Seating plans and numbered seats

This article explains how to create a seating plan and sell a performance with numbered seats. Your visitor chooses their seat on the plan, and the price depends on the category of that seat: Cat. 1 at the front of the stalls, Cat. 2 at the back, the balcony as Cat. 3. Allow half an hour for a hall of a few hundred seats.

How it fits together

• A seating plan belongs to a venue and serves every performance that plays there. You draw it once.
• A performance is a product (an event or a product with time slots). Each time slot is one performance; an event without time slots plays on its event date.
• The price of a seat is rate × category: Cat. 1 — Adult €25, Cat. 1 — Child €15, Cat. 2 — Adult €20, and so on. The rates are the product's usual rates.
• Each seat is sold only once, even if two people tap it at the same moment: the second one gets the message that the seat has just been taken.

What you need beforehand

• An account with the Owner or Administrator role. See Staff and roles.
• A venue for your hall.
• A product for your performance with at least one rate, and time slots or an event date. See Events and Time slots.
• A sketch or photo of your hall: how many rows, how many seats per row, where the aisles run.

Creating a seating plan

1. Click Sales on the left and then Seating plans.
2. Click New seating plan.
3. Give it a name for your staff, for example Main hall, and choose the venue.
4. Under Start with, choose a starting point: an empty plan, a small hall with straight rows, a theatre with stalls and balcony, or a copy of a plan you already have.
5. Click Create. The editor opens straight away.

The editor

The buttons are on the left, your hall on the right. Everything you do is visible immediately; only Save (or Ctrl + S) makes it permanent. With Undo and Redo (Ctrl + Z and Ctrl + Shift + Z) you go back step by step.

Adding rows

1. Under Add rows, fill in the section, for example Stalls.
2. Fill in the first and last row: A and H, or 1 and 12.
3. Fill in the number of seats per row and the first number.
4. Choose the numbering: left to right, right to left, or odd on the left and even on the right from the centre (seats 1 and 2 at the centre aisle), as in many theatres.
5. Optionally set a curve: how much the outer seats bend towards the stage. 20 to 40 gives a nice arc.
6. Choose a category and click Add rows.

The new rows appear in the middle of the screen and are selected: drag them into place. The next block automatically starts one row further.

Selecting and adjusting

Click a seat to choose it, or drag a rectangle over the plan. Hold Shift to add to the selection. Whole rows and Whole sections extend your choice; for a category, ⬚ selects all its seats.

With the selection you can:

Button	What it does
Assign (category)	The chosen seats get that price category.
Wheelchair / Companion	A wheelchair space, or the seat for the companion next to it.
Do not sell	This seat is never sold, for example behind a pillar or for the technical crew.
Set section	Puts the seats in another section, for example Balcony.
Rename rows	Gives the chosen rows new letters, starting from the letter you enter.
Renumber seats	Numbers again per row, with the numbering you choose.
Curve rows / Straighten	Bends the rows towards the stage, or makes them straight again.
Aisle after selection	Shifts the seats to the right of your choice, so that an aisle appears.
Distribute evenly	Puts the seats of a row at equal distances.
⟲ / ⟳ 15°	Rotates the selection, for example for an angled side wing.
Duplicate / Delete	Copies the selection next to it, or removes it.

You move things with the mouse or with the arrow keys (ten at a time with Shift). Scrolling pans the view; Ctrl + scroll or pinching zooms. Fit shows the whole hall.

Price categories, stage and text

Under Price categories you create your categories, with a name and a colour: Cat. 1, Cat. 2, Balcony. What they cost is not set here but per performance (see below): that way the same hall serves for a cheap preview and an expensive premiere.

Under Stage and text you place the stage, a rectangle (for example around the balcony), an oval or a free text on the plan. Click a shape to change the text, the size, the rotation or the colour.

Viewing it as your visitor

Click Buyer preview: the plan without buttons, with the legend. You can view a seating plan on a phone; drawing one is best done on a computer.

