By default, Lodgix emails will display the "from" field to the guest as: mtalodgix@lodgix.com. However the "reply to" address will be the address of the subscriber or employee. As a result any guest response from a Lodgix email will (with the exception of inquiry system emails) be sent directly to the subscriber or employee email address, bypassing Lodgix completely.

Note that SPF records can only be configured for a domain that you own. This process will not work for Gmail or Yahoo email addresses.

To send outgoing email from your Lodgix account and make it appear that it originated from your own email address requires an SPF (Sender Policy Framework) record to include a reference to Lodgix. The SPF record declares what SMTP servers other than your own are allowed to send mail as if it originated from your domain. An SPF record prevents spammers from sending email appearing to come from your domain.

To create an SPF record please edit your domain's DNS settings. The steps in this part of the process are going to vary depending on the hosting or registrar service you use.

To begin, it'll be helpful to understand more about SPF records and what you need to include in yours. We recommend using either of the following SPF records.

Option 1:

v=spf1 include:lodgix.com ~all

Option 2:

v=spf1 include:lodgix.com ?all

This is an example of a new SPF record. If you already have an SPF record, you add include:lodgix.com to it.

The only difference between the two is ~all and ?all. These differences will be explained after describing the other elements contained in the record statements.

The first element in the record is v=spf1, which sets the SPF version to 1. The include directive is then used to declare that lodgix.com has permission to send outgoing mail from your Lodgix account as if it came from your domain.

Finally, the all directive determines how mail received from a domain not included in the SPF record is handled. To reject all mail not coming from a domain listed in the SPF record, you would use -all. However, Lodgix and many other customers who have already set this up, recommend using either ~all or ?all. Here's what each means:

~all - This is considered a 'soft fail' in that the mail did not originate from a domain listed in the SPF record. However, it's not immediately rejected and may be evaluated further to determine if it will be accepted. In other words, the mail might be rejected as spam.

?all - This is a declaration that you have no policy about mail received from domains not listed in the SPF record. Using this minimizes the chances of the mail being rejected as spam.

Which of these you choose is up to you and your domain administrator. Some Lodgix users have noted that using the more lenient setting (?all) helps to offset poorly configured mail servers that might otherwise over zealously reject the mail.

This is a step that is ideally done by someone with experience. If that's not possible, or if you're the de facto domain administrator, here are some examples of how to add an SPF record to your domain.

SPF records are a single line of text and follow the format described above. If you have already set up an SPF record for another purpose, you can simply add a reference to the Lodgix domain to it. For example, users of both Google Apps and Lodgix have created SPF records that look like this:

v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com include:lodgix.com ?all

How you add an SPF record to your DNS configuration depends on how and by who your domain is being hosted.

After setting up the SPF record, wait an hour for it to propagate, then click the following link, enter your domain name and click on the button to "Get SPF Record (if any)":

http://www.kitterman.com/spf/validate.html

A response will be returned, similar to this:

Found v=spf1 record for rosewoodpointe.com: 

v=spf1 include:lodgix.com ~all 

evaluating...

SPF record passed validation test with pySPF (Python SPF library)!

Your domain must pass the validation test before moving on to the next step.

Once your SPF record has been added to the DNS at your registrar, you will need to login to Lodgix , and navigate to Settings > Important Settings > Bookings

https://www.lodgix.com/app/isettings/bookings

Lodgix will check your spf records to determine if the SPF record passes validation. If it does not, you will receive an error message that the SPF records are not configured properly.

Lodgix uses ICD Soft for hosting for all new websites that we create. This is what a successful SPF record looks like...