Using a waitlist

When tickets sell out, a waitlist lets people keep signing up instead of being turned away. Each person waits for the ticket they chose, and as soon as one comes back, the next group waiting for it is moved in automatically.

Before you start

Everyone attending holds a ticket, so a waitlist only comes into play when your tickets have a limit. Without one, there’s no limit, so nobody ever needs to wait.

• On a simple event (one free ticket, no ticket choice), the limit is the event’s capacity. You set it when you create the event, or later under Settings → Capacity. Leave it blank for unlimited places.
• With several tickets, each has its own limit, set on the Tickets tab. See Tickets.

Turn on the waitlist

1. Open the event’s Registration tab

   Go to Events, open your event and select the Registration tab.

2. Switch on “Waitlist when full”

   In the Capacity & extras card, turn on Waitlist when full. It’s off on new events.

3. Save

   Select Save changes at the bottom of the page.

Waitlist off and sold out?

Your event page shows Sold out, and nobody can sign up. On an event with several tickets, a ticket that’s sold out can’t be chosen, and the others still can.

What guests see

When tickets sell out

Your event page always shows how many tickets are left, such as 12 tickets left, so people can see it coming. Once every ticket is taken:

• The registration buttons on your event page show Sold out — join the waitlist underneath.
• On an event with several tickets, a sold-out ticket shows Sold out — join the waitlist and can still be chosen, to wait for it. Tickets that are left can be chosen as usual.
• The button on the registration form changes from Confirm registration to Join the waitlist.
• After signing up, they see You’re on the waitlist and a note that you’ll email them if a place opens up.

When registration closes

After your registration deadline, or once you’ve closed registration early, everyone who signs up joins the waitlist, even if there are places left. The event page shows Registration closed — join the waitlist, and the form button reads Join the waitlist.

People on the waitlist don’t receive an email when they join. Their first email from you is their confirmation, sent when they’re given a place.

Groups with guests

If your event allows plus-ones, someone registering with guests needs a ticket for everyone in the group. If there aren’t enough left, or one person’s chosen ticket is sold out, the whole group joins the waitlist together. On the ticket page they see There aren’t enough tickets left for everyone, so your group joins the waitlist.

Their guests are listed as On the waitlist too, and each person waits for the ticket they chose.

Sessions on waitlist events

People who get a place when they register choose their Optional sessions as usual, on the Sessions & extras page. That’s anyone registering while there’s room for their whole group.

A group joining the waitlist doesn’t choose sessions or extras when they register: the Sessions & extras page is skipped, and the Review page tells them There isn’t a place for everyone yet, so you’re joining the waitlist. Once they’re given a place:

1. Their confirmation email includes a Choose your sessions button.
2. The button opens Manage my registration, where they sign in with their email address and the confirmation code from the email.
3. They choose sessions for themselves and for each of their guests, from whatever has room, until session changes close.

People still on the waitlist can’t choose sessions yet: Manage my registration tells them they can choose these once there’s a place at the event. Once they have one, they choose sessions (and on ticketed events, their ticket and extras) there.

Session places go to whoever chooses first

Places in an Optional session with a capacity are taken when people choose them, not when they register. Anyone who leaves it late may find a session full.

Using an older event?

The Choose your sessions button comes after the registration details in the confirmation email. Every confirmation email has them, including those on events created before this feature.

Changing or leaving the waitlist

People on the waitlist can use Manage my registration on the event page to update their details, add guests or cancel. Cancelling takes them, and their guests, off the waitlist.

They haven’t had a confirmation email yet, so they select Resend my confirmation email and enter their email address. A short email with their confirmation code is sent straight away. The code stays the same once they get a place.

How places are given out

Until registration closes, Mint moves people off the waitlist automatically whenever tickets come back. Groups are moved in in the order they joined, a whole group at a time: a group moves in when its tickets have room for everyone in it, and each person is given the ticket they were waiting for. Each one gets the event’s confirmation email; a plus-one moved in without the person who registered them is added to that person’s confirmation, which is sent again. That email includes:

• their confirmation code (the same one, if they already had it),
• their ticket and QR code, for them and each of their guests,
• the Choose your sessions button, if the event has sessions.

Tickets come back when:

• a guest cancels on Manage my registration,
• a guest removes one of their plus-ones,
• you change a guest’s status to Cancelled or Not attending, one at a time or several at once from the guest list,
• you delete guests, or cancel their order on the Orders tab,
• a guest changes to another ticket on Manage my registration, giving up the one they had,
• you raise a ticket’s limit on the Tickets tab, or the event’s Capacity under Settings.

If the group at the front needs more tickets than have come back, it keeps its place in the queue: nobody behind it who’s waiting for the same ticket moves in first. People waiting for a different ticket can still move in.

After registration closes

Once the registration deadline has passed, nobody is moved in automatically. Tickets that come back stay free until you give them to someone yourself, as below.

Moving someone in yourself

To give someone a place yourself:

1. Find them in the guest list

   Open the event’s Guests tab. Filter by the Waitlisted status to see everyone waiting.

2. Change their status to Attending

   Open the guest and set Status to Attending. They’re given the ticket they were waiting for, and you’re asked whether to send their confirmation email. To move several people in at once, select them and choose Set status… → Attending: you’re asked once for all of them. See Sending confirmations.

Moving someone in takes a ticket like any other. If none is left, you see a message such as General admission is sold out: raise its limit on the Tickets tab to add more people, and nothing changes. Raise the limit first: that alone moves the next group in automatically, before registration closes.

Keeping track

• Overview tab: the Registrations figure shows how many people are waitlisted, alongside your capacity.
• Guests tab: filter by the Waitlisted status to see who is waiting.
• Emails tab: you can send an email to everyone on the waitlist by choosing Waitlisted as the audience. For example, let them know about a second date.