Delivery Failures and Template Issues

Sometimes a message to a guest cannot be delivered — the window closed, a template was rejected, the guest is unreachable, or the channel itself is having problems. This article shows what a failed delivery looks like in your inbox and what your team should do next.

Why a message can fail to send

• The messaging window closed. The channel no longer accepts a free-text reply. On WhatsApp a template message may still work; on Instagram you generally have to wait for the guest to write again. See Messaging Windows and Sending Limits.
• The guest is unreachable. The guest changed their number, deleted their account, or blocked the hotel. No message will get through on that channel.
• A template was rejected. Template messages must match their approved wording exactly. If a template is out of date, disabled, or no longer approved, sends that rely on it fail.
• A channel outage. WhatsApp or Instagram occasionally have service problems on their side. These are usually temporary and affect many hotels at once.

What a failed delivery looks like

When a message cannot be delivered, it is marked as failed in the conversation and the conversation is flagged for staff attention, so a guest is never silently left without an answer. A flagged delivery failure means a person needs to act. It appears in your inbox like other conversations that need human attention — see When Brixa Asks for Human Help.

What staff should do

1. Open the flagged conversation and check the last message that failed, so you know what the guest was supposed to receive.
2. Try the conversation again. If the failure was temporary, a fresh reply may go through. If the guest has since written, the window is open again and a normal reply will work.
3. Use another contact method. If the guest is unreachable on the channel, fall back to whatever else you have — an email address or phone number from the quote or booking details — so an accepted quote or pending question is not lost.
4. Check the template if failures mention one. Confirm with whoever manages your WhatsApp templates that it is still approved and current.
5. Contact support if failures continue across several conversations with no obvious cause — that pattern points to a channel or account problem rather than one guest.

Related help

For a broader checklist covering messages that seem to disappear, arrive late, or never reach the inbox, see Messaging Issues.