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Booking Notifications

After a booking is confirmed, ActiveBooker automatically sends notifications to the customer and to the location's admin team. No manual action is needed — all notifications fire as part of the booking confirmation process.


Overview

NotificationRecipientChannelCondition
Booking ReceiptCustomerEmailCustomer email address is provided
Booking ReceiptCustomerSMSText Reminder feature is enabled and phone number is provided
New Booking CreatedAdmin(s)EmailBooking Emails or Contact Emails are configured
New BookingAdmin(s)In-appAdmin users are linked to the location

Customer email receipt

After a booking is confirmed, the customer receives a Booking Receipt email at the address entered in the booking form.

  • The email uses the template configured for the selected booking type — different booking types can have different templates
  • All merge fields (customer name, booking date, start time, activity, pricing, invoice number, etc.) are substituted with the actual booking values
  • If no customer email address was entered, no receipt email is sent

Customer SMS receipt

When the Text Reminder feature is enabled for the location, the customer also receives an SMS after the booking is confirmed.

  • The SMS is sent to the phone number entered in the booking form
  • The message body is resolved from the location's configured SMS template, with all booking placeholders substituted
  • If the Text Reminder feature is disabled, no SMS is sent regardless of whether a phone number was provided
  • If the phone number field is blank, no SMS is attempted even when Text Reminder is enabled

Note: SMS delivery depends on the third-party SMS provider. For Text Reminder configuration, go to your location settings.


Admin email notification

After a booking is confirmed, an email with the subject "New Booking Created" is sent to the location's configured email addresses.

From address and name

Admin notification emails are sent from ActiveBooker using the address no-reply@activebooker.com.

Recipient logic

The system uses Booking Emails as the primary recipient list and falls back to Contact Emails if Booking Emails is empty:

Booking EmailsContact EmailsResult
One or more addressesAnyEmail sent to all Booking Emails addresses
EmptyOne or more addressesEmail sent to all Contact Emails addresses
EmptyEmptyNo admin email is sent; no error is raised

Email body

The admin notification email body contains the customer's name and the booking date and start time.


Admin in-app notification

After a booking is confirmed, an in-app notification appears in the admin dashboard notification feed.

  • Title: New Booking
  • Body: [Customer Name] created a booking. — for example, "Jordan created a booking."
  • The notification is delivered to the location owner and all admin users linked to the location
  • When there are no admin users associated with the location, no in-app notification is sent and no error is raised
  • Multiple bookings stack in the feed in reverse-chronological order (most recent at the top)

Zapier webhook dispatch

In addition to the notification channels above, ActiveBooker can also dispatch a webhook POST request to external endpoints after a booking is created. This is part of the Zapier Integration and operates independently of the notification service.

For full details on payload fields, subscription configuration, delivery behaviour, and feature flag requirements, see Zapier Webhook Events.


Frequently asked questions

Can I turn off customer email receipts?

Customer receipt emails are controlled by whether an email template is configured for the booking type. If no template is assigned, no receipt is sent. To manage templates, go to Booking Types → Email Templates.

Why didn't the customer receive an SMS?

Check two things:

  1. Text Reminder is enabled for the location — go to Location Settings and verify the feature is active
  2. A phone number was entered in the booking form

If both conditions are met and the customer still did not receive the message, the SMS provider may have a delay or the number format may be invalid.

Why didn't I receive the admin notification email?

Check the following in your location settings:

  1. At least one address is entered in Booking Emails or Contact Emails
  2. The address is correctly formatted with no extra spaces

Where do I configure the SMS template?

Go to Location Settings → Text Reminder to view and edit the SMS template and manage the placeholders used in the message body.

What if I want different admin email addresses per booking type?

The Booking Emails field is configured at the location level and applies to all booking types within that location. Per-booking-type admin email routing is not currently supported.