Chat
📥 This section will talk about the inbox page within GMS. The inbox page allows staff members to chat and send messages with guests who have active reservations, and it will also allow staff to view & update ordered service requests.
📫 Accessing the Inbox page​
- Log in to the GMS dashboard using your staff or manager credentials.
- From the sidebar menu, click on "Inbox" to open the inbox page.
- The inbox page will display all chatrooms that you have access to. You can also search for a specific chatroom using the search field.


📨 Unread Messages badge:​
- Given your user is assigned to a reservation
- When receiving messages/service-requests from guests
- An unread-messages counter will appear displaying the total number of unread messages from all guests.

👥 Staff Assignment & Chat Permissions​
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In the inbox page, if you do not have the Manage All Chat permission, you will only see the chatrooms of reservations you are assigned to. Please refer to the GMS Reservation article to see how to assign staff members to reservations.
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Once you have access to a chatroom, you can click on it to see all the messages.
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You can see all assigned staff members to this reservation using the Assign To button in the top right corner after opening a chatroom. It will let you quickly view assigned staff, and also assign & unassign members to the reservation if you have the permission to do so.

💬 Chat with Guest​
Once you have entered a chatroom, you can start messaging the guest using the text field at the bottom. You can also send images using the image button in the bottom right.
Only assigned staff members can send messages to the guest. Even managers can't send messages unless they assign themselves to the chat first. If you don't see the text field or the image button, check the assigned staff for this reservation and make sure you are in the list.

📥 Unread messages email reminder​
To ensure staff never miss an important guest message, the system includes an automated email reminder feature that runs on a scheduled loop.
- A background cron job runs continuously and checks for guest messages that have been unread for at least 5 minutes.
- If such messages exist, an email is sent to the assigned staff member(s) associated with the conversation.
📧 Email Content​
- The email includes a summary of all unread messages from guests across all active reservations assigned to the staff member.