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Ecco brings guest messages from booking portals (OTAs) such as Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia, and Vrbo into your inbox. The AI answers guests, and your team can take over any conversation.

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Getting connected

OTA messages reach Ecco through your property management system (PMS), so you don’t connect each portal separately. The Ecco team links your PMS during onboarding; you see it under Configuration → Connections. Once connected, OTA conversations appear in your inbox automatically.

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OTA conversations in the inbox

OTA conversations appear in Conversations with your other channels. Set the Channel filter to OTA · All, or pick a single portal: Booking.com, Airbnb, or Expedia. See Conversations for views, filters, and read status.

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Read and reply

Open a conversation to read the thread and the reservation details. To reply yourself, switch Who replies to Operator and write in the composer. Switch back to Ecco to hand the conversation back to the AI.

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Messages from platform support

Messages written by Airbnb, Booking.com, or another portal’s support team show the Platform support badge.
  • Ecco never replies to platform support automatically.
  • When only platform support is waiting, the conversation is informational and does not enter To handle.
  • When both platform support and a guest are waiting in the same exchange, Ecco pauses and places the conversation in To handle for your team.
Existing reminders and work already assigned to your team remain in place when a platform support message arrives.

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Message labels

When a conversation needs your team, Ecco can leave its answer as an AI draft · not sent bubble. Review it, edit it in the composer as needed, and send it to the guest. The draft may say that the team has been informed, so adjust that wording before sending when necessary.

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Language check before sending

Before sending an AI reply, Ecco checks both the guest’s language and alphabet. This prevents an English reply from being sent to guests writing in Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Greek, Hebrew, Persian, Hindi, Thai, Georgian, Armenian, and other languages with their own writing system. When Ecco identifies the language from the guest’s latest message, it translates the reply and sends it in that language. If the language only comes from earlier messages and the reply uses the wrong alphabet, Ecco keeps it as AI draft · not sent for your team to review.
Open Why it wasn’t sent in the OTA Assistant. A language mismatch means you should translate or rewrite the draft in the guest’s language before sending it.
Some conversations cannot be answered from Ecco, for example when the portal does not accept replies through your PMS. Ecco tells you so: open the conversation in your PMS or on the portal to reply.
Requests that need action on the portal, such as pre-approvals or special offers, appear as cards in the conversation with a link to manage them in your PMS or on the portal.

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Booking.com modification requests

When Booking.com reports that a guest wants to modify a reservation, the request must be handled in the Booking.com extranet. Ecco does not answer the notice or prepare an AI draft.
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Open the request

Ecco pauses the conversation, places it in To handle, and creates a high-priority Booking modification work item. Your team also receives an email summarising the request, including the old and new dates, prices, Booking.com’s reason, and the guest’s own message.
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Respond in Booking.com

Open the Booking.com extranet to accept, decline, or manage the requested change. A reply in the Ecco conversation does not action the request.
3

Complete the work in Ecco

After handling the request in Booking.com, mark the conversation and its work item as handled.
When your team already controls or has paused the conversation, Ecco keeps that assignment unchanged and marks the request for action.
For guests close to arrival or already staying, Ecco adds the right verified link to its answer:
  • Check-in link — when the guest asks about check-in, registration, or sending documents before completing online check-in.
  • Information link — when the guest has completed check-in but cannot find the stay instructions.
Ecco uses the guest’s online check-in link or guest portal stored with the reservation, checks the latest check-in status, and never asks a guest who has completed check-in to do it again.
Ecco only shares verified links that belong to the reservation. It never shares the door-opening link on its own initiative.

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Start a new conversation

Select New chat, then choose the OTA option to open New OTA chat. Find the guest, choose From template or Free-form message, and select Send and open conversation.

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Separate view

With Separate views selected in Configuration → Conversations, the OTA tab opens OTA Conversations. Filter by portal, including Website and Email, or show the conversations handled by Operators.

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AI drafts

Select AI drafts to open the OTA Assistant page. It lists the replies the AI prepared—including proposed replies left when a conversation needed your team—and, for each draft that was not sent, Why it wasn’t sent. Filter by AI drafts or All events, by reason, and by date. When a portal permanently rejects a reply, Ecco emails you the conversation so you can answer on the portal. Temporary delivery errors are retried automatically.

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OTA settings

Open Configuration → Activity hours → OTA.
Choose Always on, Follow schedule, or Off. The weekly schedule applies only with Follow schedule.
Write two messages for when the AI hands the conversation to your team: Escalation message (no booking) for questions before booking, and Escalation message (active booking) for guests with a confirmed reservation. The second can include a phone number or direct contact. Write them in your property’s default language: Ecco translates them for each guest.
When your team takes over and the guest writes again, the AI can return after 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, or 2 hours. Choose Never to keep the conversation with your team until someone hands it back. You can also let the AI resume immediately when the operator’s last activity is older than 2, 6, 12, or 24 hours.

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Automatic OTA messages

Send scheduled messages, such as check-in instructions, through the booking portals from Schedules. See Schedules.

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Billing and usage

Each AI reply successfully delivered to a guest counts as one OTA message. Drafts, PMS notifications, and team replies do not count. Follow your usage in Preferences & Billing.
Reaching your allowance never blocks guest replies. Ecco keeps answering and reports the extra usage in the next billing cycle.

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Common questions

No. It is a proposed reply for your review. Edit it as needed and send it from the composer when it is ready.
No. Messages and replies pass through your PMS connection.
Yes. Ecco uses your property’s knowledge base to answer questions before booking.