Waitlist auto-fill and claim links

Waitlist auto-fill turns cancellations into filled appointments without a phone call. When a slot frees up, matching waitlist patients are offered it, and the first to claim gets it, while the slot is held so the public booking page cannot take it out from under them.

Turning it on

On the Waitlist page, the owner sees an auto-fill card:

1. Tick Automatically offer freed slots to the waitlist.
2. Set Offer expires after (hours): how long each claim link stays live.
3. Set Don't offer within (hours): slots starting sooner than this are not offered, so nobody is invited to an appointment starting in twenty minutes.
4. Optionally set a short delay before offering, so a slot freed by an accidental cancellation is not offered the instant it is cancelled.
5. Press Save.

What the patient receives

When an appointment is cancelled, marked as a no-show or moved, matching open waitlist entries get an email, and a text where there is a number, saying a slot has come up, first come first served, with a claim link. One tap shows the treatment, practitioner and time and books it, confirmed exactly like any other booking with the usual confirmation and any pre-appointment forms. Cancellations made online by the patient, and through the API, trigger offers too, not just cancellations your team makes.

The slot is held for the waitlist

While an offer is live, that slot is held back from your public booking page, embedded widget and API availability, so a passer-by cannot book it before your loyal waitlist patient taps their link. If the offer expires unclaimed, the slot reopens to everyone automatically.

First to claim wins

Everyone matched is offered the same slot; the first to claim books it and the rest see it is gone. Each waitlist entry shows a badge for where its offer stands: Offered, Claimed or Offer expired. Blocked time with no patient is never offered, and auto-fill stays off until you switch it on.