Inviting Customers from the Waitlist

When a spot opens up, you can let Occasion notify waitlisted customers automatically — or reach out yourself. This article covers the manual approach, where you choose exactly who to contact and when.

For automated notifications, see Intro to Waitlist.

In this article:

• Inviting Customers Manually
• Customizing Your Email and SMS Templates
• Viewing Sent Messages
• What Customers Receive
• Frequently Asked Questions

Inviting Customers Manually

Manual invitations are useful when you want to prioritize a specific customer, confirm interest before opening a spot, or manage a high-touch list.

The waitlist runs first-come, first-served — but with manual invitations, you decide who to contact. Keep in mind that once you open availability, anyone online can book the spot. If you want to guarantee a spot for a specific customer, contact them by phone or email first to confirm their interest before increasing availability.

Here's how:

1. Go to Calendar from the sidebar and open the sold-out time slot.
2. Under the Waitlist tab, find the customer you want to invite.
3. Click the email or text icon under Actions to send them a booking invitation.

You can invite individual customers one at a time — no need to notify everyone on the list at once.

Customizing Your Email and SMS Templates

You can save a default email and SMS template for waitlist invitations so you're not rewriting the same message every time. Templates can also be customized on the fly before each send.

To set up your templates:

1. Go to Settings from the sidebar and click Account Settings.
2. Select Your Business, then go to Messages.

From here, you can customize the text to include your business name when sending a message.

To draft a default message:

• Set a default SMS message — write your standard waitlist text and use automatic insertions like {event_name}  and {event_date}  so the details fill in automatically for each send.
• Set a default email note — write your standard waitlist email and use automatic insertions like {open_seat_count}  and {event_name}  that update automatically when sending.

Both templates can be edited before sending any individual invitation if you want to personalize a specific message.

Viewing Sent Messages

To see all the waitlist emails and texts you've sent:

1. Open the time slot from your Calendar Workspace.
2. Click the Messages tab.

Each entry shows the type of communication (email or text), the recipient, and their contact details. Click View to see the full message.

What Customers Receive

When you manually invite a customer, they'll receive your custom message along with the event details and a Book Now button so they can secure their spot in one click.

Here's an example of the email:

SMS display may vary depending on the customer's device, but will show the message you sent.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Can I invite multiple customers at once? You can select individual customers from the waitlist and send targeted invitations — but there's no bulk-send option for manual invitations. If you want to notify all eligible customers at once, consider turning on automated notifications instead.
• What happens if the customer doesn't book after I invite them? They stay on the waitlist. The spot remains open until someone books it or you close availability again.
• What happens if the customer books a different time slot for the same listing? They'll automatically be removed from the waitlist for the original time slot.
• What's the difference between manual invitations and automated notifications? Manual invitations use a separate message you write (or customize from a template). Automated notifications use the template set under Email Campaigns and go out automatically when a spot opens. See Intro to Waitlist for more on automated notifications.