Email link or QR code opens the wrong page (front page, Not found or 403 Forbidden)

Your customer taps Start booking in their confirmation email — or scans a QR code — and ends up on your website's front page, on a "page not found" error, on 403 Forbidden, or on your website with nothing happening. They cannot reach their booking or their PIN code.

The link itself is fine. What is wrong is the page it forwards to. Operators often report this as "the customer got no email" or "no code": the email arrived (the booking's Messages list shows it as Opened or even Clicked), but the link inside it led nowhere useful. If a customer is waiting at a lock right now, give them access first (see the guide for customers who got no PIN code), then come back here.

Which links depend on the booking page address

Every customer-facing link Rentalbuddy creates is a short, permanent Rentalbuddy link that looks up the location at the moment it is clicked and forwards the customer to the booking page saved for that location. That covers:

• the buttons in confirmation and reminder emails — by default Start booking and Before booking (both open the page with the customer's PIN codes), End booking (return), Extend booking and Move start time,
• the location booking QR codes and the Copy booking link links from the Book button tab,
• the QR codes of every lock on the Locks tab.

Where they forward to depends on Where do customers book? on the location's Book button tab:

• Rentalbuddy website or Booking link — to your Rentalbuddy booking page. These rarely go wrong, because Rentalbuddy controls that page.
• Embedded on your website — to the page in URL where book button is implemented. This is where nearly all wrong-page problems come from.

So one wrong address breaks all of these at once — and one correction fixes all of them at once.

First check: what the admin already tells you

1. Go to Locations. The Book button URL column shows a green tick when the booking setup is complete and a red mark when it is not (hover for the reason, for example "The URL must start with https:// or http://.").
2. Open the location. If the strip at the top says This location is not taking bookings and lists Book button not set up, the address is missing or invalid.
3. A warning icon on the Book button tab means the same; its tooltip reads "Choose how customers book and finish book button setup." or "The URL must start with https:// or http://."

These checks only see whether an address is filled in correctly. A green tick next to a deleted page still sends customers to a dead end. Two things on the Book button tab (with Embedded on your website) do look at your website:

• The live status at the top of the steps: "The booking button is live on yoursite.com/booking" names each website the button has loaded on, with the page and when it was last seen. Compare it with the saved address. If the page in the status is not the one you saved, or it says "The booking button hasn't been seen on a website yet.", the email links open a page without your button. Press Check again after you fix it.
• The button check: open your saved page with ?rbCheck=1 at the end of the address (or press Open the check on your website). The panel Rentalbuddy button check shows whether the script loaded, the button is there, and it belongs to this location. No panel at all means the booking engine code is not on that page.

Then do the test below.

The fastest test

1. On the location's Book button tab, next to Standard booking, press Copy booking link (or scan the location's QR code with your phone).
2. Open that link in a private browser window on your phone.
3. It should open your page with the booking window already open. If you land on your front page, an error page, or a page without the booking window, the address is the problem.

Use Copy booking link rather than Preview for this test: it goes the same way as the email and QR links, so it shows exactly what customers get.

To test the email links too, book once yourself with Make a test booking in the location's top bar, next to Save, then open the buttons in the test confirmation email (its subject starts with [TEST]). The test booking is cancelled automatically after 30 minutes. The button is greyed out until the location is ready for bookings, and while the tab you are on has unsaved changes: "Save your changes first. A test booking uses what's saved." So save a corrected address before you test it.

The Open website icon on the Locations list opens the saved page itself — a quick way to see whether that page still exists.

Fix the page address

For locations with Embedded on your website:

1. Go to Locations and open the location.
2. Open the Book button tab.
3. Go to the step Place the button where it should show (if you only see the website builder question, answer Which website builder do you use? first).
4. In URL where book button is implemented, enter the address of the exact page on your website where your booking button sits. The helper text says: "Enter the web address of the page where your button should appear, for example https://yoursite.com/booking. Do not include anything after a ?."
5. Press Save.

The best way to get the address right is to open your own website, go to the page with the booking button, and copy the address out of the browser's address bar.

If your booking button is on your Rentalbuddy page rather than your own website, Use Rentalbuddy URL fills the field in for you (it appears when the location has a Rentalbuddy page).

What the field accepts:

• The full address, starting with https:// or http://. Without it, the field says "The URL must start with https:// or http://." and saving is refused.
• No question mark. If you pasted a preview or test link, the admin warns: "Your page address should not contain a ? (this often happens if you pasted a preview or test link). Delete everything from the ? onward, or use your normal page address — for example https://yoursite.com/booking."
• Not empty. An empty field shows "Required for embedded booking." and saving says "Each location using embedded booking needs a website URL (https:// or http://)."
• Upper-case letters in HTTPS:// are tidied up automatically. Everything after the domain must match your real page exactly, including upper and lower case in the page path.

Fixing the address also repairs links already sent

Because every link looks up the address when it is clicked, the new address applies from the very next click — including emails sent weeks ago and QR codes printed last season. You do not need to resend confirmations or reprint current codes.

The flip side: changing the address changes where all outstanding links go, including those of customers in the middle of a rental. A typo here takes down every active booking's link at once. So:

• Change it outside your busiest hours if you can.
• Test straight away with Copy booking link as described above.
• Don't change it "to see what happens" in the middle of the season.

