The customer says no confirmation email arrived

You don't have to guess whether an email went out. Every booking keeps a list of the emails sent for it, with a delivery status for each. The most common causes are a mistyped address at checkout, a spam folder, or a booking created in the admin where no confirmation was sent. Steps 1 and 2 rule out most cases in a minute.

Step 1: Open the booking's messages

Go to Bookings and open the booking.
Press Messages at the top of the booking. The Sent Messages list opens.
You get one row per email, with the columns Type, To, Sent at and Status.

The Type column says which email it is:

Booking Receipt: the booking confirmation, the email the customer is asking about.
Payment: the payment email (a request to pay with a payment link, not a receipt).
Membership confirmation: sent when someone buys a membership.
When booking confirmation is sent: one of your own emails that goes out together with the confirmation.
A line such as Reminder 30 minutes before booking end: one of your reminder or follow-up emails.
A row ending in (resent): a copy you sent again from this list. It has its own status.

Rows whose To is one of your own addresses are the copies sent to your team, not the customer's email.

If the list says No messages found for this booking., no email was ever created for this booking. Go to "There is no Booking Receipt row at all" below.

A test booking made with Make a test booking only ever has the confirmation (and the copies to your team): test bookings get no reminders. Its subject starts with [TEST]. You find the button in the location's top bar, next to Save. In Bookings, test bookings are hidden until you switch on Show test bookings.

Step 2: Check the address in the To column

This is the most common real cause, and it takes seconds to rule out. Compare the address in To with the one the customer gives you. Checkout only checks that an address looks like an email address, so typos like ".con", ".vom", "gmial", a missing letter or a stray space go through. The email then went out perfectly, to an address nobody reads.

If the address is wrong:

On the booking's Customer card, press the person icon (View customer profile).
Correct the Email field and press Save. If you see "Another customer on this account already uses this email.", the correct address already belongs to another customer on your account.
Go back to the booking, open Messages, press Send new message and choose Confirmation email. A fresh confirmation goes to the corrected address.

Use Send new message, not Resend, after fixing an address. Resend always sends to the address shown in that row's To column, which is the old, wrong one. If the booking still has something to pay, send the payment email the same way (Payment email, see "Resend or send a new one" below).

Step 3: Read the delivery status

Hover over a status to see its full history, with a time for each step. On a phone, tap the row to open Status history. The list reminds you with "Hover over the status to see status history" or "Tap a message to see status history".

Status	What it really means	What to do
Pending	Planned but not sent yet, for example a reminder whose time hasn't come. Sent at is empty. A confirmation that shows Pending for a minute is being retried.	Nothing, unless it is a confirmation still Pending after about 15 minutes.
Queued	Rentalbuddy has handed the email to the mail service. The mail service hasn't confirmed yet that it went out. Sent at shows when it was handed over.	Wait a few minutes and reopen Messages. If it is still Queued, see the next section.
Sent	The mail service has accepted it for sending.	Usually fine. It normally becomes Delivered soon.
Delivered	The customer's mail server accepted it. It arrived.	Delivered isn't the same as seen. Have them check spam (step 4).
Opened	The customer opened it.	It arrived and was read. See "Opened or Clicked, but no email" below.
Clicked	The customer pressed a button or link in it.	Same as Opened. The problem is after the email, not the email itself.
Bounced	The customer's mail server refused it. Almost always the address is wrong or doesn't exist, sometimes the mailbox is full.	Go back to step 2 and get a correct address.
Blocked	The mail service refused to send to this address, typically because it bounced before or was reported as spam.	Resending to the same address won't help. Use another address.
Spam	The recipient marked it as spam.	Give them the details another way and don't keep resending.
Unsubscribed	The recipient unsubscribed from emails.	Give them the booking details by phone or another channel.
Failed	Rentalbuddy didn't send it. See "Why an email shows Failed" below.	Fix the cause, then send it again.

Stuck on Queued

Queued means the handover to the mail service worked, but no confirmation came back. Mostly Queued moves on within minutes. If a row stays Queued long after the others moved on, treat that email as not delivered: use Send new message → Confirmation email once. If the new row also stays Queued, contact support with the booking number.

