How to add a marketing opt-in checkbox to your booking form

This guide shows you how to add a newsletter opt-in checkbox to your online booking form, so guests can choose to join your mailing list while they book.

The checkbox comes from the free Mailchimp integration. If you do not use Mailchimp, the Custom Fields add-on can build a similar checkbox with your own wording instead, see the alternative below.

This is separate from the EU/UK cookie-consent banner used for ad tracking (Google Ads, Meta). That banner belongs to the Marketing & Analytics add-on, not to this checkbox.

Resos does not send bulk email or newsletters

Resos has no bulk email, newsletter, or promotional broadcast feature of its own. The booking system sends transactional email to guests only, tied to a specific booking: confirmation, reminders, cancellation, and a feedback request after the visit. Connect the Mailchimp integration below and send your campaigns to the audience it builds over time as guests book and opt in. Connecting it does not import your existing guest list; historical customers are not added automatically. To reach customers you already have marketing permission for, export them from Resos and import them into Mailchimp yourself, since exporting the list is not itself proof of opt-in - only import contacts whose consent you already hold.

How to activate the Mailchimp integration

1. Go to Menu → Settings & add-ons → Integrations.
2. Find the Mailchimp card and open it.
3. Click Activate. Mailchimp is free, so there is nothing to pay and nothing to confirm. The settings below stay locked until you do this.
4. Click Connect Mailchimp account and log in to Mailchimp to authorize the connection.
5. Under Add to Mailchimp audience (list), pick the audience new guests should be added to.
6. Click Save to save the audience and checkbox settings.

The newsletter checkbox does not appear on your booking form until your Mailchimp account is connected and your audience selection is saved. Connecting alone is not enough.

How to control the checkbox

Once Mailchimp is connected, two settings on the same Mailchimp settings page control what guests see:

• Show a newsletter opt-in checkbox on the booking form. This is on by default once you connect the integration. Turn it off and no checkbox is shown to guests at all, but every guest who books is still added to your selected Mailchimp audience automatically. Check your local marketing laws before turning this off, since it removes the guest’s opt-in step entirely.
• Check opt-in checkbox by default. When the checkbox is shown, this pre-ticks it. Guests can still untick it before booking.

Click Save after changing either setting. Open your public booking form to check that the checkbox appears as expected.

Note: The checkbox only appears on the booking form when the restaurant collects a guest’s email address. If your booking form is set to phone number only, the checkbox never shows, because there is no email to add to Mailchimp.

What guests see

When the checkbox is shown, guests see it near the end of the booking form, labeled “Join our e-mail newsletter.” It is a plain checkbox: checked or unchecked, with no extra text about how the address will be used beyond what you add yourself elsewhere on your site or booking page.

What Resos stores, and what it does not

The guest’s checkbox choice is saved on the booking itself. Your staff can set it too: once Mailchimp is connected and an audience is selected, a booking added from the dashboard has a Receive newsletter switch on the booking form (greyed out when that guest is already subscribed). If the guest checked it (or it was pre-ticked or forced on) and gave an email address, Resos sends that guest to your selected Mailchimp audience through the Mailchimp API when the booking is made.

Resos records the date a guest was added to your Mailchimp audience. You see it on that guest’s profile under Customers, as a subscription date that links to their Mailchimp record, and as a mail icon on the customer list; hover it to see the same date. A Newsletter chart appears on the customer report once Mailchimp is active.

Resos does not record a separate consent source, and this date is not included in any bulk export from Resos. You can view and export audience subscription data in Mailchimp, but the integration does not send the checkbox wording or a separate consent source. You are responsible for keeping the consent evidence you need, including the wording guests saw and how they opted in. A contact’s subscribed status alone is not a complete consent record.

Alternative: Custom Fields add-on

If you do not use Mailchimp, or you want your own wording, the paid Custom Fields add-on lets you build your own opt-in checkbox on the booking form. See how to set up the custom fields add-on for how to activate it and add a field; a checkbox-type custom field works well for a marketing opt-in.

Choices captured this way stay in Resos as a custom field on the booking. They do not sync to Mailchimp or any other mailing list automatically; you would need to act on them yourself.

Using Klaviyo or another email tool instead of Mailchimp

Klaviyo, and any email marketing tool other than Mailchimp, are not Resos integrations. Mailchimp above is the only newsletter service Resos connects to directly. If you use Klaviyo or a similar tool, you have two options:

• Import contacts you already have marketing permission for: export your customer list from Resos, then import into your tool only the contacts whose opt-in you already hold. Exporting the list is not itself proof of consent.
• Use the Custom Fields add-on above to capture opt-in consent on the booking, then act on it in your own tool.

Zapier is also available under Menu → Settings & add-ons → Integrations, and can connect Resos to hundreds of other tools without custom development. It runs on top of the paid API add-on, so that add-on has to be active first; see how to use the Resos REST API for details.

Out of scope

This checkbox is about email marketing consent, not the cookie-consent banner used for ad tracking (Google Ads, Meta Pixel). That banner is part of the Marketing & Analytics add-on and is a separate setup.

If you have any questions about adding a marketing opt-in checkbox to your booking form, contact us at hi@resos.com.