When a guest in New York says the booking confirmation never arrived, or a client in London insists they didn’t get last month’s statement, you need facts, not guesses. Mailpro’s SMTP statistics record what happened to each message sent through the relay, so Barbadian businesses can answer those questions quickly and spot problems before customers do.
The metrics and what they tell you
Delivery status
Each message is marked as delivered, deferred (temporarily delayed) or bounced. A sudden rise in deferrals to one provider can signal a reputation or authentication problem worth fixing quickly. Message tracking lets you search for a single email by recipient.
Bounces
Hard bounces, such as an invalid address, should be corrected at the source: the booking form or customer record. Soft bounces, such as a full mailbox, often resolve on their own. See hard bounces.
Open rate
For transactional email, opens show whether important messages are being seen. A low open rate on pre-arrival emails may mean the subject line looks too much like marketing. Treat opens as a trend, because some mail apps load images automatically for privacy.
Click rate
Clicks on “Manage my booking”, “View invoice” or “Reset password” show that the email did its job. SMTP email tracking records them per link.
Reactivity
Clicks as a share of opens. It helps judge whether the content and layout work once the message is opened.
Unsubscribes
Transactional messages normally don’t need an unsubscribe link, but if you add promotional content they become marketing. Under the Data Protection Act 2019, people then have the right to stop receiving it.
Geolocation
See the countries where messages are opened. For a Barbadian hotel, this shows how many confirmations are read in the UK, the US, Canada or on the island itself, which is useful for planning send times and support hours.
Devices and email apps
Knowing whether recipients mostly read on iPhone, Android, Outlook or Gmail tells you which layouts to test first.
Turning statistics into action
| What you see | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Rising bounces from one form | Guests mistyping addresses | Add email confirmation or validation to the form |
| Many deferrals to one provider | Authentication or reputation issue | Check SPF, DKIM and DMARC; contact support |
| Low opens on invoices | Generic subject line | Include the invoice number and your business name |
| Opens but few clicks on pre-arrival email | Key link buried | Move the main button to the top |
A monthly SMTP health check
- Compare this month’s bounce rate with last month’s, by sending application.
- List any provider with repeated deferrals.
- Confirm SPF, DKIM and DMARC still pass after any change to your website or email hosting.
Where the logs are kept
Delivery logs contain personal data, including addresses, timestamps and sometimes IP-based locations. Keep them only as long as you need them, for example to prove an invoice was delivered. Mailpro stores them in Switzerland, outside US jurisdiction, which helps you meet the Barbados Act’s rules on overseas transfers.
Full reporting features are described on the SMTP server statistics page. To set up the relay itself, see SMTP server in Barbados.