Six people waiting, and a cancellation nobody connects
Your walking tour in the Picos de Europa in May has been full since January. Since then, six people have asked to go on a waiting list. Two emailed, three phoned, one filled in the contact form. Their names are on a sticky note on the monitor and in a folder called "Picos waitlist".
In March, a couple cancel. The booking system frees two places, and the next customer to phone happens to ask about May and gets them. The six people waiting are never contacted. One of them books with another operator, and mentions it to you when they enquire about something else later in the year.
A waiting list outside the booking system is invisible
The booking system knows when a place frees up. The waiting list is somewhere else, so nothing connects the two events. Working a waiting list properly also needs discipline: order, how long someone has to decide, and what happens if they decline.
- Waiting list entries arrive by phone, email and web form, and are kept in different places.
- Cancellations are processed without anyone checking the list.
- Nobody records how many places each person wants or their room needs.
- Offers are made informally, with no time limit, so places sit unsold.
- People on the list are not told about other dates that have space.
Lost bookings you never see
A waiting list is a list of people who have already chosen your tour. Letting a freed place go to whoever calls next, or not selling it at all, wastes the easiest sale you have. People who waited and were never contacted feel ignored, and specialist tour operators depend heavily on repeat and recommended customers.
There is also information in the list you are not using: a long waiting list on one tour is the clearest sign you could add a departure.
A waiting list that watches for cancellations
We build a waiting list that is linked to your departures and your cancellations.
- Customers join the waiting list from the website on full dates, or the office adds them from a phone call, recording the number of places, room type and contact details.
- Each departure's list is kept in order of joining, and customers get a confirmation of their position if you want to show it.
- When a booking on a full departure is cancelled or reduced, the system checks the list straight away.
- The first person whose needs fit the freed places (for example two places in a twin room) receives an offer by email or text, with a time limit you set to accept.
- If they accept, the place is held and the booking is made, or passed to the office to complete. If they decline or the time runs out, the next person is offered it.
- People on the list receive a note when a nearby date of the same tour has space, or when you add an extra departure.
- A report shows waiting list demand by tour and date, to help plan next season.
| Event | What happens |
|---|---|
| Customer joins list | Recorded with places and room needs |
| Cancellation on a full date | Next suitable person offered the place |
| Offer not accepted in time | Moves to the next person |
| Nearby date has space | Waiting customers told about it |
| Extra departure added | List members offered first |
What changes when a place frees up
A couple cancel on the full May departure. Within minutes, the couple who joined the waiting list first get a message offering them the two places, with forty-eight hours to accept. They accept the next morning, the booking is created, and the office checks the details. The other four on the list stay on it, in order.
At the end of the season, the waiting list report shows that the May dates on two tours had long lists. You add a second May departure for each and offer it to the list before it goes on the website.
Is your waiting list on a sticky note?
- Waiting list names are kept in emails or notebooks.
- Freed places have gone to new callers instead of people waiting.
- Offers to waiting customers have no time limit.
- People on the list are not told about other dates with space.
- You do not know which departures had the longest waiting lists.