How do I use the waiting list?
About the waiting list
The waiting list is a feature that allows your customers to reserve a spot in your appointments or courses even when these are already fully booked. Instead of receiving a rejection, they get the option to join a queue – and automatically move up as soon as a spot becomes available. For you, this means fewer lost bookings, better utilization of your offers and a more professional experience for your customers.
The waiting list is available to you if the feature is included in your current plan. If that's not the case, you can switch to a suitable plan at any time to unlock this feature.
How the waiting list works for your customers
As soon as an appointment or course is fully booked, your customers see a corresponding notice on your public booking page in the time slot dropdown. It states that the event is already full and that interested participants can join the waiting list. Instead of the usual Book button, a button to join the waiting list appears.
When a customer clicks on this button, a pop-up window opens where they enter their personal details – name, email address and, depending on your configuration, additional information. After submission, the person is officially added to the waiting list and receives a confirmation.
What happens when a spot becomes available
If a spot in a fully booked event opens up – for example through a cancellation – Slotlify automatically notifies the first person on the waiting list by email. The email contains a link allowing the person to book the available spot within a defined time window.
If the first person doesn't react in time, their reservation option expires and Slotlify automatically moves on to the next person on the list. This way, the process stays fair and no booking is lost – without you having to intervene.
Where to manage the waiting list
You'll find the waiting list in your dashboard under My waiting list. On this page, you see all customers currently waiting for an available spot – with the most important information at a glance: Customer, Appointment / Course, Time slot, Status, Position and Action.
The Status filter in the top left lets you filter the list by the current state of the entries. The following statuses are available:
- Waiting – the person is registered and waiting for an available spot.
- Invited – a spot became available and the person was notified by email.
- Booked – the person successfully booked the available spot.
- Expired – the person didn't use their booking time window.
- Cancelled – the waiting list entry was cancelled.
The View button in the top right lets you choose which columns are displayed in the table, so you can adapt the overview to your way of working.
Viewing the details of a waiting list entry
In the last column, Action, you'll find an action button for each entry. When you click on it, the detail view of the respective entry opens. There you see all stored data of the waiting person as well as all information about the event they're waiting for – appointment or course, date, time and time slot.
In this view, you can manually change only the status of the entry. All other data – such as contact information or the event itself – remains unchangeable to ensure data integrity. Changing the status is useful, for example, if you want to manually cancel an entry or assign a spot to someone outside the automatic process.
Tip for optimal use
For the waiting list to work smoothly, make sure your events have a realistic capacity and that cancellations are reflected in the system in time. The faster a cancellation is visible in the system, the sooner the next person on the waiting list moves up – and the higher the chance that the spot is actually booked.