Help Centre

How to set up Email Templates?

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Sending emails using pre-defined templates is a really useful way of saving admin time, whilst also retaining a personal touch in corresponding with guests. SuperControl allows you to use Tags to automatically include booking, guest and property-specific information.

1. Go to Emails/Letters > Add.

What is an email category? If you have many email templates that you wish to set-up it can be easier to categorise them so they are easier to select when you're in a booking. For example you could have a category called "Guest emails" and list all guest emails within that category. For Agencies, you can have a second category called "Owner emails" to group all owner templates together.

2. When entering the text for your email template you can build the content of your template using tags. Click on TAG within the toolbar:

3. Then select relevant tags to populate your letter eg. Thank you for booking {property_name}. We look forward to you arriving on {property_arrival}…This means the tags pull through the correct information on each booking without you having to manually update it.

Please note:
If using tags within the Booking properties section, ensure you click to "Add property section" <start> and <end> tags.  The <start> tag should be placed at the very top of the template and the <end> tag should be at the very end of the letter - see below an example. These are hidden when generated but allow the tags in between to show correctly.

4. Enter an email subject, and specify your word document options (only required if you choose to export your letter into a word document).

5. The tick box “Use for online booking summary” means you can replace our default text (shown below) with your own choice of words. You can only tick this option for one letter.

6. Click Save.

Previewing your Email Templates

It is useful to preview your email templates during the process of creating them. Previewing your tempates allows you to check that the Tags have been added correctly, and that the email will appear as you wish it to appear once sent to a guest.

1. Go to an existing booking in your account. If you are setting-up, and do not yet have any bookings, then simply add a test booking.

2. In your booking, go to the 'History & Correspondence' section, at the bottom of the booking (the tab indicated by the red arrow in the image below). 

3. Then, select the template that you wish to preview (blue arrow), ensuring that you have selected to generate it as an email (yellow arrow).

4. Then click 'Generate' (green arrow). 

5. The email will generate in a pop-up window. You can now preview it, without sending it to the guest. 

The example below shows a template where all tags are have been populated correctly with the guest, booking and property specific information, to create a personalised message. The tagged sections are highlighted below. 

Editing email templates

Troubleshooting your Templates

 The template may look like this when generated:

Note: The arrival date tag has not populated. 

If the tags don't populate as expected, there are a couple of things to check. 

1. Check that the missing information (such as the guest's address) has been added to the booking. 

2. If the correct information is present in the booking, you need to go back to the template and check that you have added the correct tag for the information required. 

In our example above, the {property_arrival} tag did not populate in the preview.

The template is shown below. 

The {property_arrival}  tag is taken from the 'Booking Properties' Tag section. The Tag options in an email template are accessed by pressing the Tag button (red arrow). The Tag for {property_arrival} is the one indicated by the blue arrow

If any tags are used from the Booking properties tag menu, they must be enclosed by two other tags. These tags tell the system where to find the specific information to populate the template. These are:

{--booking_properties_start--}

{--booking_properties_end--} 

You can add them by clicking the top tag in this menu (green arrow). This will add them into your template.

Once added, the {--booking_properties_start--} and {--booking_properties_end--}  tags should look like this:

We would recommend to move the  {--booking_properties_start--} tag to the every beginning of your template, and the {--booking_properties_end--}  tag to the very end.
The screenshot below shows the position recommended.

You only need to add them once per template, no matter how many tags from the Booking properties menu are being used.

Save the template, and preview it again to ensure that the information now populates correctly.

Please note:
Emails are not being scheduled to neither iCal nor cross-updated bookings. The same goes for emails that are being added to existing bookings.
The guest communication should normally not be done via an imported iCal or cross-updated booking. The guest communication should be done via the original booking.

Email Templates FAQ:

Can I add tags to the email subject?

The following tags are available to add to the email subject field:

{bookingID}

{property_name}

{customerlastname}

Please note: When the Default email subject field is left blank the system will automatically use: Booking {bookingID}

How to upload images into your email templates

You should avoid simply copying and pasting images to your email templates.  This can cause errors in the way that your images display.

To add images to your emails, please follow these steps to upload the images:

1. Click on the image icon in the editor toolbar

2. In the popup click on "Browse Server"

3. Select an existing image and then OK

4. Upload a new image - browse, set resize options then click upload

5. Click OK to use this new image

6.  The image will now be available to be inserted - click OK

7. The image will now display in your email as expected.

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