> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.opentherapy.app/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Waitlist

> How people join your waitlist, how a freed hour is offered, and leaving.

Your waitlist is the list of people who wanted a place and couldn't have one yet.

## How someone joins

Your **Accepting clients** setting under **Availability** decides what your profile offers:

|              |                                                        |
| ------------ | ------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Open**     | Clients book directly                                  |
| **Waitlist** | The profile offers the list instead of a booking form  |
| **Closed**   | Neither. Nobody can book, and nobody can join the list |

Joining takes an email address; a name, preferred times and a short note are optional. No account is needed, but if the address belongs to an Open Therapy account the entry links to it, and they get an in-app notification alongside the email.

Joining twice returns the same entry and the same confirmation. Someone who was removed and asks again is put back.

## Your list

**Waitlist** in your workspace shows everyone, filtered by status.

|                           |                                                       |
| ------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- |
| **Waiting**               | Nobody has written to them about an hour              |
| **Told about an opening** | They've been notified, and the hour may still be open |
| **Booked from the list**  | They took a session after being told                  |
| **Removed**               | They left, or you took them off                       |
| **All**                   | Everyone                                              |

Select people and press **Notify** to write to them yourself, with an optional message. Anyone written to in the last 24 hours is skipped, and you're told how many.

<Frame caption="Counts sit above the list">
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/opentherapy/U9MUByUQja1xN19w/images/therapist-waitlist.webp?fit=max&auto=format&n=U9MUByUQja1xN19w&q=85&s=9f79f8f088f43a9ca37574644fe5857e" width="2880" height="1800" style={{ width: 1440 }} alt="The Waitlist screen with an Availability button and four counts all reading zero: waiting, told about an opening, booked from the list, and with an account; below them an empty state reading Nobody waiting yet, explaining that the form appears on your profile when you mark yourself waitlist-only, with a button to set how you take clients" data-path="images/therapist-waitlist.webp" />
</Frame>

## When an hour comes free

When a session is cancelled or moved, the hour it vacated is queued, and an hourly pass offers it to the list.

<Steps>
  <Step title="The hour is queued">
    Written the moment the cancellation or reschedule completes.
  </Step>

  <Step title="The pass picks it up">
    Within the hour.
  </Step>

  <Step title="The hour is re-checked">
    Against your live availability. An hour since taken, blocked out, or fallen outside your booking
    window is dropped without a word.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Five people are emailed">
    The five longest-waiting on your list who haven't been written to recently.
  </Step>
</Steps>

### Five, and first come first asked

An hour is one appointment, and the email says so — whoever books it first has it. The order is the order they joined.

### How long an offer stands

There's no hold and no expiry on an offer; the hour is on the market from the moment the mail goes out. Nobody hears about an opening more than once in **24 hours**, and nobody is written to twice about the same hour.

### When nobody is told

An opening closes without a send if the hour has already passed, if you've since closed your books, or if it's no longer available.

## Leaving

Every waitlist email carries a one-click unsubscribe link. It removes the entry immediately — no sign-in, no confirmation, no account — and works once; after that it reads as expired.

You can also remove someone yourself. They aren't told.

## The care-category waitlist is a different list

Some care types are marked coming soon. Those pages collect email addresses too, and that list is **not yours**.

|                            |                                                                                               |
| -------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Your waitlist**          | People waiting for you. Yours to see and to notify                                            |
| **Care-category waitlist** | People waiting for a care type to launch. Held by Open Therapy, and emailed once when it does |

Nobody on it appears in your workspace, and joining one has no effect on the other. See [Care types](/care-types).