Set up SPF to authorize Cloudbeds emails from your property domain

Gabriela Garcia

Updated June 29, 2026 21:04

Purpose	Use this guide to authorize Cloudbeds to send emails from your property domain by adding SendGrid to your domain's Sender Policy Framework (SPF) record.
Best for	Property owners, property admins, and IT or domain administrators who manage DNS records for the property domain.
Use this when	You send Cloudbeds PMS emails from your property domain, such as @yourproperty.com, and want to improve deliverability for reservation confirmations, email templates, composed messages, copied recipients, and property inboxes.
You need	Access to your domain's DNS settings, or help from the person or provider who manages your property domain. You also need to know whether your domain already has an SPF record.
Expected result	Recipient mail servers can recognize SendGrid, Cloudbeds' email delivery provider, as an authorized sender for your property domain.
Important limit	SPF improves email authentication and deliverability, but it does not guarantee that every recipient inbox will accept or display every email. Recipient mail servers, inbox settings, spam filters, and email template configuration can also affect delivery.

Introduction

Cloudbeds PMS can send emails to guests, users, and property inboxes from your property's email domain, such as @yourproperty.com. These emails may include reservation confirmations, check-in messages, invoice templates, custom email templates, and manually composed messages.

Cloudbeds sends these emails through SendGrid, Cloudbeds' email delivery provider. If your property uses its own domain in the Send From field, your domain's DNS settings should authorize SendGrid as an approved sender. This is done through a Sender Policy Framework (SPF) record.

Without the correct SPF authorization, recipient mail servers may treat emails sent from Cloudbeds on behalf of your domain as unauthenticated. Depending on the recipient's mail server and inbox settings, emails may be rejected, marked as spam, or fail to reach copied recipients.

If you are not familiar with DNS records, contact your IT team, domain administrator, website provider, or DNS hosting provider before making changes. Incorrect DNS changes can affect your property's email delivery.

What is Sender Policy Framework (SPF)?

Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is an email authentication standard that helps mail servers confirm whether a service is allowed to send emails from a specific domain.

Think of SPF as an approved sender list for your domain. If your property domain is yourproperty.com, the SPF record tells receiving mail servers which services are allowed to send emails using addresses from that domain.

For example:

Your property may use Cloudbeds PMS to send a reservation confirmation from reservations@yourproperty.com.
Cloudbeds sends that email through SendGrid, Cloudbeds' email delivery provider.
When the guest's inbox receives the message, the inbox provider may check your domain's SPF record to confirm whether SendGrid is authorized to send email for yourproperty.com.

If SendGrid is included in your SPF record, the message is more likely to pass authentication checks. If SendGrid is not included, the recipient mail server may treat the message as suspicious because it appears to come from your property domain but was sent through a third-party email service.

SPF does not send the email itself. It only helps recipient mail servers verify whether Cloudbeds' email delivery provider is allowed to send from your domain.

Before you begin

Before editing your SPF record, confirm who manages your domain settings and how your Cloudbeds email templates are currently configured.

You are using a property domain as the Send From email. This means the email address in the Send From field uses your property's own domain, such as reservations@yourproperty.com or frontdesk@yourproperty.com.

If you need to review or update the Send From field, go to Account > Settings > Email > Templates, then open the email template you want to check. For step-by-step instructions, see Create, edit, enable or disable custom email templates.
You have access to your domain's DNS records. DNS records are usually managed through your domain registrar, DNS host, website provider, or IT team.
You know whether your domain already has an SPF record. Domains must not have more than one SPF record. If your domain already has an SPF record, add SendGrid to the existing record instead of creating a second SPF record.

If your property uses a public email provider, such as Gmail, Yahoo, or AOL, as the Send From email, messages may have lower deliverability because many public providers do not fully allow third-party platforms to send emails on their behalf.

For this setup, use admin@cloudbeds.com as the Send From email and place your public email address in the Reply-To field instead.

Choose the correct SPF setup for your domain

After confirming who manages your DNS records, the next step is to check whether your property domain already has an SPF record.

This matters because a domain should have only one SPF record. If your domain does not have one, you can create a new TXT record. If your domain already has one, you must edit the existing record and add SendGrid to it.

Use the option below that matches your current DNS setup.

If your domain does not have an SPF record

If your domain does not already have an SPF record, create a new TXT record for your root domain, such as yourproperty.com.

Use this value:

v=spf1 include:sendgrid.net ~all

This authorizes SendGrid to send emails from your domain on behalf of Cloudbeds PMS.

Do not create more than one SPF record for the same root domain. Multiple SPF records can cause SPF validation issues. If you already have an SPF record, merge SendGrid into the existing record instead.

If your domain already has an SPF record

If your domain already has an SPF record, do not create a second one. Instead, edit the existing SPF record and add SendGrid before the final ~all mechanism.

Example of an existing SPF record:

v=spf1 a mx include:_spf.google.com ~all

Updated SPF record with SendGrid added:

v=spf1 a mx include:_spf.google.com include:sendgrid.net ~all

This keeps your existing authorized senders and adds SendGrid as an authorized sender for Cloudbeds PMS emails.

After you create or update the SPF record, validate it before testing email delivery. This is the final step in the SPF setup process and helps confirm that your domain is ready to authorize Cloudbeds emails through SendGrid.

Confirm that your SPF record is valid

Use an SPF validation tool to check that your DNS record is formatted correctly and can be read by recipient mail servers.

Cloudbeds recommends using dmarcian's free SPF Survey tool: dmarcian SPF Surveyor.

When reviewing the result, confirm that:

Your domain has only one SPF record.
The SPF record includes include:sendgrid.net.
The SPF record keeps any other services that are already authorized to send email for your domain.

DNS changes may not appear immediately. If the validation tool does not show your update right away, wait for the DNS change to finish propagating, then check again.

Review your Cloudbeds email template settings

To review or update an email template in Cloudbeds PMS, go to Account > Settings > Email > Templates, then open the template you want to check. For step-by-step instructions, see Create, edit, enable or disable custom email templates.

If guest emails are failing, each recipient's inbox may also have its own settings and filters. Ask the recipient to check spam, trash, archived messages, filters, and inbox storage. If the issue affects your property email address, also confirm your SPF record and Send From setup.

Related email authentication options

SPF is one part of email authentication. If your property also needs DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), contact Cloudbeds Support. Our team will provide the required DNS records and assist with the setup process.

For more information about SPF, DKIM, and other email delivery troubleshooting scenarios, see Email FAQs and troubleshooting.

What happens if SPF is not configured?

If you send Cloudbeds PMS emails from your property domain and your SPF record does not authorize SendGrid, recipient mail servers may reject the emails or place them in spam folders.

The exact behavior depends on the recipient mail server and inbox configuration. This means one recipient may receive the email while another recipient may not.