For every stay, the Nowistay AI assistant tells you whether your guest is Happy or Unhappy. A green smile or a red frown appears next to the guest's name, with one sentence explaining why. You can correct it at any time, and use it to target your automated messages.
What is the guest mood?
The guest mood is a simple signal with two values, set once per stay:
- Unhappy (red frown): something during the stay gave the guest a reason to take a star off. Either the place fell short (cleanliness, something broken or missing, noise, not as described), or part of the stay was spoiled for them (stuck outside, a dispute that ruined a moment).
- Happy (green smile): nothing like that came up.
It flags the stays where you can already tell, before the review comes in, that it probably won't be five stars, so you can act while the guest is still there.
How does Nowistay detect the guest mood?
Each time the guest writes and the AI assistant handles the conversation, it rereads the whole conversation (not only the last message) and sets the mood. There is nothing to configure: it works on every property where the AI assistant answers your guests.
The AI assistant follows a few simple rules:
- What happened counts, not the tone. A guest who reports a broken heater politely, says "it's no big deal", or even promises five stars is still Unhappy.
- A fixed problem still counts. If the place wasn't cleaned on arrival, the guest stays Unhappy after your team fixes it: that stay is unlikely to get five stars.
- Small hitches don't count. A question, a code that doesn't work at first, directions to the entrance, instructions quickly corrected or the guest's own mistake keep the guest Happy, unless the guest remains stuck despite your answers.
- Things outside the stay don't count. An invoice request, a delayed train, bad weather, a problem settled before arrival or an improvement idea from a satisfied guest keep the guest Happy.
Along with the mood, the AI assistant writes one short sentence that explains it, in your app language, for example "No hot water in the room since arrival". You read it in the smiley's tooltip and in the booking details.
Good to know:
- A stay has no mood until the guest sends a first message. For automated messages, a stay without a mood counts as Happy.
- The mood is updated with every new guest message. Messages that arrive while the AI assistant is paused (after it hands a conversation over to you) are taken into account at the guest's next message.
- Phone calls are not analyzed. If something happens by phone or in person, set the mood yourself (see below).
- When one reservation covers several units, the guest has a single mood for the whole reservation.
Where do you see the guest mood?
- Bookings: a smiley next to the guest's name. Hover it to read the reason.
- Calendars: a white frown on the booking of an unhappy guest, when the booking is wide enough to show it. The booking's details popup shows the mood and its reason, and the legend lists it as Unhappy guest.
- Messages: a smiley next to the guest's name in the conversation list and at the top of the conversation.
- Booking details: a Guest mood row in the Guest Information section, with the reason and where the mood comes from: Detected by the AI assistant or Set by you. Before the guest's first message, it reads Not set · counts as happy for automated messages.
[Screenshot needed: Bookings page with a green smile and a red frown next to guest names]
How to set the guest mood yourself
The AI assistant only knows what the guest writes. If a guest complains by phone, or you know a stay went badly (or well) for another reason, set the mood yourself:
- Go to Bookings and click the booking to open its details.
- In the Guest Information section, find the Guest mood row.
- Click Mark unhappy (or Mark happy if the guest is currently unhappy).
- A window asks Set the guest's mood yourself? Click Set mood to confirm.
Once you set it, the mood is yours: the AI assistant will no longer change it for this stay, even if the guest's next messages say otherwise. The row now shows Set by you, and you can still switch it at any time with the same button.
[Screenshot needed: booking details with the Guest mood row, its reason and the Mark unhappy button]
How to use the guest mood in automated messages
Any automated message template can carry a Guest mood condition, so it only goes to happy guests, or only to unhappy ones.
- Go to Automations, open the templates panel of the Guest Messages row and edit a template (see how to set up automated guest messages).
- Open Advanced options, then under Conditions click Add condition.
- Choose Guest mood, then Equals or Does not equal, then Happy or Unhappy.
- Save the template.
The mood is checked at the moment the message is about to go out, so the message always follows the latest mood, including one you set yourself. If the condition isn't met at that moment, the message waits and is checked again regularly until the template's max send window closes; after that, it is skipped.
Keep this condition off arrival and access messages: an access message waiting for a happier mood would leave the guest without their codes.
Example 1: follow up with unhappy guests after checkout
A guest had no hot water on the first evening. Your team fixed it the same night, but the stay is still marked Unhappy. Create a template that only reaches guests in that situation:
- Trigger event: Check-out, Timing: 3 hours, After the event
- Condition: Guest mood + Equals + Unhappy
- Message: a personal note that thanks the guest for their patience, explains what you changed since, and offers a discount on their next stay
Guests who had a smooth stay never receive it.
Example 2: offer a late checkout only to happy guests
Offering a paid late checkout to a guest who is dealing with a problem feels out of place. Restrict the offer to happy guests:
- Trigger event: Check-out, Timing: 20 hours, Before the event (the afternoon before departure for an 11 AM checkout)
- Condition: Guest mood + Equals + Happy
- Message: the late checkout offer, with
{{welcome_guide_url}} so the guest can book it in the Boutique
A guest who reported an issue during the stay doesn't get the offer, and you can reach out personally instead.
