How to Write a Thank You For Booking With Us Email

Updated July 2024 – Having someone appreciate you makes you feel good, right?

One of the reasons guests love thank you emails is because you establish credibility and trust with them early on. From a guest’s side of things, receiving a “thank you for booking with us” email reinforces their decision to book with a company they feel good about.

Thank you emails have been shown to increase repeat customers while also seeing higher open rates when compared to other types of email marketing. These thoughtful notes demonstrate attention to detail, and they are all a part of a seamless guest experience.

As a tour operator, an automated thank you email helps set expectations and show a guest your communication style. Gratitude goes a long way in business, and the benefit of a thank you email can continue the positive experience after checkout.

What is an automated thank you email? 

A thank you email comes after the experience, continues communication with your guests after checkout, and shows your appreciation. 

It’s also one of the easiest emails to automate in your booking system. Plus, by sending a ‘thank you for booking with us’ email, you increase the chance of your guests opening future emails. 

It’s considered common courtesy to thank a customer for choosing to book with you, and there are two benefits to sending this thank you message. 

First off, thank you emails recognize people as guests, not just dollars on a spreadsheet, which in hand encourages loyal customers. Secondly, when you send a customer a thank you email, you initiate a cycle of reciprocity.

Determine the purpose of the thank you email

As one of the most engaged-with types of email, a thank you note for a tour can be a key part of email marketing for tourism. Before sending a generic, automated email to your customers, consider what you want to accomplish with your message. Is your objective to:

• Drive awareness about your brand? 
• Collect feedback and customer information?
• Introduce a new activity or type of tour?
• Promote a new offering?
• Introduce a loyalty program?
• Recommend additional activities and tours?

Next, think about your customer profile

• Who are you writing to?
• What did they book?
• What else might they find valuable after booking?

In other words, when writing your thank-you email, determine what you want the recipient to do after reading it and guide them to take that next step. Be clear about who your thank-you email is for, and you’ll ensure it is relevant to your customer.

Crafting the perfect subject line

The key to your email being read is making the subject line personal and interesting because it is the first thing your customer sees. 69% of people report marking an email as spam based on the subject line. That’s a lot of eyes to lose out on if the subject line isn’t eye-catching.

Your thank-you email subject line needs to feel personalized and specific to the guest you’re sending it to. Does this mean you have to handwrite every individual email? Not if you take the time to craft a well-worded, automated thank-you email that you’ll send to each booked guest.

Examples of good thank you email subject lines:

• [name], we’re so happy you joined us at [company name]!
• That was fun! Thank you for visiting us [company location]
• Hi [name], thank you for booking your [tour or activity] with us! 
• [name], you’re the best. Thanks for choosing us!

What to include in your thank you email

1. Acknowledge and thank your customer

Building a relationship with your guests starts with an expression of gratitude. Keep your thank you email short, sweet, and concise. Aim to add personalization tokens in the subject line. When you include personal touches and specific details of the recipient, such as their name, it makes it seem like thanking customers personally for booking the tour, reserving the activity or planning their stay. 

If you prefer to send an automated booking confirmation email, this can also include a thank you message. Consider the send time and the chance they might read your message on a mobile device. 

2. Speak to the details

A thank you message from company to customer can be representative of your brand’s personality — meaning if you’re casual with your guests and joke around with them, infuse some of this energy into your thank you note. 

And just like in your reservation reminder email, reference what’s specific to the guest including the activity they booked, the place they stayed or the tour they went on. Address your gratitude that they chose to book with your company.

3. Thank them again

Once a guest has completed the tour, the follow up thank you email expresses appreciation to them for participating. The mutual benefit is how it makes your company more credible and reminds the guests of why they chose to book with you in the first place. 

If possible, include photos of them and their tour group that you can make available to download. It’s a freebie gift that continues the cycle of reciprocity where guests will feel more compelled to leave a five-star review.  

4. Make your call-to-action clear

In your thank you for booking with us email, you want to finish with a call-to-action to invite them to follow, share or connect with you further.

One excellent option is to share photos from the tour with your guests in your thank you letter for tour email. Include just enough promotional material to prompt the reader to take action. This might be following you on social media or leaving a review, or you’ll want to acknowledge something specific about their trip.

Make photos from their tour easy to find so they can hop on over to your website and social media pages. Encourage guests to source and share their photos using a special hashtag created solely for your business. 

Not only does this personalize your email, but photos are a wonderful way to engage your customers on an ongoing basis. Explore using polls or questionnaires to make it easy for people to share their feedback. Make sure your contact info is easily and appropriately found — generally at the top and bottom of the email. 

Aim to maintain the same tone of voice with each of the emails you send your guests. The initial gift of photos furthers that mutual reciprocation the guest would have felt from the first automated thank you email you sent their way. 

Automated thank you email example

When to send your thank you email

The time to send a thank you email to your guests is 1-2 days after they’ve completed their booking. This helps by closing the loop after they complete the tour or activity, triggered by the guest’s action.

Thank you email calls-to-action

Include your intended call-to-action (CTA) after the main content of your email. This is where you help guide your customers on what to do next. This may look like links to:

• Blog posts
• Photos 
• Additional activities 
• Your Online-shop
• Information about alternative available tours
• Promotions or Upsells 
• Request a review 
• Send a survey 

Don’t include too much promotional material, as it will hinder building the relationship. The idea is to provide information and offer value. One tactic that stands out beyond discounts and referral opportunities is offering a point of contact through email, social media or phone.

How to set up your thank you email in Checkfront 

Setting up a thank you email in Checkfront is simple. This guide walks you through configuring a personalized thank you email. You’ll learn how to access notification settings, customize the subject line, select the appropriate recipient, and format your message. Follow these steps to ensure your thank you emails are professional and impactful, leaving a positive impression on your clients.

In your dashboard, go through the following steps. 

1. Go to Manage and Notifications

In your dashboard, choose Manage, then Notifications to create a new thank you email. To create your email, refer to the steps detailed in the Email (Booking Options): Status in the Knowledge Base.

2. Choose New Notification

Watch this video below for a step-by-step guide to creating a new automated thank you email. You can adjust the Email Variables to use personalization tokens in your thank you letter for tour.

3. Input your message 

Once your draft thank you email has been created, bring in elements that are consistent with your brand, like your logo, font choice and overall tone. 

4. Add personalization tokens to populate your contact’s information

You’ll notice in the email body the option to add a token in both the subject line as well as the email body. This helps to improve email open rates since it appears personalized to the recipient. 

5. Save your new automated thank you email 

This message will go out at chosen intervals, depending on the schedule you set up. And voila, you’re all set to thank your guests after booking. 

Final thoughts

Thoughtfully worded thank you emails will pay off in the long term. Take the time to create a “thank you for booking with us” email strategy. It’s your opportunity to provide valuable information, create a specific response, and build a relationship with each customer.

Automating your emails is one of the ways to alleviate some of the administrative work that comes with guest bookings. By sending guests emails designed to make them feel appreciated, you elevate the interaction they have with your brand, which could lead to greater conversions. 

Ultimately, your messages need to be personalized, provide value and show that you care.  

Appreciation is the foundation for healthy relationships, as the grateful person feels a sense of well-being. And as the appreciative recipient, they feel valued and inspired to pass on the kindness. 

This is your opportunity to connect with your customers and build rapport. And then once you write your thank you email, you can start to put together a tourism newsletter designed to keep your guests on the lookout for amazing, insightful and useful content. 

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