How do I hide the meeting host's email address from external guests?

When Chili Piper books a meeting, the calendar invite is created in the host's own calendar, so the host's email address is visible to every external guest. The Send an email confirmation guest notification mode replaces that invite with an email from Chili Piper, keeping internal email addresses off what the guest receives.

Table of Contents

• How guest notifications work
• How to switch a Meeting Type to email confirmation
• Choosing where replies go
• Which address the confirmation is sent from
• Reminder emails use a different address
• What the guest receives
• Limitations

How guest notifications work

Each Meeting Type offers two ways of notifying an external guest once a meeting is booked:

• Send a calendar invitation – the guest is added to the event in the host's calendar and receives a standard Google or Microsoft invite. The host's email address is visible to the guest;
• Send an email confirmation – Chili Piper sends the guest its own email with a calendar file (.ics) attached. The guest is not added to the host's event, so internal email addresses stay hidden.

Send a calendar invitation is the default.

How to switch a Meeting Type to email confirmation

1. In the Command Center, click Assets in the left-hand menu, then Meeting Types;
2. Open the Meeting Type you want to change and go to Advanced Settings;
3. Under Guest meeting notification, make sure the toggle is Enabled;
4. Select Send an email confirmation;
5. Choose where replies should go under Send replies to;
6. Save the Meeting Type.

Note: This setting applies to new bookings only. Changing it does not affect meetings that are already scheduled.

Choosing where replies go

Send replies to controls the address a guest reaches when they reply to the confirmation email:

• Host email address – replies go to the meeting host, and the host's address is visible to the guest;
• Booker email address – replies go to whoever booked the meeting on the guest's behalf. If there is no booker, replies go to the host;
• No-reply email address – replies go to an unmonitored address, and internal email addresses are hidden from the guest.

Select No-reply email address to keep the host's and booker's addresses hidden. With this option, internal addresses are also hidden on the booking confirmation page.

Which address the confirmation is sent from

The sending address depends on whether your account has a verified custom email domain:

To send from your own domain instead of @chilipiper.com, see How to Set Up Custom Email Domains. Once a domain is verified, the addresses Chili Piper will use are listed on the Email Domains tab in the Command Center.

Note: The address a guest sees in their inbox is usually the display name, not the address itself. Most email clients hide the address until the header is expanded.

Reminder emails use a different address

Guest confirmations and meeting reminders are separate emails and they are sent from different addresses. Setting the confirmation to No-reply email address does not change where reminders come from.

Reminders are configured on the Reminders tab of the Meeting Type. The Send From option there controls the reminder's sending address:

Send From and Send replies to are independent on a reminder. A reminder can be sent from the reminder address while replies still reach the host, so the guest sees a neutral sender and any reply still arrives in the right inbox.

Note: Host email address and Booker email address appear under Send From only when your account has a verified custom email domain.

What the guest receives

With Send an email confirmation selected, the external guest receives an email from Chili Piper with a calendar file (.ics) attached. How that file is handled depends on the guest's email client. Google adds the event to the guest's calendar automatically unless they have turned off invitations from unknown senders. Other clients may require the guest to open the attachment to add the event.

The calendar file lists the external guest only. The host, the booker and any assignees do not appear in it.

Internal attendees still receive a normal calendar event between themselves. External guests are removed from that event.

Limitations

• The confirmation email template cannot be customized;
• The setting applies to new bookings only, so meetings booked before the change are unaffected;
• How the calendar file is added to the guest's calendar depends on their email client;
• Host email address and Booker email address are available only on accounts with a verified custom email domain;
• Only one custom email domain can be configured per account.