4 things hoteliers need to do now Booking.com doesn't share guest phone numbers

Have you noticed phone numbers missing from your Booking.com reservation data?

If so, the cause sits with Booking.com. Since September 2026, it has stopped sending guest phone numbers to the systems hotels use to manage reservations. The change covers every property worldwide and every type of booking.

They claim the change is to protect guests from fraudsters who misuse contact details, which is a growing problem within the hospitality industry. However, for hoteliers it exposes how much of the guest journey rests on information they relied on Booking.com for.

Think about how many of your pre-arrival messages depend on a guest's phone number. The WhatsApp welcome, the SMS door code, the upsell offer and the call when someone is running late all need it. With the number gone from Booking.com reservations, each one needs a new route. Here are four steps to make sure every Booking.com guest still hears from you.

1. Brief your front desk

An empty phone field will look like an error to anyone who hasn't heard about the change. Let your front desk team know that it's expected, so nobody spends time chasing a missing number.

2. Audit every message that relies on a phone number

Start with a simple list of everything your hotel sends to Booking.com guests before arrival. Include automated messages, manual ones and anything your team does by phone. Next to each, note whether it needs a phone number to work. Door codes, WhatsApp welcomes and late-arrival calls will probably be at the top of the list.

3. Bring OTA conversations into one inbox

Booking.com guests can still be messaged through Booking.com itself. The catch is that your team has to reach that channel from somewhere. If it sits in a separate platform, it will probably get checked less often than WhatsApp or email, and replies will be missed.

Connect OTA messaging to a unified guest messaging inbox, so a Booking.com conversation sits in the same place as your Expedia, WhatsApp and SMS threads.

4. Give guests a reason to check in online

Online check-in lets guests confirm their arrival time, add requests and complete registration before they turn up. It's one of the easiest ways to make arrivals faster and give your team a clearer picture of the day ahead.

Include the check-in link in your first message through Booking.com and again in your arrival reminder. Guests who check in online arrive with the admin done, so your front desk can focus on the welcome. Be clear about what you ask for and how you'll use it, so everything you send afterward is something guests expect.

Keep the guest relationship in your hands

Booking.com's change is a reminder to build your guest communication around your own workflow and not around any one source of data. When every conversation sits in one inbox, your team can keep talking to guests however the landscape moves.

Over 1,000 Mews hotels already use Guest Messaging to connect directly to Booking.com, as well as Expedia, WhatsApp, SMS and the Guest Portal. You can also use Automations to send confirmation messages, online check-in links, welcome notes and arrival reminders, so every guest hears from you at the right moment.

Guest Messaging and Automations are built into Mews, the same operating system that runs your PMS, Channel Manager, RMS and Mews Business Intelligence. Every conversation sits next to the reservation and guest profile it belongs to, so your team has the full picture without switching tools.

See Guest Messaging in action inside Mews. Book a demo.