Why an email shows Failed

A Failed row means Rentalbuddy decided not to send it, or couldn't. The list doesn't say which reason applied, so check them in order:

The booking is cancelled. Planned reminders turn Failed when their time comes, and a confirmation for a cancelled booking isn't sent.
The email was switched off (Active) or deleted under Settings → Emails after it was planned.
The booking's status didn't match the reminder's Booking status at sending time, for example a "before start" reminder that only has Picked up ticked.
The booking's location isn't in the email's Locations.
The booking was changed so the reminder's moment is now in the past.
The email wasn't sent within 15 minutes of its planned time, so it was dropped rather than sent late.

Reminder settings are explained in the guide on the confirmation and reminder emails.

Opened or Clicked, but "no email" and no code

If the status is Opened or Clicked, the email arrived. When a customer says "I got no email with the code", this is what has usually happened: the confirmation has no code in it, and customers get their code by pressing Start booking in the email.

So check two things:

Where the button leads. If it opens your front page or an error instead of the booking, see the guide about the booking link going to the wrong page.
Whether the code is shown yet. The code guide explains when codes appear, and what to do when one is missing.

Step 4: Spam, the sender name and the subject line

Confirmations are sent from Rentalbuddy's no-reply address, noreply@rentalbuddy.io, with RentalBuddy as the sender name, not your company name. Customers who search their inbox for your business name often conclude nothing arrived.

Ask the customer to:

Search their mail for "rentalbuddy", not for your company name.
Check the spam or junk folder, and in Gmail also the Promotions tab.
Look for the subject line. Unless you changed it, the confirmation's subject is "Thank you for your booking from" followed by the location name.

When the spam folder is empty too

Some email providers silently throw away automated booking mail before it reaches any folder. Operators have seen this with certain providers (freenet.de is the recurring example): the status here reads Sent or Delivered, the spam folder is empty, and still nothing arrived.

There is no setting on your side that fixes this. Ask the customer for an address at a different provider, correct it on the customer profile, and use Send new message as in step 2. Resend would go to the same address at the same provider.

There is no Booking Receipt row at all

The booking confirmation can't be switched off or limited to certain locations, so a missing confirmation row has one of these causes:

You created or changed the booking in the admin. Admin bookings don't send a confirmation automatically. You were asked Send Confirmation Email with Yes and No, and answering No (or closing the question) sends nothing. Send it now with Send new message → Confirmation email.
The payment was never completed. For bookings paid online, the confirmation goes out once the payment completes. A booking that was left at the payment step gets no confirmation. Its payment status then shows Pending, Expired or Failed, and it gets no codes either.
It is a membership purchase. Then look for Membership confirmation instead. That email is in the Default emails list and, like the booking confirmation, can't be switched off.
The booking was made just now. Wait a minute and reopen Messages.

Resend or send a new one

You need a role that can manage bookings to see these buttons.

Resend (the circular-arrow icon on a row) sends that exact email again, built from your current template, to the address in that row's To column. It appears as a new row marked (resent) with its own status, and the icon shows Sent! or Failed — try again. Resending a Pending reminder sends it now as an extra copy, and the planned one still goes out at its time.
If the icon shows Failed — try again, nothing was sent and no new row appears. Usually that email has since been switched off (Active) or deleted under Settings → Emails. Switch it back on, or use Send new message for the confirmation (or the payment email, while a payment link is open).
Send new message builds a fresh email and sends it to the customer's current address. Choose Confirmation email or Payment email. You'll see Email sent successfully! or Failed to send email — try again. A new confirmation also sends the usual copies to your team.
Payment email can only be sent while the booking has an open Stripe payment link, so there is something left to pay. Otherwise it is greyed out with "Create a Stripe payment first", and so is Resend on payment-email rows. To send one, press New payment in the booking's Payment section and choose Payment link Stripe: that sends the payment email itself. If the booking has an amount left to pay but no open link (for example after a manual payment was voided), sending is refused with "This booking has no open payment link. Create a Stripe payment under New payment to send one." The payment email always shows the amount of the open link.

