Hospitable offers two ways to keep your team informed about tasks via email and SMS: Task Reminder Notifications and Task Notification Rules. While both send notifications to your team, they serve different purposes and work in different ways.
Task Reminder Notifications are currently in beta. In order to enable these on your account, you'll need to enable beta features.
Key Differences
Task Reminder Notifications:
Sent automatically 24 hours before a task begins
Enabled by default on all tasks and task rules
Automatically translated to 29 supported languages
Task Notification Rules:
Triggered by specific events (task assigned, task updated, task cancelled)
Require manual setup for each notification type
Fully customizable message content using shortcodes
Available in different languages if a separate template is set up in that language
When to Use Each Type
Use Task Reminders when:
You want automatic reminders for upcoming tasks, 1 day before the task begins
You need to ensure that the assigned teammates don't forget their scheduled work
You want a hands-off, default notification system
Use Task Notification Rules when:
You want to trigger notifications when tasks are assigned, updated, or cancelled
You need customized message content for different scenarios
How to Set Up Task Reminders
Task reminders are enabled by default, but you can manage them as needed:
For new tasks:
When you manually create a task, the task reminder option is automatically checked
To disable the reminder, simply uncheck the "Task reminders" box before saving
For new task rules:
Task reminders are enabled by default in the notifications section
All tasks generated from that rule will include reminder notifications
To disable, uncheck the task reminders option in the task rule settings
Managing Task Reminders
Task reminders have been automatically enabled for all your existing tasks and task rules. You can disable them individually by editing each task or task rule and unchecking the reminder option.
To turn off task reminders for a specific task:
Navigate to the task
Uncheck the "Task reminders" option under Notifications
Select "Apply changes"
To turn off task reminders for a task rule:
Go Operations > Task rules > select the task rule
Find the notifications section
Uncheck the task reminders option
Save your changes
When you disable reminders on a task rule, all future notifications for tasks associated with that rule will be removed from the queue.
How to Set Up Task Notification Rules
To create a notification rule:
Go to Operations
Click on Notification rules in the left sidebar
Click on "+ Add new" at the top right corner of the page
Select the type of notification (e.g., Task Assigned, Task Updated, Task Cancelled)
On the rule editor page, select the delivery type (Email/SMS)
Customize the notification's content (you can use short codes, if desired)
Use English as a default and add another language template if needed
Choose which team should receive the notification (Cleaning, check-in, check-out, and/or maintenance)
Select the property/properties
Using Both Together
For the most comprehensive team communication, you can use both task reminders and notification rules. This ensures both proactive reminders and day-before reminders.