![Agoda survey email: [Booking [REF]] Final Reminder: Would you recommend Nora Buri Resort & Spa?](/email-examples/img/196af6528c2da651-t.webp)
What a travel email is
A travel email is a message an airline, booking site, car rental firm, holiday park, tour operator or other tourism business sends to a traveler: the offers and price drops that sell a trip, the booking confirmations, receipts and pre-trip reminders that deliver it, and the review requests, loyalty statements and newsletters that bring the traveler back.
We collected 505 of them from 110 brands in two ordinary inboxes, sent between 2016 and 2026, and show 42 from 35 brands here. The percentages describe all 505. 191 of the 505 come from Australian senders, and one sender shapes the set: Airbnb sent 128 of them, some to a guest and some to a host. Where Airbnb changes a number, the table shows it both ways.
Browse 42 travel emails
The first screen runs in the order a trip does: offers and price drops, then booking confirmations, receipts and pre-trip reminders, then review requests, loyalty statements and newsletters. Filter by type, or search a brand or subject line. Open any email to see it full length, with its subject line, notes on what it is doing, and a prompt that rebuilds it.
Hipcamp
Prime stargazing this weekend 💫
Skyscanner
Your cheapest return flights from Sydney
Qantas Red Email
The Singapore Red Tail Sale is on now ✈
Kiwi.com
Quick, 9 € flights are on sale now!
NRMA Parks and Resorts
Less crowds. More Tassie.
Hostelworld
Choose your Vienna aesthetic ✨
Turo
Give your pup the ride of their life
RatePunk
Claim your deals now with 77% off!
Booking.com
🛄 Thanks! Your booking is confirmed at The Luna
Amtrak
Get ready for your trip to San Diego
Budget
Budget Rent A Car: Reservation Confirmation: [NAME], your Budget reservation #[ORDER_NO] at CNS is confirmed
Hostelworld
Confirmed booking from hostelworld.com - The Beach Waikiki by ALOH, Honolulu
Alamo Rent A Car
Alamo Rent A Car Reservation Confirmation [ORDER_NO] at MELBOURNE AIRPORT (MEL)
SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium
Your SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium Receipt!
Expedia
Important update: Expedia Rewards is becoming One Key
Agoda
[Booking [REF]] Final Reminder: Would you recommend Nora Buri Resort & Spa?
Discovery Parks & Resorts
Still off to Moama West?
KrisFlyer
Your KrisFlyer Account Statement
United Airlines
March statement: Plan your trip to the USA
Trip.com
💥Your Weekly Travel Pulse: Must-Know Updates >>
Skyscanner
Spotlight on: Rome
Kyte
Kyte: Car Rental Reinvented
Mix & Match Travel
Welcome to the Points Programme
Kyte
All Your Rental Needs
How travel email differs from everything else in the same inboxes
Travel email against every other email
505 travel emails, the 377 not from Airbnb, and 12,206 other emails| What we measured | All travel | Without Airbnb | Everything else |
|---|---|---|---|
| Promotional emails | 25% | 33% | 22% |
| Booking confirmations | 18% | 18% | 2% |
| Account notices | 15% | 15% | 6% |
| Sent to deliver a booking or purchase | 48% | 36% | 24% |
| Sent to bring past customers back | 34% | 44% | 38% |
| Greets the reader by first name | 46% | 48% | 40% |
| Plain, functional subject line | 48% | 40% | 32% |
| Names the offer in the subject line | 11% | 15% | 11% |
| Single-column layout | 73% | 73% | 65% |
| Plain-text layout | 20% | 18% | 32% |
| Text heavy | 43% | 40% | 61% |
| Opens with a hero image | 17% | 22% | 12% |
Travel email is built around a trip already booked. 18% of the 505 are booking confirmations, against 2% of everything else, and it stays at 18% when Airbnb is left out. Account notices, loyalty statements and program or policy updates among them, are 15% against 6%.
It is also more of a sell than other email, once Airbnb is out. 33% of the 377 are promotional, against 22%, 22% open with a hero image, against 12%, and 15% name the offer in the subject line, against 11%. Plain-text layouts are rarer (18% against 32%), and so are text-heavy emails (40% against 61%).
Some numbers belong to Airbnb, not the industry. It sent 55 of the 58 reservation emails, so reservation updates are 11% of the set but 1% without it. It also lifts the share sent to deliver a booking from 36% to 48%, still well above the 24% of other email either way.
What is in the collected set
By type
all 505 travel emails collected| Type | Emails | Share of the set |
|---|---|---|
| Promotional | 128 emails | 25% of the set |
| Booking confirmation | 92 emails | 18% of the set |
| Account notice | 77 emails | 15% of the set |
| Reservation update | 58 emails | 11% of the set |
| Receipt | 28 emails | 6% of the set |
| Survey or review request | 16 emails | 3% of the set |
| 21 other types | 106 emails | 21% of the set |
107 of the 505 have been rendered full length so far, and 42 of those are shown: 13 promotional, 7 booking confirmations and the rest spread across account notices, receipts, sales, price drops, review requests, newsletters, welcomes and 4 other types. Airbnb appears 2 times. The other 65 rendered emails are left out: 30 carry a traveler's or host's personal details, a private booking number or a broken render, 32 repeat a template already shown, and 3 were weaker fits for this page.
Next to this one
The same library, cut a different way: travel promotional emails, hotel and hospitality emails and transport emails by industry, or by the job the email does: booking confirmations, receipts, survey and review requests and abandoned cart emails.
Questions about the collection
Mostly offers and bookings. Of the 505 travel emails we collected, 25% are promotional, 18% are booking confirmations, 15% are account notices and 11% are reservation updates. Airbnb sent 55 of the 58 reservation emails. Booking confirmations stay at 18% without it, against 2% of every other email in the same two inboxes.
They sell the trip and then deliver it. Leaving out Airbnb, 36% of travel emails are sent to deliver something already booked, against 24% of other email, and 33% are promotional, against 22%. 22% open with a hero image, against 12%, and only 18% use a plain-text layout, against 32%.
A little more often than other email. 46% of the 505 greet the reader by first name, against 40% of everything else we collected. It depends on the job: 61 of 92 booking confirmations do, but only 32 of 128 promotional emails.
107 of the 505 have been rendered full length for the library so far. We left out 30 that carry personal details, private booking numbers or a broken render, 32 that repeat a template already shown and 3 weaker fits. The rest count in every percentage here but are not shown yet.