Waitlist software that turns cancellations into bookings
When a slot frees up, the clients who actually fit it hear about it first, on the channels they chose.
Velarya is med spa waitlist software that reacts the moment a slot frees up. A cancellation raises an event for that provider and day, and the engine checks every waiting client against the opening: the exact service they configured, including variation, modifiers, and add-ons, the provider they pinned or their willingness to see anyone, and whether they are free themselves. Clients who fit are notified on the channels they chose. Nobody is booked into an appointment they did not confirm, and nobody is told about an opening they could never have taken.
What happens when a slot frees up
A cancellation is not a notification problem, it is a matching problem. Telling forty people that Thursday at two is free produces forty disappointed clients and one booking. The work is deciding who could actually take it.
Step | What Velarya does |
|---|---|
A slot frees | A cancellation, a reschedule, or added availability raises an event for that provider and that day |
Candidates are gathered | Everyone waiting on that provider, plus everyone waiting on any provider who could perform the service |
Each entry is fit-checked | The opening is tested against the exact treatment the client configured, their provider preference, and their own calendar |
The ones who fit are told | Notified on the channels they chose, with the clinic controlling how many are contacted |
A client books it | They take the slot themselves. Nothing is booked on their behalf |
The sweep runs in rounds rather than as a single blast, so a day that frees up repeatedly does not turn into a stream of messages to the same people.
Who actually gets told
A waitlist entry in Velarya stores the whole footprint of what the client was trying to book, not just a service name. That means the variation they picked, any modifiers, and any add-ons attached to it. A forty-five minute opening is never offered to someone waiting on a treatment that needs ninety, because the fit check knows how long their specific configuration actually takes.
Provider preference is part of the same check. An entry can pin one provider, in which case only that provider’s openings match, or accept anyone, in which case it sits in a shared queue and is matched against any provider qualified for that service. When a location-wide opening appears, such as extended hours, no provider is named, so every waiting entry is considered and each is still checked against its own preference.
The engine also re-applies the client-is-busy check for the waiting client themselves. Someone already booked elsewhere at that hour is not offered the slot, which is the detail that stops a waitlist producing double bookings.
How flexible can a waitlist entry be?
Setting | What it means |
|---|---|
Exact date | That day only. Suited to a client working around a fixed event |
Plus or minus one day | A three day window around the target |
Plus or minus two days | A five day window, which is where most cancellations actually land |
Any provider | Matched against every provider qualified for the service |
Pinned provider | Matched only against that provider’s openings |
Flexibility is the lever that decides whether a waitlist works. A list where everyone demands one injector on one Saturday will almost never fill anything. A list where half the entries accept two days either side turns routine midweek cancellations into revenue.
Notified, not auto-booked
Velarya does not drop a waiting client into a cancelled appointment automatically. This is a design decision rather than a missing feature, and it is worth being explicit about because some systems do the opposite.
Auto-booking optimises the wrong number. It fills the calendar slot immediately and creates a client who did not agree to be there, which becomes a second no-show, a refund conversation, or a bad review about being charged for an appointment they never made. A notified client who chooses the slot has already decided to come. The gap takes slightly longer to fill and it actually holds.
Which channels the offer goes out on
Each waitlist entry carries its own channel preference, defaulting to push first with text and email as fallbacks. An opening fans out across every channel the client has enabled rather than stopping at the first one that succeeds, because a waitlist offer is worth nothing if it lands in the channel they never check.
Two safeguards keep this from becoming noise. A client already notified about an opening stays on the list but is not messaged again by every subsequent event in the same window. And the client’s notification opt-out is re-checked at the moment of sending, not just when they joined, so someone who switched a channel off after joining is not messaged on it anyway. More on how that works on the push notifications page.
Why waitlists fail everywhere else
Velarya | A list in the booking system | A note at the front desk | |
|---|---|---|---|
Who gets contacted | Only clients whose treatment, provider, and calendar fit the opening | Everyone waiting on that service | Whoever the receptionist remembers |
Treatment length | Checked against the client’s exact configuration including add-ons | Usually the service default | Guessed |
Effort per cancellation | None. The event fires on its own | Someone opens a list and starts calling | Someone remembers, or does not |
Repeat contact | Suppressed inside the window | Depends who is calling | Random |
The honest caveat: a waitlist only works if there is genuine unmet demand. If your calendar has open slots most weeks, a waitlist has nothing to fill and the real problem is demand, not scheduling. Waitlists pay off for clinics whose popular providers are booked out and whose cancellations currently evaporate.
What a filled cancellation is actually worth
A cancelled appointment is the most expensive kind of empty time, because the demand already existed and the cost of serving it was already committed. Staff are rostered, the room is prepared, and the client who wanted that slot is somewhere else. Filling even a fraction of cancellations changes the economics of a fully booked provider more than any pricing change, because the capacity is already paid for.
That is also why the waitlist belongs next to the rest of the booking engine rather than beside it. The fit check depends on the same room, equipment, and processing-time rules the calendar already enforces, and a filled slot feeds the same retention loop as any other visit.
Turning it on
Smart waitlists are part of the Signature and Enterprise plans rather than the entry plan. Once enabled, you control whether the waitlist is open at all, how many waiting clients are contacted per opening, and how the queue is prioritised. Everything else, including deposits, reminders, and resource-aware scheduling, is on every plan. The full comparison is on the pricing page.
Frequently asked questions
How does a med spa waitlist work?
A client who cannot get the time they want joins the waitlist for a service and a date. When a cancellation or a schedule change frees that time up, the system checks who on the list actually fits the opening and notifies them. They book it themselves. The gap gets filled without the front desk working through a list by phone.
Does Velarya automatically book someone into a cancelled slot?
No, and that is deliberate. Auto-booking puts a client into an appointment they never confirmed, which produces a second no-show and an awkward phone call. Velarya notifies the clients who fit and lets them take the slot. The booking is a decision the client made, which is why it holds.
Can a client wait for a specific provider?
Either way. A waitlist entry can pin one provider, in which case only that provider’s openings match, or it can accept anyone, in which case the entry sits in a shared queue and is matched against any provider who can actually perform the service. Both kinds of entry are considered when a slot frees up.
Can a client wait for more than one day?
Yes. An entry can be exact, meaning that date only, or flexible by one or two days either side. The engine works out the calendar window from that and treats every day inside it as acceptable, so a client who does not mind Thursday or Saturday is matched against both without joining the list twice.
How many clients get notified when a slot opens?
As many as you choose. Fan-out is a setting, so a clinic that wants a slot filled fast can notify several waiting clients and let the first to book take it, while a clinic that prefers to offer openings one at a time can do that instead. The right number depends on how quickly your clients respond.
How does the waitlist know a client actually fits the opening?
The entry stores the full configuration the client was trying to book, not just a service name: the variation, any modifiers, and any add-ons. The opening is checked against that whole footprint, and against the provider and the client’s own calendar. An opening too short for the treatment is never offered.
Which plan includes the waitlist?
Smart waitlists are part of Signature and Enterprise rather than the entry plan. If filling last-minute cancellations is the problem you are trying to solve, that is the plan to look at. The rest of the booking engine, including deposits and reminders, is on every plan.
Will clients get spammed by waitlist notifications?
No. A client who has already been told about an opening stays on the list but is not notified again by every subsequent event in the same window. Their notification opt-out is also re-checked at the moment of sending rather than only when they joined, so someone who switched a channel off is not messaged on it.
Ready to see it on your own med spa?
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