The waitlist

Joining the waitlist

When a customer looks at a fully booked day, they can choose Join the waitlist instead of giving up and looking elsewhere. They pick a preferred date and a preferred time of day — any, morning, afternoon or evening — and leave their details, much like a normal booking. This option only appears once a day has no bookable slots left, so it never gets in the way of a customer who can simply book a normal time.

Without a waitlist, a customer who finds you fully booked has no reason to come back — they'll likely book with someone else instead. The waitlist keeps them interested in your business and gives you a ready list of people to fill any gap that opens up later.

What happens when a spot opens up

You don't need to watch the waitlist yourself. Whenever a booking on that date is cancelled or moved, Slotwise automatically checks who's waiting, and anyone whose preferred time of day still fits the newly free slot gets an email and SMS letting them know a spot is available.

Tip Because this happens automatically, turning the waitlist on costs you nothing day to day — it only acts when a cancellation actually creates room.

Managing the waitlist yourself

You're not limited to the automatic notification. From the waitlist, you can also:

• Notify someone manually, even if nothing has changed automatically — useful if you want to reach out before an official cancellation happens, say after a reschedule frees up part of a slot.
• Mark booked once you've arranged a time with them directly, so they're taken off the list and don't get notified again.
• Remove someone who no longer needs a spot, for example if they've booked elsewhere or asked to drop off the list.

This gives you control for edge cases, such as calling a regular customer directly as soon as you see a cancellation, rather than waiting for the automatic message to go out.

Tip Check your waitlist before a popular day even if no one has been notified yet — it tells you exactly which slots would fill instantly if a bit of extra capacity opened up.

Turning the waitlist on or off

The waitlist is switched on or off in Opening hours, alongside your other booking rules. See "Booking rules explained" for the full list of what you can configure there.

Tip Keep the waitlist on if you often get last-minute cancellations — it's the easiest way to fill a slot that would otherwise go empty.

Tip The waitlist earns its keep most on your busiest time slots, like Saturday mornings, where demand regularly outstrips what's available.