Cubby holds most automated tenant messages overnight and releases them in the morning, so a system that runs its billing and collections jobs in the small hours doesn't wake your tenants up. This article explains which messages wait, which ones don't, and what to expect when they're released.
In this article
What tenant quiet hours are
Messages that are held until morning
Messages that always send straight away
AutoPay: email and SMS behave differently
What happens the moment quiet hours end
Changing your quiet hours
FAQ
What tenant quiet hours are
Tenant quiet hours are a window during which Cubby will not deliver an automated message to a tenant. Any message generated inside the window is queued and sent once the window closes.
The default is 8:00 PM to 8:00 AM.
The window is set once for your whole organization, not per facility.
It is applied in each facility's local time. If you operate across time zones, a tenant at an Eastern facility and a tenant at a Pacific facility both get their messages at 8:00 AM their own time.
It applies to both email and SMS.
Tenant quiet hours are a completely separate setting from the quiet hours you may have configured for your staff. Staff quiet hours control when your team is notified; tenant quiet hours control when your tenants are. Changing one has no effect on the other.
Messages that are held until morning
These system messages are queued if they're generated during quiet hours, and delivered when quiet hours end:
Invoice
Late fee notice
First collections notice
Second collections notice
Final collections notice
Pre-lien notice
Overlock added
Rent change
AutoPay payment method expiration
Coverage policy expiration notice
Reservation reminder
Reservation cancellation
Welcome to Cubby
Custom messages sent automatically by a Workflow follow the same rule, and a Workflow has its own Respect tenant quiet hours checkbox you can uncheck if a particular workflow needs to send regardless.
This is why a rent increase notice you scheduled for a given date, or an invoice generated by an overnight billing run, tends to land in your tenants' inboxes first thing in the morning rather than at the moment Cubby created it.
A message you send by hand from a tenant's profile is never held. Quiet hours apply only to messages Cubby generates on its own.
Messages that always send straight away
Some messages are either time-critical or a direct response to something the tenant just did, so holding them would do more harm than good. These ignore quiet hours entirely and go out at whatever hour they're generated:
Lien notice and Unit auctioned notice — legally sensitive and tied to statutory timelines
Move-in confirmation, Move-out confirmation, Scheduled move-out notice, Rental confirmation, Reservation confirmation and Quote — a tenant who just rented, reserved or moved out expects immediate confirmation
Tenant lock combination — a tenant standing at their unit at 10:00 PM needs the code now
Overlock released — the tenant has just paid and needs to get into their unit; this message also carries the lock combination
Refund receipt
Unsigned document reminder
Contact information updated — a security notice, so it must reach the tenant immediately
AutoPay: email and SMS behave differently
AutoPay charges usually run in the middle of the night, so the two messages it produces are split across channels:
Message | SMS | |
Receipt for a successful AutoPay charge | Sent immediately | Held until quiet hours end |
AutoPay failed | Sent immediately | Held until quiet hours end |
AutoPay payment method expiration | Held until quiet hours end | Held until quiet hours end |
So a tenant whose AutoPay ran at 1:00 AM has the receipt or the failure notice in their inbox at 1:00 AM, but doesn't get the text until 8:00 AM. A receipt for a payment taken manually — over the counter, on the phone, or in the tenant portal — is not held on either channel, because someone was already awake to make it.
If a tenant calls first thing in the morning saying they were charged overnight but only just heard about it, this is usually why.
What happens the moment quiet hours end
Held messages are released at exactly the end of the quiet-hours window in the facility's local time — every one of them, at the same instant. There's no stagger and no drip-feed.
Two things worth knowing as a result:
A tenant with several held messages receives them together. Someone who was invoiced, charged a late fee and moved into collections overnight gets three messages at 8:00 AM, in the order Cubby generated them.
Reply volume is concentrated. If you ran a rate-change batch or a large invoice run overnight, expect the calls and replies to arrive in a block shortly after quiet hours end rather than spread through the day. It's worth staffing the phones accordingly on those mornings.
A held message is not cancelled if the situation changes while it's queued. If a tenant pays at 6:00 AM, a collections notice generated at 2:00 AM will still arrive at 8:00 AM. If a tenant queries a notice that no longer reflects their balance, check the timestamps on their ledger before assuming something went wrong.
Changing your quiet hours
Tenant quiet hours are not exposed in your Cubby settings — the window is configured by Cubby at the organization level, and there's no per-facility override.
To move your window, or to switch it off so automated messages send at any hour, email support@cubbystorage.com with the start and end times you want. Bear in mind that turning it off means overnight billing runs will text your tenants overnight, and that some jurisdictions restrict when you may contact a consumer about a debt — worth checking before you ask.
FAQ
Can I set different quiet hours per facility?
No. There is a single window for the whole organization. It is applied in each facility's own local time, which is usually what multi-time-zone operators want anyway.
A tenant says they never received a notice that Cubby shows as sent overnight. Is quiet hours the cause?
Only for the timing. Quiet hours delay a message, they never drop it. If a message is genuinely missing, check the delivery status instead — see Understanding email delivery status in Cubby.
Do quiet hours apply to messages I send myself?
No. Anything you or your team sends by hand goes out immediately, including templated messages sent from a tenant's profile or in bulk. See How to send a templated message to a tenant.
Do quiet hours apply to physical mail?
No. Quiet hours govern email and SMS only. Printed notices sent by mail are unaffected.
Can a tenant opt out of overnight messages specifically?
Not separately — quiet hours already cover that. A tenant marked do-not-disturb, or who has opted out of SMS, is excluded from automated messages altogether on that channel.
To review or customize the wording of any message named above, see Creating Communication Templates. If you have questions about your organization's window, contact support@cubbystorage.com.