Custom email templates can be created and customized by the property to be sent later in Cloudbeds PMS. This guide shows how to create and manage custom email templates.
Looking for Default Email Templates instead? Click here.
Create custom email templates
- In your Account
, go to the Settings page
and click on the Email section
- Go to the Templates tab
- Click on +Create Template
- Template Name - Specify the name for the template. This is used for you to determine what the template is for. It will not be visible anywhere publicly
- Language-specific templates - Enabling Autofill All Languages will override all templates languages with the version below
The auto-fill option will fill all languages with text that you added to your system default language template. For example: If you use Cloudbeds PMS in English, all templates texts will be replaced with English version; if you use system in Portuguese, all templates texts will be replaced with Portuguese text.
- Send From - Email address from which the email will be sent. Some email domains (such as Yahoo) do not permit Cloudbeds to send emails using your email address, we suggest to test it first.
- Reply To - Email address that will be populated in the To field when the Reply button is clicked on the email
- CC and BCC Lists - List of all email addresses you want to CC / BCC. Separate each email address by a comma. Limit list to 5 email addresses or fewer
Do not include any comma in the From Name and Reply-to Name fields as it will cause error in sending the email message from the system.
- Email Type (Only for properties who enabled GDPR Compliance): If GDPR Compliance is enabled, every Email Template will have a required radio button specifying whether email is marketing related. Templates flagged as marketing emails will only be sent to guests who opt in to marketing materials. Non-marketing emails will be sent to all guests you have ongoing business relations with.
Important to note:
- All default email templates on Cloudbeds PMS come with an auto-populated email address (admin@cloudbeds.com) This email address is for reference only. This email address does not represent a real email address, meaning that any email sent to admin@cloudbeds.com or to info@cloudbeds.com will not reach any Support source. To contact our Support Team, click here.
- It is necessary to edit these email addresses with addresses from your Front Desk department, or any email considered by the hotel management.
- Subject - Text that will appear as the subject of the email. To add dynamic content such as the name of the guest or phone number, use the Insert Merge Tag picklist below
- Attachments - Upload any attachments you would like to be included whenever this email template is sent
- Design Style - Click on Change to choose pre-styled designs (12) or create a custom design through HTML
- Enter your text and customize your email
- Save changes
Merge Tags are any section within brackets (i.e. [hotel name]), dynamically populated shortcuts.
For example:
- Let's say you want to have your company's name show up within an email template, you could write it all out each time you wanted it to be shown or you could use the merge tag [hotel name].
- When your guest sees the email, your full hotel name will show up anywhere you've used that merge tag. We also have merge tags that will automatically add confirmation numbers, cancellation numbers, and more.
We recommend not changing the default merge tags.
- The merge tag [table] which auto-populates the reservation rates does not work for Custom Email Templates.
Learn more about Email Templates
Other email templates options
On each email template, you can:
- Enable/disable the email template by clicking on the toggle
- Edit or delete an existing template by clicking on the gear icon
1. Host an image online
Currently, different email service providers support different types of images. Make sure the method used works properly for all of them when sending images to the guests through email. We suggest using the Image URL option rather than selecting from files on your PC because embedded image display will only work with the following email service providers:
- iOS Mail
- Outlook 2003
- Apple Mail
- Android default
Use your preferred online image hosting and ensure the image format is compatible with all email service providers.
Things to note:
- Gmail does not support regular embedded images and will display them incorrectly
- Embedded images do not work for:
- Outlook 2007+
- Hotmail (Outlook.com)
- Yahoo! Mail
- Gmail
2. Add an image to the email template
- Follow the steps to Edit your email template to choose the location inside of text, and put your cursor where the image should be inserted
- Click on the Image icon inside of the Email Template
- On the image URL field, paste the image link.
Only the image source link within http://image link (after the <img src=) should be kept. Once you paste the link, go ahead and delete the rest of the URL.
Example:
- Original link (example): <a href="https://i.ibb.co/0Jkj9TG/Unsplash-loyalty-free-beach.jpg"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/0Jkj9TG/Unsplash-loyalty-free-beach.jpg" alt="Beach" border="0"></a>
- Link portion to keep: https://i.ibb.co/0Jkj9TG/Unsplash-loyalty-free-beach.jpg
- Click on Insert Image once you finish
- Save your changes
3. Add social media icons
Before getting started, follow the steps to Host an image online and upload the preferred Social Media (Instagram, Facebook, etc) icon image.
- Make sure to select the HTML full link when copying the img src URL from your chosen image hosting site.
