Timed entry ticketing
Timed entry ticketing does not limit how many people come; it limits how many arrive at once, which is a different and more useful thing.
Timed entry ticketing sells admission for a particular window rather than for a day in general. Each slot has its own capacity, and visitors choose one when they book. It became standard in museum ticketing during the pandemic and stayed because it smooths queues and makes staffing predictable.
Choosing the slot size
Slot length should follow how long people actually stay and how quickly the entrance can process them. Fifteen-minute slots suit a building people enter continuously; hourly slots suit a guided experience that starts together and moves as a group.
Capacity per slot is the second decision, and it is not the room capacity divided by the number of slots. Visitors overlap: the ten-o'clock arrivals are still inside at eleven, so the number in the building is the sum of several slots at once.
Where it goes wrong
The commonest failure is treating time slot booking as a reservation rather than an admission. If late arrivals are simply let in whenever they turn up, the whole purpose disappears within a fortnight and staffing goes back to guesswork.
The other is forgetting the walk-ups. Slot booking works best when people who arrive without one are put into the next slot that has room, rather than turned away or waved past the whole system.
Time slots in Passavo
You define the windows and the number of places in each, and the shop shows visitors what is still free. Slots that fill up are marked as full, so nobody books a time that cannot take them.
You do not create slots one by one: you give the days, the first and last start time and the interval, and the diary for that period is ready. The ticket shows the time it was booked for, so the visitor knows when to arrive.
Also searched for as
- time slot booking
- slot booking
- timed tickets
- entry windows
Common questions
What do we do with people who arrive late?
You decide. The ticket is valid all day, so many venues simply admit latecomers when there is room and ask them to join the next group.
Can different days have different slots?
Yes. A quiet Tuesday and a busy Saturday can have completely different windows and capacities, so you are not staffing to your busiest day all week.