Using "+" in Email Addresses (Subaddressing)
| Account #1 | care@dines.co.uk |
| Account #2 | care+venue@dines.co.uk |
| Account #3 | care+restaurant@dines.co.uk |
If that doesn’t look like a “normal” email to you, don’t worry, we understand. In this guide, we’ll briefly explain what the “+” means in email addresses, and why we use it for companies with more than one account.
On this page
The basics
What does + mean in email addresses?
The “+” part is a feature supported by many email providers, and is known as “Subaddressing” or “Plus Addressing.”
Anything added after the + and before the @ in the address is ignored by your email provider when delivering emails. As a result, all of the email addresses in the example above will deliver messages to the same inbox.
From an email delivery point of view, these addresses are treated as the same. Effectively, the text between + and @ is a way of “tagging” emails that arrive in your inbox.
The reasoning
Why do we suggest using subaddressing?
Each Dines account must be linked to a unique email address. In some situations, a venue or operator may need more than one account, for example:
Multiple venues, one business For example:
pizza+edinburgh@restaurant.com,pizza+london@restaurant.com,pizza+dublin@restaurant.com, and so on.Events and permanent sites Separate accounts, for example:
contact+bricksandmortar@icecreamshop.com,contact+festivals@icecreamshop.com, and so on.
Rather than asking you to create additional email inboxes, which can become tricky to keep track of, we recommend subaddressing so that each Dines account remains unique, and all account emails are delivered to one inbox.
Depending on your setup, we may ask you to create an account using a + in your email address, or we may duplicate an existing account and add a + to the email address on your behalf.
Delivery
Will I still receive emails?
Absolutely. All emails will continue to be delivered to your original email address, including password resets, contact from us, and contact from your customers. You don’t need to change anything on your email account, and emails will not be lost because of the +. It is just a way of differentiating accounts.
Good to know
Other handy things to know
It’s your login username The email address with “+” is your username for logging into Dines. If you ever need to reset your password, you should include the “+” in the field when prompted. The password reset email will still arrive in your standard inbox (but do check spam/junk folders, just in case).
They can be combined While “+” accounts handle their own menus and reporting, they can be combined with a Dines Organisation Dashboard, which links all accounts together so you can view them as a whole. If you’d like that set up, please get in touch.
Supported providers
Who supports subaddressing?
Providers known to support subaddressing include:
Gmail
Google Workspace
Outlook
Hotmail
Live
Microsoft 365
Yahoo
iCloud
Fastmail
Proton Mail
This is the vast majority of modern email providers. The only providers that may not support subaddressing are legacy ISP email addresses (such as AOL), or heavily customised corporate email setups.
If you have any questions or feedback, or a Knowledge Base article you would like to see, please get in touch.
