Help centre

The knowledge base is a collection of documents you upload - your FAQ, house rules, check-in instructions, local recommendations, and anything else guests commonly ask about. When a guest sends a message, the AI searches these documents for relevant information and uses it to compose a reply. The more detailed and accurate your content, the better the AI performs.

Each document is split into small chunks and indexed using semantic search. This means the AI finds relevant information even when the guest phrases their question differently from how you wrote the answer.

Start with the questions guests ask most before and during their stay:

• Check-in and check-out times, and the process (key box, reception hours, etc.)
• WiFi password and how to connect
• House rules - quiet hours, kitchen use, guests from outside, smoking
• What is included - linen, towels, breakfast, lockers, padlocks
• How to get there from the airport, train station, or bus stop
• Nearby supermarkets, restaurants, pharmacies, and attractions
• Your cancellation and refund policy
• Late check-in instructions if reception is unstaffed overnight

Go to Dashboard → Knowledge base → Add document. You can either paste text directly or provide a URL (for example, your booking.com listing or your website FAQ page). The content is indexed automatically - no extra steps needed.

To update existing content, delete the old document and add a new version. There is currently no in-place edit - deleting and re-adding takes about 30 seconds.

The AI can only answer from what is in your knowledge base. If the answer is wrong, check whether the relevant document contains the correct information. Common causes:

• The document has not been added yet
• The document contains outdated information (e.g. old check-in times)
• The answer exists but was written ambiguously - try rewording it more directly

There is no hard limit. In practice, 5–20 well-written documents covering all common guest questions is usually sufficient for a hostel.

The widget is a chat button that you embed on your hostel website. When a guest clicks it, a chat window opens and they can message the AI directly. All conversations are visible in your dashboard under Conversations.

Go to Dashboard → Widget. You can set:

• Display name - shown in the widget header (usually your hostel name)
• Primary colour - the header and send button colour
• Greeting message - the first message shown when a guest opens the chat

Click Save changes - the preview on the right updates live.

After saving your widget settings, scroll to the Embed code section and click Copy. Paste the two <script> tags into your website HTML, just before the closing </body> tag.

This works with any website platform. For WordPress, use a plugin like “Insert Headers and Footers” and paste the code into the Footer section. For Squarespace, go to Settings → Advanced → Code Injection. For Wix, use the Custom Code section under Settings.

Use the live preview panel on the Dashboard → Widget page - it shows a real preview of the widget with your current settings. You can send test messages there.

Alternatively, copy the embed snippet and paste it into a local HTML file on your computer to test before deploying.

Yes - the widget is fully responsive and works on any device.

Every guest conversation - from the web widget or WhatsApp - appears here as a thread. You can read the full message history, see what the AI replied, and respond manually when needed.

The AI escalates when it encounters situations it is not equipped to handle:

• A guest complaint or dispute
• A request that requires a human decision (e.g. requesting a special room)
• A question it cannot answer from the knowledge base after trying
• A guest who explicitly asks to speak to a person

When escalation happens, you receive an email at your escalation address (configured in Settings) and the thread is flagged in the Conversations page.

Yes - open a conversation thread and type your reply in the message box at the bottom. Your reply goes to the guest on the same channel they used (widget or WhatsApp).

Check that your escalation email is set correctly in Settings → Notifications. Also check your spam folder - emails from BunkBell may arrive there the first time.

Many countries legally require hostels to collect guest identity information - passport number, date of birth, nationality, and address - and retain it for inspection. BunkBell automates this by sending each arriving guest a personalised registration form via WhatsApp or email before check-in, pre-filled with any data already in your PMS.

Guests complete the form on their phone. You review submissions in the dashboard. Records are stored and retained for the legally required period per country.

A background job runs daily and sends links to guests whose check-in date matches your configured trigger (e.g. “1 day before check-in at 09:00”). This requires a PMS to be connected so BunkBell knows who is arriving.

If no PMS is connected, you can create and send registration links manually from the Registrations dashboard.

Open Dashboard → Registrations, find the guest row, and click Resend. This sends a new link to the guest via the same channel used originally (WhatsApp or email). The token is the same - any partial data the guest already entered is preserved.

They see a “Registration complete” confirmation page. They cannot re-submit - if corrections are needed, contact the guest and update the record manually in the dashboard.

The form and data retention rules are pre-configured for: Spain, Italy, Portugal, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, France, Austria, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

For unsupported countries, a generic form is shown collecting the standard fields. Authority submission (e.g. automatic reporting to SES.HOSPEDAJES in Spain) is planned for a future release - currently, data is collected and stored only.

Retention is set automatically based on your hostel country:

• Spain - 3 years
• Italy - 5 years
• Austria - 7 years
• Germany - 15 months
• Portugal, France, Czech Republic - 6 months to 1 year
• Asia (Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam) - 90 days

When a guest messages your WhatsApp Business number, BunkBell receives the message via Meta's Cloud API (a free webhook), processes it through the AI, and replies on your behalf. All conversations are logged in the dashboard.

This uses the official Meta WhatsApp Business API - not the WhatsApp Business App. If your number is currently on the WhatsApp Business App, you need to migrate it (a one-time process that takes about 10 minutes).

