Texting, consent and STOP

Texting a customer needs the same kind of consent as emailing them, and once someone opts out by texting STOP, Gaplessly enforces it automatically, with no action needed from you.

Last updated 9 October 2026

Quick answer

If a customer replies STOP (or STOPALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, OPTOUT) to any text your booking system has sent them, they stop receiving reminder texts immediately, at every business on the platform that has their number on file. They can text START at any time to opt back in. You don't need to change anything yourself for either to take effect.

1. What texts your business sends today

Every text Gaplessly sends today is tied to a real booking someone made: a confirmation, a reminder, a change, a cancellation, a waitlist offer. There is no text-message marketing broadcast yet, that's an email-only feature covered in "Sending a campaign".

Because these texts are about a booking the guest already made, most of them count as operational rather than marketing, which is why an opt-out doesn't switch all of them off. The rest of this article explains exactly which ones it does.

2. How a customer opts out with STOP

A customer can reply to any text your business has sent them with one of a small set of exact words, and it's recognised as an opt-out straight away, with nothing for you to do.

Recognised opt-out replies: STOP, STOPALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, OPTOUT, or "opt out".
It only matches when that's the whole message (ignoring case and trailing punctuation), never a word inside a longer sentence, so a reply like "Stop by at 7?" is never mistaken for an opt-out.
There's a second path, though a narrower one: the unsubscribe page linked from any marketing email has a checkbox, "Also stop text messages from [business]", which a guest can tick instead of texting anything. Unlike replying STOP, ticking this box only stops texts from the one business named on that email. It does not reach every business on the platform the way a STOP reply does.

Note:CANCEL and YES are deliberately not treated as opt-outs, because guests already use those exact words to answer real questions about a booking: CANCEL to cancel it, YES to confirm a waitlist offer. Other words some text services treat as opt-outs, like END or QUIT, aren't recognised here either. They just carry no special meaning, positive or negative.

3. What STOP actually stops

An opt-out stops the reminder text to that customer. It does not stop the text version of a confirmation, a reschedule, or a cancellation, because those carry information the guest needs to act on for a booking they've already made, which is treated as operational rather than marketing. Email is on a completely separate setting and keeps sending regardless of a texting opt-out.

Message about a booking	Still texted after STOP?
Confirmation	Yes
Reschedule or change	Yes
Cancellation	Yes
Reminder	No, skipped for that customer

Tip:This is a deliberate choice, not a gap: the guest still gets the details they actually need to act on (a confirmed time, a changed time, a cancellation) even after opting out of texts, they just stop getting the one type that's closer to a courtesy nudge.

4. Why an opt-out can apply beyond your business

Businesses on Gaplessly send texts from a shared pool of numbers rather than each having their own. Because a single phone number can belong to a customer at more than one business on the platform, a STOP text reply is applied everywhere that number appears as a customer, not only at the business whose text triggered it. This platform-wide reach applies specifically to a STOP text reply. The unsubscribe-page checkbox described in the section above does not reach beyond the one business named on that email.

Watch out:If a client's reminder texts stop going out and nobody on your team sent anything that looks like it would trigger an opt-out, they may have texted STOP to a different business also using this platform. There's currently no per-customer flag on your Clients page showing this, it's enforced automatically at the moment a text would otherwise be sent.

5. Getting back in with START

A customer can text START or UNSTOP to any text they've received to reverse this, whenever they choose. It works unconditionally and applies platform-wide, the same way STOP does, so it restores their reminder texts everywhere their number was opted out, not just with your business.

As with the opt-out itself, this happens automatically the moment the reply arrives. There's nothing for you to toggle or confirm on your end.

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