Enabling a waitlist for your tickets is a great way to continue capturing demand when tickets have sold out. If an applicant signs up to the waitlist, they will also opt in or out of marketing, which will enable you to keep in touch with future event updates if they don't manage to get a place.
You can choose between two types of waitlists depending on your event's needs: Acceptance Waitlist or Instant Waitlist. Applicants will always be offered places on a first-come, first-served basis, unless you manually override the order.
Acceptance Waitlist - send an invitation to register
This is the recommended option for paid-for tickets. It allows you to automatically invite individual applicants and groups to complete their registration and submit payment once a spot becomes available.
How it works: Applicants submit basic contact details to join the waitlist. When a place becomes available, they immediately receive an email inviting them to complete the full booking form and submit payment.
Acceptance Deadline: This invitation is time-sensitive. You set an "Acceptance deadline" (e.g., 2 days / 48 hours). If the applicant doesn't complete their registration before the deadline, their invitation will expire, and the spot will be offered to the next person on the list. (If registration is closing soon, the applicants will have a shorter acceptance window and we’ll give them an updated deadline).
Changing the deadline: If you change the acceptance deadline, the new deadline will only apply to invitations sent out after the change. Any applicants who have already been invited will have until the original deadline stated in their email to register.
Last possible registration date: This is the final date an invited applicant can register.
Applying for multiple places
With the Acceptance Waitlist, applicants can request more than one place when they join. This is great for applicants who want to attend as a group.
You can set a maximum number of tickets an applicant can apply for.
If an applicant is offered multiple places, they have until the deadline to complete all registrations. They can choose to register for all of the places offered, or just some of them.
One place will be locked to the applicant's email address to prevent misuse. However, they can share the registration link from their invitation email with other members of their group, who can then complete their own registration and payment before the deadline.
To help you maximize your capacity, we only invite applicants from the waitlist when there are enough open places for their entire group. For example, if a group of 3 is next in line but only 1 place is free, we will skip them and invite the next single applicant instead. The group of 3 will get their chance as soon as 3 places open up at the same time.
Instant Waitlist - automatic registration
This option is only available for free tickets, as successful applicants are instantly registered into the event once space becomes available.
How it works: To join the waitlist, the applicant fills in the full event booking form upfront. If a place becomes available, they will be automatically registered for the event.
Notification: They will be sent a confirmation email notifying them of their successful registration. The applicant does not need to accept or decline the place; they are automatically added.
Individual applicants only: As successful applicants are instantly registered as soon as a place becomes available, applying for multiple places is not possible using Instant Waitlists.
Free tickets only: As applicants complete the entire booking form and are automatically registered when they are given a place, Instant Waitlists are only designed to be used for free tickets. Ensure the ticket does not include paid participant add-ons or other items that would require an applicant to submit payment.
How to set up a waitlist
Waitlists can be enabled on a per-ticket basis.
Set a ticket capacity. A ticket capacity is required for the waitlist to activate. Navigate to Manage Event > Limited Capacity and ensure a capacity is set for the ticket. Once this capacity is reached, the waitlist will automatically become active.
Enable the waitlist. Navigate to Manage Event > Tickets. Select Edit for the ticket you want to add a waitlist to.
Configure your waitlist. Scroll down to the Waitlist section and toggle Enable Waitlist on.
Choose your waitlist type. You will be prompted to choose how you want places to be filled:
Acceptance Waitlist - send an invitation to register
Instant Waitlist - automatic registration
Set a deadline (for Acceptance Waitlist). If you select Acceptance Waitlist, you must set the Acceptance deadline, which determines how long an applicant has to accept their place. You can also set the Last possible registration date.
Viewing applicants on the Waitlist
Navigate to the Applications area and select the relevant “Waitlist” ticket. From here you can review the list of waitlisted applicants in order of priority. You can choose to promote them to the top of the waitlist by selecting them and manually selecting “Move to top.”
FAQs
What are the circumstances where an entry might be let in from the waitlist?
If the Event Organizer refunds, cancels, defers, or transfers an entry via their dashboard.
If a participant with a confirmed entry transfers, withdraws, or is cancelled.
If you, the Event Organizer, increase the ticket capacity.
As an Event Organizer, can I override the waitlist order if there's someone I want to be chosen first?
Yes. From the Applications table, you can select a specific applicant and choose the "Move To Top" option. This will place them next in line to be offered a spot.
What happens if I update Capacities while my waitlist is running?
If you increase the capacity of a ticket in the Limited Capacity tab, the system will automatically invite people from the waitlist to fill those newly available spots. If there aren't enough people on the waitlist to fill the new spots, public registration for that ticket will reopen.
Can I set a deadline for applicants to join the waitlist?
Yes, you can set a date for when the “Join waitlist” button will become disabled from the registration page.
Can I cap the amount of people who can join a waitlist?
Not yet. However you can set a date and time fore when the “Join waitlist” button should become disabled.
What happens if I update the booking form for the ticket, while the waitlist is running?
If you update the booking form, it will update for the waitlist as well. The new fields will appear in the startlist table, but you may need to contact the participant to get the information for the new fields.
What happens if I disable the Waitlist after it’s opened?
This will disable the “Join waitlist” button from the registration page, and invitations will no longer be sent to any existing applicants.