# Appointment and booking reminders

> Send appointment and booking reminders by SMS with per-message scheduling, personalisation and optional reply-to-confirm. Priced per message, no subscription, no KYC, paid in crypto.

To send appointment reminders with SMSMeteor, schedule one message per booking with `send_at` set to the moment it should arrive, for example 24 hours before the slot, or upload tomorrow's bookings as a CSV each afternoon. Personalise with the name, time and place, and add a two-way number if you want recipients to reply C to confirm. Each reminder costs one message at the destination's published rate; there is no subscription.

## Recommended settings

- Traffic type: Transactional (service message)
- Timing: `send_at` per message, or a daily file
- Personalisation: Name, time, place from your columns or payload
- Confirmation: Optional two-way number: reply C or X
- Length: One segment with time, place and brand
- Cost model: Per message, no plan

## Steps

1. Pick the moment: The day before at a civil hour works for most services; add a second reminder two hours ahead for high-value slots.
2. Say what matters: Brand, date and time, place, what to do if they cannot come. Avoid anything that reads as an offer.
3. Collect replies: With a two-way number, replies arrive in the panel and on your webhook; keyword rules can answer automatically.
4. Track no-shows: Compare attendance for reminded and non-reminded bookings. That number, not the delivery rate, is the result.

## From a booking system or from a file

If your booking software can call a URL, send one API request when the appointment is created, with `send_at` in UTC for the moment the reminder should arrive. Use the booking id as `reference` and in the idempotency key, so a rescheduled appointment can cancel and replace its reminder cleanly.

If it cannot, export tomorrow's bookings each afternoon and upload the file in the panel: columns become variables, the preview shows the longest rendered message, and the campaign can be scheduled for a local window the next morning.

## Replies and cancellations

A reminder that can be answered is worth more than one that cannot: a cancelled slot can be resold. Rent a two-way number for the country you serve, ask for C to confirm or X to cancel, and route the inbound events to your system. Keep the wording neutral; a reminder that upsells is marketing and loses its transactional status.

## Sample message

From CLINIC: "Northside Dental: reminder of your appointment tomorrow, Tue 22 Sep at 10:30, 14 Mill St. Reply C to confirm or X to cancel."

```bash
curl https://api.smsmeteor.com/v1/messages \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SMSMETEOR_KEY" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: booking-77120-reminder-24h" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "to": "+61491570156",
    "text": "Northside Dental: reminder of your appointment tomorrow at 10:30, 14 Mill St. Reply C to confirm or X to cancel.",
    "send_at": "2026-09-21T23:30:00Z",
    "campaign": "reminders",
    "reference": "booking-77120"
  }'
```

## Questions

**When should an appointment reminder be sent?** Twenty-four hours before works for most services, at a civil local hour. High-value or long appointments benefit from a second reminder two to three hours ahead.

**Can recipients confirm or cancel by reply?** Yes, when the message is sent from a two-way number. Replies arrive in the panel inbox and on your webhook, and keyword rules can answer automatically. Alphanumeric senders cannot receive replies.

**Do I need a subscription for reminders?** No. Each reminder is one message at the destination's published rate. A practice sending 2,000 reminders a month to the United Kingdom pays $26.00.

**Are reminders subject to quiet hours?** A reminder is a service message, so it can be flagged transactional and bypass quiet hours. In practice you will schedule it at a sensible hour anyway.

**What if an appointment is rescheduled?** A scheduled message can be cancelled before it leaves. Use the booking id in the reference so your system finds it, then schedule the new one.

**Can I send reminders without an integration?** Yes. Export tomorrow's bookings as a CSV, upload it in the panel, personalise with your columns and schedule the campaign.



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Source: https://smsmeteor.com/use-cases/appointment-reminders (HTML). Generated by SMSMeteor from the same data as the page. Summary of the whole site: https://smsmeteor.com/llms.txt