Capacity and waitlists
Capacity controls how many campers can join a session. Once a session fills up, Campfront can either keep taking interest through a waitlist or hide the session from families. This article covers how capacity is counted, what families see when a session is full, and how to move campers off the waitlist.
How capacity works
Capacity is always set per camper group inside a session, never on the session as a whole. Navigate to Season > Sessions, edit a session, and find the Camper groups and capacity card. Turn on the groups the session is offered to, then give each one a number of spots.
Leave a group's capacity blank to make it unlimited - it's never treated as full and it's left out of the total
The Total capacity at the bottom of the card adds up the groups that have a number
You can't set a capacity below the number of campers already booked into that group
Because the limit sits on the group, a session can have spots left overall and still be full for one particular camper. A session with 20 spots for Girls 7-9 and 20 for Boys 7-9 is full for a boy in grade 8 as soon as that group's 20 are gone, even with room on the other side.
A camper who fits more than one group is only waitlisted once every group they could join is full.
Session groups
Session groups have no capacity of their own. A bundle is full when there's no camper group with room in every session it contains, so setting capacity on the individual sessions is what controls a bundle.
What counts toward a full session
Three things take up a spot:
Confirmed campers - anyone at the Enrolled, In session, or Alumni stage
Invited campers - an invitation holds a spot until an admin clears it, so the place stays reserved while the family finishes registering
Families mid-checkout - a temporary 10 minute hold while someone works through the enrollment flow, which releases on its own if they don't finish
Campers at the Lead, Applied, or Waitlisted stage don't take up a spot. That's what makes a waitlist useful - you can collect as much interest as you like without it eating into real availability.
The Capacity & occupancy panel on the session edit page breaks this down, with separate counts for enrolled and invited campers and an availability badge.
Approval-required sessions skip the capacity check entirely. Those enrollments land at the Applied stage for review instead of the waitlist, so use approval rather than capacity when you want to vet every application.
What families see
Turn on Show session capacity in your season settings to display the number of remaining spots on each session during enrollment. With it off, families still see which sessions are full, just not the exact numbers.
When a session is full, it keeps its place in the list with a Waitlist badge and families can still select it. At the review step they see a notice explaining that one or more of their sessions is at capacity and that they'll be added to the waitlist. The total is labeled Estimated total and the button changes to Submit for review.
No payment is taken from a waitlist submission. Nothing is charged unless you later offer the camper a spot and they complete their enrollment.
Choosing what happens when a session is full
Each session and session group has a Full capacity preference setting that controls what families see once it fills up. You'll find it on the session edit page, and it appears when the session is set to show in the enrollment flow.
Allow waitlisting - the default. The session stays visible with a Waitlist badge and families can still put their name down
Hide from enrollment flow - the session disappears from the picker once it's full for that camper, so nobody joins a waitlist you don't plan to work through
Admins always see the session either way. Hiding only affects what families see, so you can still enroll someone manually.
What happens when a camper is waitlisted
A waitlist submission captures everything a normal enrollment does - camper and family details, session choices, add-ons, forms, and your enrollment agreement. The enrollment is created at the Waitlisted stage.
The family gets an email confirming they're on the waitlist
Your team gets a New waitlist request notification
The camper appears on the enrollments table with a Waitlisted badge
The stage sits on the enrollment as a whole rather than on each session. If a camper picks three sessions and only one of them is full, the enrollment is Waitlisted. Open the enrollment to see which session was at capacity.
Waitlisted campers are left off bunking boards by default, so they don't clutter your rosters while you decide.
Managing your waitlist
Navigate to your enrollments table and filter Stage to Waitlisted to see everyone waiting. Add the Created column and sort by it to see who put their name down first. Save the result as a view so it's one step next time.
To offer someone a spot, send them an enrollment invitation from their enrollment profile. This is the step that turns a waitlist entry into a real booking, and the invitation holds the spot for them while they complete it. You can also move the stage manually if you're recording something that happened offline.
To turn someone down, move the enrollment to Declined or Withdrawn.
Good to know
The waitlist doesn't advance on its own - when a spot frees up, nothing is sent automatically and that spot is open to the next family who enrolls. Check your waitlist whenever capacity changes and send an invitation to hold the spot for the camper you want
There's no numbered position in line - neither families nor admins see a "you're number 3" figure. Sort your waitlist by Created to work out the order people joined
Increasing capacity doesn't move anyone - raising a group's capacity opens those spots to new enrollments, so invite your waitlisted campers first if you want them to get the places
For setting up sessions, camper groups, and pricing, see Setting up your sessions. For working through stages and approvals, see Managing enrollments.