Waitlist

Switch it on, then set the rules

The switch saves at once. Once it is on you can limit the list to Daycare, Dog Walking or Boarding (leave all unticked to allow every service), expire entries after 1 to 90 days (0 means never), and choose whether you are emailed when a client joins and whether the client is emailed when a space is filled by itself. Press Save Waitlist Settings after changing these. Until you save anything, the list is off, nothing expires, both emails are on and every service is allowed. One catch in the code: the Dog Walking tick admits walks you move from a request and walks a repeat booking makes, but a walk a client joins from the calendar is recorded under a different name, so with the list limited to Dog Walking that join is refused. Leave all unticked if clients queue for walks.

Which plans give clients a way in

A day reads full on a client's calendar only when your plan sells walking capacity: the Walker plan, Pro, or the Dog Walking add-on on Sitter or Boarder. On Starter, or on Sitter or Boarder without the add-on, no day ever reads full for any service, so clients never see a join button there. The only ways onto the list are then yours: moving a request, or a repeat booking at capacity.

When a client sees "Join Waiting List"

On the dog walking calendar a full day can be tapped: a "Fully Booked" box opens with the button. A walk refused at Confirm because its slot is full shows the button too. For any service, when 70% or more of the next 30 days are full, the booking shows a limited-availability warning with "Join Waitlist" and "Find Other Providers". A full daycare or boarding day is shown as unavailable and cannot be tapped, so that warning is the only door there. The warning and the refused-walk button are not shown when you are making the booking for a client yourself. The tap on a full walking day still is — but joining from it would put you on the list, not the client, so use the Waitlist button on Booking Requests for a client.

What the entry holds

The client's name and email, the service, the dates (the walking day they tapped or were refused; otherwise the dates they had chosen, or the next seven days if none), how many pets, a priority of 0 and when they joined. The client must belong to your business, and the service must be one you allow. They see "Added to waiting list!" (or "Waitlisted!" on the warning) and then hear from you by email: the app does not list their waiting entries or let them leave the list.

You are told

Every join puts a "New Waitlist Entry" notification in the app for the business owner. The "Waitlist request" email goes to your business email only when "Email me when a client joins" is on here and "Waitlist submission" is on in your Email Policy.

Business → Waitlist

Each waiting entry shows the person and their email, the service, the number of pets when there is more than one, the dates (or the nights of a stay), a "Repeat" chip when a repeat booking made it, "Referred" when a partner is in a chat about it, any notes, when they joined, and a priority chip you tap to cycle P0 to P5. From there you Accommodate, Recommend, Decline or delete. Opening the page is also what expires old entries: anything older than your expiry days is marked expired and dropped from the list.

Accommodate

Tick the dates you can take. A pending booking is made for each one, in the client's bookings and yours. No room check is made, so look at the day first. The booking carries the price, times and pets saved on the entry: a date you moved from a request keeps them, but a client's own join and a Repeat entry saved none, so that booking is made at £0 (a daycare one with 08:00 to 18:00 as its times) with the client's first pets attached, as many as the entry counts, until you edit it. A stay you moved from a request is listed as its check-in and check-out dates, and each one you tick becomes a one-day booking, not a stay. The client is emailed "Waitlist update" saying space has been made and to log in, unless you untick the email. Dates you did not tick stay waiting.

Decline, Recommend, Delete

Decline closes the whole entry and emails the client that you cannot accommodate them and they may look at other providers. Recommend offers the request to one of your partners or to any business found in the directory: a referral chat opens, its owner is emailed, and the entry shows "Referred" and stays on your list. It is resolved when the partner accepts from their Partner Hub page, or when the referral is finalised, and a pending partner payment is recorded for you to settle. When you have at least one partner, the same dialog offers "Handle It Yourself", which accommodates every date instead. Delete removes the entry with no email, and with it the whole booking the date was moved from, remaining dates included, and any partner chat about it.

Moving a request onto the list yourself

On Booking Requests a pending request has a "Waitlist" button for the whole booking and an hourglass on each date; in the Repeat Bookings list every generated date that is not cancelled has the hourglass too. The date is taken off the booking and the price recalculated, VAT included. If it was the only date, or a whole stay, the booking stays and shows "On Waitlist" to the client and to you. The entry keeps the date's price, times and dogs. The client is emailed "Your booking has been added to the waiting list" unless you untick the email on Booking Requests; from the Repeat Bookings list the email always goes. A repeat date moved from the Repeat Bookings list is recorded so the monthly fill does not make it again.

Repeat bookings at capacity

When a daycare repeat booking is created, generated by hand or filled by the monthly run, a date with no room at your licence capacity is not made. Instead one entry marked "Repeat" is created holding all of that run's full dates, as long as the service is allowed. No email or notification is sent for these. The dates read "On Waiting List" in the template's date list, for you and for the client, and removing one there takes it off the entry. A home visit takes no licence space and is never waitlisted. A walking template never waitlists: on a plan with walker capacity its full dates are skipped, and without one every date is made. With the waitlist off, full dates are simply skipped.

A cancellation fills a space by itself

When a booking is cancelled, you set a request to cancelled, or a generated repeat date is removed, the freed dates are checked in the background, whether this switch is on or off. This needs your licence capacity to be set. The room on a date is your capacity minus the dogs on pending and confirmed daycare and boarding bookings that day; a freed walk is measured the same way, not by walker room. Waiting entries for that date with the same service are tried highest priority first, then longest waiting, as long as their pets fit. A pending booking is made for the date, the date is removed from the entry, and the entry is resolved when no dates remain. The client is emailed "Great news — your booking has been confirmed!" when "Email client when auto-assigned" is on, and you get "Waitlist auto-assigned" when "Waitlist submission" is on. The booking is still pending: confirm it as usual. A walk a client joined from the calendar is never filled this way, because it is recorded under a different service name from the cancelled walk.