Email notifications play a vital role in the Webba Booking plugin, as they keep both the service administrators and customers informed about the booking process. These notifications ensure smooth communication, minimize misunderstandings, and enhance the overall booking experience.

How to Setup Email Notifications

Setting up email notifications in Webba Booking is simple!

Simply go to the Email templates page and edit existing templates or create a new one by pressing the Add Email Template+ button.

Here is a quick video showing how to create it:

Here are all the settings explained:

1. Name (internal use)
   Simply enter the name for the template for internal use, for easier management.
2. Enabled/disabled
   Enable/disable the template.
3. Trigger
   Here’s a list of email notification triggers that trigger an email based on settings applied:
   1. Booking is made by admin: when administrator creates a booking using the backend’s dashboard.
   2. Booking is made by customer: when customer makes a successful booking using an online form.
   3. Booking status changed to “Approved”: if default booking status is not “approved” and administrator changes the status to it.
   4. Booking cancelled by admin: when administrator cancels a booking using the backend’s dashboard.
   5. Booking cancelled by customer: when customer cancels a booking using their dashboard.
   6. Booking cancelled automatically: when system cancels a booking automatically due to timeout settings (e.g. when not paid in certain amount of time)
   7. Booking updated by admin: when administrator makes an update to the booking.
   8. Booking updated by customer: when customer makes an update to the booking.
   9. Booking is paid: when the payment for the booking is successful.
   10. Booking reminder to admin: reminder to administrator when there are X days left (based on settings).
   11. Booking reminder to customer: reminder to customer when there are X days left (based on settings).
   12. New user is created: an email to the customer with their account details where they will be able to manage the booking.
   13. Booking is finished: an email after booking status is changed to “arrived”. This can be used as a thank you message or to send any follow-up information.
4. Recipients
   You can set who receives the email – customer, administrator, group users (for group booking cases) – or all.
5. Email subject line
   You can set the email subject line here.
6. Email body
   You can add the email body right here. Utilize placeholders as necessary to dynamically populate the email with specific booking-related data or variables.

7. PDF attachment (PRO VERSION ONLY)
   You can send a PDF attachment with the booking emails. Here you will be able to add text that you would like to appear in the PDF.
8. Attach iCal file (PRO VERSION ONLY)
   Enable this to send a universal iCal file attached to the email which will enable customers to add the booking to their calendars.
9. Use for all services (yes/no)
   Enable this if the template should be applied to all services you have. If not – leave this disabled and choose individual services that the template should apply to.
10. Services
    Choose individual services that the template should apply to.

NOTE: DEFAULT TEMPLATES
To make it easy for you, we have created default templates covering every single trigger case.  You can edit them as any other template, however you can’t delete them. If you don’t want to use them, simply disable them.

General Email Notification Settings

For general email notification settings go to Settings >> Email Notifications.

Here are the different email notification settings explained: 

From: name
Specify the name that will appear as the sender’s name in the email notifications. You can customize this field to reflect your business or organization’s name or any other desired name for branding purposes.

From: email
Specify the email address from which the email notifications will be sent. You can enter the email address associated with your business or organization to ensure that recipients can easily identify the source of the emails.

Send copies of admin email notifications to addresses
Add a comma-separated list of emails if you would like to send copies of admin notifications to additional email addresses. This can be useful if you want to keep other team members informed about the booking activity. 

Notifications landing page
If you are an admin and want to quickly approve or cancel the booking, without logging into the wp-admin area, setup a notifications landing page.

In this field specify a page URL that will serve as a landing page for actions such as payment or cancellation. When recipients click on links related to payment or cancellation within the email notifications, they will be redirected to this designated landing page.

That URL should include the following shortcode:

[webbabooking]

to ensure that the appropriate functionality is available for payment or cancellation processes.

User Dashboard page
Here specify a URL where the user dashboard shortcode is located. When users make the first booking, they get an email with their automatically created account details and a URL where to login. The placeholder of that email gets hyperlinked to this page.

You have to make sure the page has this shortcode to show a login form:

[webba_user_dashboard]

More information about user dashboard.

Advanced Settings

Override default reply-to headers with booking-related data
Enabling this allows you to customize the reply-to email address in email notifications based on booking-related data.

