Set up with Ana
Set up your property, rooms, prices and plan by talking to Ana, then connect WhatsApp, your team, your booking sites and your booking page with her.
Instead of filling in the set-up wizard yourself, you can talk to Ana. She asks one question at a time and fills in the wizard as you answer. The form on your screen updates as she saves, so you can check and change anything.
Set-up is for the person who creates the account: someone allowed to change settings and billing for every hotel, usually the owner. Ana works the same way whatever language you speak.
Start
At the top of the set-up wizard, press Talk to Ana next to Prefer to talk? Set up with Ana. You can also press Ana's face at the bottom right.
You can stop at any time. When you come back, Ana knows what is already done and carries on from there.
What Ana asks
Your property
The name, the kind of property, the city and country, how many rooms in total, the currency and the time zone.
Your rooms and prices
Your real room types: their names, how many rooms of each, their numbers, how many guests they sleep and the usual price for a night. Then she asks if weekends cost more and saves a weekend price.
She replaces the starting rooms with yours only while nothing is booked yet.
How you work and your goals
A few short questions on how you work today and what matters most to you. You can skip them.
Your plan
Ana explains the plans and recommends one, with a reason. You start the free trial yourself by pressing the plan's button. Stripe asks for your card on its own page; Ana never hears or sees card details. With 3 rooms or fewer you can carry on with Free.
When you have chosen a plan, Ana finishes set-up and the dashboard opens, with Ana still talking. More on the steps is in The set-up wizard.
WhatsApp and your team
After set-up, Ana offers to connect WhatsApp and your team with you.
- Connecting your number. Ana opens the Chat page and points at the connect button. Meta's window must be clicked through by you; Ana describes each screen and waits. She never asks for passwords or the code Meta sends. See Connect your number.
- Templates and language. She sends the message templates for approval if needed, and sets the language ChatBeds replies in.
- Your staff. Tell her each person's name, role, shift and WhatsApp number with the country code. She reads the number back digit by digit before adding them.
- Linking phones. For each person she sends the WhatsApp invite, or shows their link code and QR code on her card to scan now. She tells you who has linked.
- Learning commands. She shows a few commands as WhatsApp messages on her card, and can try one for real to show you ChatBeds' answer. A command that changes something is read back first.
- A test alert. Once your own phone is linked, she can send it a test alert.
Booking sites, booking page and card payments
- Booking sites. Tell Ana where you sell: Booking.com, Airbnb, Vrbo, Expedia, Google Calendar or another site with an iCal link. For each room she links, her card shows the room's calendar address to copy, that site's steps, and a box to paste the site's own link back. She then syncs and tells you what was found. See Channels.
- What she tells you honestly. A calendar link carries no prices or guest details. Agoda can't be linked yet. Hotels with many rooms of one type on Booking.com or Expedia usually need a channel manager.
- Your booking page. She can open or close it, choose how guests pay (at the hotel, by card, or either) and set the cancellation policy. See Booking page.
- Card payments. Paying by card needs your own Stripe account. Ana opens Finance → Card payments and points at the fields, and shows the webhook details on her card. You paste your Stripe keys yourself; she never asks for a key. See Payments.
Who can do what
Ana works as you. Someone whose role can't manage staff or WhatsApp can ask her about them, but she can't change them for that person.
Still need help?