Hotel Reminder Emails
The pre-arrival email is the highest-value message a hotel sends — it is opened more than any marketing campaign and it is the only one that can change how the stay starts. Here is what to send and when.
What to Send, and When
Two automated emails do most of the work: a pre-arrival reminder two to three days before check-in, and a pre-departure reminder the evening before checkout. The first reduces arrival friction and is the best upsell moment you have. The second reduces morning queues and surprises at the desk. Everything else is optional.
The pre-arrival email is where the money is. A guest two days out is committed, is imagining the trip, and is not comparing hotels any more. That is the moment an upgrade, early check-in or breakfast add-on converts — far better than the same offer at booking, when they were still price-shopping.
The Timing Rules That Matter
Three things decide whether automated mail helps or irritates.
- Send in the guest’s daytime, not your server’s. A reminder generated by a job running at 02:00 arrives at 02:00. Guests read the timestamp, and mail arriving in the middle of the night reads as spam even when the content is useful. Constrain sending to a sensible window.
- Anchor to the reservation, not to the calendar. The trigger is "two days before this guest’s arrival", which means the system must evaluate every upcoming reservation continuously rather than sending one batch daily to whoever happens to match.
- Handle the short-notice booking. A guest booking tomorrow should not receive a "see you in two days" email, and one booking today should get the arrival-day message rather than nothing at all. Most reminder systems fail here, and same-day bookings are exactly the guests who most need directions.
A fourth rule is about restraint. Four automated emails for a two-night stay is too many, and the guest who unsubscribes to stop them also stops receiving the one that mattered. If in doubt, send the pre-arrival and nothing else.
What Belongs in a Pre-Arrival Email
Ordered by how often guests actually ask about it.
- How to find you. Not just an address — the entrance that is hard to spot, the parking situation, which door after 9pm. This is the single most valuable paragraph you will write and it never changes.
- Check-in time, and what to do if arriving before or after it. "Arriving before 3pm? Reply and we will hold your bags" removes a phone call and reads as service.
- The self check-in link, if you offer it. A guest who completes identity and signature on the journey turns a five-minute desk interaction into a key handover.
- What they need to bring. Passport or ID requirements are far better stated in advance than discovered at the desk.
- One relevant offer. An upgrade priced as a small nightly difference, early check-in, or breakfast. One, not a menu.
- A real reply address. Automated mail that cannot be replied to pushes guests to phone instead, which costs you more.
Resist the temptation to include the full hotel brochure. The guest already booked; they do not need selling to. They need the four practical facts that stop them phoning reception.
Making It Reliable
Automated guest mail has one failure mode that matters: silently not sending. A campaign that goes out to nobody looks identical to one that was never scheduled, and you find out weeks later when a guest says they never received directions.
Two things protect against it. First, a log of what was sent to whom and when, visible in the admin rather than buried in a mail provider’s dashboard. Second, the ability to send yourself a sample of any template against a real reservation before it goes live — most template bugs are visible immediately and invisible in the editor.
Deliverability is the other half. Send from your own domain with the authentication records configured, not from a generic address, or a meaningful share of your pre-arrival mail will land in spam — and the guests who never see it are the ones who then arrive without knowing where to park.
Frontdesko fires check-in and check-out reminders from your live reservations with configurable lead times and per-hotel templates, and lets you send a sample of an unsaved draft to yourself before committing it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What reminder emails should a hotel send?
Two do most of the work: a pre-arrival reminder two to three days before check-in with directions, check-in time, the self check-in link and one relevant offer; and a pre-departure reminder the evening before checkout with checkout time and how to settle. An arrival-day message and a post-stay review request are useful additions, but four emails for a two-night stay is too many.
When is the best time to send a pre-arrival email?
Two to three days before check-in, during the guest’s daytime. At that point the guest is committed, is planning the trip and is no longer comparing hotels, which makes it both the most-read message you send and the best upsell moment you have. Sending at booking is too early; the morning of arrival is too late to be useful for planning.
Why do automated hotel emails arrive at strange hours?
Because they are sent when the background job runs rather than when the guest should receive them. A task firing at 02:00 sends mail stamped 02:00, and guests read that timestamp as spam regardless of content. Reminder sending should be constrained to a daytime window rather than fired whenever the scheduler happens to tick.
What should a pre-arrival email contain?
How to find you — including the entrance that is hard to spot and the parking situation — check-in time and what to do if arriving outside it, the self check-in link if you offer one, any ID or passport requirements, and one relevant offer such as an upgrade or early check-in. Include a real reply address; automated mail that cannot be replied to pushes guests to phone instead.
How do I stop reminder emails going to spam?
Send from your own domain with the authentication records properly configured rather than from a generic address, keep the sending volume steady, and give guests a genuine way to unsubscribe. Deliverability matters more than copy here: the guests who never see the email are the ones who arrive without knowing where to park.
What happens with same-day and short-notice bookings?
They need handling explicitly, and most systems get this wrong. A guest booking tomorrow should not receive a "see you in two days" message, and a guest booking today should get the arrival-day information rather than nothing. Short-notice guests are precisely the ones who most need directions and check-in details, so the fallback matters more than the standard case.
Send the Email That Stops the Phone Call
Pre-arrival and pre-departure reminders that fire from your reservations, with your own templates and a sample you can test first — free with the PMS.
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