We need this to compete as a small business: 

Realtime messaging (via text - preferred; email not as preferred)

We need to communicate with these customers in real time!

agreed!!! I also had posted a topic recently saying that we should be able to text reservations directly through the system, possibly a few quick text options and then a custom box. 

There have to be more of us out there that want this! They can easily have this functionality. Just need a direct message button on the reservation. Then need to connect to email provider or text provider.....