Setting up a performance with a seating plan

1. Open your performance under Sales → Events or Products.

2. Open the Seating plan with numbered seats block and choose your seating plan.

3. Click Save changes. After that there are fields per category for each rate.

4. Fill in the price per rate for each category, for example:

   	Adult	Child
   Cat. 1	25.00	15.00
   Cat. 2	20.00	12.00
   Balcony	15.00	10.00

   An empty box charges the usual price of the rate. The same price applies in the shop and at the till.

5. Click Save changes.

The number of places of a performance is the number of seats on sale. A rate that counts as two places (a duo ticket) or has a package price is not offered on a seating plan: one seat is one ticket.

What your visitor sees

• The card of the performance shows from and the lowest price. After choosing the day and the time, it shows Choose your seats.
• The plan shows free seats in the colour of their category, taken seats in grey and wheelchair spaces with ♿. The prices per category are on the right.
• Your visitor taps a seat to choose it, or lets Best available seats search: that many seats side by side, as close as possible to the centre in front of the stage, optionally in one category.
• For each chosen seat they choose a rate. The total is shown below.
• As soon as they tap Checkout, we hold their seats for as long as the checkout takes. If they go back to the plan, they get the same seats back.
• The checkout page, the confirmation email, the PDF and the wallet pass show their seat: Stalls · Row F · Seat 12.

At the till

Tap the tile of the performance. Above the tiles, the Choose seats block opens:

1. Choose the performance (the next two months).
2. Tap the seats and choose a rate for each seat.
3. Tap Add to basket and check out as always.

On the receipt and in the till journal, the seats are in the description: Theatre — Adult · Cat. 1 · Stalls · Row F · Seat 12, 13. If a seat has been sold online in the meantime, the till says so at checkout.

With Mark as taken you set seats aside without a sale, for example for guests or the press. Fill in For whom to say who they are for.

At the door

The scan app shows the seat for each ticket, so your member of staff at the door can show people the way straight away.

The occupancy plan

Open your performance and click Occupancy plan at the top, or under Time slots click Occupancy plan next to a performance. You see:

• how many seats are sold, in a basket, blocked and free;
• the hall, with each seat in its state;
• who is in the seats you tap: the order, the buyer and the rate.

What you can do there:

You choose	Button	What happens
Free seats	Block	The seats are no longer on sale for this performance. Fill in who they are for.
Blocked seats	Unblock	The seats are on sale again.
One sold and one free seat	Move the ticket to the free seat	The ticket gets the new seat; the old one becomes free.
Two sold seats	Swap seats	The two visitors swap seats.

When moving or swapping, the price of the order does not change, not even with a different category.

With Download seat list (csv) you get every seat with its status, the order, the buyer, the rate and whether the ticket has already been scanned: handy for your ushers.

Good to know

• Changing the plan after sales. Moving, renumbering and changing category are always allowed. A seat that has been sold or blocked for an upcoming performance cannot be removed from the plan: first move that order in the occupancy plan. The seating plan of a performance is fixed as soon as seats have been sold.
• Names in one language. The names of sections and categories are in one language for your whole shop. Row and Seat are translated, though.
• Resellers. A performance with a seating plan is not sold through resellers (OCTO): they do not show your buyer where they sit. Through the API it is possible, with or without chosen seats.
• Size. A seating plan holds up to 6000 seats.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use the same hall in two layouts? Yes. Make a copy of the plan (in the Seating plans list → Copy), for example Main hall — concert, and adjust it. Each performance chooses its own plan.

What happens if someone drops out while paying? Their seats become free as soon as your shop's holding time has passed, or immediately if the payment fails. See Time to check out.

What if a payment comes in after the seat has already been sold to someone else? That only happens with a payment that took much longer than the holding time. The buyer then gets the best free seat in the same category, and you see it on the order and in the activity log.