The guest list
A guest list is everyone who gets in without having bought a ticket in the usual way, and it is the part of the door that is usually improvised.
A guest list is the record of people admitted outside normal sales: performers and their families, sponsors, press, committee members, volunteers and anyone comped for a reason. It needs the same treatment as a paid ticket, because these people also occupy places and also need counting.
Why it is always bigger than expected
Every act brings two guests, the sponsor brings four, and each of the committee has someone. Add a table quiz where the quizmaster's team gets in free and you can easily be thirty places down before a single ticket has been sold.
The reason it surprises people is that the additions arrive one message at a time over several weeks, in three different channels. Nobody adds them up until the room is full.
Keeping it checkable at the door
A list on paper in one person's hand cannot be in two places at once, and that person will be needed elsewhere. A check-in app that any helper can search by surname removes the single point of failure entirely.
It also gives you an honest attendance figure. If thirty guests walk past the gate uncounted, your report at the end understates the room by thirty, and next year you plan the catering from a number that was never true.
Guests in Passavo
You can issue a place without payment, from a ticket type with a price of zero, and send it as a normal ticket, so a guest arrives with a code like everyone else and needs no special handling at the entrance. With time slots it counts against the capacity as it should.
Guests can also be found by name in today's list in the scanning app and admitted from there. Someone added at the last minute gets their ticket on the spot at the till.
Also searched for as
- check-in app
- comp list
- invitation list
- complimentary tickets
Common questions
Do guest places count towards our capacity?
Yes, and they should. A guest occupies a seat exactly as a paying visitor does, so counting them is what keeps the room legal and the catering right.
Can we add someone once doors are open?
Yes. At the till you issue them a ticket from a zero-price ticket type; the code appears on screen straight away and goes to the email address you enter.