showing its date and time.
No messages arrive from one Booking.com listing
When a listing is closed on Booking.com's side, guest messages for that listing can stop importing into Smoobu. Check in the Booking.com Extranet that the listing is open. Since October 2025, all Booking.com messages, regular conversations and system messages alike, import into Smoobu; so if the listing is open and its messages still don't arrive, that isn't expected. Contact the Smoobu team.
Booking.com system messages import automatically
Booking.com system messages (check-in time requests, reservation modifications, service-related inquiries) import into Smoobu automatically and appear in your Messages list, the same as regular guest conversations. You don't have to log in or open the booking for them to arrive. This changed in October 2025; before then these messages were pulled in on a daily cycle or when you opened the booking. If a system message is genuinely missing now, that isn't expected: contact the Smoobu team.
An imported booking has no address to message
Bookings that already existed on Booking.com when you first connected the channel can import without the guest's Booking.com contact address, so there is nowhere for a conversation to run. Open the booking in Bookings, click Edit booking, and add the guest's Booking.com contact address (the @guest.booking.com address, which you find in the Booking.com Extranet). If sending then still fails, see message-wont-send.
A guest's email with an attachment never arrived
Guest emails that carry attachments (photos, PDFs) sometimes don't make it into your inbox or the booking's conversation. Import tends to work for smaller files. If a reply with an attachment seems to be missing, ask the guest to resend it with a smaller file or as a link. If you suspect you're missing replies regularly, contact the Smoobu team.
The guest says they never received your message
Check the guest's email address on the booking first (Bookings, open the booking, Edit booking). When an automated message goes to a mistyped or dead address, the conversation still shows it as sent, but it bounces without any warning to you. Manual messages do show a bounce warning; automated ones don't. Correct the address, then resend the message manually.
Check it's fixed
The guest's reply appears as a new entry in the Messages thread for that booking.
Related articles
- how-guest-messaging-works
- use-your-own-sender-email
- how-messaging-works-with-airbnb-and-booking-com
- message-wont-send
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.
Comments
0 comments
Please sign in to leave a comment.