If you host an Airbnb property for long enough, you'll realise that you'll need to send the same kind of messages for every booking. While fun at first, it starts to grate after a few months of hosting.
Although Airbnb has a "Saved Messages" solution, it's impossible to automatically make these messages personal without editing them before hitting send. This is part 1 of 3 in the series "How to automate Airbnb Messages with Placeholders". See part 2 here.
Using automation software to replace placeholders in your reply
In this video, I'll show you how to use automation software on your computer to personalise messages you send as a host automatically. It'll save you time and peace of mind because you won't need to remember what needs personalising.
I use Keyboard Maestro on macOS. You can download a free trial on their website and try this out to see if you think it's worth it for you. Remember you can put together lots of other automation using this software; it's sort of like a "Swiss army knife" for your computer.
Steps to create the macro
Click the plus '+' button at the bottom of the main column to add a new macro.
Select a trigger for the new macro—in this case; I recommend something like "airr". The reason for the extra "r" is so that you don't accidentally trigger the macro while typing normally.
Click "Add Action" and search for "Prompt for User Input". Set the title to "What is the guest name?" and add a variable of "Guest Name."
Click "Add Action" and search for "Insert text by pasting". Add your text but where you would normally type the guest name, select "Insert Token" > Variable > Guest Name.
Try out the macro by triggering it in your browser, typing "air", and Keyboard Maestro will prompt you to enter the guest name, after which it will layout your message with your guest name placeholder automatically replaced.
I wanted to start with a simple macro to show you how Keyboard Maestro can automate things for you. Check out part 2 for a more useful but complex example with multiple variables and responses.