Booking message channels

Channels are how your booking messages reach guests, and what they see as the sender. Open Booking settings → Messages → Channels.

Email

Email carries everything by default: booking confirmations, reminders, cancellations and updates. It's set up and ready — there's nothing to connect. You only choose what guests see as the sender:

• From name — the sender name shown on your emails. Leave it blank to use your account name.
• Reply-to email — where guest replies go. Leave it blank to use the default.

SMS

Setting SMS up is one field: the sender name guests see in place of a phone number. There's no account to open and no API key to find — we hold the text-messaging account, and your venue's name sits on top of it.

• Up to 11 characters, using letters, numbers and spaces only.
• It needs at least one letter. All-numbers shows as a phone number, not a name.
• No punctuation or accented characters — "Café 22" won't be accepted, "Cafe 22" will.

What the SMS card is telling you

The card shows one of three things, and only the last one means a text can actually go out:

• Not set up — you haven't saved a sender name. Type one and Save.
• Set up — not sending yet — your sender name is saved and there is nothing left for you to do. Texts aren't going out because our text-messaging account isn't switched on yet. This is where every venue is today.
• Active — your sender name is saved and texts are sending.

To stop using texts at all, use Turn off SMS; messages set to SMS then go back to email.

What texts cost, and why length matters

Texts are billed per 160 characters, not per message. A message of 161 characters costs twice as much as one of 160, on every single booking. The message editor shows a live count as you type, so you can see when one more sentence has doubled the price.

Two things cost more than they look:

• Curly apostrophes and emoji. One "smart" apostrophe (the kind most word processors insert) changes how the whole text is encoded and cuts the limit from 160 characters to 70. A straight apostrophe doesn't.
• Links. Booking and unsubscribe links are long. They're worth it, but count them.

Marketing texts and opting out

Because guests can't reply, marketing texts carry an unsubscribe link instead. It's added automatically — you don't have to remember it, and it can't be removed.

Marketing texts also only go to guests who agreed to marketing by text specifically. A guest who opted into marketing emails hasn't agreed to be texted, and won't be. Confirmations, reminders and cancellations are different: they're about the guest's own booking, so they don't need marketing consent.

WhatsApp — not available yet

WhatsApp appears on this screen marked Not set up, and it can't be connected. That's a product limitation, not a step you're failing to finish: WhatsApp requires a business verification with Meta for each venue and pre-approval of every message template, which is a different kind of setup from switching a channel on.

If WhatsApp matters to your venue, let your account manager know so it's weighted. In the meantime SMS covers the same ground — a text reminder the day before is the single most effective way to cut no-shows.

Common questions

I saved my sender name and the card says "Set up — not sending yet". What have I done wrong? Nothing. Your half is finished; ours isn't. Our text-messaging account isn't switched on yet, so no texts are going out for any venue. Your sender name is saved and will be used the moment they are — there's nothing to re-save and nothing to check. Meanwhile your booking confirmations and reminders go out by email, so your guests still hear from you.

Do I need my own text-messaging account? No. We hold the account. You choose the name guests see, and that's the whole setup.

A guest replied to a text and we never got it. Why? Sender names are one-way — the reply has nowhere to arrive. This is how text sender names work everywhere, not a fault with your account. Make sure your message copy never asks a guest to reply.

Can I send a one-off text to a single guest? Not from here. Channels sets up how automatic booking messages are sent; the messages themselves live in Messages.

Why does my text say it'll cost two messages when it looks short? Almost always a curly apostrophe or an emoji — either one cuts the limit from 160 characters to 70. The editor's counter shows it as you type.