How Casa Costa went from missing direct bookings to capturing them at 11pm.
WhatsApp hotel booking solves a familiar pattern: Tomás and his team couldn't reply to Instagram and WhatsApp DMs during late check-ins. Guests asked at 22:00 about availability for next weekend — and 12 hours later, after they'd already booked through an OTA, someone finally typed back.
A real booking. 22:38. Zero staff involved.
What was actually happening every evening on Instagram.
Casa Costa is a 22-room boutique hotel in the Algarve. The front-desk team handles in-house guests, check-ins, breakfast service, and arrivals — not Instagram DMs. On a Friday evening, between late check-ins and the dinner rush, nobody was watching the inbox.
Guests planning the next weekend's getaway would message at 22:00 asking for availability or package info. They got no reply. By morning, the room was still available — but the guest had booked on an OTA because the response window ran out.
A typical Friday evening — before Seekadu
Guest DMs Casa Costa on Instagram
"Hi! Do you have a sea-view room for next weekend?"
Front desk is on a late check-in
Two guests arriving at 23:00 · reception is staffed for in-house, not for DMs.
Guest sends a follow-up DM
"Still hoping for an answer — comparing a few hotels tonight."
Guest books on the OTA instead
2 nights · €360 booking · 15% commission · €54 walked out the door.
Manager replies the next morning
"Yes, we have availability!" The guest already booked elsewhere.
Why this is impossible to fix manually
A boutique hotel can't staff someone purely to monitor Instagram DMs at 22:00. Hiring a dedicated night-DM agent would cost more than the OTA commissions it would save. And the front-desk team is already handling actual guests — they can't step away to check Instagram every fifteen minutes.
How much commission was actually leaking?
Casa Costa's average direct booking is around €360 for a two-night stay. OTA commission averages 15%. On a typical busy weekend, roughly 21 inbound DMs went unanswered overnight — and around 62% of those guests ended up booking the same hotel through an OTA instead of directly.
The cost of a 9-hour DM gap · Casa Costa Algarve
Every guest message type Casa Costa now receives — answered instantly.
Seekadu was trained on Casa Costa's actual room types, package details, amenities, policies, and house-favourite restaurants. Every answer is accurate — never generic.
What changed at Casa Costa in the first 30 days.
The lift came from one thing: Seekadu replied in under a second to every DM that arrived between 18:00 and 02:00 — when the front desk was busy and nobody could.
Direct bookings that previously walked to an OTA because of a 9-hour reply gap were now confirmed before the guest had time to compare elsewhere.
Guests would message us at 10pm asking about a room for the weekend, and by the time anyone could reply they'd booked on the OTA. Now Seekadu answers in under a second — and most of them book directly. We're not losing the commission anymore. Honestly, this should have existed years ago.
Illustrative composite. Names, locations, and figures are representative of typical Seekadu deployments and not a single attributed customer.
OTA commission avoided week by week · month one
Tomás set up Seekadu himself. Without a developer.
Uploaded the hotel's knowledge base
Tomás uploaded room rates and packages, the wellness and romance package details, breakfast and check-in/out times, pet policy, airport-distance info, and house-favourite restaurants for the concierge. Seekadu indexed everything in under 60 seconds.
⏱ 7 minutesConnected WhatsApp Business and Instagram
Both channels connected through the Seekadu dashboard — WhatsApp via the official Business API, Instagram via the official Meta API. No unofficial tools, no account risk, no developer help.
⏱ 5 minutesWent live. First DM answered that evening.
By 21:00 the same day, Seekadu was answering room-availability DMs on Instagram and arrival-coordination messages on WhatsApp. Tomás could see every conversation in his dashboard and stepped in once for a complex group booking.
⏱ 3 minutesYour hotel could be answering DMs tonight.
14-day free trial. Train Seekadu on your rooms, packages, and house-favourite restaurants — and let it handle every guest message from this evening onward.
Seekadu was trained on Casa Costa's specific data — not a generic hotel template.
Every answer reflects the actual hotel — the actual rooms, the actual breakfast hours, the actual airport distance, the actual house-favourite restaurants. When a guest asks about the wellness package, Seekadu knows the inclusions. When they ask if it's pet-friendly, it knows the policy.
This is what makes conversations feel like the front desk — not a bot.
Customer: "Is breakfast included on the wellness package?"
Seekadu: "Yes — the wellness package includes our full breakfast buffet, plus a daily spa credit of €40 per guest. Breakfast is served 07:30–10:30 in the garden room, or in-room on request with no service charge."
Customer: "How far is the hotel from Faro Airport?"
Seekadu: "Casa Costa is 38 km by car from Faro Airport — about 35 minutes via the A22. We offer a private transfer at €65 each way, bookable in advance. Tagus and Cars2Go also serve the route."
Customer: "Can we bring our 12-week-old puppy?"
Seekadu: "We love guests with dogs — we're pet-friendly in our garden-view rooms (max one small/medium dog per room) with a €25 cleaning fee. We provide a bed, bowls, and a list of dog-friendly beaches nearby."
Customer: "Do you have an early check-in option?"
Seekadu: "Standard check-in is from 15:00, but we can prioritise early check-in subject to availability. We confirm 24 hours before arrival. Early check-in before 11:00 has a €30 fee; between 11:00 and 14:00 is complimentary."
Customer: "Is the pool open in May?"
Seekadu: "Yes — our outdoor pool is open April through October from 09:00 to sunset. The indoor heated pool and spa are open year-round, 08:00–21:00."
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The specific questions general managers raise before they commit to DM automation.
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Train Seekadu on your rooms, packages, and house-favourite restaurants. Connect WhatsApp and Instagram.
Every guest DM answered in under a second — from tonight.
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