Automatic emails in Bookings for WooCommerce

Bookings for WooCommerce allows you to send up to six automatic, configurable email notifications to customers at different stages before, during and after the booking takes place. You can choose to enable one or more of the following emails:

1. Before Booking Starts (days) 1: sent a set number of days before the booking’s start date
2. Before Booking Starts (days) 2: sent a set number of days before the booking’s start date
3. Before Booking Starts: (hours) sent a set number of hours before the booking’s start date and time. Note that this email can only be sent when a booking uses time slots
4. After Booking Starts: sent a set number of days after the booking’s start date
5. Before Booking Ends: sent a set number of days before the booking’s end date
6. After Booking Ends: sent a set number of days after the booking’s end date

So, for example, if you want to send a welcome email sequence before a user’s booking starts, you can enable the ‘Before Booking Starts (days) 1’ email and enter 7 in the ‘Days’ field. Your email will be automatically sent one week before the start of the booking. Then you could enable the ‘Before Booking Starts (days) 2’ email and enter 1 in the ‘Days’ field. Your email will be automatically sent the day before the start of the booking. Finally, if the booking has a time slot specified, you could also send an email a set number of hours before it starts.

You can configure each of these email triggers independently. Emails are sent through the native WooCommerce email handler – so they’re consistent with other emails sent from your site.

Where do you configure automatic emails?

Go to WooCommerce > Settings > Emails. The four booking emails appear at the end of the list, alongside WooCommerce’s own order emails.

Click ‘Manage’ next to any of them to configure it.

What settings does each email have?

• ‘Enable/Disable’: switch this on for the email to send, as it’s off by default
• ‘Subject’: the email subject line, which falls back to a default if left blank
• ‘Email Heading’: the heading shown inside the email body
• ‘Content’: additional text shown below the main email content, which supports the dynamic tags below
• ‘Email type’: choose from plain text, HTML, or multipart
• ‘Days’: the number of days before or after the event to send the email – this is required, and the email won’t send without it

Which dynamic tags can you use?

The ‘Content’ field supports two placeholders that fill in automatically:

• {booking_id}: the booking’s ID
• {date}: the relevant start or end date, formatted according to your site’s date settings
• {time}: the start time of the booking, if time slots are enabled

Ideas for using automatic email sequences for bookings

Here are some possible use-cases for implementing automatic emails on your bookings site.

Before booking starts

• Holiday rentals: send check-in instructions, the key safe code and directions 2 days before arrival.
• Equipment hire: remind customers to bring ID and a deposit 1 day before collection.
• Classes and workshops: send a “what to bring” list and parking details 3 days before.
• Salons and therapists: send an appointment reminder 1 day before to reduce no-shows.
• Tours and activities: send the meeting point, dress code and weather advice 1 day before.

After booking starts

• Multi-day rentals: check in 1 day after arrival to ask if everything’s okay and share local recommendations.
• Courses: send day-two materials or a link to the course resources.
• Long-term hire: remind customers of care instructions or who to contact if there’s a problem.

Before booking ends

• Holiday rentals: send check-out instructions and the departure time 1 day before.
• Equipment and vehicle hire: remind customers of the return time, location and cleaning requirements.
• Extendable bookings: invite customers to extend their stay or hire period while it’s still available.

After booking ends

• Review requests: ask for a review 1–2 days after the booking ends.
• Repeat business: send a discount code for their next booking 7 days after.
• Deposits: confirm that a returned item passed inspection and the deposit is on its way.
• Feedback: send a link to a short satisfaction survey.

How do you troubleshoot automatic emails?

Here are some quick troubleshooting options for your emails in Bookings for WooCommerce.

Why aren’t emails arriving?

Check that the email is enabled and that the ‘Days’ field has a value. Both are required.

Why are emails delayed?

WP-Cron only runs when your site receives traffic, so low-traffic sites can see delayed sends. Set up a real server cron job to hit wp-cron.php to fix this.

Why is the email going to the wrong person?

Check the billing email on the original order. This is the address stored against the booking.

Why aren’t my tags being replaced?

Only {booking_id}, {date} and {time} are supported. Any other tags won’t be processed.