Manage class waitlist

By default, when a spot opens in a full class, Zenoti immediately promotes the first waitlisted student without a confirmation step. This works well for studios where students reliably attend, and cancellations are rare. However, if you find that promoted students frequently cancel or do not show up, you can switch to a notification-based flow where each student is given a chance to accept or decline before their spot is confirmed.

Zenoti offers two notification modes. Broadcast mode sends a notification to all waitlisted students at the same time, and the first to confirm wins the spot. Priority mode notifies students one at a time in queue order, with a set window for each student before the notification moves to the next. All settings are off by default and must be explicitly enabled.

Configurations at the organization level

Required roles: Owner or Zenoti Administrator

Notification mode scenarios

The following examples illustrate how each notification mode works in practice. In priority mode, the response window and pause settings together determine the actual deadline a student faces. Notifications are sent approximately 5 minutes after the cancellation occurs, and the response window starts from the moment the notification is delivered, not from when the cancellation happened.

Override configurations at the center level

Each center can override the organization level settings. When center level settings are configured, the center level takes precedence. When no center settings for the waitlist are configured, the center inherits the organization level settings.

Required roles: Owner, Administrator, or Center Manager

Waitlist capacity

If you run popular classes, the waitlist can fill up quickly. To prevent the waitlist from growing indefinitely, you can set a maximum number of waitlisted students per class. When this limit is reached, Zenoti stops accepting new waitlist registrations and informs the student that the waitlist is full. To configure this, navigate to Fitness > Resources > Classes and update the waitlist capacity for the relevant class. If no limit is set, the waitlist is unlimited.

Web capacity

Classes can have two separate capacity limits: one for overall registrations and one specifically for online bookings through the webstore. When a web capacity is set, it limits how many students can book through the webstore, regardless of the total class capacity. This means a class might still have seats available at the front desk even after the online booking limit has been reached. A student who is waitlisted online may be eligible to register directly at the front desk if the overall class capacity has not been reached.

Spots reserved for pending confirmations

While priority notifications are active and a student has an open confirmation request, the available spot is held exclusively for the waitlist flow. This prevents a walk-in student from taking a spot that is already being offered to someone who has been waiting. Any student not on the waitlist who tries to register during this window is automatically added to the end of the waitlist and follows the same notification flow.

Multiple spots open at the same time

If a second spot opens while the first waitlisted student's confirmation is still active, Zenoti sends the notification to the second student in the queue at the same time. Both students have open confirmation requests simultaneously.

Waitlist order across multiple cycles

A student's position on the waitlist reflects the time they originally registered, and this order is preserved even if a full notification cycle runs without anyone confirming. If the spot is not filled and another cancellation opens a new spot later, the same students are notified again, starting from the top of the queue. This ensures students are not penalised for a previous cycle where no spot was available. Students who join the waitlist after a cycle has already run are placed at the end of the queue behind those who registered earlier.

Capacity increase

The behavior when capacity is increased depends on where the change is made.

From the Roster: Waitlisted students are not auto-confirmed. They remain on the waitlist, and the standard notification flow applies based on your settings.

From Class Master > Sessions tab: Waitlisted students are auto-confirmed into the newly available spots, regardless of notification settings. This is the existing system behavior.

Cancellation versus deletion

Cancellation: A cancelled registration removes the student from the class but keeps the record visible on the roster. A cancellation fee may apply depending on your cancellation policy. The freed spot triggers the waitlist notification flow.

Deletion: A deleted registration removes the record from the roster entirely, and no cancellation fee is applied. Deletion is typically used when a student was added by mistake. The freed spot also triggers the waitlist notification flow. Cancelled waitlisted registrations can also be deleted to remove them from the roster without any fee.

Zenoti uses the following email and SMS templates throughout the waitlist flow. You can configure and customise these templates by navigating to Notifications and searching for the template name.

Waiting list Confirmed: Sent when a guest is added to the class waitlist roster.

Waiting list Cancelled: Sent when a guest is removed from the class waitlist roster.

Waitlist Confirmation of Enrollment: Sent to all waitlisted guests when a booking slot becomes available to move them to registration status.

Waitlist Priority Confirmation of Enrollment: Sent to waitlisted guests on priority when a booking slot becomes available to move them to registration status. Used when the priority notification flow is enabled.

Waitlist to Registered: Sent when a guest is moved from the waitlist to registered status.