- In your Cloudbeds PMS, go to edit the preferred Email Template and click on the Code View. Choose the location inside of the text and put your cursor where the social media icon should be inserted
- Add your social media Profile link, and paste the image link after the img src section (below in purple)
- Click Save
- The social media icon will be clickable, and your guests will be able to access your profile when clicking on it
Remember to replace the example Social Media link (https://instagram.com) from the example below, and replace it with your property's social media profile link (For example: https://instagram.com/yourhotelprofile)
4. Add your guest review link
- Follow the steps to Edit your email template to select the text in your template that will take your guests to your guest reviews page (for example: Visit our Tripadvisor page)
- Click on the Link icon of the template editor
- Add your preferred guest reviews link
- Click on Insert Link
- Optional: To add images, simply drag and drop or copy and paste an image as shown below
- Save your changes
Email templates troubleshooting
- Reason: This error occurs when the Subject field is not filled in the default property language.
-
Solution: Fill in the subject in the corresponding default language.
- Go to the language drop-down list and select English
- Fill the Subject
- Save
- Error preview:
For example, the gif below shows what happens when you try to save a Template in Spanish. If your property's default language is English, then a template in Spanish will also need a subject for the English version.
- Reason: This error occurs when the email body is not filled in the default property language (English).
- Solution: Fill in the body using the corresponding default language.
- Error preview:
- Reason: This error occurs when the system detects that MS Word has been probably used to create the email, which can cause character incompatibility and show symbols instead of the expected text.
-
Solution: Follow the steps below:
- Find the desired template and click Edit
- Scroll down to the text box
- Select all the text and cut it off
- Paste it in the same text box area
- Save the changes
- Error preview:
Comments
There is no way to currently test the email templates before they are sent to guests. This needs to be fixed quickly.
Hello, Sarah Williams!
Thank you so much for reaching out and providing your feedback.
We have already received a similar idea via the Cloudbeds Community. Please feel free to upvote by clicking here.
Thanks for your contribution.
Regards!
Please add a way to duplicate an existing template to allow us to create a new one without redoing absolutely everything. We currently have to create a new template, copy and paste text and reload all of the attachments and images just to have a template that is slightly different than an existing one (e.g. a few words changed). It would be a lot faster to offer a duplicate template option in the drop-down menu where Edit and Delete currently reside.
Hello, Jennifer Ose-MacDonald!
Thank you very much for your valuable feedback!
Based on your comments above, we have created this idea for you, which is already visible and open to votes from other users. These submitted ideas will be escalated to the corresponding team for review.
Kind regards,
In the "Create custom email templates" section, it's mentioned that:
Surely it would be useful to include this information in a custom email template!
Hello, Ron Chan,
Thank you very much for reaching out!
We truly appreciate your feedback. This idea has been previously shared and set to open to votes. Please, feel free to review it and upvote by clicking here.
Thanks again and kind regards!
Is it possible to get "property ID" in email templates?
I am looking for something like merge tag [property id]
Hello, Manh Luu!
Thank you so much for reaching out!
We'll be glad to verify this for you. Could you please provide us with more information about this specific request? Adding a merge tag to an email allows you to insert dynamic text populated by the system with the guest or reservation details, but they are not designed to add PMS account-related information.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Thanks in advance!
Hi team,
Can I create my own merge tags?
I need to add [guestIDtype] [guestIDnumber] [guestIDexpiry]
I also would like to have [total] [currency] [balance]
I don't see the merge tag definitions anywhere, could you help?
Hello, Lizi!
For the moment, it is not possible to create custom merge tags in the PMS. Please feel free to share this suggestion with our Cloudbeds Community, where other users can see it and vote for it.
You can find the list of merge tags in your Cloudbeds PMS Email Templates, specifically in the email templates editor, with the name of each tag, easy to find and insert:
If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to our Support Team.
Does anyone have any idea how to edit the [table] merge tag, to select the content to be displayed in the purchase confirmation email?
Hello, E Garay
The [table] merge tag is not currently customizable/editable. It is coded to pull data from specific sections of the PMS and reservation details.
Regards!
Hey Juss
Our [table] comes in mixed languages. Conformation details are in German but the guidelines are in English - how can we fix this?
Is there a way to add the guests language? we have a few reservations on the spot and by mail and when we add the reservation manually we always have the problem with the wrong or mixed language in the conformation message.
Thanks,
Nadja
Hello, Nadja Zehnder!
Thank you very much for asking this question about email templates.
Based on the provided details, I have already escalated your request to our Support team, so they can take a closer look and assist you as soon as possible.
Kind regards,
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