The waitlist for a time

A client who can't book the time they want can wait for it. When that exact time opens, the first person in line who can still book it gets it. New events keep a waitlist; events made before the waitlist arrived don't. Events set to Bookings by request only have no waitlist.

Turning it on

Each event has its own Waitlist switch, in Scheduling → the event → Availability, under Clients can request unlisted times. New events start with it on; events made before the waitlist arrived start with it off until you turn it on and save. On an event set to Bookings by request only, the switch is greyed with the reason and keeps its setting.

Turning it off takes everyone still waiting off the waitlist, and each of them is emailed. Before you save, the line under the switch says how many people that is. A time already held for someone while they pay stays theirs.

Changing the event while people wait

A place is kept as a booking made when the client joined: their answers, and the version of your agreement they signed. A save ends it only when the event no longer offers what they joined with: their length, their location (a renamed location counts as a new one), their group size, a different agreement, an add-on they chose that you removed or no longer offer for their length and group size, or prices added to an event that had none, or all taken off. Each person taken off is emailed to join again with the current options. Before you save, the line above Save changes says how many people that is, and Apply to all events in Settings → Forms & waivers asks first when it would take anyone off. A new version of the same agreement, or a new question, keeps every place.

What clients see

• Every day inside the event's booking window can be picked on the calendar. A fully booked day stays struck through, and a day with no listed times is dashed. When you allow requests, those days are dashed for requests, and a day offers both.
• Under a day's times, Join the waitlist for a time lists every start of that day that isn't listed, at the event's increment, after its notice and inside its booking window, and takes a time the client types. The page never shows why a time isn't listed: booked, outside your hours, a booking limit or your calendar all look the same. A time that can be booked right now is booked instead.
• The client waits for the length the page shows, picked before the time as for a booking.
• Before the form, How the waitlist works says that the time goes to the first person in line who can still book it, how they pay when their turn comes, that they can wait for up to 5 times with your business at once, and that a place counts once they confirm it from their email.
• The form is the booking's own: name, email, the contact they prefer, your questions, the participants, the location and your agreement. It takes no tip. Waitlist end is when the place ends if the time hasn't opened for them: it starts 2 hours before the time, or earlier when booking closes earlier, and can be no later than the last moment the time can still be booked.

Confirming a place

After Join the waitlist the page says Confirm your place: a link to confirm goes to the email they gave, and the time can't be booked for them until they confirm. Joining the same time again gets the same answer and the same email again, so the page never says whether an address is already waiting. A place never confirmed ends by itself after 24 hours, or at its end when that comes first, and nobody is emailed.

A sixth place with your business is refused: "You have reached the limit of 5 waitlisted times with {your business}. Leave one to join another."

When the time opens

A time opens whenever it can be booked again: a cancellation, a move, a change of hours or anything else. Right after a booking frees it, and on a regular check for everything else, the first confirmed place for that exact time whose client can still book it gets it, before openings notifications hear about it.

• Offline, free and unpriced events: the time is booked, and the client gets the usual confirmation.
• Online: a card the client saved for the place is charged at most the total shown when they joined, and the time is booked. Without a saved card, or when the charge doesn't go through, the time is held for them with a link to pay by a deadline: the earlier of 12 hours from then and 1 hour before the start, never under 15 minutes. Unpaid by then, it goes to the next person in line.
• A price that rose since they joined keeps the price they joined at; one that fell is used. Add-ons count toward the total: the time is booked with the add-ons they chose, and never charged more than the total shown when they joined.

Events with several hosts

On an event several hosts share, a client waits for the host they pick with the time, or for Any available:

• Any available waits while none of the event's hosts can take the time. When any of them can, the time is booked with a free host, picked by the event's Assignment, as any Any available booking is.
• A host picked by name is waited for alone: the time goes to the client only when that host can take it, and the session stays theirs.

Taking a host off the event's list takes the people waiting for them by name off the waitlist, and emails them; the line above Save changes says how many first. Switching a host to Not bookable on the Team tab does the same for the people waiting for them by name, and so does a Teams plan that ends, which switches every member's seat off. People waiting for Any available keep waiting while a listed host can still take bookings; once none can, they are taken off the waitlist and emailed too. A change of hosts that leaves nobody who can take bookings makes the event Not live, which takes everyone waiting off the waitlist; the line above Save changes counts them all first.

When a place ends

A place ends when its client leaves it from any waitlist email, when they cancel or move their own booking for that same time from its booking link (or you approve their request to move it), when its end passes, or when the time is booked for them. It also ends, and the client is emailed, when:

• the event goes Not live, is deleted, or is left with no host who can take bookings (its member removed from the team, or leaving it);
• the host they picked by name is taken off the event's list, leaves your team or is removed from it, or is switched to Not bookable (a Teams plan that ends switches every member's seat off);
• no host of the event can take bookings any more: its one host, or every host of an event several share, is switched to Not bookable;
• its Waitlist switch is turned off, or it is set to Bookings by request only;
• you block the client from the event, in Settings → Scheduling → Blocking or with Block on their contact page;
• your business is deleted.

Only places still waiting end this way. A time already held for someone while they pay keeps its booking, which you can cancel from Bookings. A card saved for a place is removed when the place ends, and a place never confirmed ends without an email.

While people wait, the Live switch and Delete ask first and say how many they take off. So does a line under Bookings by request only or the Waitlist switch before you save, the line above Save changes when a change of hosts would make the event Not live, the Bookable switch and the confirmation of Remove access on the Team tab, and the deletion of your business in Settings → Danger zone.