Waitlists

Let customers join a waitlist when an activity session is fully booked.

When an activity session reaches capacity, waitlists give customers a way to register their interest and get notified if a spot opens up. This helps you capture demand you would otherwise lose and fill cancellations automatically.

How waitlists work

1. A customer tries to book a session that is fully booked.
2. They are offered the option to join the waitlist for that session.
3. When a spot becomes available — due to a cancellation or capacity increase — Sailia sends a notification email to the next customer on the waitlist.
4. The customer receives a link to complete their booking before the spot is released to others.

Waitlist notifications are tracked as waitlist-notified events in meter usage tracking, so you can monitor notification volume.

Enable waitlists

Waitlists are configured at the activity level. When editing an activity, enable the waitlist option to allow customers to register interest for fully booked sessions.

Managing the waitlist

From the bookings dashboard, you can:

• View the waitlist for any session, ordered by sign-up time
• See whether a waitlisted customer has been notified
• Manually remove a customer from the waitlist
• Monitor how many customers are waiting for each session

Notifications

When a spot opens up, Sailia automatically sends an email to the next customer on the list. The email includes:

• The activity name and session date/time
• A booking link to claim the spot
• A deadline to complete the booking

If the customer does not book within the deadline, the spot is offered to the next person on the waitlist.

If you have workflows configured, you can customize the content and timing of waitlist notification emails.

Related guides

Activities

Set up activities and enable waitlists.

Online bookings

Learn how the booking flow works for customers.