How do I resolve bounced email notifications?

Learn how to review and resolve bounced email notifications, including those logged and emailed.

Accessing the features mentioned in this article

Where can I find this feature using the top menu?

• See the areas listed below.
   

What more do I need to use this feature?

• Admin permissions to manage notifications, receive bounced email notifications, and view reports.
   

Which Checkfront version supports this feature - classic items, classic products, or both?

• This feature is available in both our classic version using classic items (Inventory > Items) and our classic version using classic products (Inventory > Products).  → Learn more about products

What is an email notification? A notification is an email message sent to your Customers to confirm booking actions and may include a booking confirmation, notice of changes made to the booking, or a payment request.

Have your Customers noticed they're not receiving booking email notifications? If so, the email notification may have bounced.

What is a bounced email? A bounced email is rejected and not delivered by the recipient's mail server.

Email can be permanently rejected (hard bounce) or temporarily rejected (soft bounce).

Email bounces can occur if you have added an incorrect Customer email address to a booking, exceeded the Customer's email quota, or the Customer has marked incoming emails as spam.

There are several areas in Checkfront where you find out if notifications to recipients have bounced.

A warning is displayed in the Invoice tab of a booking (Booking Invoice > Invoice) if the associated email notification bounces.

The warning clears if the booking email address is updated (Booking Invoice > Edit > Email). If a notification didn't send due to a bounce, you can retrigger it by reapplying the same status to the booking.

The bounced email is noted within the booking log (Booking Invoice > Log).

The bounced email is logged within the Account Activity report (Reports > Account Activity).

Another option is to be notified by email if a bounce occurs with the Receive notifications of bounced booking emails setting in the Configuration area (Manage > Setup > Configuration).

Once bounce notifications are enabled, and a bounce occurs, a notification email is sent to your Staff account email address.

Postmark, the email software that Checkfront uses to send email notifications, also keeps track of sent and received emails in the background. If a bounce occurs, Postmark prevents further email notifications from being sent to that recipient until the bounce is resolved and the email address is reactivated (where possible with soft bounces).

Resolving the issue depends on the cause, but may involve having the Customer...

• Add your email address to their contacts, so your email notifications are not marked as spam.
• Clean up their inbox to make space for additional messages if they have exceeded their plan quota.
• Upgrade their email plan to receive additional messages if they have exceeded their plan quota.

If the bounce reason is resolved, do the following to reactivate the email address:

1. Contact Technical Support and request that the bounced email address be reactivated in Postmark.
2. We will let you know if the reactivation is successful.

Email address reactivation Should email address reactivation not be possible (hard bounce), you need to work with the recipient to resolve the issue. For example, have them provide you with an alternative email address.

Learn more about notifications For a detailed look at email notifications and our Postmark integration, check out the following articles: Introduction to email notifications Introduction to notification delivery from a custom email address via Postmark