Why your guest did not get a confirmation email

If a guest says they never received a confirmation, the cause is almost always one of four things: the booking has no email address or the E-mail switch is off, the booking type does not send a confirmation, the message failed, or it went to the wrong place. Open the booking first, because its history tells you which of the four it is.

1. Check what Resos did with the booking

Open the booking and look at the column down its right-hand side. On a phone, or in a narrow browser window, that column sits behind the Messages, Notes tab, so tap it first. Every email and SMS that Resos sent or tried to send to the guest is listed there, labeled Email notification or SMS notification, with the time it was sent. Click an entry to read the text the guest received.

• An entry is there and shows an error. The message was tried and failed, for example because the address does not exist. Go to step 4. For an SMS error, see SMS notifications will not switch on or do not arrive, because some numbers cannot receive texts at all.
• An entry is there without an error. Resos sent it. Ask the guest to check the junk or spam folder and to search for your restaurant’s name, then go to step 4 to check the address is spelled correctly.
• No entry at all. Nothing was sent. Continue with steps 2 and 3.

2. Check the notification switch on the booking

Resos only sends a guest email when the booking has an email address and the email notification is on for that booking. Open the booking and look at Send notifications to guest: the E-mail switch must be on. The SMS switch is only there while the SMS messages add-on is active and guest SMS is turned on under Menu → Settings & add-ons → Communication → Notifications.

• Bookings you add yourself: the E-mail switch turns on by itself when you type an email address, and off again if you clear it. Check it anyway if you picked the guest from an existing customer without an email.
• Online bookings: the guest decides. When the SMS messages add-on is active and guest SMS is turned on, the booking page offers Keep me updated via: with an E-mail and an SMS checkbox, unless Required contact information hides one of the two fields. A guest who ticks only SMS gets no email. If your Required contact information is set to Phone (hide e-mail field), no email address is collected at all. See require a phone number or email on your booking page. For a booking made on your booking page the switch cannot be changed afterwards from the dashboard.

3. Check that this booking type sends a confirmation

Not every booking sends a “Booking confirmation”. These do not:

• Walk-ins. A booking with the source Walk-in sends no confirmation.
• Booking requests you have not accepted. The guest gets a “Booking request received” message that says it is not a confirmation. The confirmation goes out when you accept the request.
• Bookings waiting for a payment or card step. When you enter the booking yourself, the guest first gets a message asking them to complete it. The confirmation goes out after they finish.
• Bookings set to Deleted. Changing an accepted booking or a booking request to Deleted sends nothing. The exceptions are a booking that is Pending confirmation and a waitlist entry: deleting those tells the guest. Use Cancelled if the guest should be told. Declined only sends a message when you decline a booking request.
• Bookings whose time has already passed. A confirmation is not sent more than an hour after the booking’s start time, and no message at all is sent more than a month after it. A new message on the booking and a changed date or time are the exceptions to the one-hour limit.

Can I send the confirmation later?

The confirmation is sent once, when the booking is created or approved. Adding an email address to an existing booking, or switching E-mail on later, does not send it.

The nearest option is a message. Add the email address, turn on E-mail, save, then write in the box under the booking’s Message tab, for example with the booking details. The guest gets that text as an email (subject “New message regarding your booking”). Resos does not show it as a booking confirmation.

4. Check the address and resend

A mistyped address is the most common reason a message fails. Correct it on the booking and save. If the failed entry in the booking’s message history has a Resend button, press it to send that message again. The button appears on failed messages from the last 90 days. If the corrected address does not receive the resend, tell us at hi@resos.com with the booking date.

Which messages does a guest get when I change a booking?

What you do	Guest gets
Accept a booking request	Approval message (carries your Booking confirmation text)
Decline or cancel a request	Declined message
Cancel a booking	Cancellation message (not sent for an online booking whose payment the guest never completed)
Change the date or time	A message that the booking has moved
Change the number of guests or the table	Nothing
Write a message on the booking	The message (email), or “New message” with a link (SMS)
Set an accepted booking or a request to Deleted	Nothing (a booking pending confirmation or a waitlist entry does send a message)

Reminders, confirmation requests and feedback requests are sent on a schedule, as described in booking reminders and the booking confirmation feature. Your own top and bottom text is added to some of these messages only; see how to customize booking notifications.

If it is you who stopped getting alerts

New-booking alerts to you are a separate setting from the guest messages above. Check Menu → Settings & add-ons → Communication → Notifications → To you, as described in how to choose your preferred way of receiving booking notifications.

Still having issues?

Write to us at hi@resos.com with the booking date, the guest’s name and whether the booking’s message history shows an entry for it, and we will look into it.