Now that you have activated waiting lists on your booking form, customers can select unavailable events.
Join a waiting list
Unavailable events are marked with a “notification” icon. Customers can select them, and the “Book” form’s submit button is then replaced by the “Join the waiting list” button.
Customers must fill out the booking form as usual and then click this button.
A dialog box will then appear with information about the waiting list.
Customers will need to fill out the following fields:
- Their email address
- If the user is logged in, their email address is automatically filled in and cannot be changed here.
- The desired quantity
- This value can only be changed here if the action is “Notify everyone”; otherwise, the customer must change it in the booking form.
It is important to specify the quantity because it is taken into account when the event becomes available: if the customer wants to book two places but only one is available, then the customer will not be notified.
Similarly, if you are using the Resource Availability add-on, the list of selected resources is displayed, and the user will only be notified when the desired resources become available.
In addition, a dynamic description of how the waiting list works is displayed, along with the number of customers currently on the list.
Once the dialog box is validated, a new booking is recorded with the “Waiting List” status.
Modify a waiting list booking
If the customer joins the waiting list again, their previous booking request is rejected, and the new one is processed.
The customer does not lose their position on the waiting list. However, if their previous booking was accepted, there is no guarantee that their new request will also be accepted. Indeed, the event’s availability is immediately checked, and if it is too low, the new request is put back on the waiting list.
Manually add a booking to a waiting list
To make a booking join the waiting list, you just need to set its status to “Waiting List” from the backend, in Booking Activities > Bookings.
Note that a new option appears: “Do not process waiting lists”. This option is enabled by default because, otherwise, the waiting list would be processed immadiately, and if the event is available, the booking status will be set to “Waiting List – Accepted” or “Pending” or “Booked” instead (if the waiting list action is “Temporarily book” or “Book”).
With the Order for Customers add-on, you can add new bookings to the waiting lists for any customers from the backend (docs).
You can now configure the actions that trigger the processing of waiting lists.