Set up the waiting list

Cancellations happen — and an empty chair is lost revenue. The waiting list (your virtual waiting room) fills those gaps automatically: when a client's preferred time is fully booked, they can join the list instead of walking away. The moment a matching slot frees up, Randvu offers it to them — first to claim gets the chair.

Everything lives in Settings → Waiting list. There's also a quick on/off switch in the Features section of Settings.

Turn it on

The page opens with a single master switch — Enable the waiting list. It's off by default for every location.

• On: clients see a Join the waiting list option on your public booking page whenever the day they picked has no openings.
• Off: the join option is hidden and no offers go out. Existing entries simply pause — turning it back on resumes everything.

If you run multiple locations, pick the location first — each one has its own waiting list and its own rules.

How offers work

The second card controls what happens when a slot frees up.

Offer freed slots automatically on cancellation

On by default. When someone cancels, Randvu instantly finds waiting clients whose services, dates, times, and stylist preference all match the freed slot, and sends them an offer — no staff action needed.

Turn it off if you'd rather stay in control: freed slots then sit until you offer them yourself from the Waiting list page (see Manage the waiting list).

How long each client has to claim

The claim window — pick 15, 30, 60, or 120 minutes (default is 30). Each client who receives an offer gets exactly this long to claim it. If the window passes without a claim, the offer automatically moves on to the next matching client.

Clients offered at once

How many clients receive each offer simultaneously, from 1 to 5 (default 1).

• 1 is strictly one at a time — the fairest option. The longest-waiting match always gets first refusal, and nobody loses a slot to someone behind them in line.
• A higher number fills slots faster, but several clients compete for the same opening — whoever claims first wins, and the others see "This slot was just taken."

The page shows a Fairest ↔ Fastest meter as you adjust it, so you can see the trade-off at a glance.

Notify by

Which channels carry the offer. You can enable any combination:

• Email — on by default. Delivered instantly, and the highest open rate for offers.
• Push — on by default. For clients with the app installed; free and immediate.
• SMS — off by default. Best for last-minute slots, but it uses your messaging credits and requires your SMS integration to be set up.

Clients still need each channel enabled in their own preferences — for example, SMS only reaches clients who left a phone number and opted in when joining.

The live preview

The right-hand rail isn't decoration — it's a live preview of exactly what your clients will receive, plus a step-by-step "What happens on a cancellation" flow that updates as you change the settings. Tweak the claim window and watch the "you have 30 minutes" line update in the preview message.

When you change anything, a save bar appears at the bottom — nothing applies until you hit Save.

Where to go next

Once the list is on, the View who's waiting link (and the Waiting list item in the sidebar) takes you to the live queue — stats, pending offers, and manual controls. That's covered in Manage the waiting list.