Waitlist – How It Works

When fully booked, guests can join a queue instead of being turned away. The waitlist is a feature for table bookings – it does not exist for events or resource bookings.

Why table bookings only?

For events, we instead recommend promoting the next occurrence if one sells out. For resources, guests can pick another time or day in the booking view.

Enable waitlist (table booking):

1. Go to Bokning → Inställningar → Grundinställningar
2. Under Beteende, turn on Väntelista

The settings under Behavior:

How it works:

1. Guest tries to book online but no tables are available
2. The guest joins the queue and states their preferred time
3. The booking is created with status Väntelista and appears in the Väntelista tab of the Booking module. The guest gets an SMS saying they're in the queue and do not have a table – not the regular booking confirmation
4. When a table frees up, Vendion looks through the queue for guests whose preferred time falls within the matching window
5. The offer goes out as an SMS, and the guest opens the link and chooses Ta bordet (accept) or Nej tack, jag avstår (decline)
6. If the guest accepts, the booking becomes Bekräftad. If they do not reply within the deadline, the seat passes to the next in the queue

Who gets the offer?

Vendion picks the party that fills the table best – most guests first. When a four-top frees up it goes to a party of four rather than to a couple who has waited longer, because four guests are worth more than two.

So that nobody is left waiting indefinitely, there is Priority after long wait. Once a guest has waited longer than that limit, their waiting time beats party size, and only someone who has waited even longer can go ahead of them. Set the limit to 0 if you would rather have size always decide.

Waitlist in admin:

• Waiting guests are listed in the Väntelista tab with party size, preferred time and how long they have waited
• With Redigera bokning permission, click Erbjud plats, select enough available tables and click Bekräfta bokning. This confirms immediately and sends a confirmation; it does not wait for the guest to accept. Check with the guest first
• If no direct placement is available, the dialog may suggest moving other bookings to make room. Review those moves before applying them
• The queue number shows entry order for the same date and preferred time; it does not guarantee automatic offer priority
• Click the cross to remove a guest from the waitlist

Table-only – what do I do for events/resources?

• Event sold out: Share another occurrence or add one under Bokning → Events & Resurser
• Resource booked at desired time: The guest automatically sees other available slots the same day or other days

Tip: Automatic waitlist matching is separate from Automatisk bordstilldelning, which controls how new table placements are confirmed. Check the matching window, response deadline and guest phone numbers. Offers depend on a suitable available place and successful SMS delivery.