Brevo – Newsletter Integration

Vendion handles email in three separate tracks. Understanding the difference saves both time and money – and keeps you on the right side of GDPR.

Three email systems – three purposes:

Important: Never use Instantly.ai for your restaurant guests. It is a B2B sales tool. For your guests, use Resend (receipts, bookings) and Brevo (newsletters).

When should I use Brevo instead of Vendion's campaign feature?

Vendion's built-in campaigns (Marketing → Campaigns) are perfect for:

• Quick sends tied to a segment ("VIP guests not visited in 60 days")
• Campaigns with variables ({name}, {booking_link})
• One-off sends for events, holidays, or news

Brevo is better when:

• You send a regular newsletter (e.g. monthly) with nice HTML design
• You want advanced email design with drag-and-drop
• You want detailed per-recipient statistics (open, click, device, map of where they opened)
• You have a larger list (>1000 recipients) and want to avoid Vendion's 1000-batch limit
• You want to segment on soft signals (opened last newsletter, clicked link X)

Flow: from Vendion to Brevo

You have two options: manual export or automatic sync.

Option 1 – Manual export (simplest, works today):

1. Go to Marketing → Guests
2. Filter: "Has email" + "Email consent = Yes"
3. Click Export CSV (coming Q2 2026 – today via support)
4. Log in at app.brevo.com → Contacts → Import → Upload CSV
5. Map columns (Brevo uses the same field names: name, email, phone)
6. Create the list "Vendion warm list"

Option 2 – Automatic sync (coming Q3 2026):

• Automatic sync of guests with email consent to Brevo every night
• Also includes automatic removal when a guest unsubscribes via Brevo link (syncs back to Vendion)
• Configured under Marketing → Settings → Brevo Integration

GDPR-critical: warm list only

You are only allowed to export guests who have given email consent. That filter is the cornerstone. Importing guests without consent into Brevo is a GDPR violation – even if you just want to "inform them that we exist".

Consent anchors in Vendion:

• Guest ticks "I want newsletters" at checkout → email consent is enabled and a timestamp is saved
• Guest clicks "Unsubscribe" in Brevo email → consent is automatically turned off in Vendion
• Guest changes in guest portal → syncs automatically

What you can do in Brevo that Vendion cannot:

• Drag-and-drop email designer with hundreds of ready-made templates
• Automated flows (e.g. welcome series of 5 emails over 30 days)
• A/B test newsletters (header, CTA, image vs text)
• RSS-to-email (every new blog post automatically becomes a newsletter)
• Advanced statistics – find recipients who open most, build "superfan list"
• SMS + email in the same flow (Brevo has its own SMS module, but we recommend running SMS via Vendion for cost control)

Price comparison:

Conclusion: Brevo is strong for email, Vendion is strongest for SMS and mixed campaigns where variables and segments matter most.

Resend – when is it used? Resend is fully automated and used "under the hood" for:

• Receipt emails after payment
• Booking confirmations and reminders
• Password resets
• Welcome emails to new staff members

You should never send campaigns directly via Resend – they should go through Vendion or Brevo, otherwise you don't get statistics and consent handled properly.