Customers contact Rentalbuddy instead of you — make sure they can reach you

Your renters are calling or emailing Rentalbuddy instead of you — or they reply to their confirmation email and never hear back. They are not doing anything strange: when your own contact details are missing, the only name they can find is ours.

Rentalbuddy supports you, the operator; you support your own customers. Rentalbuddy cannot help a renter with their booking, a key or a refund, so every renter who lands with us is a renter waiting for you. The fix takes a few minutes per location.

Why customers end up at Rentalbuddy

Here is what a renter sees, and where each piece comes from:

• The email sender. Booking emails are sent from Rentalbuddy's no-reply address, and the sender name customers see in their inbox is currently RentalBuddy, not your company name.
• Replies. A customer who presses Reply writes to that no-reply address. Replies do not reach you.
• The contact line in the email. The Contact details – Location block prints the location's address and "Contact: [phone] or [email]" from the location's own contact details. If a location has no phone or email saved, customers literally see [Site Phone] and [Site Email] there.
• The unlock, return and cancellation pages. They say "If you have any questions please contact us at [email] or [phone]." with the location's email and phone. If those are empty, the sentence has blanks where your details should be.
• "powered by Rentalbuddy". The booking window and the unlock page show a small powered by Rentalbuddy logo that links to rentalbuddy.io. With no contact details of yours anywhere, that is the link customers follow.

So the single most important fix is the location's contact details. They feed the email, the unlock and return pages, and the booking window's "not available" message all at once.

Fill in each location's contact details

1. Go to Locations and open the location.
2. On the Location settings tab, find the card Location & Contact Details.
3. Fill in Location email and Location phone with the address and number your customers should use — the ones someone actually answers during the rental. Above the email field the card reminds you: "Your customers see the location email and phone in the booking and in their confirmation emails."
4. Press Save.

Repeat for every location: the details are saved per location, and each booking uses the details of its own location. If you have several locations with the same contact, Copy from ("Copy email and phone from another location.") opens Copy contact details, where you Select from location and confirm.

Both fields are required. A new location gets them filled in from your account's contact details when you create it (change them if the place has its own), and the tab can't be saved without them: the email must be valid and the phone number needs at least six digits. Rentalbuddy's own email or phone number is refused: "These are Rentalbuddy's contact details. Enter your own, so customers reach you and not us." Customers who get Rentalbuddy's phone or email reach a team that cannot open locks or change bookings for them.

Older locations, saved before these fields were required, can still be missing them or carry Rentalbuddy's details. Rentalbuddy flags them:

• the Location & Contact Details card says "This location has no email or phone number for customers, so booking confirmations give them no way to reach you." or "This location still shows Rentalbuddy's contact details, so customers who need help reach us instead of you.",
• the Location settings tab gets a mark, and the Locations list shows a mark after the location's name,
• Home lists it under Worth reviewing: "Beach is missing contact details for customers.", with Open location.

The marks go away as soon as you save valid details of your own. Check them again whenever a staff member or phone number changes; Rentalbuddy can't tell whether someone still answers that number.

Check the contact block in your emails

The Contact details – Location block is switched on in the standard email templates. To check it:

1. Go to Settings → Emails and open your confirmation email.
2. Make sure Contact details – Location is switched on.
3. Do the same for your reminder emails.

The editor preview shows sample contact details, not yours, so look at a real confirmation — your own copy, or one from Make a test booking in the location's top bar, next to Save. If it shows [Site Phone] or [Site Email], that booking's location has no contact details saved.

If you use the [Site phone] variable in your own email text, it is simply left blank when the location has no phone saved.

More about the email templates, including the Introduction text and Closing text blocks where you can add a sentence like "Questions during your rental? Call us on…", is in the guide on confirmation and reminder emails.

Replies to the confirmation email don't reach you

The sender address is a no-reply address and cannot be changed in the admin, and there is no setting for a reply-to address. So:

• tell customers in the email text how to reach you — phone and email — instead of expecting them to reply,
• keep Contact details – Location switched on, and the location's contact details filled in.

If a customer says "I replied to the email and nobody answered", the reply went to the no-reply address; ask them to use the phone number or email in the confirmation instead.

The error message on the unlock page names your contact person

If something goes wrong on the unlock page, the customer sees An error has appeared and "Please try again or contact [name] at [location] on [phone]." The name is the Contact Person Name on the Account tab in Settings, and the phone is the location's Location phone. Keep both current — this is the message a customer reads when they are standing at a lock that won't give them a code.

