Use Case
Fill Salon Cancellations From Your Waitlist
A cancellation lands, Bella checks who was waiting for that exact slot, and your team offers it from the entry with the client and services already filled in.
A manual waitlist runs on sticky notes, memory and good intentions, and it falls over on the day you actually need it. Bella Booking keeps waiting clients in the scheduler with the dates, times and services they asked for. When an appointment is cancelled or rescheduled, the freed slot is checked against those entries and any that genuinely fit are flagged for your team, with the date, time and team member on the card. You offer the slot, book it from the entry, and the client, services and notes carry across. Clients can also join the waitlist themselves from your online booking page when nothing is available on the day they picked.
Who this is for
- Busy salons that are regularly fully booked
- Salons with high cancellation or reschedule rates
- Businesses that want to fill last-minute openings without ringing down a list
- Salons where clients have flexible preferred times
Common challenges
Cancellations create revenue gaps
When a client cancels, that slot often goes unfilled because there is no quick way to work out who wanted it. The revenue is simply lost.
Manual waitlist tracking is unreliable
Paper lists, spreadsheets and memory-based waitlists mean missed matches. Nobody remembers to check, preferred times are not recorded accurately, and clients get frustrated.
Phone tag to fill cancellations
Calling through a list of waiting clients to find someone who can take a newly opened slot eats an afternoon, and rarely works for a same-day opening.
No way for clients to express interest when fully booked
When your online booking shows no availability, an interested client has to call or try again later. Most do neither.
How Bella Booking helps
Automatic slot matching
Learn moreWhen an appointment is cancelled or rescheduled, the freed slot is checked against every waiting client whose preferred windows overlap it. Matching entries are flagged for your team as soon as it happens.
Online waitlist joining
Learn moreWhen nothing is available on the day they picked, clients can join the waitlist from your online booking page. They choose up to 6 preferred time windows and the services they want, without ringing you.
Preferred time windows
Learn moreA waitlist entry carries one or more preferred date and time windows. All of them are checked against a new opening, and overlapping or past-dated windows are rejected when the entry is saved.
Book the slot from the entry
Learn moreBooking a flagged entry jumps to that slot in the scheduler with the client, services and notes already filled in. The appointment is created as Pending Confirmation by default, so the client confirms they still want it, and the entry moves to Booked.
Team member and service validation
Learn moreA match has to clear four checks: time overlap, the freed team member's roster and existing bookings, whether they can perform one of the requested services, and whether the total duration fits the gap. Only genuinely bookable matches are surfaced.
Simple pricing
A busy salon with 6 stylists pays just
A$99/month
Professional plan · No per-seat fees · No commission
See full pricing detailsFrequently asked questions
Can clients join the waitlist from online booking?
Yes. When your schedule shows no availability on the date a client picked, they can join the waitlist from your online booking page with up to 6 preferred time windows and the services they want.
How does automatic matching work?
When an appointment is cancelled or rescheduled, the freed date, time and team member are checked against every waiting client whose preferred windows overlap. Bella also checks the team member's roster and existing bookings, whether they can perform the requested services, and whether the work fits the gap before flagging a match.
Can I control which services allow waitlist joining?
Yes. You can enable or disable waitlist joining per service, or set a location-level default that individual services inherit.
What happens to stale waitlist entries?
Live matches are revalidated whenever you open the waitlist. A match is dropped once its slot date has passed, or if the team member is no longer free or can no longer do the work. The entry stays on your list until you book or delete it.
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