When you're fully booked, a customer who can't find a slot usually goes elsewhere. The wait list catches them instead — and tells them the moment something opens up.
It's most valuable to the businesses who need it least obviously: if you're regularly turning people away, the wait list is where that lost revenue goes instead.
Turning it on
Open the side menu and click Settings.
Under Bookings, click Wait List.
Enable it.
That's it — customers can start joining straight away.
How customers join
When someone can't find the slot they want through your booking widget or your app, they can add themselves to the wait list for the date they're after.
They don't need to do anything else. No repeated checking, no calling you to ask if there's been a cancellation.
How people get told
This is the part that does the work, and it's entirely automatic.
When a slot becomes free — a cancellation, a reschedule, or a booking being shortened — Styler checks the wait list for anyone waiting on that date, at that location, and notifies them by email and push notification.
👀 You don't have to do anything. You don't need to watch for cancellations or ring round. Marking a booking as cancelled is enough to set the whole thing off.
👀 It's first come, first served. Being notified isn't a reservation — whoever books first gets the slot. That's deliberate; it fills the gap fastest.
Managing the wait list
Go to Settings → Bookings → Wait List to see everyone currently waiting, with the customer and the date they're waiting for. There's a filter box for finding someone quickly once the list grows.
You can add customers to the wait list yourself — useful for the person who phones up asking to be told if anything comes free. Rather than a note you'll forget, they go on the list and get notified automatically like everyone else.
You can also remove entries that are no longer relevant.
💡 Use it on the phone. "We're full that day, but let me put you on the wait list and you'll be the first to know" is a far better answer than "sorry, we're fully booked" — and it takes about ten seconds.
Who can manage it
Wait list access is a permission in its own right, split into viewing, updating and removing entries. Without it, a staff member sees "You don't have permission to update the wait list."
FAQs
❓ Does the wait list book people in automatically?
No. It tells them a slot is free; they book it themselves. Nobody is placed into your diary without choosing to be.
❓ What if several people are waiting for the same day?
They're all notified. The first to book gets it.
❓ Does someone come off the list once they've booked?
You can remove entries that are no longer needed. It's worth clearing the list periodically so it stays useful.
❓ My customer says they never got notified.
Check they're actually on the list for the right date, and that a slot genuinely became free on it. Push notifications also need the customer to have your app installed with notifications allowed — see the customer profile for their notification settings.
❓ Is the wait list per staff member?
Entries are held against a date and location. Anyone waiting on that date is considered when a slot opens.