Emails in the wrong language

The customer gets the emails in the language they had selected in the booking window. For a booking you create in the admin, it's the language the booking window was showing when you finished the booking, which normally starts as your own admin language. Switch the language at the top of the booking window before you complete the booking.

If a text has no version in that language, the English text is used. The guide on confirmation and reminder emails explains how to fill in every language.

Dates and times in the emails look the same in every language: for example 2026-07-04 14:30, or 2026-07-04 02:30 PM when Time display under Settings → Account is set to 12hr.

"They got it twice", and who else gets a copy

Copies to your own team have "Copy:" in front of the subject. So a duplicate starting with Copy: is the copy sent to your team, not a second email to the customer.

The copies go to the addresses under Settings → Account → Account Contact E-mail ("Add one or more addresses. Booking confirmation copies are sent to each address when enabled."). Use Add contact email or Remove contact email to change them. Turn off Send booking confirmation email copies to Account Contact E-mail. if you don't want a copy of every booking. Copies are on by default.

If the customer really received two identical emails without "Copy:", the confirmation was sent again. The Sent Messages list then shows two Booking Receipt rows, or one marked (resent). A customer who extends or moves the booking and pays the difference also gets the confirmation again, showing the new times.

Booking confirmation, payment email and Stripe receipt: three different emails

The booking confirmation is Rentalbuddy's email. It shows as Booking Receipt in Sent Messages, contains the booking details and the Start booking button, and you edit it under Settings → Emails.
The payment email is a request to pay. Its standard subject is "Your booking at [location] needs to be paid", and it carries a payment link.
A card payment receipt comes from Stripe, not from Rentalbuddy. It isn't listed in Sent Messages, you can't resend it from the booking, and whether Stripe sends it is set in your Stripe Dashboard.

So "the customer got the receipt but not the confirmation" is a normal situation: two systems, two emails. Check the confirmation with steps 1 to 4.

If none of this helped

Contact support with the booking number, the address in the To column, and the Status with its history (hover over it). That is everything needed to trace the email.

Common questions

A customer didn't get the email. Can you check? Open the booking and press Messages. The list shows whether the confirmation was sent, to which address, and whether it was delivered.

Sometimes it says Sent, sometimes Queued. What's the difference? Queued means handed to the mail service. Sent and Delivered mean the mail service confirmed it went out and arrived. A row that stays Queued should be sent again.

The customer only got a payment receipt, not the booking confirmation. The receipt comes from Stripe. The confirmation is a separate Rentalbuddy email, so check its row under Messages.

I can't resend the email to the right address. Resend uses the old address. Correct the email on the customer profile, then use Send new message → Confirmation email.

Can I send the booking confirmation again? Yes. Open the booking, press Messages → Send new message → Confirmation email. It goes to the customer's current address, so correct a wrong address on the customer profile first.

Payment email is greyed out. Why? There is no open payment link: "Create a Stripe payment first". Press New payment → Payment link Stripe on the booking; that sends the payment email.

Resend says "Failed — try again". Why? Nothing was sent. The email has usually been switched off or deleted under Settings → Emails since it was planned; switch it back on, or use Send new message instead.

I don't see the Resend icon or Send new message. They are only shown to users whose role can manage bookings. Account viewers see the list without them.

It says Delivered but the customer can't find it. Delivered means their mail server accepted it. Ask them to search for "rentalbuddy" and check spam, junk and Promotions.

The customer says they got no email with the codes, but the status is Opened. The email arrived. The code is on the booking page behind Start booking, so check where that button leads and whether the code is shown yet.

I booked for a customer in the admin and they got nothing. Admin bookings only send a confirmation when you answer Yes to Send Confirmation Email. Send it now from Messages → Send new message.

The date in the email looks like 2026-07-04. Is that right? Yes. The emails write dates as year-month-day in every language, for example 2026-07-04 14:30. Whether the time shows as 14:30 or 02:30 PM follows Time display under Settings → Account.

I can't find my test booking in Bookings. Test bookings are hidden by default. Switch on Show test bookings above the list, then open the booking and press Messages.

Where do the copies of every booking go, and how do I stop them? To the Account Contact E-mail addresses under Settings → Account. Turn off the copy switch there to stop them.