Triggers give you a powerful way to communicate automatically. You can respond to guests with personalized messages or notify third parties without lifting a finger! To read more about triggers, check out our Trigger overview support article. We've created a small library of trigger examples to help get you started.
In this example, we're dealing with a booking for the following scenario:
Scenario: Reminder to Yourself That Renter Agreement Has Not Been Signed
One of the great things about templates and triggers is that you can use them to remind yourself about tasks you need to complete. For example, to keep track of guests who haven't signed your Renter Agreement, you might want to send a manual follow-up reminder a few days after the initial Agreement was sent. OwnerRez can do that for you with message triggers.
Here are the steps for how to set up a template and trigger for this scenario:
- Create a Booking Template to Remind Yourself That Renter Agreement Has Not Been Signed
- Create a Trigger that Applies to a New Booking to Remind Yourself That Renter Agreement Has Not Been Signed
Create a Booking Template to Remind Yourself That Renter Agreement Has Not Been Signed
Go to Settings > Templates to configure the message you want to send. Since this template will be used for new bookings, create a "Booking" type of template.
You can create two types of templates: email and SMS. These are the delivery methods that will be used for your response.
Notifying by Email
First, we'll create an email template, so go to Settings > Templates > Email tab > click the Create Email Template button > select the "Booking" option. This will open an email editor with some sample field codes filled in. For detailed information about how email templates and field codes work, check out the email templates overview article and field codes articles.
Copy and paste the following values into your new email template.
Name:
Reminder to Yourself That Renter Agreement Has Not Been Signed Email Template
From Name:
{MYCOFULL}
From Address:
{MYEMAIL}
To Name:
{MYFIRST}
To Address:
{MYEMAIL}
Subject:
{CFULL} has not signed Renter Agreement for {BARR}-{BDEP} at {PDISPNAME}
Body:
Follow up with {CFULL}, who is due to arrive {BARR}, booked through {BSOURCE}. They still haven't provided contact information or signed Rental Agreement. They booked 3 days ago.
Booking in OwnerRez: {BUBOOKING}
If you're wondering what those field codes do, check out the field codes support article or use the "Preview" button on the template to take a live look.
Here's a quick preview of what the above email message looks like:
Notice how clean and personalized the content is. The subject line is dynamic to the property, and dates booked, so it will match the guest booking. It includes the full guest name, property, booking dates, and the listing channel booking source.
After copying and pasting the above subject and body into your template, feel free to play with the words, styles, and field codes to make it your own. However, remember that we are creating a message specifically to notify you that your guest has not yet provided contact information or signed your renter agreement for a new booking. If this template is used for a guest, the message body would be confusing to your guest. Similarly, if you do not include the {CFULL} full guest name, {PDISPNAME} property, {BARR} arrival date, and {BDEP} departure date field codes in either the Subject field or body of the email template, it may be easy to disregard this email. We also included a {BUBOOKING} direct link field code to the specific booking in OwnerRez in the body of the email.
We are now armed with a solid email reminder for you about renter agreements that haven't been signed for any new bookings. But what about sending an SMS message to remind yourself about renter agreements that haven't been signed?
Notifying by SMS
Using our SMS premium feature, you can notify yourself directly via SMS to your cell phone. For detailed information about how SMS templates work, check out the SMS Templates and field codes support articles.
To create an SMS template, go to Settings > Templates > SMS tab > click the Create SMS Template button > select the "Booking" option. This will open an SMS message editor with some sample field codes filled in.
Copy and paste the following values into your new SMS template.
Name:
Reminder to Yourself That Renter Agreement Has Not Been Signed SMS Template
To Phone Number:
{MYPHONE}
Body:
{CFULL} has not provided contact information or signed Renter Agreement for {BARR}-{BDEP} at {PDISPNAME}, booked through {BSOURCE} 3 days ago. Booking in OwnerRez: {BUBOOKING} 🤔
Once again, smack that Preview button to see how this looks live! SMS templates are plain text with no colors or formatting options, but you can still dress them up with personalized field codes and light-hearted emojis.
Here is a quick look at how the above SMS template looks in preview mode:
Not a fan of emojis? No worries, edit that part out!
You'll notice that this SMS template differs from the email template in that it is much shorter. Instead, it's a quick sentence to remind yourself that the guest has not provided contact information or signed the renter agreement for a new booking. If you'd rather say something else - that's totally fine.
Now that we have some message templates created, it's time to configure the triggers that will send them.
Create a Trigger that Applies to a New Booking to Remind Yourself That Renter Agreement Has Not Been Signed
Since each trigger can only send one message template, you'll need to create a trigger for each type of message you send. Above, we crafted messages for email and SMS, so we'll need to create two triggers to send each one.
First, we'll create a trigger to send the email message. Navigate to Settings > Messaging > Triggers > and click + Create Trigger to pull up the new trigger screen.
Here is a list of all the settings the trigger needs to have:
- Type: Scheduled Time
- Immediate: After > 3 days after > Booking is created > at 9:00 AM
- Conditions: Renter Agreement Signed Status is > No
- Action: Email Templates > Reminder to Yourself That Renter Agreement Has Not Been Signed Email Template
Now, let's talk about what the above settings mean!
The Type and Event fields will make the trigger run 3 days after a new booking is received or recorded in your account. Remember that bookings can be received or recorded in different ways. We've added the Condition that the "Renter Agreement Signed Status is > No," so we can follow up with the guest to get that contact information and the renter agreement signed as soon as possible.
You may want to add other conditions, but for now, this is enough to make our trigger send the email message to yourself as a reminder.
Finally, the last thing we select is the "Action" for the email template we want to send. Since this trigger is supposed to send an email message, select the email template and be careful not to select the SMS template.
At this point, your trigger should look like this:
That's it! Nice and simple! Click Save, and now you have a trigger ready to go. These actions do exactly what they say.
But we're not done. You created a template for an SMS message too, so now you need to create a trigger to send that.
Using the instructions above, create one more trigger with the same type, event, and conditions, but select the SMS template as your "Action" instead of email.
All done! You now have active triggers in place that will automatically remind you to get that guest's contact information and the renter agreement signed as soon as possible. Feel like you may need more reminders? Just duplicate this process, but change the Trigger > Immediate section to "After > 7 days after > Booking is created > at 9:00 AM." You get the idea. You can set as many reminders for yourself as you need!