When priority notifications are enabled and a spot opens, the first waitlisted student receives an email or SMS with the class name, date, time, instructor, and center. The notification contains a timed link that takes the student to the webstore, where they see a prompt asking them to confirm their registration. The prompt displays the class name, date, time, and instructor, and presents two response options.

The response options available to the student depend on how the notification is configured:

Student confirms

The student's status changes from Waitlisted to Registered. The webstore displays a confirmation message with the class name, date, and time. A Go to classes link lets the student view their updated schedule. The remaining waitlisted students each move up one position in the queue. If the student opens the same confirmation link again, the webstore shows the confirmed booking without allowing any further action.

Student declines

The student is removed from the waitlist. The webstore displays a message that confirms the decline and informs the student they have been removed from the class and the waitlist. If the student changes their mind, they can rejoin from the class schedule if spots are still available. A Go to classes link is shown below. The next student in the queue receives the notification. If the same link is opened again, the webstore shows the declined status without allowing any further action.

Student selects Not now

The student remains on the waitlist. The notification window closes and no further action is taken for that specific notification. The student is not removed from the queue and continues to be eligible for future openings.

No response from the student

When the response window expires, Zenoti moves the notification to the next student in the queue. If the Remove unresponsive students from waitlist setting is turned on, the student is moved to a Cancelled status and removed from the waitlist. If this setting is turned off, the student remains on the waitlist in a no response state and continues to be eligible for future openings when the next spot becomes available.

Spot goes unclaimed

If all students in the queue have been notified and no one has confirmed, the spot is released for open booking. Zenoti sends a broadcast notification to all remaining waitlisted students to let them know the spot is available to anyone. The first student to respond secures the spot. If the spot has already been taken when a student tries to confirm, the webstore shows a message indicating the class is full.

As students move through the waitlist flow, their status is visible in two places. The class roster provides a real-time view of who is waiting and where they are in the queue. The Registration Log provides a complete audit trail of every status change, including who took the action and when.

Roster view

The class roster organises students into sections: Registered, Waitlisted, Cancelled, and No Show. Waitlisted students appear in their own section, ordered by queue position. As students confirm or decline through the notification flow, their status updates automatically. You can also identify students who are pending confirmation as their spot is temporarily held in the class.

Registration Log

The Registration Log provides a timestamped record of every action taken on a student's registration, including who made the change and how it was triggered. This helps with waitlist audits, dispute resolution, and tracing how a spot was filled. To access it, open the class roster and click the Registration Log icon in the top right corner.

Created: Waitlisted. The student was added to the waitlist.

Change Status: Waitlisted to Registered. The student confirmed through the notification. The Comments column displays Accepted through WaitlistConfirmationMail.

Change Status: Waitlisted to Cancelled. The student declined through the notification. The Comments column displays Declined through WaitlistConfirmationMail.

When a class is at full capacity and a student still wants to register, you can add them to the waitlist from the roster. Their position in the queue is determined by the time they were added. If a spot opens up, Zenoti either fills it automatically or notifies the student, depending on how your waitlist settings are configured.

Required roles: Owner, Administrator, or Front Desk

Required permissions: Training > Classes > Add

The Add to Waitlist option is only visible once the class has reached its capacity. If the class still has open spots, students are enrolled directly rather than waitlisted.

Front desk staff can also add students to the waitlist on the Zenoti Mobile App from both tablets and mobile devices, which allows front desk staff to manage registrations on the go.

To enroll a student from the Registered page and the class is full, a prompt appears: "This class is currently full. A spot is temporarily reserved for a student pending confirmation from the waitlist. Add the Guest to waitlist?" Click OK to add the student to the end of the waitlist.

By default, when a registered student cancels, Zenoti automatically promotes the first waitlisted student into the class without any confirmation step. If you have priority notifications enabled, students are instead notified and given a window to respond. Regardless of which mode you use, front desk staff can always manually promote a student from the waitlist at any time, for example when a student arrives in person and you want to register them on the spot.

Required roles: Owner, Administrator, or Front Desk

Required permissions: Training > Classes > Edit

To move a student beyond the class capacity limit, the role must also have the Override Capacity and Waitlist Confirm permissions enabled. Without both permissions, the front desk cannot confirm a waitlisted student into a full class.

Once a student is moved from the waitlist to the registered list, the action cannot be undone. The student receives a Waitlist to Registered notification confirming their spot in the class.