What is a Trigger?

How to automatically send emails and SMS messages to guests, team members and owners

Brent Kleinheksel avatar
Written by Brent Kleinheksel
Updated over a week ago

The triggers system allows automated communication that can be sent to team members, owners or guests. A trigger is comprised of conditions and actions. If the conditions are met, the actions are triggered. The actions an be either emails or SMS text messages (if a mobile number is configured for the recipient.)

Several triggers are pre-configured in all new Lodgix accounts. It is recommended that you thoroughly read the documentation and reference the existing triggers. Please make sure to have a thorough understanding of Custom Variables prior to enabling your triggers.

To get started, click on Settings > Triggers...

Create New Trigger or Edit Existing

This is an overview of the triggers list...

  1. Add New Trigger: Click to add a new trigger.

  2. Order: Click and drag the icons on the left to reorder the triggers list

  3. ID: The trigger ID. Please reference this in any support requests.

  4. Title: Title that you give to each trigger. For internal use only, this is not displayed to guests.

  5. Created: Date that the trigger was created.

  6. Modified: Date that the trigger was last modified.

  7. Creator: This will be set to "System" or "Subscriber"

  8. SMS / Email: Notes if a trigger is set to fire an SMS message or Email

  9. Warnings: Any potential delivery issues will be noted here.

  10. Enabled: Toggle each trigger On or Off.

  11. Edit or Delete the trigger.

Overview of Triggers Interface

Below is a brief overview of the Add / Edit Trigger interface. Each component of the interface is addressed in more detail throughout the documentation...

  1. Trigger Title: Name the trigger. This is internal and will not be shown to the guest.

  2. Copy from another trigger: Allows you to duplicate an existing trigger, then modify it.

  3. Active: Set the trigger as Active or Inactive. Inactive triggers will not fire.

  4. Send Trigger When: These are the conditions that will fire the trigger. These are events such as dates or invoice status changes.

  5. Only Send Trigger If: These are additional conditions that must be true for the trigger to fire. These are passive conditions that cannot fire a trigger on their own.

  6. Send for Properties: Set the trigger to only fire for specific properties.

  7. Send for Channels: Set the trigger to only fire for specific channels.

  8. Send To: Set the recipients for the trigger.

  9. Trigger This Action: Set the action for the trigger. This can be either Email or SMS. Multiple actions can exist within one trigger.

  10. Additional Trigger Settings: See below for additional details.

  11. Send Test Email: Send a test email to a custom email address. See below for additional details.

  12. Sent Test SMS: Send a test SMS message. See below for additional details.

  13. Save

Additional Trigger Settings

  1. Click the icon to bring up the settings.

  2. By default triggers will fire for only the first property on an invoice. If an invoice contains multiple properties, the remaining properties are ignored. This setting allows you to fire a separate trigger for each property on the invoice.

  3. Last Minute Bookings: If the trigger contains date based conditions, this allows the trigger to fire for guests that book after the specified send date. For example if the trigger was set to fire "7 days prior to arrival", enabling this setting would fire the trigger for a guest who booked 5 days prior to arrival.

  4. Once Per Booking: Enabling this will only allow the trigger to fire once per booking. Disabling it allows the trigger to fire multiple times per booking.

Send Test Email

  1. Enter the email address where you want to send the test email.

  2. Choose the property you want to use to populate the trigger content.

  3. Choose a specific guest you want to use to populate the trigger content.

Send Test SMS

  1. Choose a recipient for the test SMS. This must be either the Subscriber or a Team Member that has a verified phone number in the system.

  2. Choose the property you want to use to populate the trigger content.

  3. Choose a specific guest you want to use to populate the trigger content.

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