RMS Booking Engine Confirmation Email

The RMS Booking Engine automatically sends a confirmation email to the guest and to the property each time a booking is completed online.

Overview

The confirmation email is the booking receipt generated by the RMS Booking Engine. RMS sends it the moment a guest completes an online booking, with no action required from property staff, and sends the same email to the property contacts configured in Online Options.

The email confirms the booking number, the guest's contact details, every Category booked with its dates and rate, any Extras purchased, the payment taken and the amount still outstanding. It ends with the property's address, website and phone number, followed by the Cancellation Policy and Terms & Conditions.

The confirmation email uses a fixed RMS template that mirrors the online Booking Confirmation page the guest sees after paying. The template itself cannot be rewritten by a property, but settings in RMS control who receives the email, which optional details appear, and how the email is branded.

Tip! The Booking Engine confirmation email is separate from any confirmation letter a property builds with a Form Letter and Triggered Correspondence. A property can send both, and the two will not look the same.

Please Note! RMS is highly configurable. Some Terminology, User Access & Permissions, Images, Labels, and Functions used in these articles may differ from your setup. CLICK HERE to find out more.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, check that the following are in place.

The RMS Online module must be active on the property. Contact RMS Sales to activate it.
An email address must be entered in Reservation Confirmation 1 on the Notifications tab of Online Options. This is the only mandatory field on that tab.
Access to Setup > Online Bookings > Online Options is required to change any setting described in this article.

Who receives the Booking Engine confirmation email?

Every completed Booking Engine reservation generates one confirmation email that is sent to the guest and to the property. Both recipients receive the same email.

Recipient	Address used	Can it be stopped?
Guest	The email address the guest entered when making the booking.	Yes. Tick Do not send Confirmation Emails on the Notifications tab.
Property	The addresses entered in Reservation Confirmation 1, 2 and 3 on the Notifications tab.	No. The property notification is always sent.
Category Manager	The Category Manager for the booked Category.	Yes. Untick Send Confirmations to the selected Category Manager.

Important! Do not send Confirmation Emails stops the guest copy only. The property still receives its copy and this cannot be turned off. To keep property notifications out of a main inbox, create a mailbox rule that routes them to a separate folder.

Sender address and subject line

The Booking Engine confirmation email is sent from RMSOnline Bookings at the address bookings@ibe.rmscloud.com. The subject line follows a fixed format:

Booking Confirmation from [Property Name] (via RMS IBE). Ref #[Booking Number]

For a group booking, the reference number in the subject line is the group master booking number, not the number of an individual reservation in the group.

What does the Booking Engine confirmation email include?

The confirmation email is laid out in fixed sections that appear in the same order for every property. Sections only appear when they hold content, so a booking with no Extras has no Extras lines.

Section	What it shows
Header	The property logo, the confirmation message, and the Booking Number.
Reservation Summary	A greeting using the guest name, confirmation that the booking is made, the property name and the arrival date.
Guest Details	Name, Email and Mobile Number as entered by the guest when booking.
Reservations + Extras	One block per Category booked. See the breakdown below.
Reservation Notes	The note the guest typed in the Reservation Note field when booking. Omitted when the guest leaves it blank.
Payment	The card used, Taxes and Fees, Total Amount, and what has been paid or is still owing.
Property Information	The property address as a link to Google Maps, the property website and the property phone number.
Cancellation Policy	The Cancellation Policy set on the T&C\Policies tab of Online Options.
Pet Policy	The Pet Policy set on the T&C\Policies tab. Omitted when no Pet Policy is configured.
Terms & Conditions	The Online Booking Terms & Conditions set on the T&C\Policies tab.

Reservations + Extras

The Reservations + Extras section lists one block for each Category in the booking, so a group booking of three rooms produces three blocks each with its own subtotal. Each block can include the following.

Detail	Notes
Category name	Always shown.
Allocated Area	Only shown when Show Area On Online Confirmation Email is ticked on the Notifications tab.
Mobile Number	The contact number recorded against that reservation.
Duration	The length of stay in nights.
Check-in and Check-out	The arrival and departure dates.
Rate Summary	The name of the Rate Type booked followed by the guest mix, for example 2 Adult, 2 Children.
Dwelling Type and Length	Shown for Site bookings where the guest selected a vehicle type and length when booking.
Extras	The name, quantity and subtotal of each Requirement or Add On purchased against that Category.
Special Discount banner	Shown against the rate when an automatic discount was applied to the booking.
Member pricing	Where the property participates in the BIG4 or Top 10 membership program, a member booking shows both the standard and the member price with a member discount label.
Area Selection surcharge	Shown as its own row when the guest chose a specific Area using an Interactive Map.
Subtotal	The total for that Category including its Extras.

Payment

The Payment section of the confirmation email reports what the guest paid at the time of booking and what remains outstanding. What appears depends on the Deposit Rule applied to the booking.

