Why Are Passengers Moving Off Of The Waitlist Automatically?
GroupCollect has automated the process of moving passengers off of the waitlist. This is intended to make things easier for administrators and group leaders when seats open up on a trip. Instead of manually moving over individual passengers, as long as the trip is configured properly, passengers will automatically be moved from the waitlist to 'Pending' status when a trip has increased its registration limit. Let's look at some examples to help with a better understanding of the feature:
Say you have 10 passengers on a waitlist, and 10 seats just opened up on your trip, all you have to do is increase the registration limit for the trip in the 'Trip Details' section, and your waitlisted passengers will automatically be taken off the waitlist and put into a 'Pending' status.
Another Example:
Say you have 30 passengers on a waitlist and 15 seats just opened on your trip. If you increase the registration limit for the trip in the ‘Trip Details’ section by 15, all 30 of your waitlisted passengers will automatically be moved to 'Pending'. Then, the first 15 passengers to pay their deposit and reach 'Confirmed' status will claim the 15 available seats. The rest will be moved back to the waitlist.
Of course, this specific example would only occur if your trip is set to a 'Confirm Passengers After Deposit Is Paid' setting on the Trip Details page. In fact, there are quite a few factors that could impact this feature in different ways, so if you encounter an interesting situation or have specific questions reach out to Help@Groupcollect.com and we'd be happy to talk you through it.
Your trip packages also can have registration limits. If you've set package registration limits on your trip, they'll play a part in this feature as well. You'll want to make sure you click on each package and increase the limit or remove the limit all together. You can do this by simply leaving the 'Registration Limit' field blank on the Edit Package page and clicking Save. Once those package limits have been adjusted accordingly, your passengers will move from the waitlist to 'Pending' automatically.
Don't Worry, You're Still In Control
We get it, when things happen automatically... it can sometimes be a little scary. Here's the key takeaway: Any passenger manually placed on the waitlist by you, the administrator, will NOT be added to 'Pending' automatically. It stands to reason if you manually waitlisted someone, there was a good reason, and that will be honored. But let's take a look at a few other situations you may encounter and show you how you can remain in the driver's seat:
1) I have to increase the trip registration limit but I do not want all of my waitlisted passengers to take a seat on the trip:
As previously mentioned: any passenger that is manually placed on the waitlist by you, the administrator, will NOT automatically join the trip. Make sure you manually add any passenger to the waitlist that you wish to remain waitlisted.
Even if you notice that some passengers have joined the trip that should be on the waitlist, simply move them back to the waitlist manually and they will not automatically re-join the trip.
2) I have to increase the trip registration limit but I want to prioritize certain passengers to join the trip before others:
Here’s what you do. First, manually take the priority passengers off of the waitlist. The system will alert you that the trip is oversold, but that will only be temporary. Let these travelers know then ask them to make their deposit and claim their confirmed seat. Then you can increase your trip registration limit as well as your package limit (if applicable). Your trip will no longer show as oversold, your priority passengers will have seats on the trip, and if there are still additional seats available, the rest of the previously waitlisted passengers will automatically be moved to 'Pending'.
Never hesitate to reach out with questions. Until next time, take care!