When a recipient replies to an email notification, the reply-to address determines where the reply will be sent. With this setting enabled, the reply-to address can be dynamically set based on the booking information, such as the customer’s email address or the service provider’s email address.

By utilizing booking-related data for the reply-to address, you can ensure that replies to the email notifications are directed to the appropriate recipient. For example, if a customer has a question or needs to provide additional information about their booking, their reply will be sent directly to the designated service provider or contact person responsible for handling customer inquiries.

Set delay for “ARRIVED” email
Here you can specify a delay (in hours) for the email template with a trigger “Booking is finished”, which is usually used as a thank-you email or post-appointment survey.

Send reminders to customers in X days
Set the number of days the email templates with triggers Booking reminder to admin and Booking reminder to customer will use to send an email with appointment reminder.

Only whole numbers can be used (e.g. 1,2,3…).

Testing Email Notifications

From Webba Booking version 5.1.15, Email Notifications has received a much needed feature – email notifications testing.

To test the email notifications follow these steps:

1. Make sure there is at least one booking available in the Booking page. Testing notifications requires using actual bookings data to replace the placeholders with. If you don’t have a real booking to test the notifications with yet – simply create a mock booking using the Add booking button in the Bookings page.
2. Then navigate to the Email templates page and find the notification you want to test. Make sure the notification you want to test is assigned to the same service that the real or mock booking is for. Or simply select, that email template is assigned to all services.
3. Then click on the button Test in the table. 

4. From the dropdown, select the booking (or multiple) you want to test notification on and press next. If the dropdown is empty, refer to steps 1 and 2.

5. Enter an email address that should receive a notification test and press Send.

6. You should receive an email to the inbox indicated. If you haven’t received it within few minutes, check the email notifications troubleshooting options below.

Email Notifications Troubleshooting

I or my customer didn’t receive the email notification. What’s wrong?

Here are the potential issues and how to solve them:

1. Make sure right administrator email is setup to receive notifications
In order for an administrator to receive notifications about specific bookings, their email address(es) need to be added to the “Email” field of the respective Service.

You can have different administrators receive notifications for different services too.

To set which administrator(s) receive the notifications, follow this:

1. Go to the Services page of the plugin.
2. Select the relevant Service and click the pencil icon on the right side of the Service to edit it.
3. Click on the “Email” tab and enter the email address of the administrator who should receive notification. Multiple administrators can be added, just use commas to separate them.

4. Save the changes.

2. Make sure right services are assigned to the templates
For the email templates to be sent, make sure that they have the services assigned to them. You can assign all services or individual ones in the template edit window in the parts “Use for all services” or “Services”.

3. Make sure “From: Email” and “From: Name” options are set correctly.
Please check and configure them in Webba SETTINGS >> Email Notifications.

4. Setup SMTP plugin
Sometimes the customer reports that they don’t receive the notifications. This issue can be solved by installing and authorizing the SMTP plugin. We recommend using this one: WP Mail SMTP by WPForms. In the settings of SMTP plugin you need to set credentials provided by your hosting. Ensure the “From: Email” in Webba Booking Notification settings matches the SMTP login email.

5. Make sure Email notifications are disabled.
Make sure there is an enabled email template setup with the right trigger and receiver.

6. The email template is empty.
Make sure the email content is properly set.

How to manually resend an email notification to a customer?

To manually resend an email notification for a specific booking, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the Bookings Section.
2. Locate and select the booking for which you want to resend the notification.
3. Click the downward-facing arrow icon on the right side of the booking entry. This will open a dropdown menu.
4. From the dropdown menu, locate the option to “(Re)send Email Notifications.”
5. Choose the type of notification you wish to resend from the following options:
   1. On Booking
   2. On Payment
   3. On Approval
   4. On Arrival
6. After selecting the desired notification type, click the “Send” button. The notification will be resent to the customer.

How to edit an Email template

1. On the Email Templates page, locate the template you want to edit and click on the pencil icon located on the right side.
2. Update the content and/or the name of the template as necessary, making any desired modifications or improvements.
3. Once you have made the necessary changes, click “Save” to save the updated template.

How to delete an Email template

• On the Email Templates page, locate the template you want to delete and click on the trash bin icon located on the right side.
• Confirm the deletion in the popup window to proceed with the removal.

Note: you can’t delete default notification templates, only the ones you created yourself.

How to test an Email template

Refer to the section “Testing email notifications”.