Payment taken online	What the Payment section shows
No deposit	Outstanding Payment only, equal to the Total Amount. No card details are shown.
Part deposit	The card used, Payment Today showing the deposit charged, and Outstanding Payment showing the balance.
Paid in full	The card used and Total Paid. Outstanding Payment shows a nil balance.

Card details are masked. Only the card scheme and the last four digits are shown, for example MASTERCARD ending 1234.

Taxes and any fees, including the online booking fee and any Area Selection surcharge, are combined into a single Taxes and Fees line. How tax is presented depends on whether the property uses gross or nett rates:

Gross rates: the rate is shown tax-inclusive and the Total Amount is labelled Includes Tax and Fees.
Nett rates: the rate is shown tax-exclusive and the tax amount is added as a separate line.

Buttons

A Manage Booking button appears below the reservation summary when the Guest Portal is active for the property. It takes the guest to the Guest Portal, where the guest can view and cancel the booking. Cancelling in the Guest Portal does not automatically refund the guest.

Set up the Booking Engine confirmation email

Confirmation email recipients and display options are set on the Notifications tab of Online Options. The settings apply per property, so each property in a multi-property database is configured separately.

In the side menu of RMS, go to Setup > Online Bookings > Online Options.
Select the Property.
Navigate to the Notifications tab.
Enter a Name and Email for each property recipient under Email Notifications.
Set the checkboxes under Reservation Confirmation Option.
Select Save.

Tip! IBE/Channel Contact is generated automatically from the property Contacts and does not need to be entered manually.

The fields on the Notifications tab that affect the confirmation email are below.

Field	Purpose
IBE/Channel Contact	The contact RMS uses for Booking Engine and channel correspondence. Populated automatically from Contacts.
Reservation Confirmation 1	The primary property recipient of the confirmation email. Mandatory.
Reservation Confirmation 2	An optional second property recipient.
Reservation Confirmation 3	An optional third property recipient.
Send Confirmations to the selected Category Manager	Also sends the confirmation to the manager assigned to the booked Category.
Show Area On Online Confirmation Email	Shows the allocated Area in the Reservations + Extras section. Leave unticked where Area allocations are not final at the time of booking.
Do not send Confirmation Emails	Stops the guest copy of the confirmation email. The property copy is still sent.

For a walkthrough of every field on the tab, including the legacy Redirection URL and the Reservation Request Confirmation Text fields, see Online Options - Notifications Tab.

Display options set elsewhere in RMS

Several parts of the confirmation email are controlled outside the Notifications tab. The table below shows where each one is configured.

What it changes	Where it is set
Logo in the email header	Setup > Online Bookings > Online Options > Logo Settings. If no logo is uploaded there, the logo from Property Options is used. If neither is set, the header shows no logo.
Booking Number block and button colours	Setup > Online Bookings > Online Options > Accent Theme. With a custom colour configured the Booking Number block uses that colour with white text; without one it uses the default grey block. See Set the Booking Engine and portal colour theme.
Cancellation Policy, Pet Policy and Terms & Conditions	Setup > Online Bookings > Online Options > T&C\Policies. Changes can take up to 24 hours to appear.
Reservation Notes field	Setup > Users > Field Maintenance, against the RMS Online user. See Show or hide the reservation note in the booking engine.
Extras available to buy	Setup > Online Bookings > Online Options > Requirements and extra.
Special Discount banner	The banner appears automatically when an automatic discount applies. See Automatic Discounts and the new RMS Booking Engine.

Limitations

The following behaviours of the Booking Engine confirmation email cannot be changed by a property.

The email template cannot be edited. The wording, layout and section order are the same for every property. Only the logo, accent colour and policy text pull through from property setup.
There is no nightly rate breakdown. Each Category block shows a subtotal for the whole stay, not a rate for each night. A Form Letter sent through Triggered Correspondence can be used where a per-night breakdown is needed.
The property notification cannot be switched off. Do not send Confirmation Emails suppresses the guest copy only.
Redirection URL is a legacy setting. It is not supported by the new RMS Booking Engine. Guests stay on the RMS Booking Confirmation page after completing a booking.

If the confirmation email is not received

When a guest or the property reports a missing confirmation email, check the settings and delivery path in this order.

Confirm Do not send Confirmation Emails is unticked on the Notifications tab if the guest copy is missing.
Confirm the email addresses in Reservation Confirmation 1, 2 and 3 are correct and current.
Check the guest's email address on the reservation for a typing error.
Check the property email domain is still verified at Setup > Security > Domains. See Email Domain Verification.
Work through Troubleshooting Emails Not Sending from RMS, which covers RMS Booking Engine confirmations specifically.

Tip! Ask the guest to check their junk or spam folder before raising a support ticket. Confirmation emails are sent from bookings@ibe.rmscloud.com, which some mail filters treat as an unfamiliar sender.

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