WhatsApp Business API, explained.

The version of WhatsApp intended for organisations. It has no interface of its own: your number connects to software, which is what lets a team share one number and lets another system trigger messages.

There is no fee for access, but conversations are charged by Meta per 24-hour window, priced by country and category. Your software provider charges separately; at chatlyn that is a 15% service charge on the Meta usage.

When a guest messages you, you can reply freely for 24 hours. After it closes you reopen the conversation with a template Meta has approved in advance. Inside an open window, some message types are free and others are charged by Meta, depending on the type.

Not with the same number. Once a number moves to the API it stops working in the WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business apps. That is the trade for letting a whole team answer from it.

Business verification usually takes a few days when the registration details match the website; mismatches are the common cause of delay. Message templates are typically approved within a day.

No, if you use software that already connects to the API. The embedded sign-up through the BSP handles the technical side, and the connection is configured rather than built.

Usually yes, as long as it is not tied to another provider. The migration runs during the BSP sign-up and keeps the number; the chat history in the app does not come with it.

A message pre-approved by Meta that you can send outside the 24-hour window. Templates carry a category, and submitting a marketing message under a utility category is the most common reason for rejection.

Yes. On an AI-enabled WhatsApp inbox the AI is the first responder: it answers from the knowledge base you provide, in the language the guest writes in, and hands the conversation to your team when a guest asks for a person. Staff see every AI conversation and can take over at any time. At Hotel Enzian Obertauern the AI replies in around 3 seconds on average.

Every conversation on the number arrives in chatlyn’s shared inbox. Conversations are assigned to a person, labelled, filtered and annotated with internal notes and @mentions, and the status shows whether the hotel or the guest is next. The guest’s stays from the PMS appear beside the chat, so a colleague can pick up where someone else left off.

Yes, with an approved template, for example a pre-arrival message. Once the guest replies, the window opens and the conversation continues like any chat. chatlyn’s guest journeys and campaigns use the same mechanism.