Waitlists

A waitlist is the ordered queue of members who want a spot in a class that is already full. Members join it themselves, staff can add someone on the class page, and owners and admins set the claim window on the booking policy. When a booked member cancels, 1club works down the queue for you: it either books the next person straight away or sends them a time-limited offer to claim the spot.

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When to use it

A full class doesn’t have to mean a lost booking or the front desk ringing round for a replacement. The queue fills a freed seat on its own, and each seat is only ever promised to one person at a time. This page walks through the full workflow, from joining a waitlist to the moment an offer turns into a confirmed booking. Typical uses:

• An early cancellation - a member cancels their seat in a pass-covered yoga class a day ahead, inside the full-refund window, and the first person in line is booked straight in without doing anything.
• A last-minute drop-out - someone cancels two hours before a padel clinic, and the first person in line gets a spot-available notification with a claim window (15 minutes by default) before the offer rolls to the next person.
• A paid drop-in class - when the policy takes payment at booking, the next person gets a claim window instead of an automatic booking, so they pay when they take the seat.
• A caller without an account - the front desk adds a phone caller to a full class’s waitlist, and when a spot opens they set a password from the claim link and book.

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When a waitlist applies

Every class supports a waitlist by default, so nothing needs to be switched on for the queue to work. A waitlist only comes into play when both of these are true:

• The class has a Max capacity set. Classes with unlimited capacity are never full, so there is nothing to wait for.
• The class is full - the number of booked seats plus anonymous check-ins has reached the max capacity.

While seats are still open, members book directly and never touch the waitlist. If a member tries to join the waitlist on a class that still has space, 1club blocks it and points them back to the normal booking flow. A member can only be in one place at a time for a given class occurrence. If someone already has a booking or a check-in for that class on that date, they cannot also join the waitlist for it, and they cannot join the same waitlist twice.

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How members join a full class

When a class is full, the booking control changes from Book to Join waiting list everywhere the class appears - the class detail page, the schedule grid, and class cards.

1. The member taps Join waiting list and confirms in the dialog.
2. If they are not signed in, they are asked to log in first, then the join continues automatically.
3. 1club creates a waitlist entry with the status pending and emails the member to confirm they are on the list, including their current position in the queue.

Position is calculated from the order members joined - the earliest to join is first in line. Members can see their entries, their position, and any live offers under Account > Waitlist in the member portal. Staff can also add someone to a waitlist on the member’s behalf. On the class detail page, the Add to waitlist button in the Attendance card is enabled only when the class is full. See Classes for the attendance grid, which lists booked seats, anonymous check-ins, and waitlist entries side by side.

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What happens when a spot opens

The queue is processed automatically whenever a booked member cancels and frees a seat. 1club picks the person at the front of the queue and takes one of two paths, depending on how far away the class is. Only one person is ever offered a spot at a time, so a single freed seat is never promised to two people at once.

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The claim window

The claim window is how long a notified member has to confirm before the offer moves on. It defaults to 15 minutes and is set per policy by the Waitlist claim window (minutes) field - see Booking policies. The spot-available notification tells the member the exact deadline. Offers are only sent when the freed seat is realistically claimable, so notifications cluster in the hours before a class rather than days ahead.

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How members claim

Taking an offered seat is booking the class. Whichever door the member comes through, they land in the ordinary booking flow, so whatever the club’s booking policy asks for at booking happens there - a card payment when payment is due at booking, a covering pass, or pay on arrival. Creating that booking converts the waitlist entry.

• The claim link in the notification. It opens a page showing the class, date and gym. If the member has no password yet - for example, a contact a staff member added to the list - they set one there, and 1club creates their account and signs them in. Continuing takes them to the class, where Book completes the seat.
• Account > Waitlist in the portal. A notified entry shows the deadline and a Book now button that opens the class.
• The class in the mobile app. The spot-available push notification opens the class, where the member sees the deadline with Accept spot and Decline. Accept opens the booking screen. Tapping a notification for a class at another of their clubs switches the app to that club first.
• Booking the class outright. A claim window is a deadline, not a hold, so the seat stays open to everyone until it is taken. A notified member who books the class from anywhere else while their window is open takes the seat the same way.

The two claim-window notices - a spot is available, and the window has passed - are always sent, whatever the member’s booking notification setting says. Turning booking notifications off silences confirmations and changes, not an offer that expires on its own. Booking runs the usual checks. If the window has passed, the class has already started, or the seat was filled in the meantime, the booking is refused with a clear message and the class shows what is true now. The claim window binds the member claiming the seat. Staff converting an entry to a booking from the class’s attendance grid can do so after its window has passed. A member can also decline or leave a waitlist. Declining a live offer removes them from the queue and immediately passes the spot to the next person in line. Leaving a pending entry simply takes them off the list. Payment due at booking. When the policy requires payment at booking and the class has a price, 1club never books the seat for the member automatically: the auto-book path is skipped and the member gets a claim window instead, so they pay when they take the seat. Free classes and classes covered by a pass still auto-book.

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Entry statuses

Every waitlist entry moves through these statuses: A converted entry is linked to the booking it created, so the seat and the queue history stay connected.

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Behind the scenes: expiring offers

A background job runs every few minutes to keep the queue moving without anyone having to watch it. For each offer whose claim window has passed, the job:

1. Checks whether the member already holds a seat on that class. If they booked it while the window was open, the entry is marked converted and linked to that booking, and no expiry notice is sent.
2. Otherwise marks the entry expired.
3. Notifies the member that their opportunity has expired and the spot went to the next person.
4. Offers the freed spot to the next pending member in line, starting a fresh claim window.

This is what lets an unclaimed offer cascade down the queue automatically until someone claims it or the class fills.

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Where staff manage waitlists

Waitlists live on the class itself. Open a class from Schedule > Classes and use the Attendance card on the detail page to:

• See who is on the waitlist alongside the booked seats and check-ins.
• Add a member to the waitlist with Add to waitlist (enabled only when the class is full).
• Convert a waitlist entry into a booking manually, when you want to seat someone directly rather than wait for the automatic flow.

For the full class detail layout and capacity tiles, see Classes.

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Related

• Classes - Set capacity, run the attendance grid, and convert waitlist entries.
• Booking policies - Set the waitlist claim window and the refund tiers that drive auto-booking.
• Bookings - Where a claimed or auto-booked seat shows up as a confirmed booking.
• Events - For one-off ticketed happenings, use an event instead of a class.