By the end of this guide, you'll receive an email every time a guest books — and you'll know what's in the email, what isn't, and where to look when one doesn't arrive.
What you'll need
- A property under Places or a service under Services
- Your account email confirmed in Settings → Account (this is where notifications go)
- ~3 minutes
- New-booking emails switched on (or off) per property
- A clear understanding of what triggers an email today (and what doesn't)
- Confidence that your inbox will keep up with your widget
Step 1: Open the property
Sidebar → Places → your property (or Services → your service) → scroll to the Notifications section. The Notify me toggle controls whether you get an email when a new booking arrives.
If you don't want emails on every booking — say, you check the dashboard hourly already — turn it off and skip the rest.
Step 2: Toggle and save
Click the switch, then click Save at the top of the page. The change takes effect immediately.
What triggers an email today
| Event | Email sent? |
|---|---|
| Guest submits a new booking through the widget | Yes (if Notify me is on) |
| You confirm a pending request | No |
| You change a booking's status manually | No |
| You edit a booking's dates or guest info | No |
| iCal sync imports new bookings | No |
| You manually create a booking in admin | Only if you tick it in the Send emails for this booking? prompt |
The new-booking email is the only host email today. Everything else, you'll see in the Bookings dashboard.
What's in the email
The host email is HTML format with:
- Subject in your account language: "New booking" or "Nová rezervace".
- Booking details — guest name, email, phone, dates (or date + time for services), total, guest notes, and a Guests row with the breakdown by unit (e.g. "2 Adults, 1 Child") if you've set up guest units, or a plain count otherwise.
- Reply-to set to the guest's email address. Hit reply and you're emailing the guest directly. No copying addresses.
- Two links — "View booking" (opens the booking detail in admin) and "Manage notifications" (lands you back on this settings page).
Where the email goes
To your account email — set in Settings → Account → Email. There's no separate "notification email" field today, no CC, no BCC. If you want notifications to go elsewhere, change your account email or set up a forward in your inbox.
What guests get
Guests get an automated confirmation email too, controlled by its own toggle — Send confirmation email to guests — right below Notify me in the same Notifications section. It's on by default.
It goes out the moment a booking is created: "Your booking is confirmed" for an instant booking, "Thanks for your booking request" for a request. It goes out again whenever the payment status moves — deposit received, paid in full, or balance cleared each get their own follow-up email. It's written in the language the guest used in your widget, not your account language.
If you create a booking by hand, you're asked before anything sends: a Send emails for this booking? prompt with two switches, Notify me and Send confirmation to the guest. Both start pre-ticked to match your settings, but you can't tick a switch your settings have turned off, or the guest one if there's no guest email on the booking. The prompt only appears when you create a booking, not when you edit one — so a later price correction never re-emails the guest. Blocking off dates never sends anything, to you or the guest — it isn't a real booking.
One exception: if a guest pays the whole cost with a voucher at checkout, no confirmation email goes out today; they only get the on-screen confirmation.
The email itself carries the same Guests breakdown as yours (e.g. "2 Adults, 1 Child" — see guest units), the dates or date & time, any extras, their own notes, a payment summary when relevant (Paid, Deposit received plus Balance remaining, or Total paid), and a booking reference in the footer. Reply-to is set to your account email, so if the guest hits reply, it lands with you.
Reliability
Email goes out through Postmark. If Postmark is down or your email bounces, the booking still goes through — Cabintale doesn't block bookings on email failures. You just won't see it in your inbox until the next one. The booking is always in the dashboard regardless.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| New bookings exist but no email arrived | The toggle is off, the email landed in spam, or your account email is wrong | Check Notify me on the property; check your spam folder; verify your account email in Settings → Account |
| Got an email for one booking but not for the next | Postmark may have hit a transient bounce; or the recipient inbox is full | The booking is still in the dashboard — that's the source of truth. If it's recurring, contact support |
| I want emails to go to a team inbox, not my personal email | No multi-recipient support today | Change your account email to the team inbox, or set up forwarding from your inbox |
| My guest didn't get a confirmation email | Send confirmation email to guests is off for that property/service, no guest email was entered, or the booking was paid entirely with a voucher | Turn on Send confirmation email to guests in the Notifications section; check the guest's email is on the booking; note that a voucher covering the whole cost doesn't trigger a guest email today |
| Emails are landing in spam | Sender domain reputation, or your inbox is filtering | Add support@cabintale.com to your safe senders list |
Related guides
- Property basics — Property basics
- Booking dashboard — Booking dashboard
- Guest units — Guest units
- Account settings — coming soon