Sending a Held-Back AI Draft

What is a held-back draft?

When Vanio AI decides it needs your input on a guest message, it doesn't just send you an empty alert. In most cases Vanio AI has already written a complete, guest-ready reply — it simply holds that reply back instead of sending it automatically, and asks you to take a look first.

That reply is the held-back draft. It's the exact message Vanio AI was about to send to your guest. Rather than retyping a response from scratch, you can review it and send it to the guest in one click.

Why does Vanio AI hold a reply back?

Vanio AI is designed to handle the vast majority of guest messages on its own. It holds a reply back only when it wants a human glance before the guest sees it — for example:

• A judgment call — Vanio AI has a solid answer but the situation involves a discount, a goodwill gesture, or a policy edge case where your preference matters.
• An out-of-caution escalation — the message touches a sensitive topic and Vanio AI would rather you confirm the wording than risk sending something off.
• A second-guess — Vanio AI drafted a reply but wasn't fully confident, so it paused for review instead of sending.

In all of these, the draft is still ready to go. Holding it back is about giving you the final say, not about the draft being unfinished.

Where to find it

Held-back drafts appear in the AI Collaboration Drawer — the panel that opens at the bottom of a reservation whenever Vanio AI needs your input.

When a draft is waiting, you'll see a highlighted Vanio AI's held-back reply card inside the drawer. It shows a preview of the message Vanio AI wrote, exactly as your guest would receive it.

If Vanio AI escalated without writing a sendable reply (for example, a situation that genuinely needs you to decide what to say), no draft card appears — there's nothing to send yet, so the option is simply hidden.

How to review and send it

1. Open the reservation and find the Vanio AI's held-back reply card in the Collaboration Drawer.
2. Read the preview. This is the full message Vanio AI is proposing to send to your guest.
3. Click Send AI draft.

Clicking Send AI draft drops the full reply into your guest message composer, already set to the correct channel for that guest (Airbnb, Booking.com, your direct site, and so on). You get a final glance at the message in the composer before it leaves.

From there you can:

• Send it as-is — if the draft looks good, send it straight to the guest.
• Edit first — tweak a sentence, adjust the tone, or add a detail before sending.

Nothing reaches the guest until you send it from the composer, so you always have the last word.

What the guest receives

When you send the draft, your guest receives a normal reply on whatever channel they originally messaged you — the same as any message you send by hand. There's no "this was AI-generated" label and no indication that the reply was reviewed first. To the guest, it's simply a prompt, well-written response from your team.

When to use it

Sending a held-back draft is ideal when:

• Vanio AI's reply already says what you would have said, and you just want it out the door.
• You trust the response but appreciate that Vanio AI paused to check with you.
• You want to save time on routine situations without giving up oversight.

If the draft isn't quite right, you have the full set of Collaboration Drawer options instead — give Vanio AI a specific instruction, save a new policy so it handles this on its own next time, or turn on Defend Mode for a difficult guest.

How it makes Vanio AI smarter

Every time you send a held-back draft as-is, you're signaling to Vanio AI that its reply was on the mark for that kind of situation. Over time this teaches Vanio AI where it can act more autonomously — meaning fewer drafts held back for review and more messages handled end to end, while the ones that truly need your judgment still come to you.