How the waitlist fills cancelled slots automatically

A full day does not have to mean a lost customer. People who could not get a slot go on the Waitlist, and the moment a slot frees up FurKisses offers it to the next person in line on WhatsApp. You do not have to phone around.

Who can do this: anyone who can view the calendar can open Waitlist. Booking, withdrawing an offer, removing or adding someone needs the "Create / edit bookings" permission (Owner, Admin, Manager, Front desk, Groomer, Vet and Caretaker by default). Only Owner, Admin and Manager can change how long an offer is held.

What frees a slot

An offer goes out automatically when a booking is:

• cancelled,
• marked no-show, or
• moved to another time (the old time is now free).

Slots that start in the next 30 minutes are not offered, because nobody could get there in time.

Who gets the offer

FurKisses looks at everyone in the Waiting tab for the same branch and the same type of service, oldest request first. It is first come, first served. A person matches when:

• the freed slot is on their preferred date, or within their flexible days before or after it,
• the time of day fits their preference (Morning is before 12, Afternoon is 12 to 5, Evening is after 5, Any time always fits),
• they did not ask for a different staff member, and
• their services fit: the staff member is free for the whole length of their appointment, or for stays a room is free for all their nights.

The first person who matches gets the offer. Everyone else keeps their place.

What happens next

1. 1The person gets the WhatsApp alert Waitlist: a slot opened up with their private link.
2. 2Their entry moves to the Offered tab, with the offered slot and a live "expires in" countdown.
3. 3On their link they see a Slot available! card and tap Yes, book it or No thanks.
4. 4Yes, book it creates a confirmed booking straight away. The entry moves to Booked, and you get a "Waitlist offer accepted" notification.
5. 5No thanks passes the slot to the next matching person. The first person stays on the list for other slots.

You get a "Waitlist offer sent" notification each time an offer goes out, so you always know a freed slot is being handled.

How long an offer is held

Offers are held for the time set under Settings → Booking policies → Waitlist → Hold an offer for (2 hours unless you change it; anything from 15 minutes to 48 hours). An offer never runs past 15 minutes before the slot itself.

Unanswered offers pass to the next person when the hourly job runs, so an offer can sit a little past its countdown before it moves on. If you need the slot to move on sooner, use Withdraw offer.

Things to know

• If the slot gets taken some other way before the person answers, they see "Sorry, that one just went — you're still on the list" and keep their place.
• A person is never offered the same slot twice.
• Requests whose dates have passed move to Closed as expired.
• If WhatsApp is not connected, the offer message waits in your Outbox for you to send with one tap. Connect WhatsApp so offers go out the moment a slot frees up.
• Prices on the new booking follow your pricing rules for that day, like any other booking.