The link gives "403 Forbidden" or "Not found" on your own website

When Rentalbuddy forwards a customer, it removes a single slash at the end of the saved address and then adds the booking details. So https://yoursite.com/booking/ is opened as https://yoursite.com/booking?….

Most websites answer both forms. Some hosts do not — they answer the address without the final slash with 403 Forbidden or Not found, even though the page opens fine when you type it yourself. The Preview button on the Book button tab keeps your slash, so Preview can work while the email and QR links fail.

If that happens:

• Open your page without the final slash in a browser. If that gives the error, ask your web host or web designer to make the page answer without the slash too, or
• use a page address on your website that works without a slash at the end.

Other causes of a "not found" on your own website:

• The page was renamed, moved or deleted in a website redesign. Save the new address.
• The page is not published yet, for example while a web agency is still working on it.
• You previewed but never saved. The preview uses whatever is typed in the field right now — the admin warns "This preview uses the website address above. Save your location to store that address."
• You fixed a different location. The address is saved per location; with several locations it is easy to correct one and test another.

A plain page that says only "Not found"

If the customer sees a bare white page with only the words Not found (not your website's own error page), Rentalbuddy could not forward them at all. That happens when:

• the location uses Embedded on your website and URL where book button is implemented is empty,
• the code belongs to a lock that has been deleted, or moved to another Rentalbuddy account (a lock with upcoming bookings can't be deleted, so this concerns codes on locks that are gone),
• the location or the booking has been deleted.

Save a page address for the location, or print a new code for the lock that now stands there.

The page opens, but the booking window does not

The address is right but nothing happens — the customer sees your page and your button, or not even the button:

• The booking engine code is missing from that page, or the page has no booking button. Links from emails need the booking engine on the page; location and lock QR codes and Copy booking link are only sure to open when the location's own booking button is on that page. See the guide on installing the booking button.
• The page has a button for a different location. A location's booking link and QR codes open the booking window only on a page with that location's own button. If two locations share one page, add both buttons to it — or give each location its own page.
• A cookie banner blocks the booking engine until the visitor accepts cookies. It works for you (you accepted long ago) but not for new customers. The Book button tab has cookie-tool variants of the code; details are in the install guide.
• It works for you but not for the customer. Test in a private window on a phone — that is what a first-time customer sees.

Rentalbuddy website and Booking link locations

With Rentalbuddy website or Booking link, all links go to your Rentalbuddy booking page and URL where book button is implemented is not used. Things that can still go wrong:

• You changed the URL slug on the Website tab. Email links and QR codes follow the new address automatically, but links you copied earlier with Copy page link and pasted on your website or social media contain the old slug and may stop working. Copy them again and replace them.
• You switched the location to Embedded on your website. From then on, every email link and QR code goes to your own website's page instead — so that page must have the booking button before you switch.

Old QR codes that don't follow the address

Current QR codes go through the permanent Rentalbuddy links, so fixing the address fixes them too. Very old printouts can be different: lock QR codes downloaded before 22 June 2026, and older location codes, can have your website address built into the code itself. Those keep pointing at the old address no matter what you save now.

After changing your website address:

1. Scan one sticker or flyer of each kind with your phone.
2. If it opens your current booking flow, it is fine.
3. If it opens an old or dead address, download the code again — lock codes on the location's Locks tab, location codes on its Book button tab — and reprint.

A lock QR code that opens the booking flow but not for that lock (the customer gets the normal booking flow and has to pick a unit) usually means the lock was moved, has no product, or the code is an old one from its previous location. See the guide on booking links and QR codes.

If none of this helped

Contact support and include:

• the location name,
• the address saved in URL where book button is implemented,
• one real link from a confirmation email (copy it from the email — don't retype it),
• and what the customer saw (a screenshot helps).

Common questions

The Start booking button in the email goes to our homepage — why? The saved page address for the location points at a page without your booking button, often the front page. Save the exact page where the button sits in URL where book button is implemented on the Book button tab.

Customers say they get no email with the codes, but the booking shows the email as Opened. The email arrived; the link in it goes to the wrong page. Test with Copy booking link and fix the page address.

When they press the unlock link they get "403 Forbidden". Your website probably refuses the address without its final slash, which is how Rentalbuddy opens it. Ask your web host to accept both forms, or save an address that works without the slash.

I changed the booking URL in the admin — do I have to resend the emails? No. Every email link and QR code looks up the address when it is clicked, so the new address applies immediately, also to emails already sent.

The QR code opens our website but nothing happens. That page is missing the booking engine or this location's own booking button, or a cookie banner is blocking it. Open the page with ?rbCheck=1 at the end of its address to see which, and add the button for this location to that page.

How can I see which page the booking button is really on? The Book button tab says "The booking button is live on …" for each website the button has loaded on, with the page. If that is not the page saved in URL where book button is implemented, save the right one.

We rebuilt our website and now all links are dead. The page with the booking button got a new address. Copy it from your browser and save it on each location's Book button tab.

It works when I test it but not for customers. Test in a private window on a phone; a cookie banner or a page only visible to logged-in editors can block first-time visitors.

Where is the Make a test booking button? In the location page's top bar, next to Save, on every tab of the location. It is greyed out while the location can't take bookings yet or the tab has unsaved changes.

The link shows a white page that only says "Not found". Rentalbuddy had nowhere to send the customer — the page address is empty, or the lock or location behind the code was deleted.