How do I pass guest questions to my team without losing context?

Your Chatref agent is trained on your property details, house rules, local recommendations, and booking FAQs. It automatically resolves common questions like check-in times, Wi-Fi passwords, parking, and amenity availability. This deflects the bulk of inquiries before your team needs to get involved, so you save time and guests get instant answers.

When the AI can’t resolve something, or the guest clearly wants a person, the conversation is moved into the shared inbox. Every team member sees the same thread, including what the AI already said and what the guest replied. There’s zero context loss. The person who picks it up reads the full history and replies directly, making the transition feel like one continuous conversation.

The shared inbox is a realtime view for your entire rental support team. All open conversations appear together, and anyone can step in to assist. You can coordinate internally - maybe one person handles maintenance emergencies while another deals with booking changes - just by agreeing who takes which thread. Because the full guest conversation is visible, teammates can quickly get up to speed and close cases faster.

Use custom actions to collect necessary info from guests before a handoff. For example, you can set up a flow that asks “Which property are you staying in?” or “What’s your booking ID?” right in the chat. Those answers are attached to the conversation, so your team sees them immediately in the shared inbox. It eliminates the back-and-forth that usually happens when context isn’t captured upfront.

When should I hand off a guest question?

Hand off when the AI can’t give a definitive answer (e.g., a complex damage claim, a special request beyond your documented policies, or when a guest is upset and needs empathy). Also trigger a handoff if the guest explicitly asks for a human. Chatref’s AI agent will surface conversations in the shared inbox automatically when it detects these situations, but you can configure when escalation happens.

How do I set up a shared inbox for my team?

The shared inbox is enabled by default for every workspace. Invite your team members to your Chatref workspace, and they’ll immediately have access to the inbox where all active guest conversations appear. There’s no separate setup; once they log in, they can see every thread and jump in to reply.

Will my team see the full guest conversation?

Yes. The shared inbox displays the complete chat history for each guest, including every message exchanged with the AI agent and any previous human replies. When someone picks up a thread, they see the same view as the guest, so they never have to piece together context.

Can I assign questions to specific team members?

Chatref’s shared inbox shows all conversations to everyone in the workspace. There isn’t a built-in assignment feature, but you can coordinate internally - for example, by agreeing which team member handles certain property types or issue categories, then just picking up those threads. Because all context is visible, anyone can step in seamlessly.

How do I track handoffs?

You can monitor the shared inbox directly to see which conversations are being handled by a human. Each thread shows whether the last message came from the AI or a team member. For a more structured overview, your team can use conversation status internally (e.g., marking them in your own tracking tool) based on what’s visible in Chatref.

What if the guest is mid-conversation?

No problem. When a team member opens the thread in the shared inbox, they continue the conversation exactly where it left off. The guest doesn’t notice any switch - they’ll simply get a new message in the same chat window. The AI stops responding to that thread once a human takes over, so there’s no confusion.