The waiting list
A cancelled appointment is the most expensive thing that happens in a week: the hour is already paid for in rent and insurance, and at two days’ notice there is rarely time to sell it again by hand.
The waiting list does that selling for you. Keep a list of who wants a space and when they could take one, and the moment a booking is cancelled everyone who could use that slot is told at once. First to accept gets it; everyone else stays on the list for next time.
Why everyone at once
Asking one person and waiting for a reply is how a Tuesday slot is still empty on Tuesday. Two people can accept in the same second, so the acceptance is settled properly behind the scenes — exactly one person gets the booking and the other is told plainly that it has gone. Nobody is ever given an appointment that belongs to somebody else.
Getting names onto it
Add someone from this screen, or put [pc_waitlist_join] on a page of your website and let people add themselves. Website joining can be switched off here if you would rather keep the list to your own clients.
What happens to the cancelled booking
Nothing. It stays cancelled, and whoever accepts gets a new booking in the same slot. That matters because the original may have an invoice, a deposit or a refund attached to it, and quietly changing whose appointment it was would attach somebody else’s money to it.
The new booking arrives as pending rather than confirmed — it came in without anyone at your end looking at it, so it waits for you.
Example
A Thursday afternoon groom cancels on Tuesday night. Four people on the list could do Thursdays; all four get a text at 9am. One taps the link at 9:04 and the slot is full again before the kettle has boiled.
FAQ
Will people get pestered?
Only when a space genuinely comes up that they said they could take. Somebody who ticked Tuesdays is never contacted about a Thursday — that is the quickest way to teach people your messages are worth ignoring.
What if nobody takes it?
The offer lapses after the number of hours you set here, and everyone goes back on the list for next time. Nothing is lost.
What if two people accept at once?
One gets it. The other is told straight away that it has gone and stays on the list. They are never both told they have it.
Can somebody who is not a client yet join?
Yes, through the website form. Their name, email and phone are kept on the list and the booking is created for them if they accept — you can turn them into a proper client record afterwards.
Does the person who cancelled get offered their own slot back?
No. That would be a strange message to receive.