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Waitlist

The waitlist lets members reserve a spot for a monthly lockout studio before one is available. Members pay a deposit to join, express their preferences, and receive an invitation when a studio opens up. The deposit is applied as a credit on the first lockout invoice.

Who Can Join

Approved members are eligible for the waitlist — members can self-enroll, or staff can add a new or existing customer on their behalf. Banned members cannot join. The member must have a full legal name and valid phone number (enforced when paying the deposit, not when staff creates an entry directly).

A member can only have one active waitlist entry at a time across all locations. They must cancel their existing entry before joining another waitlist.

Deposit

Joining the waitlist requires a deposit payment. The deposit is a flat amount configured in Stripe — it is not grossed up with processing fees. The location absorbs Stripe's processing fee on the deposit.

Both the gross amount (what the member paid) and net amount (after Stripe fees) are tracked. When the deposit is applied to a lockout invoice, the member receives the full gross amount as a credit. When the deposit is transferred to the location, only the net amount is sent.

Preferences

Members can express what they're looking for:

  • Specific studio — a named studio at a specific location
  • Any studio at a location — accepts any available studio at their preferred location (default)
  • Any studio at any location — accepts the first available studio across all Metrognome locations
  • Preferred size — small, medium, large, or extra large (optional, informational)

These preferences guide staff when a studio opens up but are not automatically enforced — staff manually matches waitlisted members to available studios.

Status Lifecycle

A waitlist entry moves through these states:

  • Pending — actively waiting for a studio (deposit paid or staff-created without deposit)
  • Fulfilled — member has been placed in a lockout
  • Cancelled — entry cancelled, deposit refunded if one was paid
  • Expired — entry expired without being fulfilled; unpaid pending entries older than 30 days are automatically expired

When a member initiates a deposit checkout, the waitlist entry and its payment record are created immediately in Pending status. The entry remains visible to the member while the payment confirms (instant for card, several days for ACH). If the payment fails, the entry is rolled back. If it succeeds, the entry is confirmed and the member receives their confirmation email.

Fulfillment

When a studio becomes available for a waitlisted member, staff sends them a lockout checkout invitation. The member completes the lockout checkout normally. During lockout checkout, the system automatically finds the member's pending waitlist deposit and applies the gross amount as a credit on the first invoice.

When the first lockout invoice is paid, the deposit's net amount is transferred from the platform to the location's connected Stripe account. The waitlist entry is then marked as fulfilled.

The deposit credit is applied regardless of whether the lockout location matches the waitlist's original preferred location.

Cancellation

Cancelling a waitlist entry refunds the deposit as a Stripe customer balance credit — not a direct refund to the original payment method. The credit is available to offset future charges.

If the deposit had already been transferred to the location, the system attempts to reverse the transfer. If the reversal fails, the customer credit is still issued.

Staff-Created Entries

Staff can add customers to the waitlist directly — no existing account required. There are two paths:

  • Existing customer — search for the customer by name or email and create the entry directly
  • New customer (quick-signup) — enter the customer's name, email, and phone number; an account is created automatically and a checkout link is sent so the customer can pay the deposit on their own device

The quick-signup path is designed for on-site use during tours — staff collects contact info, submits the form, and the customer receives an email with a payment link and QR code they can scan immediately.

Staff-created entries without deposit payment participate in the same status lifecycle and duplicate prevention but have no financial component — no deposit to apply and no refund on cancellation.

Notifications

When a waitlist entry is created — whether by the member paying a deposit or by staff creating it directly — the member receives a confirmation email with their preferences, waitlist ID, and (if a deposit was paid) a note that it will be applied to their first month. The location's community manager receives a notification with the member's details.