SMS Alerts
Updated May 2026
Text message notifications for time-sensitive stuff—reminders, cancellations, waitlist openings.
Overview
Email is great for most things, but for last-minute updates, text messages are hard to beat. People actually read texts. Open rates are something like 98%—way higher than email. If someone's booking gets cancelled or a waitlist spot opens up, a text makes sure they actually see it.
SMS Setup
Getting started with SMS takes a few minutes:
- Go to Settings → Notifications → SMS
- Turn on SMS notifications
- Set up your sender name or number (what customers see when they get a text)
- Configure which alerts you want to send via SMS
That's it. Customers will start getting texts for the alerts you enable.
Alert Types
Use SMS for the stuff that's time-sensitive—not everything needs a text:
- Booking reminder — "Tennis at 6pm today, Court 3." Sent a few hours before.
- Schedule changes — "Your booking has been moved to 7pm." They need to know right away.
- Cancellation notice — "Your 4pm booking has been cancelled." Before they drive over.
- Waitlist opening — "A spot opened up for Saturday 10am. Book now!" First to reply wins.
Booking confirmations and payment receipts? Those can stay in email. No need to text someone something they don't need to act on immediately.
Configuration
Fine-tune how SMS works for your facility:
- Reminder timing — Send reminders 2 hours before? Same day at 8am? You choose.
- Message templates — Customize the text content for each alert type
- Quiet hours — No texts at 3am. Set hours when messages won't go out.
- Opt-out — Customers can reply STOP to unsubscribe. Required by law, and handled automatically.
Tip
Keep text messages short and useful. "Tennis @ 6pm today, Court 3" beats "This is a reminder that your booking at Example Tennis Club is scheduled for 6:00 PM this evening on Court 3. Please arrive 10 minutes early..."
SMS Costs
SMS costs extra (unlike email, which is free). Here's how it works:
- Billed per message sent
- Rates vary by country and carrier (US is typically a few cents per message)
- Track your usage in the billing dashboard
- Set monthly limits if you want to cap spending
- Some plans include a number of messages per month
For most facilities, SMS costs are pretty minimal—maybe $10-20/month depending on volume. The no-show reduction alone is usually worth more than that.