Email Automations Guide

The emails that send themselves: which ones are already there, when they go out and what they cover

Contents

What an automation is The six automations already there When the email goes out The texts, language by language The fields that get replaced Turning it on, and what it covers Who can change them, and on which property If something looks wrong

What an automation isAn email that goes out by itself when something happens

An automation is an email Vezpa sends without you doing anything, as soon as the condition you picked comes true: two days before arrival, the moment the guest finishes the online check-in, the day after departure. You reach it in the app from the Configuration section, under «Automations».

Who receives it

The field «Who receives the email» has two values and no others: «To the guest», who gets the message in their own language, and «To me (host)», which is an internal notice sent to the property address.

They belong to a property, not to the account

Every automation belongs to one property. If your account runs more than one, each card in the list names the property it belongs to under the summary, and you pick the property from the menu at the top when you create the automation: while editing it stays locked, because moving an automation from one property to another would change which bookings it looks after.

A send that fails does not touch the booking: it is recorded in the send log with its reason (no text in any of the fallback languages, no way to reach the guest, a link that would have come out empty) and the booking stays as it was.

The six automations already thereThey exist from day one, with a text inside and the switch off

For every property Vezpa prepares six automations. They are not born empty: the example text is already written in every language of your Booking Engine. What is born off is the switch: until you turn it on, nothing goes out.

«Booking confirmation»
As soon as the booking is entered
It counts from the moment the booking was entered and covers bookings typed in by hand and the ones from the portals. It does not go out for Booking Engine bookings, which already send their own confirmation with the payment outcome.
«Pre-arrival self check-in»
Two days before check-in
The pre-arrival message, with the link to the online check-in.
«House rules / door codes»
As soon as the guest completes the online check-in
House rules and door codes, sent only to the guests who registered.
«Alert: guest data ready»
At the same moment, but to you
An internal notice to the property address: the guest details have been filled in.
«Tourist tax reminder»
One day before check-out
Invites the guest to pay the tax. If the tax already counts as paid, the email does not go out.
«Thank you / review request»
One day after check-out
Say goodbye to the guest and ask for a review.
On those six the «Use example text» button puts the starting text back into the language you are writing. On the automations you create yourself that button is not there: an example text only exists for a message whose purpose we know.

Your own automations

With «New automation» you add more of them, choosing a name, a trigger, a recipient and the texts. When the list is empty the page says so: «No automations. Tap + to create one.»

When the email goes outThree triggers that count time, three that follow a fact

The trigger is chosen in the «When» section. There are six of them, in two families.

The triggers that count time

They start from a date and move by an interval, «before» or «after», measured in «days», «hours» or «minutes»:

  • «Related to check-in» — the arrival date
  • «Related to check-out» — the departure date
  • «Related to booking date» — the moment the booking was entered

With the interval in days you also get «Send at», in the local time of the property: for example at 10:00 on the day of check-out. With hours or minutes that field does not appear, because counting starts at midnight on the reference day.

Time triggers are checked every thirty minutes. The interval has a ceiling: at most 60 days, hours or minutes.

The triggers that follow a fact

They fire the moment the fact happens, and they have neither an interval nor a send time:

  • «On event: online check-in completed»
  • «On event: payment completed»
  • «On event: booking cancelled»
A failed payment is not a trigger. It is not in the list, and not by oversight: nothing in the system signals a payment that did not go through, so an automation set on it would stay silent forever. To chase a guest who has not paid, use the repetition described below.

Repeating the reminder, and where it stops

With «Repeat the reminder» the same message goes out again at intervals until the condition you picked is met. There are four conditions: «Tourist tax paid», «Booking balance paid», «Deposit paid», «Online check-in completed». One of them is required to turn repetition on: without it, activation is refused.

The ceilings: «Repeat every» at most 30 (days or hours) and «Maximum number of sends» at most 10. And in any case, as the app puts it, «The reminder stops anyway after check-out or when the booking is cancelled.»

The stop condition counts even without repetition: set it on a message that goes out once, and that message will not reach a guest who has already done that thing. It is the reason the tax reminder does not reach someone who has already paid.
The same message goes out once only per booking and per occurrence: two checks close together, or an event signalled twice, do not produce two emails.

The texts, language by languageOne tab for each Booking Engine language

For every automation you write «Subject» and «Body» in each of the languages active in your Booking Engine: the language tabs are exactly those. Add a language to the Booking Engine and the new tab shows up here.

Which language the guest receives

Vezpa tries in order, and stops at the first text it finds filled in:

  1. the language of the portal the guest booked through, if it is one of the enabled ones
  2. the default language of the property
  3. English
  4. Italian
So a language left empty does not stop the send: a German guest with no German text still receives the message in English or in Italian. The send is skipped only when none of those four languages has a text. If you care that everyone reads their own language, those tabs have to be filled in.

The fields that get replacedPlaceholders in braces, filled in at send time

Inside the text you can drop placeholders that turn into the real booking details when the email goes out. They are written in single braces, all lowercase. You do not have to learn them: the «Insert field» button lists them together with the name of the detail each one inserts.

{ospite_nome} {ospiti_num} {check_in} {check_out} {notti} {camera_nome} {struttura_nome} {indirizzo} {link_self_checkin} {link_pagamento_tassa} {importo_tassa} {importo_tassa_totale} {saldo_residuo} {link_prenotazione} {whatsapp_struttura}
The placeholder names are the same in every language: they are field names, not words to translate. Write them exactly as they appear above.

