Marketing Opt-In (for properties with GDPR enabled)

In Cloudbeds PMS, you may enable Security Compliance Settings (GDPR), which aims to strengthen the security and protection of personal data. GDPR requires that your guests may decide whether they wish to opt-in for your emails which contain marketing information.

Overview

Cloudbeds provides you the ability to control and customize the process by:

  • Selecting which emails are marketing vs. non-marketing
  • Displaying an option on the booking engine for guests to opt-in to marketing emails
  • Customize text on the opt-in page (where guests may subscribe to marketing emails)
  • Checking which guests opted into marketing emails

 Opt-in options are available only if you have GDPR Security Compliance enabled on the General System Settings page.

GDPR General Settings

Setting Up Marketing Opt-In

Step 1. Setup marketing emails

You can define whether your email templates are marketing or non-marketing types.

  • Non-marketing emails will be sent out to all the guests.
  • Marketing emails:
    • If scheduled - it will be sent out ONLY to those guests who opted in.
    • If sent from the reservation - the system will show whether the guest opted in or out and display an alert if you try to send a marketing email to a guest who opted out.

Email Template Settings

  Understanding GDPR Email Settings

  • By default, all templates will be set to non-marketing once you enable GDPR for the first time.
  • If the GDPR setting is DISABLED, all emails, both marketing and non-marketing, will be sent to all guests.
  • You may set any template as marketing: default emails created by Cloudbeds PMS or templates created by the user.
  1. From your Account Account menu icon, click Settings Settings icon.png, and select Email Email Menu
  2. Go to the Templates tab
  3. Create a new template or edit an existing template
  4. On Email Type, select Marketing Email

Marketing Email Settings

Step 2. Enable the option to opt-in for the Booking Engine

  1. From your Account Account menu icon.png, click Settings Settings icon.png, select Booking Engine Booking Engine icon.png, and go to the Settings tab.
  2. In the Marketing section, look for Show the option to opt-in to marketing content during the booking process and choose Yes.
  3. Explain to the guest what kind of additional marketing you may send if they opt-in to marketing:
    • Enter the description text.
    • Enter text for the opt-in option.
    • Enter text for the opt-out option.

Marketing opt-in setting example

This is an example of what the opt-in option looks like on the Booking Engine:

Opt-in Booking Engine example

  The system won't pre-populate any option (Yes or No), and the guest must choose one to proceed.

Step 3. Send the Opt-in link for guests from other sources

With GDPR enabled, you will see a new tab called Guest Opt-in.

On this page, you can customize and preview the text displayed to your guests on opt-in/opt-out confirmation pages. You can also get the direct link to your opt-in page and paste it into your emails.

  1. Find and customize the desired Guest Opt-in page and then click Preview.

  1. The PMS will open the opt-in page with a fixed URL. This page is accessible to anyone and you can use it to send emails before or after your guest's stay. 
  2. To opt-in, your guest must enter their email address and click SUBMIT.

Opt-in submission form

  Share this URL with guests to gather their email addresses for marketing messages. Be sure to include the entire URL, along with your Booking Engine code, which is blurred in the screenshot above.

  1. The guest will receive an email like the one below to the email address entered on the opt-in page.

Opt-in confirmation email example

  The guest must confirm that they opted in by clicking the link in the confirmation email.

This link is auto-generated and is always different, making the process more secure: only guests can confirm opting-in to marketing emails directly from their inbox.

  1. Once the guest clicks the link, they will be redirected to the Opt-In Confirmation page.
  2. They may opt out (unsubscribe) from your marketing email by clicking Opt Out.

Opt-In confirmation page example

  Guest Email Subscription Information:

  • Only the guest can opt-in to marketing emails as they need to confirm receiving them from their inbox.
  • Both the guest and property may opt out of marketing emails: 
    • The guest may opt-out by following the link after opting in (see step 6 above).
    • The property may opt-out the guest on the Guests tab in Cloudbeds PMS by switching the toggle off. For more information, check the GDPR Data Controls.

Guest opt-out toggle example

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