Email Scheduling

Juss Reyes

Updated September 07, 2023 15:24

Email scheduling allows properties to send emails automatically to the primary guest based on a specific schedule. This article offers a general overview of the Email Scheduling tab in Cloudbeds PMS.

Before getting started

If you do not see the Email Scheduling Settings, contact the Property Owner and ask them to enable System Email Permission under your users role. Learn more: Roles and Permissions.
Currently, Cloudbeds PMS provides 2 main schedule options:
- Based on a specific number of days before or after arrival or departure
- Based on reservation status changes
To schedule and send emails, there must be an email address included in the guests details inside the reservation/guest details.
The scheduled emails will only be sent to the primary guest of the reservation.
Only new custom email templates can be scheduled. Pre-existing or Default Email Templates created in the system cannot be added to a schedule.
To schedule confirmation emails to channels (OTAs), go to this section.

Access Email Scheduling

In your Account menu, go to the Settings Page and click on the Email section
Click on Email Scheduling

Manage Email Scheduling

Create an Email Schedule

In your Account menu, go to the Settings Page and click in the Email section
Click on the Email Scheduling tab
Click on +Create Email Schedule

Give a name to your Email Schedule
Select the email template that you manually created

Learn more about how to Create, edit, enable or disable Custom Email Templates

Choose when to send email:
- Immediately upon reservation status changing
  Example: If you select Cancelled, the email will be sent out immediately when a reservation status changed to Cancelled.
- Based on booking date, check-in date, or check-out date
  Example: Send a pre-arrival email 2 days prior to arrival date.

Advanced options:
- Send email template only for selected dates: it will be sent only for the selected date ranges.
- Send email template only for specified sources: it will be sent only when the reservation is for one of the selected sources.

If a user does not select Send email template only for specified sources, then the email will go out to all sources. It includes reservations from the Distribution Channels (OTAs).

Once you finish, click Create Schedule

Schedule Confirmation Email Templates OTAs (Channels) reservations

To schedule Confirmation Email Templates for reservations made on the Channels (OTAs), select Send email template only for specified sources under the Advanced options (Step 7 above)
This Confirmation Email Template will be triggered only when the reservation for one of the sources indicated. For example: if you would like to have the template sent for Booking.com, select only Booking.com.

Things to know:

The default email template Reservation Confirmed will not be sent automatically to reservations made on channels (OTAs), the channels are responsible in sending their own confirmation emails. However, it is possible to Create a Custom Email Template and and set up a schedule to send the emails automatically to your guests, following the steps above
The Default Confirmation Email Template (pre-existing cannot be added to a schedule. You need to create a new template by following the steps of this article.
Select only the OTAs to avoid confirmation emails to be duplicated for direct sources (Walk-in, Phone, Email, Website).
Not all channels send the guest's email address to Cloudbeds PMS, in that case the guest will not receive this email.

See any scheduled email for the guest inside the reservation under the Email Messages tab.
Track the emails to check their status (Sent, Delivered, Failed) using the Email Delivery Log

Disable or re-enable an Email Schedule

To disable or re-enable an Email Schedule, simply click on the toggle switch next to each email schedule created
If disabling, confirm the deactivation alert to proceed
The Email Schedule will appear as disabled. Click again to re-enable later, if needed

Once you disable the schedule, all related scheduled emails will be removed (will not be sent).
If you decide to re-enable the schedule later, the emails will be put back to the schedule but only under several conditions:
- You must switch the schedule toggle to Active, click the button Edit, and then click Save in the schedule settings
- Schedule rules should be met still (i.e. if the email is scheduled to be sent 10 days before check-in, the date you activated the schedule should be at least 10 days before check-in).
- If you selected the option Send email based on booking date, check-in date or check-out date, the following schedule types will be applied to the reservations in status:
  - Before Check-in: Only for reservation with status Confirmed
  - Before Check-out: Only for reservations with status In-house
  - After Check-in: Only for reservations with status In-house
  - After Check-out: Only for reservations with status Checked-out
  - After Booking: For any statuses (Pending confirmation, Confirmed, In-house, Check-out, Cancelled, or No-show)

Send automatic Confirmation Emails to Booking Engine guests

Create and schedule automatic confirmation emails to send to your guests when they create a reservation through your Cloudbeds Booking Engine.

After completing their booking on the Booking Engine, your guests will receive the confirmation emails either Reservation Confirmed or Pending Confirmation depending on your reservation confirmation type in your Policies.

Things to note:

The Confirmation Pending setting only applies to your Cloudbeds Booking Engine and direct reservations.
Reservations from OTA are imported to the system as confirmed but the guest will not received the confirmation emails from Cloudbeds PMS, the OTA will send their confirmation email. Check this section for more information.

Available options for the Confirmation Email:

Confirmed: Our system will automatically send the Reservation Confirmed email to your guest. If you choose this setting, you must also enable the option Send the customer an automatic confirmation email.
Confirmation Pending: This option triggers the Pending Confirmation email. Even if the deposit was confirmed during the reservation, the system will still automatically send the Pending Confirmation email first. The Reservation Confirmed email will be sent when you confirm the reservation manually.