When a member books a class or service at a location other than their home club, your studio needs to be able to communicate with them: booking confirmations, reminders, waitlist updates, and transactional one-to-one conversations related to their booking or visit. Cross-Club Messaging ensures those communications reach visiting members reliably, while keeping consent management consistent, compliant, and controlled.
This article explains how messaging works for visiting members, what staff can and cannot do, and how home club consent settings affect communication at your location.
Content:
- Before You Begin
- How Consent Works Across Clubs
- START and STOP Keywords
- Manual Opt-In and Opt-Out by Staff
- What Visiting Club Staff Cannot Do
- Full Reference: Messaging Behavior at a Glance
- Frequently Asked Questions
Before You Begin
- Cross-Club Messaging is part of the Cross-Club Bookings feature. Your studio must have Cross-Club Bookings configured before messaging for visiting members will apply. See the Complete Guide to Cross-Club Bookings to get set up.
- Only transactional messages are supported for visiting members. This includes booking confirmations, reminders, and waitlist notifications, as well as transactional one-to-one conversations initiated from within Conversations in Connect or the Work It widget, giving front desk and support staff the ability to communicate with visiting members in real time when needed. Promotional messaging to visiting members is not permitted under any circumstances.
- Manual consent controls are managed at the member's home club. Visiting club staff cannot manually change a visiting member's opt-in or opt-out status; however, STOP and START keywords can still apply at the visiting club level and may affect that member's transactional messaging eligibility for your location specifically. Brief your team on this before enabling Cross-Club Bookings to avoid confusion at the front desk.
- A visiting customer record is created automatically when a member from another club books at your location. This record links them to their home club and is what enables booking-related messages to be sent correctly.
How Consent Works Across Clubs
Every member's messaging consent is anchored to their home club. When that member visits another location, a visiting club, their transactional messaging eligibility travels with them, but the visiting club cannot independently control it.
This design keeps consent handling consistent across your entire group and reduces compliance risk.
What This Means in Practice
- If a member is opted in to transactional messaging at their home club, they are eligible to receive booking-related messages from visiting clubs too.
- If a member opts out at their home club (by texting STOP or through a manual update), that opt-out applies everywhere, including any visiting clubs they've booked at.
- Visiting clubs can only send transactional messages (bookings, reminders, waitlist). They cannot send promotional messages to visiting members, regardless of consent status.
START and STOP Keywords
Members can text START or STOP to manage their messaging preferences. How this works depends on whether the message is sent to the home club number or a visiting club number.
Texting STOP
Where STOP is sent |
What happens |
|---|---|
| Home club number | All messaging (transactional and promotional) is disabled at the home club, and transactional messaging is also disabled at all visiting clubs the member has booked at. |
| Visiting club number | Messaging is stopped from that visiting club only; home club and other visiting clubs are unaffected. |
Texting START
| Where START is sent | What happens |
|---|---|
| Home club number | Transactional messaging is restored at the home club and re-enabled for all associated visiting clubs. |
| Visiting club number | Transactional messaging is re-enabled for that visiting club only; home club consent is not changed. |
Please Note: A START sent to a visiting club number only restores transactional messaging for that visiting club. It does not grant promotional messaging eligibility, and it does not affect the member's home club consent settings in any way.
Manual Opt-In and Opt-Out by Staff
In some cases, staff at the home club may manually update a member's transactional messaging status; for example, after a phone call requesting to be added back to reminders. These manual changes follow the same rules as keyword-based changes.
| Staff action at home club | Effect |
|---|---|
| Manually opt out transactional | Disables transactional messaging at home club and all visiting clubs. |
| Manually opt in transactional | Restores transactional messaging at home club and all visiting clubs. |
What Visiting Club Staff Cannot Do
Staff operating at a visiting club cannot manually change the opt-in or opt-out status of a visiting member. The consent controls are disabled in the system for cross-club customer records.
Visiting club staff cannot manually update consent. If the member wants to restore transactional messaging for your location specifically, they can text START to your club’s messaging number. For home-club or broader messaging changes, direct them to their home club.
Please Note: This restriction is intentional. Allowing visiting clubs to independently modify consent could create conflicting records across locations and create compliance risk. The UI will clearly indicate that consent for a visiting member is home-club controlled.
Full Reference: Messaging Behavior at a Glance
| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| STOP to visiting club | Stops messaging from that visiting club only. |
| START to visiting club | Re-enables transactional messaging for that visiting club only. |
| STOP to home club | Disables all messaging (transactional and promotional) at the home club; disables transactional messaging at all visiting clubs. |
| START to home club | Restores home club messaging; re-enables transactional messaging at all visiting clubs. |
| Manual opt-out at home club | Disables transactional at home club and all visiting clubs. |
| Manual opt-in at home club | Restores transactional at home club and all visiting clubs. |
| Promotional messaging from visiting club | Always disallowed. |
| Manual consent changes at visiting club. | Not permitted — home-club controlled. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: A visiting member says they stopped getting reminders after visiting us. What should I check?
A: There are a few possible causes. The member may have texted STOP to either the home club number or the visiting club number, or a manual opt-out may have been applied at their home club. Start by identifying which location's reminders are missing and whether the member recalls interacting with either number.
- If reminders from your location specifically have stopped, the member can text START to your club's number to restore transactional messaging for your location.
- If reminders across all locations are affected, the member should text START to their home club’s number, or staff at the home club can manually restore their transactional messaging status, or have the home club manually restore their transactional messaging status.
Q: Can we send a promotional message or special offer to a visiting member?
A: No. Promotional messaging to visiting members is never permitted, regardless of their consent status. Cross-club messaging is limited to transactional booking-related communication only (confirmations, reminders, waitlist notifications).
Q: A visiting member asked our front desk to opt them back in to reminders. Can staff do this?
A: Manual opt-in controls are disabled for visiting member records at your location, so staff at the visiting club cannot manually update their consent status. However, the member can text START to your club's number to restore transactional messaging for your location specifically. If they want messaging restored across all locations, they can text START to their home club's number or have staff at their home club manually re-enable transactional messaging on their account.
Q: Will a visiting member automatically get booking reminders, or does something need to be turned on?
A: As long as the member is opted in to transactional messaging at their home club and has not texted STOP to your club's number, booking-related messages from your location will be sent automatically once a visiting customer record is created (which happens when they book). No additional setup is needed on your end. If a member is not receiving reminders, it is worth checking whether a STOP was triggered at either the home club or visiting club level.
Q: How do I know if a client in Connect is a visiting member or a home member?
A: Look for the cross-club badge next to their name → in the Clients & Prospects list, Conversations, or the Connect Work It widget. Visiting members can also be texted directly from the Work It widget for transactional, visit-related communication.
Q: What if one of the clubs does not use Connect?
A: You can use Cross-Club Messaging when the visiting club uses Connect. Your home club doesn’t need to use Connect for the visiting club to send you messages through this feature.
If the visiting club doesn’t use Connect, Cross-Club Messaging won’t be available for that club.