Capturing the number is the easy part
A phone field on the splash page works the same way an email field does. It sits alongside a separate consent checkbox, unticked, with wording specific to text messages rather than a general marketing agreement. The number is stored on the guest record with its own consent timestamp, distinct from the email consent, because a guest can reasonably want your newsletter and not want your texts. If you take one thing from this page: SMS consent is never a by-product of email consent, and a single combined checkbox is the mistake that makes an entire list unusable.
What lawful SMS marketing actually requires
Requirements differ by country and this is not legal advice, but the common core is consistent enough to plan around.
- Express, separate consent to receive marketing text messages, recorded with a timestamp and the exact wording shown.
- Clear identification of the sender in every message, so the guest knows who is texting them.
- A working opt-out in every message, honoured immediately and permanently.
- Sensible sending hours, since a marketing text at midnight is both a complaint and, in several jurisdictions, a violation.
- A registered sender identity or number with your SMS provider, which in some markets requires registration before any message will deliver at all.
- Retention of the consent record for as long as you are sending, plus whatever your local regime expects afterwards.
The economics, stated plainly
Email is effectively free per message. SMS is not: every message carries a per-segment carrier cost that varies by country, and long messages are billed as multiple segments. That cost changes the discipline entirely. An email that underperforms wastes attention; a text that underperforms wastes money and goodwill at the same time. The practical rule most venues land on is that SMS is reserved for messages that are time-critical and specific, meaning tonight, this table, this event, this closure. Anything that would still be useful next week belongs in email.
Where SMS genuinely beats email
There are a small number of jobs where the channel earns its cost. Same-day capacity, where a cancellation means two covers are free at seven and an email will be read at nine. Operational notices, like an unexpected closure or a changed opening time, where being unread is the failure. Time-boxed events with a genuine cut-off. Reactivation of a guest who has ignored email for a year and might still glance at a text. Outside those, email does the same job for less money and less risk.
Being honest about what this product does
VoqadoWiFi captures the number and the SMS consent at the portal, stores them on the guest record, and makes both available for export and for delivery to downstream systems through webhooks. Actual message delivery is the job of an SMS provider, and the registration, sender identity and per-message cost sit with that provider rather than with the portal. Plan the sending stack before you turn the phone field on, because a field that collects numbers you have no compliant way to text is worse than no field at all.
How to set it up
In order. Skipping a step here is usually why a portal ends up showing a spinner instead of a login screen.
- 1
Decide whether you need SMS at all
Write down the specific messages you would send by text and not by email. If the list is empty or hypothetical, skip the phone field entirely and revisit it when a real use appears.
- 2
Choose and register with an SMS provider first
Sender registration can take time in some markets and can be refused. Confirm you can legally and technically send in your country before you collect a single number.
- 3
Add the phone field with its own consent checkbox
Separate box, unticked, wording that names text messages explicitly and states roughly how often. Never bundle it with the email consent, and never make WiFi access conditional on it.
- 4
Wire the consented numbers to the sending platform
Use a webhook or export so the number and its consent state travel together. A number that arrives without its consent record is a number you cannot safely use.
- 5
Set your own sending rules and hold to them
Define a maximum frequency, a quiet-hours window and a standing rule about what qualifies as text-worthy. Write it down. The restraint is the strategy.
Who this suits
The venue types where this job comes up most often, and where the data the portal produces is dense enough to act on.
Run this on your own network first
The Starter plan is free forever: one location, 25 logins a month, a branded splash page and consent logging. Growth is $49 a month and covers up to three locations. Works with TP-Link Omada and Ubiquiti UniFi.
Common questions
Can I text everyone who gave me an email address?
No. Consent to email is not consent to text, even if the same form collected both. SMS marketing needs its own express, separately recorded opt-in. Texting an email-only list is the most common and most expensive mistake in this area.
Does VoqadoWiFi send the messages?
The portal captures the number and the SMS consent, stores them on the guest record, and exports or forwards them to your systems. The actual sending, the sender registration and the per-message cost belong to an SMS provider you choose.
How often is too often?
For most venues, more than a couple of marketing texts a month is too many, and even that only holds if each one is genuinely time-critical. The honest test is whether a guest would be annoyed to have missed it. If not, send an email instead, or send nothing.
What happens when someone opts out?
Stop immediately and permanently, across every campaign and every location. Opt-out handling must be automatic rather than a task someone remembers, because a guest who cannot get out reports the number instead, and carrier-level complaints are far harder to recover from than an unsubscribe.
Read next
These jobs share the same plumbing, so operators normally set them up in sequence rather than one at a time.
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Build a Restaurant Email List From Scratch
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