Booking Calendar Guest Notifications

Guest notifications in Booking Calendars keep clients informed by automatically sending confirmation and reminder messages related to their appointments. This guide explains how to configure standard notifications and create custom workflows for more personalized communication.

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Default Guest Notifications

Each Booking Calendar includes default notifications that are automatically set up to keep guests informed about their bookings. These default notifications ensure that guests receive essential updates without requiring additional setup.

Standard Notifications (Automatically Enabled)

• Meeting Confirmation: Sent immediately after a booking is made to confirm appointment details.
• Meeting Reminder: Sent, by default, 1 hour before the scheduled meeting.
• Meeting Rescheduled: Notifies clients when the meeting date or time is changed.
• Meeting Reassigned: Alerts clients when the meeting host changes.
• Meeting Cancelled: Informs clients when a meeting has been canceled.

Booking With Approval Notifications

These notifications are automatically enabled when Booking with Approval is enabled for a Booking Calendar:

• Meeting Request Submitted: Sent when a request is submitted.
• Meeting Request Approved: Sent when the request is approved.
• Meeting Request Declined: Sent when the request is declined.

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Configure Guest Notification

Guest notifications are centrally managed at the Booking Calendar level to ensure consistent communication across all team members.

To Set-up Notifications

Follow these steps to set up guest notifications for your Booking Calendar:

1. Click Booking Calendars in the left-hand navigation menu.
2. Select the Booking Calendar you wish to edit.
3. Navigate to the Notifications tab.
4. In the Guest Notifications section, toggle on Email or SMS for each notification stage (such as Meeting Confirmation, Meeting Reminder, or Meeting Rescheduled).

Note

Enabling SMS notifications automatically adds an SMS consent checkbox to your Booking Form. Your account includes 25 complimentary SMS credits to get started.

5. Under Meeting Reminder, select the timing from the dropdown menu (e.g., 1 hour Before) or click + Add email reminder / + Add SMS reminder to set additional reminders.
6. Click Customize next to any stage to edit the message content using object properties.

Note

Changes made in the Notifications tab are saved automatically.

SMS Consent and Phone Verification

To comply with telecommunications industry regulations and protect deliverability, OnceHub sends SMS notifications only when the following conditions are met:

• Meeting consent: The guest must provide explicit consent to receive SMS notifications (e.g., via the Booking Form consent checkbox, via API, or over the phone).
• Phone number verification (US/Canada): For phone numbers with the US/Canada country code (+1), the mobile number must be verified. Verification is not required for phone numbers outside the US and Canada at this time.

How Verification Works

• First-Time Guests: The meeting is scheduled immediately. Right after booking, the guest receives an SMS asking them to confirm their number by replying YES.
• Returning Guests: Verification is saved on their contact record, so returning guests only need to select the SMS consent checkbox when booking.

Email Customization and Object Properties

Personalizing your content ensures guests receive professional information tailored to your brand.

• Customize Content: Go to the Notifications tab, scroll down to the Guest Notifications section, and click Customize next to the desired notification type (for example, Meeting Confirmation or Meeting Reminder). This opens the Email notification tab where you can edit the Subject and Body. The rich text editor allows you to use full text formatting (such as bold, italics, alignment, lists), insert links, or include custom images.
• Insert Object Properties: Click + Object Properties to open the properties dropdown menu, or type @ to quickly search and insert them. These automatically pull dynamic data directly into the email, such as:
  • Guest Info: Full name, email address.
  • Meeting Details: Date, Time, Location.
  • Links: Reschedule link, Cancel link.

SMS Customization and Object Properties

Personalizing your text notifications helps guests receive clear and relevant meeting information directly on their mobile devices.

• Customize Content: Go to the Notifications tab, scroll down to the Guest Notifications section, and click Customize next to the desired notification type (for example, Meeting Confirmation or Meeting Reminder). Select the SMS notification tab to edit the message. SMS notifications support plain text only and do not include a subject field or rich text formatting options.
• Insert Object Properties: Click + Object Properties to open the properties dropdown menu, or type @ to quickly search and insert them. These automatically pull dynamic data directly into the SMS, such as:
  • Guest Info: Full name and mobile number.
  • Meeting Details: Date, Time, Location.
  • Links: Reschedule and cancellation links.
• Notification-Specific Properties: Available Object Properties vary depending on the notification type. For example, the Reminder time property is available only in Meeting Reminder notifications. Some properties, such as Booking Form Transcript, are not available in SMS notifications.
• Compliance Footer: To meet carrier and regulatory requirements, the “Sent by OnceHub.” text is automatically appended to all SMS notifications and cannot be removed.

Note

Cancellation and rescheduling policies are configured independently, and each setting controls its respective link in default notifications:

• If one policy is set to Never: Only that specific action’s link and instructions are removed from the default notifications. For example: if cancellation is set to Never but rescheduling is allowed, only the cancel link is removed.
• If both policies are set to Never: All cancel and reschedule links and related phrases (such as “Make changes to this meeting?”) are removed.
• Custom templates: If a custom notification template still contains these links, they remain visible, but redirect guests to a page explaining that changes are not permitted under the current booking policy.