How to Use a Waitlist on Your Booking Page
When a time slot is taken or doesn't suit them, visitors can join your waitlist instead of leaving. Koalendar emails them as soon as a matching time opens, and you can see who's waiting and book them yourself.
🧭 In this guide
- ✅ Turn on the waitlist
- ✅ What your visitors see
- ✅ How opening alerts work
- ✅ Visitors can manage their request
- ✅ See who's waiting and book them
- ✅ Get notified when someone joins
- 💡 Best Practices
- ℹ️ Frequently Asked Questions
✅ Step 1: Turn on the waitlist
- Open your Booking Page Editor.
- Open the Availability section.
- Turn on Waitlist and save your page.
Once people start joining, you'll see how many are waiting right below the toggle, with a Manage waitlist link.
✅ Step 2: What your visitors see
After choosing a date, visitors see Can't find a suitable time? Join waitlist below the available times. If a date has no times left, they're offered the waitlist right away.
For group sessions, a full time slot shows Full · Notify me instead of disappearing, so visitors can ask to be told if a spot frees up.
Visitors then tell you what works for them:
- What dates work for you? The selected day, the next 7 or 30 days, or a custom date range (up to 30 days).
- Time of day: Any time, Morning, Afternoon, Evening or a custom range.
- Days of the week: Every day, Weekdays, Weekends or specific days.
- If your page has several services or hosts, which ones they're happy with (or Any available provider).
They finish by entering their name and email.
✅ Step 3: How opening alerts work
When a time that matches someone's preferences opens up (for example after a cancellation, a reschedule or a change to your availability), Koalendar emails them "A spot opened for [your page]" with up to 5 matching times and a Book this time link for each one.
- Everyone whose preferences match is notified, and the first person to book gets the spot. Anyone who misses it stays on the waitlist for the next opening.
- Each person gets at most one alert every 6 hours, so nobody is flooded with emails.
- A request ends when the person books, leaves the waitlist or their dates have passed.
✅ Step 4: Visitors can manage their request
Every waitlist email includes an Edit preferences or leave the waitlist link. It opens a private page where visitors can review or edit their preferences, book a matching time that's available now, or leave the waitlist.
✅ Step 5: See who's waiting and book them
On your Dashboard, any booking page with people waiting shows a "X waiting" label. Click it to open the waitlist. You can also open it from the page's ⋯ menu or with Manage waitlist in the editor.
The waitlist is split into Waiting, Expired and Booked tabs. Each request shows the person's preferred times and when they joined. From here you can:
- Book a time for them directly. Koalendar warns you if the time is outside what they asked for.
- Edit preferences or Remove from waitlist from the ⋯ menu.
Click + Add to waitlist to add someone yourself, for example after a phone call. Enter their name, email and preferred times, and they'll get alerts just like visitors who joined from your page.
✅ Step 6 (Optional): Get notified when someone joins
Want an email each time someone joins? Click your name in the top right, open Account, and turn on Waitlist joins under Email notifications. This option appears once you have a published booking page with the waitlist turned on.
You'll get an email with the person's name, email and preferred times, plus a Review waitlist link.
💡 Best Practices
- Mention the waitlist in your booking page description so busy visitors know they can still get in.
- Turn on the waitlist for popular pages and group sessions that often fill up.
- Check your waitlist before opening extra availability. You can book waiting people directly instead of waiting for them to see an alert.
ℹ️ Frequently Asked Questions
Does joining the waitlist reserve a spot?
No. It's a notification list. When a matching time opens, the first person to book it gets it.
Will people on the waitlist get spammed with emails?
No. Each person gets at most one opening alert every 6 hours, with up to 5 matching times in it.
What happens when someone books from the waitlist?
Their request moves to the Booked tab and they stop receiving alerts.
What happens when a request's dates have passed?
It moves to the Expired tab and no more alerts are sent.
Can visitors change their preferences after joining?
Yes. They can use the link in any waitlist email to edit their preferences or leave the waitlist.