Make a Rezzy emails each guest a reminder about a day before their booking. This article covers when the reminder goes out, what it says, and which bookings do not get one.
When the reminder is sent
The reminder goes out roughly 24 hours before the booking starts. Reminders are sent in hourly batches, so a guest booked for 7pm on Saturday will usually hear from us between 7pm and 8pm on Friday.
Reminders are switched on for every restaurant and there is nothing to set up. Each booking gets one reminder.
What the reminder says
The email is a short note that the booking is coming up, with the details the guest needs:
- Your restaurant's name.
- The date and time, shown in your restaurant's timezone.
- The number of guests and the name the booking is under.
- Any special requests the guest made.
- A View your booking button, which takes the guest to their booking page if their plans have changed.
The details are taken from the booking at the moment the reminder is sent. If you have moved the booking or changed the party size since it was made, the reminder shows the up-to-date version, unless the reminder has already gone out.
Like the other booking emails, the reminder comes from Make a Rezzy and the wording is fixed. It does not count towards your monthly email allowance.
Which bookings get a reminder
A booking gets a reminder when all of these are true:
- It is Confirmed when the reminder is due.
- The guest has an email address on the booking.
- It was made at least 24 hours before its start time.
That means some bookings are deliberately left out:
- Last-minute bookings. A guest who books this afternoon for tonight has only just had their confirmation, so we do not email them again.
- Pending bookings. A booking still waiting for you to confirm it gets no reminder. If you confirm it with less than a day to go, the confirmation email is the only one the guest receives.
- Cancelled bookings. Once a booking is cancelled, no reminder is sent.
- Bookings with no email address. Walk-ins and phone bookings taken without an email cannot be reminded.
If a booking is moved
Move a booking before its reminder has gone out and the reminder follows it — the guest hears from us about a day before the new time. If the reminder has already been sent, the guest is not reminded a second time.
Reducing no-shows further
A reminder helps, and a few other things bring no-show rates down alongside it:
- Deposits on larger parties — guests who have paid £30 up front rarely forget. See Deposits and refunds for how to set the threshold.
- Capturing an email and phone number on every booking — the email means the guest gets their reminder, and the phone number means you can ring the moment a booking is running late.
- Tagging repeat no-show guests — see Cancellations and no-shows for how repeat no-shows are handled, and Notes, dietary, and seating for how to flag a guest internally.
Where to go next
- Booking confirmation emails — the other emails a guest receives around a booking.
- Cancellations and no-shows — the other side of the run-up to a booking.
- Post-visit follow-up emails — what is sent after the meal.
See also: Booking confirmation email templates