What each one inserts

  • {ospite_nome} — the name of the lead guest
  • {ospiti_num} — the total number of guests
  • {check_in} / {check_out} — the dates, written in the language of the email
  • {notti} — the number of nights of the stay
  • {camera_nome} — the name of the accommodation type
  • {struttura_nome} — the name of the property
  • {indirizzo} — the address of the property
  • {link_self_checkin} — the link to the guest online check-in
  • {link_pagamento_tassa} — the link to pay the tourist tax
  • {importo_tassa} — the tourist tax still to be paid
  • {importo_tassa_totale} — the total tourist tax of the stay
  • {saldo_residuo} — what is left to settle on the booking
  • {link_prenotazione} — the link to the booking page
  • {whatsapp_struttura} — the WhatsApp number of the property, if you entered one

Amounts come out in the currency of the property, with the separators of the email language.

{importo_tassa} is the tourist tax left to pay, not the total. For the whole amount of the stay use {importo_tassa_totale}: they are two different numbers, and on a tax paid in part the difference shows.
A field that does not exist cannot be saved. Write {nome_ospite} instead of {ospite_nome} and a red notice under the preview lists the unrecognised fields, while «Save» is refused and names the first one. So it is not a way to leave a brace in the text: a text with a brace that is not a field will not go through.

The preview is an example, not proof

The «Preview» box shows the text with made-up data (an invented name, dates close to today) and is there to check the shape of the message. The app works it out, not the server: it is not the real email, and a few fields show up in square brackets instead of a value. To see the real sends, look at the send log.

For bookings from the portals with a chat (Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia, VRBO) an automation sent to the guest can arrive inside the portal conversation instead of by email. A text with a link, such as {link_self_checkin}, tries the guest's real email first; if there is none, it goes to the chat, where Vezpa's links (vezpa.it and your active custom domain) stay always, on Airbnb and on Booking.com. On Expedia and VRBO links are removed.

On Booking.com there is one step to take once, in the extranet: Property → Messaging preferences → Security settings → «Add a link» → vezpa.it, and your own domain too if the property uses one (the check-in link starts from there). Until you do it, the guest receives the text of the message but reads [Link was removed] where the link should be: Booking.com replaces the links you have not approved. On Airbnb there is nothing to do.

A message with a link never goes out mutilated: if the only way is a chat that would remove the link (Expedia, VRBO), the send is skipped and recorded in the send log with the reason.

Turning it on, and what it coversFirst «Save», then the switch

An automation sends nothing while the «Active» switch is off. The path is this:

  1. open the automation from the list, or create one with «New automation»
  2. in the «When» section pick the trigger, the interval and, where it applies, «Send at»
  3. write «Subject» and «Body» at least in the default language of the property: without that text activation is refused
  4. in the «Types» section decide which accommodations it applies to
  5. tap «Save»
  6. turn «Active» on
The two gestures are separate and the order matters: on a freshly created automation the switch stays off and untouchable until you have saved. Changes to the texts and to the types do not save themselves: without «Save» they are lost.

Which accommodations it applies to

The «Types» section groups by accommodation type, not by single room. Each group you add with «New group» holds its own types and its own texts, so you can write one message for the suites and another for the double rooms. The «Other types» group covers everything you have not assigned, as long as «Also send to the other types» stays on. A type that is in no group and is not covered by that switch receives nothing.

What it covers: no catching up on the past

Turning an automation on sends nothing for what has already gone by. The test is not the date of the booking: it is the calculated send date. The message goes out only if that date falls after the moment you turned the switch on.

  • a booking entered months ago, checking in next week, does get the pre-arrival: its send date is in the future
  • a booking entered yesterday, checking in tomorrow morning, does not get a pre-arrival set to two days earlier: that date has already gone by
Turning the switch off clears the moment it was turned on: turning it on again starts from there, and whatever went by in between stays behind. Changing the interval, the unit, the direction or the send time on an automation that is on also resets that mark, because it moves the send date of every booking.

Editing and switching off

You can switch an automation off at any time, from the list or from its own page: that switch acts straight away, without going through «Save».

Who can change them, and on which propertyThese emails go out in the name of the property

Creating, editing, activating or deleting an automation needs the permission to configure the property: the Manager and the Assistant have it. For the other roles the page stays read-only: no button to create one, no switches, no «Save».

The send log

The log of each automation lists the sends with their outcome, the language used, the address and the reason for any error. It is reserved to whoever can configure the property, for a precise reason: it shows the guests’ email addresses. The Observer and the Housekeeper do not reach it.

The ceilings on the numeric fields

Three fields have a ceiling: the trigger interval at most 60, «Repeat every» at most 30, «Maximum number of sends» at most 10. A field left empty goes back to the last valid value instead of saving zero.

If something looks wrongThe reasons an email does not go out

  • The automation is on but nothing has gone out. Look at the calculated date: if it fell before you turned the switch on, nothing goes out. And check that you tapped «Save» after writing the texts.
  • One type receives nothing. In the «Types» section that type has to sit in a group whose text is filled in, or the «Other types» group has to have «Also send to the other types» on.
  • Saving is refused. Almost always there is a hand-typed placeholder that does not exist: the red notice under the preview names it.
  • The guest got the email in the wrong language. The text in their language is missing: it falls back to the language of the property, then English, then Italian.
  • The log says the send was skipped. The reason sits next to it: no way to reach that guest, no text in any of the fallback languages, a link that would have come out empty, a link that the portal chat would have removed (see Email or portal chat, and the links), or a stop condition already met.
  • On demo properties nothing goes out, by design: a trial account does not write to guests.

Need a hand?

If you have any doubt about the automations, open a ticket from the Vezpa app: the support system is in the Configuration section.