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How automation timing is measured

The exact rules for 'hours before', 'hours after', confirmation chasing, win-back and birthday timing — with worked examples.

Automation timing counts from the booking time, not from when the guest booked. This article gives you the exact rules and a few worked examples so your schedule matches what your guests actually experience.

Confirmation-chase timing

The two confirm messages both count hours before the booking, exactly like a reminder. Set the first one further out and the chase closer in:

  • Ask them to confirm at 24 hours before, and Chase an unanswered booking at 4 hours before. A booking at 7pm Friday is asked at 7pm Thursday, and chased at 3pm Friday only if nobody has answered.

Note

The chase only sends if the guest still hasn't answered. If they confirm (or cancel) after the first message, the second never goes out — the sequence stops the moment you have an answer. Setting both doesn't mean two emails; it means at most two.

Your reminder is timed separately and is unaffected — a guest who confirmed still gets it. Confirming tells the venue you're coming; the reminder tells you when.

Reminder timing

A reminder timed "N hours before" sends exactly N hours before the booking starts:

  • A booking at 7pm on Friday with Send 24 hours before gets its reminder at 7pm on Thursday.
  • A booking at 1pm on Saturday with Send 2 hours before gets its reminder at 11am on Saturday.

Note

A send moment that has just passed still catches up — for about a day. Set a 24-hour reminder at 2pm today and a booking already in the diary for 10am tomorrow does get one, on the next run: its send moment was 10am this morning, four hours ago. What does not get one is a booking whose send moment passed more than about a day ago. Same rule for the two confirm messages; win-back catches up for about a week.

So switching a message on does reach the bookings you already have, but only those still near their send moment — it never back-fills the whole diary.

Review request timing

A review request counts forwards from the booking the same way. "Send 3 hours after" on a 7pm booking sends at 10pm the same evening.

Note

You set this one on Reviews, not on Automations — it sits with your review link and the list of who was asked. Automations still shows it under Add an automation, as a card that links you straight across. The timing rule on this page is exactly the same either way.

Because it's marketing, it only goes to guests who consented. Reviews shows you how many guests were skipped for that reason, so you don't have to guess.

Win-back timing

Win-back counts days since the guest's last visit, not the booking they're currently making. If you set "Send 90 days since last visit", the message fires 90 days after the guest last came in — a nudge for people who've drifted.

Birthday timing

Birthday simply sends on the day. There's no number to set.

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