FAQ Q387: How to send an email notification at a specific time and only in certain situations?

The first requirement (to send an email notification at a specific time) is accomplished by using one of the before/after event slots in notifications. Each of these slots (there's a maximum of 12) lets you define a message sent at a specific time point relative to either the reservation time, confirmation time, rental start time or end time. You can also specify the status that the reservation must have in order for the notification to be sent. E.g. you may only wish to send a notification with the 'not completed' status 30min after the reservation is made to remind the customer to finish their reservation process, or you might wish to only send a notification for not confirmed reservations where the confirmation is done via payment to remind the customer that they need to make a payment to finish their reservation. You'll find more about the before/after event notifications in Q211.

The second requirement (to send an email conditionally) requires using conditional tags in the email body, unless it's a simple requirement concerning the reservation status, as described above. Conditional tags (explained in details in Q207) allow you to print code conditionally. When the entire body is placed inside a condition that is not met, then the body will be empty and Planyo never sends out emails with empty body. You can use this feature to construct a condition that will be required in order for the email to be sent. This can be e.g. a reservation form item choice, a specific pricing manager rule being used triggered or any combination of possible conditions which can be expressed as a tag. See Q204 for a list of reservation-related tags which can be used inside the condition (or multiple conditions).

Here's a simple example:

Before/after event #1, sent 1 hour after reservation is made only for unconfirmed reservations

Email body: $(if) $(days_until_rental) less than 3 $(then) -- this email message will be sent only if the customer has less than 3 days before arrival -- $(endif)

This example could be used to send an urgent reminder that a payment must be made very quickly (only when the arrival is coming up soon and when the payment hasn't been made yet).