New bookings and payments on Zalo, without a Zalo Official Account

HostBooking · Updated Oct 28, 2026 · 6 min read

You do not need a Zalo Official Account for booking alerts on Zalo. Scan a QR code once to connect your personal Zalo, and the system sends guest confirmations and staff alerts from that account. HostBooking is also preparing its own Zalo number to alert owners and staff. A daily message cap keeps Zalo from locking the account.

Two Zalo routes, no OA

Both can run at once. Your Gmail can be connected as the fallback. If you already have a Zalo OA with approved ZNS templates you can connect that too, but you do not have to.

Connecting your Zalo with a QR code

1. In the admin, go to Notification channels and click Connect Zalo.
2. Open Zalo on your phone, tap the scan icon at the top, scan the code on screen and tap Log in.
3. Send yourself a test message to make sure it arrives.
4. Tick the staff who get booking alerts from this Zalo. Owners and admins are on by default; a property manager only when ticked.
5. Under the channel routes, pick a main and a fallback channel for each event, for guests and for staff.

Guests and staff are found by phone number. This channel only sends: the system does not read your chats, and guest replies stay in the Zalo app rather than coming into the admin inbox. It connects a personal account through an unofficial route, not an OA, and the settings page says so.

HostBooking Zalo for owners and staff

Your Zalo cannot message itself. If the sending account is your own number, you get no alerts on that channel, only in the bell and by email. HostBooking Zalo fixes that: alerts come from HostBooking’s number to yours.

1. Open the notification bell in the admin and choose to get notifications on Zalo.
2. Enter your Zalo number, request a code, then type the 6-digit code you receive.
3. Save HostBooking’s number in your contacts. Each message starts with the brand name in square brackets, so you know which place it is about.

Each staff member signs up for themselves; HostBooking’s number only writes to people who confirmed their number, and never to guests. You get the events your brand sends out, by default new booking, money received, payments needing attention, cancellation, late arrival, overdue check-out, room not ready before arrival, OTA calendar problems and OTA booking emails to review. The option only appears while HostBooking has a sending number running; if it pauses, alerts go by the brand’s own route and the bell.

Daily caps and the fallback channel

Zalo limits, and can lock, personal accounts that message many strangers. So each brand has a daily cap on messages sent from its own Zalo; past it, messages go by the fallback channel. HostBooking’s numbers have daily and hourly caps too, messages are spaced out, and a person always hears from the same number.

• A guest whose number has no Zalo, or who hides from search by phone number, gets the message by the fallback channel.
• Guests who are not your Zalo friends still receive it, though it may land under messages from strangers.
• A message that fails partway is not resent from Zalo, so nobody gets it twice; the fallback sends it instead.
• Connect Gmail as the fallback, and keep Zalo for booking messages, not promotions.

What guests get, and what you get

You can edit the wording of guest messages. Staff messages have a fixed title with the booking details. The morning summary and desk alerts travel the same way.

The bell and push notifications

Every staff notification appears in the bell in the admin, with a sound and optional read-aloud when money arrives, whether or not it also goes to Zalo. The bell only rings while the page is open; turn on push notifications so phones and computers alert with the page closed. Zalo and push complement each other: Zalo suits an owner who is away, push suits the desk computer.

Scheduled messages to guests

Beyond event messages, scheduled messages go by email or Zalo at times you choose: a reminder before arrival, check-in directions, a thank-you with a review link. Notification channels (Zalo, Gmail, the bell) come with every plan, Free included; scheduled messages start on the Basic plan, or as an add-on on Free.