Check your Terms & Conditions

Customers must tick "I accept the Terms and Conditions." at checkout, and the text they open there is yours. Operators have shipped template terms full of placeholders, or terms with another business's name and contact details, and customers then contacted whoever the terms named.

1. Go to Settings → Customer flow (or the location's own Customer flow tab, if the location uses location-specific settings).
2. In Key settings, find Terms & Conditions — "Customers accept this text at checkout when they tick "I accept the Terms & Conditions". It is the legally binding agreement between you and the customer, so keep it complete and current."
3. Press Edit terms. If the card says "No terms added yet.", customers are accepting an empty text.
4. Make sure the terms name your company and your contact details, and contain no leftover template text such as square-bracket placeholders.

Rentalbuddy helps here too: terms with placeholder text from a template, very short terms, no terms, or the same text in several languages are flagged on the Customer flow tab and on Home under Worth reviewing (for example "The terms and conditions for Beach need a look."). The customer flow guide lists the checks.

Rentalbuddy can share example terms templates on request. They are a starting point only; adapt them to your business and have them checked for your country.

Answer the usual questions before customers ask

A lot of renter questions are "what is included?", "where exactly is it?" and "can I cancel?". If the answers are nowhere in the booking flow, customers go looking for a contact — and the easiest one to find may be ours.

• Rentalbuddy booking page — if customers book on a page Rentalbuddy hosts for you, fill in the Content section on the location's Website tab: Business Name, Tagline and Description ("Edit tagline and description for each language used on the booking page.").
• Product descriptions — say what is included, sizes, and what the customer must bring. See the guide on creating and managing products.
• The confirmation email — directions, pickup instructions and your cancellation rules in the email text; the Directions – Location block adds a map link.

Accounts managed by a partner

If a Rentalbuddy partner set up and manages your account, the renter's side is the same: your customers see the contact details saved on your locations, so the steps above apply unchanged.

For your own questions as an operator, your partner is usually your first contact. Under Settings → Billing the admin shows it: "This account is managed by [partner]." or "You are subscribed via [partner]. For more information about your subscription, visit [link]."

Partners who set up locations for their customers: fill in the customer's own phone and email on every location you create, not your own and not Rentalbuddy's.

A quick check before the season

• Every location has Location email and Location phone filled in with your own details, and Home shows nothing under Worth reviewing about contact details.
• A real confirmation email shows your details, with no [Site Phone] or [Site Email].
• Your terms under Key settings are your own, complete, and free of template placeholders.
• The Contact Person Name on the Account tab is someone who still works with you.
• Your email text tells customers how to reach you during the rental.

Common questions

Why do our customers call Rentalbuddy instead of us? Usually because an older location's Location phone and Location email are empty or still Rentalbuddy's, so the only name in the email and on the unlock page is ours. Fill in your own on each location's Location settings tab; such locations are marked and listed on Home under Worth reviewing.

Where do customers see the location email and phone? In the booking and in their confirmation emails, as the line above the email field says. The unlock, return and cancellation pages show them too.

Why can't I save Rentalbuddy's phone number as the location phone? Customers would call Rentalbuddy, who can't help them with their booking. Enter a number and email address your own staff answer.

The confirmation email says "[Site Phone]" and "[Site Email]" — what is that? That location has no phone or email saved. Add them under Location & Contact Details on the location's Location settings tab; the next emails show your real details.

Customers reply to the booking email but we never get it. The email comes from a no-reply address and replies don't reach you. Put your phone and email in the email text and keep Contact details – Location switched on.

Can I change the sender name or sender address of the emails? Not in the admin. Emails come from Rentalbuddy's no-reply address and currently show RentalBuddy as the sender, so make sure your own contact details are in the email itself.

How do I put our phone number in the email that goes out after booking? Save it as Location phone on the location; the Contact details – Location block in the email shows it automatically.

Our terms mention another company and placeholder text — where do I change them? Under Settings → Customer flow → Key settings → Terms & Conditions → Edit terms, or on the location's own Customer flow tab if it uses location-specific settings.

Our account is managed by a partner — who do our customers contact? You. Your customers see your locations' contact details; the partner is your own contact for questions about your account.

Does Rentalbuddy answer our renters for us? No. Rentalbuddy supports you as the operator; renters need to reach you, which is why your contact details must be on every location.