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Booking automations

Pair a booking message with a time so it sends automatically — confirmation chasers, reminders, win-backs and birthdays.

Automations decide when your timed booking messages go out. Open Booking settings → Messages → Automations. Each automation pairs one of your messages with a time, like "24 hours before the booking".

Note

Automations are part of the Bookings Pro add-on. If Automations doesn't appear under Booking settings → Messages, ask your account manager to enable Bookings Pro. There's no self-serve switch.

What you can automate

There are five timed messages here:

  • Ask them to confirm — sends a set number of hours before the booking and asks the guest whether they're still coming. They answer with one tap, and their answer shows on the booking. Always sends.
  • Chase an unanswered booking — one last nudge, closer to the booking, for guests who haven't answered yet. Always sends.
  • Booking reminder — sends a set number of hours before the booking. Always sends.
  • Win-back — sends a set number of days since the guest's last visit. Consent required — it only goes to guests who opted in.
  • Birthday — sends on the guest's birthday. Consent required — it only goes to guests who opted in.

Note

Review requests moved. Asking a guest for a review is now set up on Reviews, under Bookings, together with your review link and a list of who was asked and who was skipped. You will still find it under Add an automation, on a card that links straight across — there is one place to set it, not two.

Confirmation chasing, and when it stops

The two confirm messages work as a pair: Ask them to confirm goes out first, and Chase an unanswered booking follows only if the guest still hasn't replied.

As soon as a guest answers, both stop. That's true whether they confirm or cancel — either is an answer, and neither gets chased again. A guest who tells you they're coming won't then be nagged about it.

Your reminder is separate and keeps sending. A guest who has confirmed still gets "your table is at 19:30 tomorrow", because that's the message they most want. Confirming doesn't switch it off.

If a guest never answers, the booking simply shows no answer — that's different from them saying no, and your diary shows the difference.

Set one up

You can only create an automation for a message you've already written, because the automation needs something to send.

  1. 1

    Write the message first

    Go to Messages and click Create message. Pick the message type, write the wording, switch it Enabled, and save. If the message type isn't in the picker, you've already created it — it's in your messages list ready to schedule.

  2. 2

    Pick it from Add an automation

    Back on Automations, look under your list for Add an automation. Every message that can send on its own is shown there — the ones you can add now, the ones that need writing first, and the ones set up elsewhere. Click the one you want.

  3. 3

    Set the timing

    Enter the number, for example 24 in Send 24 hours before the booking. The birthday message has no number — it sends on the day.

  4. 4

    Switch it on and save

    Use the Enabled toggle, then Save.

Each automation can be enabled or disabled, retimed, and removed. Every one carries a badge saying who it reaches: Always sends on the two confirm messages and the reminder, Consent required on win-back and birthday.

Note

Only one automation exists per message type — one reminder, one win-back, and so on. A message type you have already automated is not shown under Add an automation: it is in the list above instead, which is where you edit it. A message type you have not written yet does appear there, on a card that says so and links you to go and write it.

Turning an automation off

Disabling an automation is safe and reversible:

  • Nothing more goes out while it's off — including for bookings already in the diary.
  • Toggle it back on and it resumes. Bookings whose send moment passed recently — within about a day — do still catch up on the next run; older ones don't, so it never back-fills the whole diary. Same for the two confirm messages; win-back catches up for about a week.

Removing an automation has the same effect as disabling it — that message stops sending until you set it up again.

If you do not have Bookings Pro

Opening this page without the add-on shows you what it does and links back here, rather than a "page not found". Bookings Pro is switched on for your account by us — talk to your account manager to add it. Everything else in Bookings, your diary included, works exactly as before.

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