Why is "stalking" a thing if there's a waitlist?

[toesmom]

Does stalking give you a chance to grab an available reservation before it goes to the waitlist? Is there a benefit to stalking? Does the waitlist mechanism have like a delay built into it to allow stalking to work?

I feel like if the waitlist is instant, then stalking would not be a thing. So there must be some delay or other nerf to waitlists. Appreciate any insights anyone has.

Sadly waitlist does not really work as it should. If I have a waitlist set up and that room becomes available I should waitlist filled, it should not go back into regular room availability until waitlist tries to match. But that seems to be what happens regularly.