The Guest Portal is a web-based interface that gives your guests easy access to their reservation details and key information about your property, all through a simple link. No app downloads required. Think of it as a lightweight app that works in the browser, designed to improve the guest experience before and during their stay.
In this guide, we’ll give you a complete overview of what the Guest Portal is, how it works, and how it can be used depending on whether your property has Cloudbeds Guest Experience or not.
What is the Guest Portal?
The Guest Portal allows your guests to:
- View their reservation details;
- Access important property information;
- Cancel their reservation (only for direct bookings via the Cloudbeds Booking Engine).
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If Cloudbeds Guest Experience is enabled:
- Complete pre-check-in, receive their digital keys, chat with the property, and see more relevant customized information.
- Allow guests to self-check-out and pay their balance due directly in the Guest Portal.
- Only Direct Bookings and OTA - Hotel Collect guests can check out.
- OTA - Channel Collect guests will not have access to self-check-out.
It’s designed to give your guests more control, save time, and improve the overall experience — all accessible via a secure, personalized link.
Things to note before using the Guest Portal
- Guests can only cancel the entire reservation, not individual rooms.
- Cancellation policies are not yet shown in the Guest Portal.
- OTA bookings cannot be canceled via the Guest Portal.
- Only direct bookings (via the Cloudbeds Booking Engine) can be canceled.
- Content customization is only available through Cloudbeds Guest Experience.
How can guests access the Guest Portal?
1. Via Cloudbeds Guest Experience
If your property uses Cloudbeds Guest Experience, the Guest Portal is sent automatically using your existing Guest App settings.
- Follow this guide to Set up and Manage Cloudbeds Guest Experience Guest Portal
2. Via Cloudbeds PMS Emails feature
If your property does not use Cloudbeds Guest Experience, you can still offer access to the Guest Portal by adding the [guest portal] Merge Tag to your emails sent through Cloudbeds as the example below.
- Learn more: Email Templates
The Merge Tag generates a personalized link to the Guest Portal for each guest.
⚠️ At this time, the portal content cannot be customized unless your property has the Guest Experience package.
Check below how the default Guest Portal looks like:
Steps for Guests to Cancel a Reservation via the Guest Portal
Guests can access their portal through the embedded link sent via email using the following information:
- Their Reservation ID
- Their Last Name
To cancel a reservation, guests will need to:
- Click to edit
the reservation
- Click to cancel reservation
- Read the warning and confirm they want to cancel
- The cancelation details will be displayed in a read box, showing who canceled and the cancelation number.
Disabling the “Cancel reservation” Button
If your property does not allow guests to cancel reservations on their own, the Cancel reservation button can be disabled for your property. When this option is turned off, guests will no longer see the cancellation button in the Guest Portal and must contact the property directly for any cancellation request.
To disable or re-enable this feature, submit a Support request and specify the property name. This change can be applied at any time.
Comments
It would be helpful to see a video of this user experience from start to finish as the images are quite small. Also, what happens on the operations side after a guest cancels? How are we- the property- notified of a cancellation? What happens with deposits and how are the various deposit policies handled? Is the cancellation functionality compatible with a property's cancellation restrictions- e.g. you can only cancel up until X days ahead of time etc?
Hello, Jennifer Ose-MacDonald,
Thank you for reaching out!
We have already created a new ticket for you, so that our Support team can take a closer look at this request and assist you as soon as possible.
Kind regards!
Looking for follow-up info on the cancellation funcationality withing the guest portal matching the property/rate cancellation policy. Thanks
Hello, Lucille HAyward,
Thank you so much for your follow-up comment about the cancellation functionality within the Guest Portal.
For the moment, we do not have any updates about this one, but please note that this is a high-priority item on our team's radar.
Kind regards!
Is this an add-on that costs extra? Or is it included in our current pricing.
If included, I had no idea it was even an option. Although, from reading through this and others comments here and elsewhere, it seems to still need some work before I would use it (especially that the cancellation policy is not listed on the guest portal. Still, it would have been nice to know about.
I agree with Jennifer above that a video of how this works for our guests would be helpful. Plus, more information on what happens on the operations side.
Hello, Teresa Robinson,
We have created a new ticket on your behalf so that our Support Team can review your inquiries and offer further assistance and information.
Best regards!
I agree with Teresa Robinson; I had no idea this existed. Is it a paid add-on? Is there more information about it?
Hello, luis galvez,
Our dedicated Support Team will contact you with more information about the Guest Portal feature.
Regards!
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