Capacity management
Capacity management is deciding what full means for your room, and then making sure the sale respects it without anyone watching the numbers.
Capacity management is setting and enforcing the maximum number of people allowed at once. The limit usually comes from the building rather than from ambition: the fire rules, the exits, the seating and, where food is served, the kitchen. Visitor capacity that only exists as an intention is not a limit at all.
Where the number comes from
Venues have a stated maximum, and it is usually in the hire agreement or the licence. It changes with the layout: the same hall seated at tables holds far fewer people than the same hall standing, and a fire officer is interested in the layout on the night.
The practical limit is often lower than the legal one. Guided tour booking is a clear case: the group size is set by how many people can hear the guide and fit through a doorway, not by how many the building could theoretically contain.
Enforcing it in more than one place
A limit only works if every route respects it. If the website stops at two hundred but the desk keeps selling, you have not managed capacity, you have annoyed the website. Every selling point needs to draw from the same number.
Watch the overlaps too. Guests, volunteers, performers and staff all occupy space. Counting only paid tickets against the limit is the most common way a compliant plan turns into an overfull room.
Capacity in Passavo
You set the number of places per time slot and every route draws from it: the shop, the till and any ticket issued without payment. When it reaches zero the slot closes itself rather than waiting for someone to notice.
A place is held while the buyer is paying and released after a few minutes if they give up. During the event your dashboard shows how many of today's tickets have been scanned.
Also searched for as
- visitor capacity
- maximum occupancy
- places available
- capacity limits
Common questions
Can we raise the capacity once a sale is running?
Yes. Raising it puts places back on sale immediately. Lowering it below what you have already sold is refused, because those places are committed.
Do free places count against the limit?
Yes. Anything that admits a person counts, including guest places, which is exactly what keeps the number honest.