The Phone Number ID is a numeric identifier that Meta assigns to your WhatsApp Business phone number in their API - it is different from the phone number itself. Find it in:

Meta App Dashboard → your app → WhatsApp → Getting Started → “Phone Number ID” (a long number like 123456789012345)

The Access Token authorises BunkBell to send messages on behalf of your WhatsApp number. Meta provides two types:

• Temporary token - shown in the Getting Started tab. Valid for 24 hours. Fine for initial testing only.
• Permanent System User token - created in Meta Business Manager under System Users. Set expiry to Never. Required for production use.

After connecting WhatsApp in BunkBell, two values appear - paste them both into Meta App Dashboard → WhatsApp → Configuration → Webhook:

• Webhook URL - the address Meta sends incoming messages to
• Verify Token - a shared secret Meta uses to confirm the webhook is genuine. Must match exactly.

After pasting both, click Verify and Save, then subscribe to the messages webhook field. Both steps are required.

For a complete step-by-step guide including screenshots and troubleshooting, see the WhatsApp section of the setup guide.

With a PMS connected, the AI can look up reservations in real time. It can answer questions like:

• “What time is my check-in?” / “What date do I check out?”
• “Which room or dorm am I in?”
• “Is my booking confirmed?”

Every reservation lookup is logged in the conversation history so staff can see what the AI retrieved.

Common causes:

• Sirvoy only: Sirvoy does not push historical data - only new bookings after you connected. The AI will not know about reservations that existed before the connection was set up.
• The guest used a different name in the PMS than they are using to chat with you.
• The reservation was cancelled or modified and the update was not captured. Check the booking status in your PMS directly.
• The PMS connection has been disconnected - check Settings → Connections for a green connected indicator.

Log into Cloudbeds. The Property ID is visible in the URL of your dashboard: app.cloudbeds.com/dashboard/{propertyID}/.... It is the numeric segment after /dashboard/.

Log into Sirvoy and go to Settings → Property details (or “About your property”). The numeric Property ID is displayed on that page.

Settings is divided into four tabs:

• Connections - PMS (Cloudbeds or Sirvoy) and WhatsApp. Connect and manage external integrations here.
• Notifications - Escalation email address. Where staff are alerted when the AI escalates a conversation.
• Registration - Guest pre-arrival registration settings: enable/disable, hostel country, send timing, and field customisation.
• Account - Hostel name, timezone, and billing (coming soon).

When the AI escalates a conversation to staff, an email notification is sent to this address. Set it to a staff inbox that is monitored during operating hours. You can change it any time in Settings → Notifications.

Currently only one address is supported. To notify multiple people, use a shared team inbox or a distribution list (e.g. staff@yourhostel.com) that forwards to multiple people.

This tells BunkBell which country your hostel is in, which determines:

• Which fields are legally required on the registration form
• Which document types are accepted (EU vs non-EU nationals)
• How long records are stored before automatic deletion

Locked fields (shown with a lock icon in the field customiser) are required by that country's law and cannot be made optional or hidden. Find this in Settings → Registration.

When set to “Manual only”, the daily cron job will not automatically send registration links. You trigger each link manually from the Registrations dashboard. Use this if you prefer full control over when guests are contacted, or if you are testing the feature before going live.

• Check Dashboard → Conversations - does the message appear there?
• If the message is not in Conversations, the webhook is not reaching BunkBell. For WhatsApp, verify the webhook URL and the messages subscription in Meta App Dashboard.
• If the message is in Conversations but has no AI reply, check for errors in the thread. It may be a knowledge base issue - make sure you have at least one document added.

Most likely cause: your Access Token expired (temporary tokens last 24 hours).

Fix: Go to Settings → Connections → WhatsApp → Disconnect, then reconnect with a permanent System User token from Meta Business Manager. See the setup guide for instructions on creating a permanent token.

• The most common cause is an empty knowledge base. Go to Dashboard → Knowledge base and confirm you have at least one document indexed. The AI cannot answer anything without content.
• Open Dashboard → Conversations and find the thread - look for any error message in the AI reply slot. This shows exactly what went wrong.
• If there are documents but answers are wrong or unhelpful, try adding more specific content. The AI only knows what you have written - vague or sparse documents produce vague answers.

• Check your spam folder - the first email from BunkBell often lands there. Mark it as not spam to allow future emails through.
• Confirm the address is saved correctly in Settings → Notifications. Look for a typo.
• Open Dashboard → Conversations and check whether the thread status is actually “Escalated”. If it shows “Open”, the AI handled it without escalating.
• If using a shared team inbox, check whether your email provider is silently filtering automated messages.

• Confirm both <script> tags were pasted (there are two - the config block and the widget loader)
• Make sure the snippet is placed before the closing </body> tag, not inside <head>
• Hard-refresh the page (Ctrl+Shift+R / Cmd+Shift+R) to bypass your browser cache
• Check the browser developer console for JavaScript errors

• Wait a few minutes after connecting - the initial sync can take up to 2 minutes
• Make sure the guest name the AI is searching for matches the name in Cloudbeds exactly (the AI searches by guest name)
• Check the connection status in Settings - it should show green with a last-synced timestamp