Guest Mailer - Explaining modes and filters for automatic emails

With the Guest Mailer, you can automatically or manually send different email templates to your guests for various purposes. From encouraging guests to Online check-in and offering extra services to sending general information or reminder about the stay, having set robust automatic emailing system will ultimately save time for your guests and reduce workload at the Front desk while at the same time ensuring that guests have all the information they need.

This article explains the various 'Send on' modes along with all Filters both of which are applicable for automatic emails.

Modes

You can create and set up a new email template following the steps below:

• Navigate to menu Settings -> All Settings ->Guest Engagement->Guest Mailer.
• Add a new template through the '+' button.

• Name (1) - Enter a name for the email to indicate its purpose. This name is visible only internally in the system and cannot be changed after the mailer is created.
• Editor (2) - select the type of editor that you will use to create your template. We recommend always selecting 'Visual builder'.
• Auto send (3) - select if the email should be sent automatically or not.

• Send on (4)- select the trigger event before or after which the email will be sent:
  • After booking creation - the number of hours after booking creation, after which an email is to be sent. These emails are sent to expected bookings only.

    Note: If you set a period of 120h (5 days), emails will be sent on the fifth day after the creation of the respective bookings, provided that they are still expected.

  •  Before arrival - the number of hours before 12:00 noon on the arrival date. These emails are only sent for expected bookings.

    Note: If you set a period of 120h (5 days), bookings created within 5 days of arrival will not receive an email, because the moment for sending the emails is missed. Also, you are advised not to enter very short periods, if you have an early check-in, i.e. if you have check-in from 8:00h, you should not enter a value less than 4h (12:00h minus 4 hours makes 8:00h). Otherwise, all the bookings with early check-in will not receive an email, as the guests will have been checked in prior to the email sending.

  • Up to arrival - the number of hours up to arrival. In contrast to the 'Before arrival', If you set 'Up to arrival' to 120 hours (5 days), then all bookings, even the last-minute ones, will receive an email. The sending will start 120 hours before arrival, and the last-minute bookings will be sent an email with their very creation.
  • After arrival - the number of hours after arrival (fill in 0, if you desire email sending immediately after arrival or enter 24, 48, etc. This way emails will be sent after 1, 2 or more days after arrival. Emails will be sent for checked-in bookings only.
  • Before departure- the number of hours before departure. As with all of the rest templates, the hours are counted back from 12:00 noon (on the date of departure).

    Note: If you want the pre-departure emails to be sent at 17:00 on the day before departure, you need to enter in the 'Time Range (hours)' field: 19, i.e. 19 hours before 12:00 noon on the date of departure. The emails are only sent for bookings with 'Checked-in' status.

  • After departure - the number of hours after departure (fill in 0, if you desire email sending immediately after departure or enter 24, 48, etc. This way emails will be sent after 1, 2 or more days after departure); Emails will be sent for checked-out bookings only.
  • After Cancellation - set up auto emailing for cancelled/no-show bookings to be sent after the booking is marked as such
• Time range (hours) (5) - fill in the number of hours from the point chosen above, after/before which an email is to be sent.

Filters

• Guarantee status (6) - Using this filter, emails will be sent only for bookings having a certain Guarantee status. Available for Expected bookings only.
• Guarantee policy (7) - The email will be sent only for bookings with the selected Guarantee policies. Leave blank to send to all bookings regardless of the guarantee policy.
• Room booking (8) - If set to YES, the email will be sent for bookings with a room element (room type or room). If set to NO, it will be sent only for bookings without a room element. Leave blank to send to both.
• OTA booking (9) - OTA bookings are the ones received through the automatic import of the channel manager. If for some reason, you have entered an OTA booking manually, you can send the respective emails for it manually. Select 'Yes' to send the email only to OTA bookings. Select 'No' to send the email to all other bookings. Leave blank to send to both.
• Credit card (10)- The email will be sent to bookings that have the following credit card type (the Origin field of the credit card details).
  Note: The term OTA is used for the virtual credit cards sent by the OTAs.

  The possible options are:

  • Leave the field blank to send the email to all bookings regardless of the card situation.
  • No Card - The email will be sent only if the booking has no credit card stored.
  • Guest Only - The email will be sent only if all credit cards in the booking are marked as 'Guest'.
  • OTA Only - The email will be sent only if all credit cards in the booking are marked as 'OTA'.
  • Guest and OTA - The email will be sent to bookings that have both 'OTA' (virtual) and 'Guest' cards.
• In hotel from (11) / In hotel to (12) - use these filters separately or in combination to filter the bookings for which emails are to be sent depending on guests' arrival and/or departure dates.
• Min Stay (13) / Max Stay (14) - Create different email templates to be sent to your guests with a longer or shorter period of stay using the Minimum stay and Max stay filters: Both filters work on the 'included' basis, i.e. if you set Minimum stay = 3 and Max stay = 6, emails will be sent for the bookings for: 3, 4, 5 and 6 nights. You can also use the filters separately, i.e. only the Minimum stay or Max stay.
• Marketing email acceptance (15) - The email will be sent based on the guest preferences for marketing acceptance.
• Confirmed (16) - If set to YES, the message will be sent only for confirmed bookings. If set to NO, it will be sent only for unconfirmed bookings. Leave blank to send to both.

• Pre-checked-in (17) - If set to YES, the email will be sent only for the bookings that have passed the online check-in procedure. If set to NO, the email will be sent only for the bookings not having passed this procedure.
• Included companies (18) / Excluded companies (19)- select to which companies the specific template to be or not to be sent.
  • Included companies. In this case, the template will be sent for the bookings of the companies on this list.
  • Excluded companies. In this case, the template will be sent for all bookings but the ones of the companies on this list.

At the end press the 'Save' button  to conclude the creation and setup of the necessary email template with an appropriate name.