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📨 Send Template Messages

Reach a guest on WhatsApp, SMS or Email with a pre-approved template

This guide walks you through sending a template message from your own system. For the full API specification, see the Unified Messaging API Live Docs.

When You Need a Template

WhatsApp only accepts free-form messages inside the 24-hour service window, which starts with the guest's last inbound message. Outside that window a free-form send is rejected with 409, and a template is the only way to reach the guest. Templates work on SMS and Email as well, where no service window applies.

Required OAuth2 Scopes

Operation Required Scope
Send a message guest.conversation.write
Read conversations/messages guest.conversation.read

Quick Start

Send a POST request with a template block instead of content:

curl -X POST \
  '{{monitoringUrl}}/api/unified-messaging-service/guest-conversations/send-message' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "pmsPropertyId": "PROP-123",
    "communicationChannel": "WHATSAPP",
    "recipient": { "contact": "+41791234567" },
    "template": {
      "template": "NEW_CONVERSATION_1",
      "languageCode": "de",
      "variables": [
        { "name": "FIRST_NAME", "value": "Anna" },
        { "name": "LAST_NAME", "value": "Beispiel" },
        { "name": "UNIT_NAME", "value": "Room 204" }
      ]
    }
  }'

The response returns the created message, its conversation and the delivery status:

{
  "messageId": "msg-001",
  "conversationId": "conv-abc123",
  "status": "ACCEPTED"
}

Use the conversationId to follow the thread. Once the guest replies, the 24-hour service window opens and you can send free-form messages with a content block.

Available Templates

Template Use For
NEW_CONVERSATION_1 to NEW_CONVERSATION_9 Open a conversation with a guest who has never written to the property
RESTART_CONVERSATION_1 to RESTART_CONVERSATION_9 Reopen a conversation after the 24-hour service window closed
CUSTOM_TEMPLATE_1 to CUSTOM_TEMPLATE_9 Send your own wording and your own link per call. See Custom Templates

Templates are configured per property

A template value is only accepted if it is configured for the pmsPropertyId you send. Wording, language coverage and the variables a template expects are set up by LIKE MAGIC together with the property. Ask your LIKE MAGIC contact which slots are live for your properties and which variables each one takes.

Custom Templates

CUSTOM_TEMPLATE_1 to CUSTOM_TEMPLATE_9 are the slots to reach for when the fixed conversation templates do not say what you need. Their wording is not fixed the way a conversation template's is. You supply the message text, and a link where the slot is configured for it, on every call through three variables:

Variable Holds
CUSTOM_CONTENT The message text
LINK_URL A URL to place in the message
LINK_TEXT The wording that introduces the URL 
curl -X POST \
  '{{monitoringUrl}}/api/unified-messaging-service/guest-conversations/send-message' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "pmsPropertyId": "PROP-123",
    "communicationChannel": "WHATSAPP",
    "recipient": { "contact": "+41791234567" },
    "template": {
      "template": "CUSTOM_TEMPLATE_1",
      "languageCode": "en",
      "variables": [
        { "name": "FIRST_NAME", "value": "Anna" },
        { "name": "CUSTOM_CONTENT", "value": "Your spa slot on Friday is confirmed." },
        { "name": "LINK_TEXT", "value": "Manage your booking" },
        { "name": "LINK_URL", "value": "https://example.com/booking/RES-99812" }
      ]
    }
  }'

The same call works on SMS and EMAIL. Swap communicationChannel and give recipient.contact the matching phone number or email address.

Two limits are worth knowing before you build on this:

  • A custom slot is still a configured template. Whatever text LIKE MAGIC set up around the variables stays fixed, and each slot still expects a specific variable list. You control the values, not the whole message. Nine slots exist so a property can run several shapes side by side.
  • LINK_URL renders in the message body, not as a WhatsApp button. Send the full URL, including the scheme.

Variables

Provide every variable your template expects as a { "name": ..., "value": ... } entry. Values are matched by name, so the order of the array does not matter.

Variable Typical Content
FIRST_NAME Guest first name
LAST_NAME Guest last name
INVITED_BY_FIRST_NAME First name of the inviting guest
INVITED_BY_LAST_NAME Last name of the inviting guest
CONFIRMATION_NUMBER Reservation or booking confirmation number
PINS Door access PIN
UNIT_NAME Room or unit name
ARRIVAL_DATE Check-in date
SERVICE_NAME Name of a booked service
LINK_URL URL placed in the message body of a custom template
LINK_TEXT Wording that introduces LINK_URL
CUSTOM_CONTENT Message text of a custom template

Send exactly what the template expects

A template whose variables are not all supplied is rejected by the messaging provider and nothing reaches the guest. If a send fails without an obvious cause, confirm the variable list with your LIKE MAGIC contact first.

The property's host names are not a variable you send. LIKE MAGIC resolves them from pmsPropertyId and fills them in automatically, so hosts is not an accepted variable name and a request that includes it fails with 400.

Languages

languageCode selects the language version of the template. A template renders only in the languages configured for it.

Code Language
de German
en English
fr French
it Italian
nl Dutch
da Danish
default Property default

Constraints

  • Send either content or template, never both and never neither
  • communicationChannel accepts WHATSAPP, SMS and EMAIL
  • recipient.contact is a phone number in E.164 format for WhatsApp and SMS, an email address for Email
  • Free-form messages on WhatsApp are rejected with 409 once the 24-hour service window has closed

API Reference

For complete API documentation including all endpoints and response schemas:

👉 Unified Messaging API - Live Docs