Notifications & reminders

TableStack keeps your guests in the loop automatically: they hear from you when they book, if anything changes, before they're due to arrive, and when their table is ready. This article covers what each message is, when it goes out, and how email and text are chosen.

What guests receive, and when

Every message has a switch

Manage → Guest communications → Guest notifications controls all of these per venue:

• Confirmations & change notices — on by default. The manage-booking link travels in this email, so switching it off also means guests can't self-cancel or change.
• Waitlist join confirmation — on by default. (The "your table is ready" message has no switch — a host sends it deliberately each time.)
• Booking reminders (24h + 2h) — off by default. Reminders only go out once a venue turns them on. Bookings synced in from a partner reservation feed are not reminded unless that feed is enabled for your venue.

Post-visit feedback requests have their own switch in the Feedback card and are also off by default. Nothing here is marketing, and nothing sends without the venue's say-so — every message goes to a guest about their own booking, wait, or visit at this venue. | Your table is ready | When you call a waiting party up — asks them to come to the host stand within 15 minutes. |

Booking confirmations and change notices also include an add-to-calendar attachment, so the reservation drops straight into the guest's calendar.

Make the emails yours

Manage → Guest communications → Email content dresses every booking email in the venue's own voice: a banner image across the top, a welcome line under the greeting, up to six info blocks at the bottom (Location, Parking, cancellation policy — whatever guests ask about), and a closing note. The booking details, confirmation code and manage link always stay — you're adding around them, never hiding them. Email me a preview sends the venue's latest booking to your own inbox so you can check it where it counts.

Marketing automations (off by default)

Manage → Guest communications → Marketing automations can send two automatic emails, each only to guests who gave express marketing consent when booking, each carrying a one-tap unsubscribe:

• Win-back — "we miss you" after a configurable quiet spell (default 90 days), at most once per guest every six months across your whole group.
• Birthday — a warm note with a booking link on the guest's day.

Guests imported from a partner reservation feed carry no marketing consent, so these never email them — consent, not source, is the gate. Every send is recorded, and an unsubscribed guest is never emailed again.

Managing a booking without an account

Diners don't create accounts. Every confirmation, change notice, and reminder carries a secure manage link unique to that booking. The guest uses it to change or cancel their reservation themselves — no password, nothing to log into. Changing party size or time re-checks availability automatically; cancelling frees the table and triggers any waitlist follow-up. The booking flow covers this end to end.

Email vs. text (SMS)

• Email always sends. Every guest with an email on file gets these messages by email.
• Text is added on top when two things are both true: the guest has a phone number on file, and the platform has text messaging switched on for your account. If either isn't the case, the guest simply gets the email.

Texting isn't on by default — it's enabled for your account by the platform. If you'd like your guests to get reminders and "table ready" alerts by text (the ones that actually get read at the door), reach out through Getting help to have SMS turned on. These booking and waitlist messages are transactional; marketing texts are a separate thing that requires the guest's explicit opt-in.

Messages send in the background

All of these are queued — they're handed off and delivered a moment later rather than blocking whatever you or the guest were doing. In practice that means a confirmation might land a few seconds after the booking, which is normal. If a guest reports a message never arrived, see the checklist in Fixing common issues.

What this affects

• Your guests' experience — timely confirmations and reminders reduce no-shows and empty tables.
• The waitlist — join confirmations and "table ready" alerts keep walk-ins informed without crowding the host stand.

What affects this

• Contact details on the booking — an email address is needed for email; a phone number is needed for text.
• Whether SMS is enabled for your account by the platform.
• The booking flow — every message ties back to the reservation and its secure manage link.