Configuring Notifications

Notifications help you stay on top of what matters without drowning in noise. TrailerBase lets you pick exactly which events ping you, on which channel, and when — down to the hour of day. This guide walks through the full setup.

Where to configure

Head to Settings > Notifications. You will see a grid with events as rows and channels as columns. Toggle each intersection to enable or disable.

There are also two tabs at the top: Your Notifications (just for you) and Team Defaults (what new staff start with). If you are an Owner, use Team Defaults to set sane starting points for everyone.

The events

TrailerBase supports notifications on these core events:

• New booking — any booking created, manual or online.
• Payment received — any successful Stripe charge.
• Payment failed — declined cards or missed scheduled charges.
• Cancellation — customer or staff cancels a booking.
• Overdue return — trailer not back by the scheduled return time.
• Contract signed — digital contract completed.
• Review received — new rating or written review.
• Low availability — utilization of a trailer class hits your threshold.
• Damage report filed — damage intake or insurance claim created.

You can also build Custom events from any automation trigger if you need something specific.

The channels

Each event can fire on any combination of:

• Email — classic, works for everyone. Good for non-urgent events.
• SMS — pushes through fastest. Reserve for urgent things like overdue returns or payment failures.
• In-app — the bell icon in the TrailerBase web and mobile app. Good for anything you will only act on while in the system.

You can attach different recipients per event. For example, new bookings go to the whole team by email, but overdue returns only SMS the on-duty manager.

Setting quiet hours

To avoid 3 a.m. pings, configure Quiet Hours at the bottom of the page:

1. Toggle quiet hours on.
2. Pick a start time and end time (e.g., 9 p.m. to 7 a.m.).
3. Select your timezone.
4. Optionally mark Critical events only — these still come through (payment failures, overdue returns), while everything else queues.

Queued notifications deliver at the start of your next active window, so you never lose information, just the interruption.

Per-channel quiet hours

Power-user tip: you can set quiet hours per channel. For example, SMS is quiet from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m., but email keeps flowing. This matches how most humans actually consume notifications.

Step-by-step setup for a small team

1. Open Settings > Notifications > Team Defaults.
2. Enable New booking — Email + In-app for all roles.
3. Enable Payment failed — SMS + Email for Manager and Owner only.
4. Enable Overdue return — SMS + In-app for on-duty staff only.
5. Enable Contract signed — In-app only, no email.
6. Enable Review received — Email for Owner only.
7. Set Quiet Hours 9 p.m. to 7 a.m., critical events allowed.
8. Save.

Your team gets coverage without inbox overload.

Troubleshooting

• Not getting SMS: check that your phone is verified in Account > Profile. Carriers occasionally mark Twilio messages as spam — reply "START" to our number to reopen.
• Emails landing in promotions: add [email protected] to your contacts.
• Duplicate alerts: you may be on both a role-level rule and a personal rule. Turn off one.

Review your notification load every few months. What was essential at 10 rentals a week becomes overwhelming at 50.