Message history

he Messages tab on a customer record gives you a complete history of messages CaptainBook sent to that person.
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You can use it to answer questions like:

“Did they get the confirmation?”

or:

“What exactly did we send them?”
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💡 Available on Starter, Extended, and Ultra

Starter includes message history and delivery status. Reading message content requires Extended or Ultra.
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ℹ️ Message content is retained for 90 days on Extended and 15 months on Ultra.
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You can see the same message records in three places:
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Shows everything CaptainBook sent to that customer.

Shows only the messages related to that booking.

This is often the fastest place to check when a customer contacts you about a specific reservation.
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Messages also appear alongside browsing activity and booking events, so you can see communication in context.

For example, you may see that a reminder was sent shortly before the customer returned to your booking page.
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A message can move through several delivery stages.

CaptainBook shows the furthest status it reached.
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The message left CaptainBook, but no later delivery update has been received yet.
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The messaging provider confirmed that the message reached the recipient.
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The email was opened.

Keep in mind that email opens are measured using a tracking pixel. Some email apps block or preload images, so an open should be treated as a useful signal rather than absolute proof that someone read the message.
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A WhatsApp message was read.

This receipt comes from the recipient’s device.
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The customer clicked a link in the message.
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The message did not arrive.

CaptainBook shows the reason for the failure when available.
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⚠️ Failed takes priority

If a message was initially marked Delivered but later bounced or failed, CaptainBook shows the final status as Failed.
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SMS messages do not have read receipts.

An SMS can therefore reach Delivered, but it will not later change to Read.
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On Extended and Ultra, click a message to open it.

You can see the subject and body exactly as they were sent to the customer.

This can be useful when:

Opening a stored message requires all three of these permissions:

This is because a booking message can contain all of that information in the same message.

If a user does not have all three permissions, they can still see the message in the history and check its delivery status, but the Open action is not available.

Admin and Manager roles have these permissions by default.

The message row can still appear even when the stored content is not available.

CaptainBook explains why.
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You are on Starter.

The delivery history is available, but the message content was not stored.
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The content was stored but has since been deleted.

Retention is:

The message was still sent, but CaptainBook could not store a copy of the content.
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The message was sent successfully, but storing the copy failed.
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The message was sent before message-content storage was introduced.

In all of these cases, the message itself may still have been sent normally. Its delivery history remains available.
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Includes:

Message content is not stored.
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Includes:

Message content is retained for 90 days.
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Includes:

Message content is retained for 15 months.
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Message history is not included.

If you upgrade from Starter to Extended or Ultra, message-content storage begins from the date of the upgrade. Earlier message content cannot be recovered because it was never stored.

If you move from Ultra to Extended, content already stored is kept for an additional 30 days before the shorter retention rules apply.
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If you use WhatsApp, there are two different types of records in CaptainBook.

Automated messages such as:

appear in the Messages tab like other channels.
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Back-and-forth WhatsApp conversations with the customer appear in the Conversations tab.

These are stored separately.

Deleting or clearing a WhatsApp conversation does not remove the archived copy of messages CaptainBook sent