For venues where the doors open at a quarter to eight
Small halls, runs of performances and previews. A hundred and eighty seats, one volunteer at the door and an audience that all arrives at once.
The hall seats a hundred and eighty and plays its new production four times: twice on Friday, twice on Saturday. On top of that there is a preview at half price for newsletter readers. There is one volunteer at the door, and at a quarter to eight the audience comes in as a single wave. Anyone still ticking names off on paper starts late.
How it goes
Step 1
Every performance gets its own sale
Four dates, each with their own capacity and their own prices. You add the preview with a discount code for your newsletter.
Step 2
Your audience buys on their phone and gets their ticket by email
The email carries your name and your colours, with the time and the hall in it. No confirmation that looks as though it came from someone else.
Step 3
The ticket goes into the wallet
One tap and the card sits next to your visitor's train tickets. On a phone without signal in the foyer too.
Step 4
The queue comes in in one movement
One volunteer gets a hundred and eighty people in smoothly. A ticket forwarded twice turns red, and the show starts on time.
Why it fits here
Its own capacity per performance
Four runs of the same show means four separate counts. A sold-out Saturday has no bearing on the Friday before it.
Your ticket looks like yours
Your own name, your own colours and your own logo on the shop, the email and the wallet pass. The audience buys from you, not from a platform.
No fee per seat
A fixed amount per month. A run that sells out earns you more, not your ticketing supplier.
Discount codes for regulars and previews
A code for your newsletter, a rate for schools or a price for the whole run. All of it side by side on the same page.
At the door you keep selling
Anyone arriving without a ticket buys one at the desk, by card or in cash, from the same stock. So your seat count is right down to the last chair.
The sum
In our example, at least €990.00 a year stays in your own till.
What it costs
2,400 paid tickets at €18.00 each: €43,200.00 going through your own till.
Two thousand four hundred visitors a year is a small hall with fifteen or so performances. With a percentage per ticket you pay that again every season.
With a platform that charges per ticket
€1,080.00 to €2,760.00
With us, the Start plan, per year
€90.00
All amounts are excluding VAT and per year. The rates we compare against are the going per-ticket rates in this market; we charge a fixed amount and nothing per ticket.
Frequently asked questions
Can we sell numbered seats?
You work with tiers and separate rates per tier. For a hall of this size, that is in practice what a visitor wants to know: which tier, what time.
Can we offer a pass for the whole run?
Yes, with a season pass valid for the period of your run. You sell it as one product in the holder's name, and at the door it is scanned again at every performance.
What if a performance is cancelled?
You take the performance off sale and send every buyer one message, on their wallet pass or by email. Then you choose per order: money back, or a gift voucher with which they pick another date themselves.
Can we also sell drink tokens or a programme?
Yes, as an extra product with the ticket or separately at the desk. It lands in the same order and the same overview.
Get started
Put your next performance online, send yourself a ticket and scan it at the door. After that you will know exactly how to explain it to your volunteers.
In the guide
Worth knowing before you start
The handful of terms that come up most often in this line of work, explained plainly.
- Advance ticket sales Advance ticket sales exist so that you know roughly how many people are coming while there is still time to do something about it.
- The box office A box office is the desk where people who did not book online buy their way in, and where those who did come to collect.
- Ticket validation Ticket validation is the rule set that turns a scanned code into one of three answers, and the answers have to be unambiguous.
- The e-ticket An e-ticket is a ticket that exists as data rather than as card, sent by email and shown on a phone at the entrance.