Run a waitlist

The waitlist lets customers queue when a class, training group or time slot is full. When a spot opens, Nola offers it to the people waiting. Open it from Bookings → Waitlist in the sidebar.

#How customers join

• Classes and time slots: when a signed-in customer picks a slot that has no room for their party, the booking page shows Join waitlist. They join for that service and start time. They can only join when the class or court time is full. If there is still room for their party, they are told "Seats are still free for this session. Book it instead."
• Training groups: when a group is full, customers can join its waitlist from your groups booking page. See Players and training groups.
• Timetable classes: each class date has its own waitlist, joined from the class timetable or from that class's booking page, which then shows the customer's place in the queue. A freed place is booked or held for the next person following your class settings. See Run classes and a timetable.

A service customers can't book has no waitlist. With Bookable or Online booking off in the service's sheet, nobody can join a queue for it, so a staff-only service never gets one. See Staff-only services.

A customer can be on the same queue only once. Joining again keeps their existing place. For classes and time slots, each start time is its own queue, so a customer can wait for several different times of the same class.

#Read the waitlist

Each list is one queue: a training group, one class date, or a service or court at one start time. Its heading names the service, class or group and the start time. For a timetable class it also shows the places taken, for example 12/12 booked. People waiting for 19:00 of the same service are a separate list. Each person shows once per list: if they left the queue and joined again, you see their current entry. Each entry shows:

• The client's name, their party size and the start time they want (Group seat for groups, Any time when no time was given).
• Their email and phone, to call or write to them. These show to roles that can see clients (not to an Accountant), and to an instructor who only sees their own calendar only for their own clients.
• Any note they added.
• When they joined and, once offered, when the offer expires.
• A status: Waiting, Offered, Booked, Expired or Cancelled.

Use the Active (waiting and offered) and All tabs at the top to choose which entries to show. The type menu next to them narrows the page to Groups or Services & courts, or shows All types.

#Reorder the queue

Reordering and offering a spot need write access to bookings (Owner, Manager, Reception, Coach and Staff by default). An Accountant can read the list but doesn't see the arrows or Offer this slot.

Waiting entries are numbered in queue order. Use the up and down arrows next to an entry to move it one place within its list. Moving someone only changes the order of that queue: it never moves people waiting for another time. Nola offers freed places in the order you set here, and customers see their new place in the queue.

#Offer a spot

Automatically

When a booking is cancelled, Nola offers the freed room to the customers waiting for that service at a nearby start time (within two hours), oldest request first but in the order you set within each start time, as long as their party fits. When someone leaves a training group, the next person in that group's queue gets the offer.

By hand

Click Offer this slot on any waiting entry to skip the queue. Use it when you know a spot is free, for example after moving a booking yourself. For a timetable class, this works only when the class has a free place, and the place is held for that person for the time set in your class settings.

What happens next

1. The customer gets an email and a notification in their account that a spot opened up, with a link to take it. For a court or appointment time, the link opens My bookings, where the Waitlists list shows the offer with a Book it button. One tap books that time the usual way, with its price and payment.
2. The offer stays open for 24 hours. It then expires, and for automatic offers the next person in line is offered. If the customer taps Leave on an offer, it goes to the next person straight away.
3. Entries whose requested start time has passed expire on their own.

Customers see their place in each queue under My bookings → Waitlists (timetable classes under Account → Classes) and can leave a queue there.

An offer does not hold the slot. For time slots, whoever books first gets it: if someone else booked the time before the customer taps Book it, the customer is told and the booking is not made. Timetable classes are different: an offered place is held, and nobody else can take it until the offer runs out.

#Related

• Calendar
• Players and training groups
• Modules explained
• Booking rules