The waitlist captures guests who want a slot you can't immediately offer. When a reservation cancels or a service has room, you can invite a waitlisted guest — manually or automatically depending on your settings.
What you can do with the waitlist
Let guests sign up for a waitlist via the widget when their preferred slot is full.
Let guests pick a flexible date range so they can claim any matching opening.
Automatically email waitlisted guests when a spot opens up.
View, manage, and contact your waitlist from the Agenda.
Manually invite waitlisted guests when a spot becomes available.
How to enable the waitlist
Go to Back Office › Reservations › Settings › Waitlist.
Turn on the Waitlist toggle.
Guests will now see a waitlist option in your widget whenever no slots are available for their preferred time.
How guests sign up
Guests have two ways to join the waitlist from the widget:
A specific time — pick a single point in time (e.g. 19:30).
Flexible — tick the I'm flexible option and choose a start and end date range. Any matching openings are shown immediately, so guests can either book one straight away or join the waitlist for the whole range.
Automatic invitations
Turn on Automatically invite guests from the waitlist to email waitlisted guests as soon as a matching spot opens up.
How it works:
First come, first served — the first guest to claim the spot books it.
Guests browsing your website at the same time can also book the freed slot directly through the widget. The waitlist email isn't reserved exclusively for the waitlisted guest.
A spot must be open for more than 5 minutes before an automatic invitation is sent. This prevents stray notifications when you're shuffling reservations and a slot only looks open for a moment.
Each guest receives a maximum of one automatic invitation per 24 hours, so they're never spammed when multiple spots open and close.
If you leave this toggle off, you manage the waitlist manually.
Viewing and managing your waitlist
Go to Back Office › Reservations › Agenda.
In the view toggle (next to Timeline and List), select Waitlist.
From here you can see who's on the waitlist, what they requested, and act on entries when a spot opens up:
When a spot frees up, the list shows a Spot available status next to matching waitlist entries.
You can manually email a guest at any time using Send invitation email — useful to override the 24-hour automation limit or to invite someone before the automation triggers.
Manually moving a guest from the waitlist (with prepayments)
If you use prepayments on a service and you manually move a guest from the waitlist into a reservation, the guest will not receive an invitation to pay the prepayment. The reservation is created without the standard payment step.
Tip: If you want the prepayment to be charged, wait for the guest to claim the spot themselves via the automatic invitation email — that flow keeps the prepayment intact. Manually converting a waitlist entry skips it.
In the Tebi App
Tap Reservations › Waitlist › +.
Enter the guest's name, email or phone, group size, and desired date/time.
Tap Save. The guest receives a Waitlist joined email immediately.
When a spot opens, tap the waitlisted guest → Invite to convert them into a reservation. They receive a Waitlist available email with the booking details.
In the Back Office
Go to Reservations › Waitlist.
Click Add to waitlist and fill in the same fields.
To invite: click the guest → Send invite.
Note: Guests receive two emails through the waitlist flow: one when they join, and one when a spot becomes available. See What emails do guests receive? for the full list.
Need more help?
For automatic waitlist invites when a slot opens, check your reservation settings under Pacing & Day limits.