Consent / Opt-in

Proper Consent

 Consent can't be bought, sold, or exchanged. For example, you can't obtain the consent of message recipients by purchasing an email address list or phone list from another party. Aside from two exceptions noted later in this section, you must meet each of the consent requirements listed below. If you are a third-party app or integrated partner using Epiqhost's platform for messaging, you must require your users to adhere to these same requirements when dealing with their customers, guests, and contacts.

Consent Requirements

• Prior to sending the first message, you must obtain agreement from the message recipient to communicate with them - this is referred to as "consent." You must make it clear to the individual that they agree to receive messages of the type you will send. You need to keep a record of the consent, such as a copy of the document, form the message recipient signed or a timestamp of when the customer completed a sign-up flow.
• Suppose you do not send an initial message to that individual within a reasonable period after receiving consent (or as set forth by local regulations or best practices). In that case, you must reconfirm consent in the first message you send to that recipient.
• The consent applies only to you and to the specific use, business operation, or campaign to which the recipient has consented. You can't treat it as blanket consent allowing you to send messages from other brands or companies you may own or additional messages about other marketing campaigns you may create in the future.
• Proof of opt-in consent should be retained as set forth by local regulations or best practices after the end user opts out of receiving messages.

Alternative Consent Requirements

While consent is always required, and the consent requirements noted above are generally the safest path, there are two scenarios where consent can be received differently.

Contact initiated by an individual

If an individual sends a message to you, you are free to respond in an exchange with that individual. For example, if an individual texts your phone number asking for your hours of operation, you can respond directly to that individual, relaying your open hours. In such a case, the individual's inbound message to you constitutes both consent and proof of consent. Remember that the consent is limited only to that particular conversation or business operation. Unless you obtain additional consent, don't send messages outside that business operation, such as a new marketing campaign a year later.

Informational content to an individual based on a prior relationship

You may send a message to an individual with whom you have a prior relationship, provided that individual provided their contact information (i.e., phone number, email address, etc.) to you, has taken some action to trigger the potential communication, and has not expressed a preference to not receive messages from you. Actions can include a button press, alert setup, making an appointment, sending an inquiry, requesting a quote, booking a property, etc. Examples of acceptable messages in these scenarios include appointment reminders, payment receipts, one-time passwords, inquiry responses, quote responses, booking confirmations, welcome packets, maintenance reach-outs, or hospitality staff confirming any of the above.

The message can't attempt to promote a separate service or product, advocate for a social cause, or be forwarded to third-party services.

Channel messaging exception

 It should be noted that these consent requirements are directed explicitly towards email and SMS types of communication. Channel messages (eg. messages sent and received via Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com) operate on platforms that have already obtained consent from the recipient by nature of their operations. Channel platforms also notify their recipients that messaging will be shared with their hosts and PMs (ie. you) so it is assumed that in order to complete the booking operation, messages have to travel outside the channel platform. Therefore, you do not need to ask a channel recipient for consent since it is implied.

Periodic Messages and Ongoing Consent

 If you intend to send messages to a recipient on an ongoing basis or for any marketing-type purpose, you should confirm the recipient's consent by offering them a clear reminder of how to unsubscribe from those messages using standard opt-out language and options. You must also respect the message recipient's preferences in terms of frequency of contact. You also need to proactively ask individuals to reconfirm their consent as set forth by local regulations and best practices if it's been a long time since you've sent a previous message.