✨ Please note: the Waiting List feature is available on the Standard plan and above.
Enabling the Waiting List allows customers interested in fully booked events to provide their name, email, and, optionally, their phone number to be notified if a space becomes available.
This article covers:
Setting up your waiting list
You can manage your waiting list settings in booking preferences. This includes:
Turning the feature on or off
Setting the time intervals for alerts to customers on the waiting list when a space becomes available (e.g., 10 minutes).
For example:
The Time between emails setting determines how quickly we notify the next person on the waiting list when a space becomes available. Each customer has 30 minutes to complete their booking before the system notifies the next person on the list.
💡 We recommend setting short intervals, as processing the waiting list can take time. During this period, the event will remain unavailable to the public until the list is fully processed or the event becomes fully booked again.
Signing up
When the waiting list is enabled and an event is fully booked, a Join waiting list button will appear:
After selecting Join waiting list, customers complete a form with their name and email address to receive notifications about available spaces.
💡 Adding a phone number is optional and only for your reference, as we do not send text notifications.
Example of a joined waiting list confirmation email:
Example notification email of when a space becomes available:
Locating and managing an event waiting list
You can review customers on your waiting list via your Scheduling page. Events with waitlisted customers show a '+' symbol in the attendee count summary on your schedule:
For example, "10+2 / 10" indicates 10 attendees have booked tickets for an event with a maximum capacity of 10, plus 2 customers on the waiting list.
To access the waiting list, select the event and scroll down. You'll find the waiting list displayed at the bottom right of the Scheduling page:
💡 Important note: Amending the entry duration within the Dates & Times tab will remove all active waitlisted customers. If you need to change the event duration, we recommend noting the waitlist details and manually contacting customers if the event becomes available.
Removing wait listers
You can remove wait listers from the list by selecting the remove icon 🗑 next to their names.
Exporting the list
You can export the waiting list details by selecting the Export list to CSV link at the bottom right of the list:
The Waiting list process in detail
When a spot becomes available (due to cancellations or if you add more spaces), the notification process for waitlisted customers begins:
The system sends an email to the first person on the waiting list containing a unique booking link for them to reserve their place.
If they don’t book within the set time (as defined in the settings), the system sends the next person on the list an email with a link to book. Both people can use their link to book, but the event will still appear as 'fully booked' to the public.
This process continues until a customer books the available spot, or if no one on the list takes the place, the event will reopen to the public.
Waiting lists on courses
When an attendee joins the waiting list, they are only added for the date they selected. They will not be notified if other dates for the same course become available.
This is because the waiting list applies to individual dates, treating each one separately. Once the current date has passed, customers will need to join a new waiting list for the next available date.
How the system calculates a customer's place on the waiting list
For example, if two people join the waiting list for the first date of a course, they will be listed as first and second in line. Once that date passes, the waiting list expires, and a new list is generated for the next date.
Anyone joining the new date's waiting list will be placed at the top, as the lists are entirely separate for each date.
💡 Please note: If multiple waiting lists are generated for different dates on a course (i.e., one per date), they will appear grouped in the bottom right-hand corner. It will not be possible to distinguish between them.
Writing an alert message
You may consider adding an alert message on your page to ensure your customers understand how the waiting list works. I.e., you can let them know they must sign up individually for the waiting list for each date.
Waiting list-only entries
There may be occasions when you'd like to gauge the popularity of an event or class or collect a list of email addresses from customers interested in your offerings.
To set this up:
Switch on the waiting list setting and create your entry, or select an entry from your scheduling list, then the Edit entry button to open your entry settings.
Select the Tickets & Costs tab and find the Attendees section.
Adjust the capacity by setting the Maximum event size to '0':
💡 This automatically makes your event appear as 'fully booked'.
Your customers must select Join waiting list button on your public page to 'register':
Adding customers to events without triggering the list
Increasing the event capacity will automatically notify the waiting list. If you want to add customers to a fully booked event without alerting those on the waiting list, you can temporarily disable the waiting list before increasing the capacity and booking.
To do this:
Select Settings, then Booking Preferences from the left-hand settings on your account.
Select Edit next to Waiting list:
Untick the Enable waiting list box, then Save:
You can then go ahead with your booking or transfer. Once completed, enable the list again by repeating the above process but selecting the tickbox instead.
✨ To note: Temporarily disabling the waiting list won't delete your existing list; it will simply prevent new people from joining.
💡 Important notes
The waiting list stops processing once a spot becomes available and is booked.
The waiting list will not trigger for events that have already started. For example, if you have a fully booked, all-day event and a space becomes available on the day, no email will be sent to wait listers. The space will instead be immediately available to the public.
Increasing the event capacity while processing the waiting list will not make additional tickets available on your public page. They will only become available after the waiting list process has completed.
The process is considered 'complete' once everyone on the list has been notified and their allocated time slot (as set in your booking preferences) has passed.
If you unpublish an event, the waiting list will still trigger, but customers won’t be able to book a space. In this case, we recommend removing the waiting list to avoid confusion.
The waiting list is only activated once the overall capacity for the event is reached, not by ticket type.
✨ You can also use the waiting list to reach out to prospective new customers and gauge demand for future events.
💬 Need extra help?
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Tags: waitlist, waiting list, waitinglist