Guests who opt out
What this covers
The two ways a guest stops receiving texts, how to record a request properly, and why you should.
Setting the flag on a guest needs the update-guests permission — so Hosts and Waitstaff
can do it, which is deliberate: the person who takes the request should be able to act on it.
Two independent routes
1. The guest replies STOP
A guest can reply STOP to any text. This is handled by the mobile networks and the messaging service, not by Tabledoo — it is a legal requirement in most countries and it works whether or not anybody at your restaurant notices.
There is nothing to configure and nothing you can do to prevent it. What you should know:
- It takes effect straight away, for every future text.
- Tabledoo finds out the next time it tries to text that guest, and records the opt-out on their profile automatically — so it only happens once and no credits are wasted on repeat attempts.
- The guest will not see a warning in your app until that has happened.
- You cannot undo it from Tabledoo. Only the guest can, by texting START or UNSTOP to the number they received the message from. Do not promise a guest you can switch it back on.
2. You set the flag yourself
Every guest profile has an SMS opt-out flag. Turn it on and no text of any kind is sent to that guest, whatever your notification settings say. Every message type honours it — confirmations, reminders, updates, cancellations and waitlist alerts alike.
Use it when a guest tells you directly, in person or on the phone, that they do not want texts.
Email and SMS opt-outs are separate
The SMS flag stops texts and nothing else. A guest who has opted out of texts still receives emails.
There is no equivalent email opt-out flag on a guest profile. If a guest asks to receive nothing at all, the practical approach is to set the SMS flag and remove their email address from the profile — but tell them what that means first, because it also means no booking confirmation and no record of their reservation in writing. Most guests asking to "stop the messages" mean the texts.
Recording a verbal opt-out properly
When a guest says they would rather not get texts:
- Open their profile (link Finding a guest).
- Turn on SMS opt-out.
- Add a line to their notes — what they asked for, when, and who took the request.
- Save.
The note is the part people skip, and it is the part that matters. Six months later, a colleague looking at a profile with texts switched off cannot tell whether the guest asked, whether someone switched it off by accident, or whether it came from a STOP reply. A one-line note answers that permanently.
Do it while the guest is still in front of you. An opt-out you meant to record after service is an opt-out that did not happen, and the next text you send is the one that annoys them enough to complain.
Why this matters beyond courtesy
Unsolicited messaging is regulated in most countries, and "we forgot to write it down" is not a defence anybody accepts. Beyond the rules:
- A guest who asked twice and was texted anyway concludes you do not listen — and that is not really about texts any more.
- Every text to someone who does not want one costs you a credit for a negative result.
- Complaints about messaging can put your ability to send texts at risk, which affects every guest.
Good to know
Opting out does not affect their booking. The reservation stands, the table is held, and staff-side records are unchanged. It only stops texts.
The flag lives on the guest, not the booking. Set it once and it holds for every future visit, including bookings made online or by the chatbot, which match to the same profile.
Duplicate profiles defeat it. If the same person exists twice — booked once with a different number or email — setting the flag on one profile does not silence the other. Worth checking for a duplicate when someone says they opted out and got a text anyway (link Finding a guest).
There is no bulk opt-out. It is set one guest at a time. To stop all texts to everybody, turn the SMS switches off (link Turning messages on and off).