Waitlists for Full Sessions
Offer freed places to customers waiting for the same session, group size and duration
When a regular service session cannot fit a customer’s group, they can join its waitlist. When enough places become available, CapFlow reserves the whole requested session and emails a timed offer. The customer then completes the normal booking and any Shopify payment.
Location: Sidebar > Waitlist. Available on Growth, Pro and Scale. It starts off for each shop.
Enable the waitlist
- Open Waitlist in CapFlow.
- Tick Enable waitlist.
- Set Offer window (minutes): 5–60 minutes; the default is 15.
- Select Save settings.
- Check a full future session on your storefront. The booking widget should offer Join waitlist for an eligible group.
Use the current CapFlow theme app block. A fully booked date stays selectable when it has eligible waitlist times. Blocked sessions, past times and a group that could never fit the session do not become waitlist options.
What customers do
- Choose the service, start time, consecutive duration and group composition they want.
- Join with an email address. Guests must explicitly confirm the verification email; opening the link alone does not join the queue. A signed-in customer’s email is resolved from their Shopify account.
- Use the management email to see queue status or leave.
- If an offer arrives, open it before it expires, complete any required name, booking questions or gear details, and finish the booking. The reserved session and ticket composition stay fixed.
- Pay through Shopify checkout when payment is required. Accepting an offer does not itself mean the booking is paid.
Verification links last 24 hours. Offer reservations end after the chosen window or at session start, whichever comes first. An expired offer does not automatically rejoin the queue; the customer can make a new request if the session remains full.
How places are offered
CapFlow checks the queue periodically, normally about once a minute. Capacity can become available after a cancellation, an expired reservation or a permitted capacity change. Delivery and queue timing depend on processing and email delivery; this is not an instant-notification promise.
The whole group must fit across every requested timeslot. If four people are waiting and only two places open, a later group of two may receive an offer first. The earlier group keeps its queue position. Each offer reserves its places while the customer decides.
Member and public pools keep their own eligibility rules. Membership, weekday restrictions and booking limits are checked again before an offer is claimed. A member offer requires the same signed-in customer; the email link alone does not grant member access. The offer’s actual pool determines whether the customer’s membership benefit applies.
Manage the queue
Choose a status and select Filter. Entries show the session, duration, party size, pool and any offer expiry. Use Next page when available to continue beyond the first 100 entries. Remove from waitlist removes a pending/waiting request or releases its unclaimed offer.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Pending confirm | A guest has not yet confirmed their email |
| Waiting | Eligible request awaiting enough places |
| Offered | Places reserved until the displayed deadline |
| Claimed | Converted to a booking; check payment on the Bookings page |
| Cancelled | Customer or staff removed the request |
| Expired | Verification, session or offer is no longer valid |
The calendar’s slot detail shows groups waiting and links to the queue. These are groups, not a count of individual seats.
If something goes wrong
- No join button: check the paid plan, saved enable setting, published service/product, future consecutive times, chosen group size and any event block. The request must fit the theoretical capacity of the relevant pool.
- No email: verify your booking email configuration and check for an email-delivery failure banner on the entry. Failed messages have bounded retries; contact support if the page reports delivery failure.
- Offer expired: its holds no longer reserve capacity. Rejoin if still needed; the old offer cannot be stretched or shortened.
- Checkout interrupted: reopen the offer to resume the same booking. If a native-cart addition is uncertain, check the cart before retrying. CapFlow will not blindly send the same addition twice. Contact support if it remains unresolved.
This version supports regular services and consecutive times on one resource. It does not cover Event signups, flexible dates, combinations across resources, SMS, automatic payment or a staff priority override.
Booking and payment status · Capacity pools · Privacy requests