1. Features
  2. Seating & timed entry
  3. Reserved seating

Sell Every Seat in Your House at the Price It Is Worth

At a seated show, buyers want to see exactly where they will sit before they pay. Sell numbered seats from a seat map of your venue, give each part of the house its own price, and keep the house seats, the sound desk row and the cast's guests off sale until you release them. Run a whole season from one map, send your best seats to the people you invite, and when plans change, move a ticket holder to another seat on the order they already have.

  • Buyers choose the exact seat they pay for
  • Each part of the house at its own price
  • Seats kept back for the people you choose

Put Your Venue's Seat Map on Your Event

Your seat map shows the house the way your audience knows it: the stalls, the circle, the boxes and the tables, each seat with its row and number. Turn on seat maps for your event, attach the map for your venue, and buyers pick their seats on your event page the moment tickets go on sale. The next show at the same venue uses the same map, so your second event takes minutes to set up.

The Configure Seat Map card on your Tickets page holds everything you do with the map: Link Ticket Types, Seat Blocking, Manage Seats and Manage Seat Map Events. Create your ticket types first, because the map needs prices to link to.

  • Enable seat maps: buyers choose assigned seats when they buy
  • Attach Existing Map: the maps already made for your venue
  • Link Ticket Types: a price for each seat category

Price Each Part of the House on Its Own

Your seat map divides the house into seat categories, such as the front stalls, the rear stalls and the circle. Link a ticket type to each category and buyers see the price of every seat they tap, so your best seats sell at the price they are worth and the restricted-view seats still sell. Put tables on the same map and a group picks the table they want.

Link more than one ticket type to a category when the same seat has more than one price, such as a full price and a concession.

  • Seat categories: the parts of your house, each at its own price
  • Several prices for one seat: such as full price and concession
  • Tables on the map: groups choose the table they want

Let Buyers Pick Their Seats With Confidence

Buyers open your seat map, see every part of the house at its price and tap the seats they want. The seats are held for them while they check out, so nobody else can take them halfway through a payment, and each ticket in the order shows its seat.

A buyer who comes back to the map sees the seats other buyers have taken since. If a buyer leaves checkout without paying, the seats go back on sale for the next buyer.

  • Tap to choose: every seat with its price
  • Seats held at checkout: no other buyer can take them while the buyer pays
  • Seat on the ticket: the row and seat in the buyer's order

Keep Seats Back for Guests and Your Production

Block the seats you are not selling, such as the house seats, the sound desk position or a row held for an artist's guests, and unblock them when you are ready to sell. Seat Blocking shows the map with every seat's status, and Manage Seats changes the status of the seats you choose. When the director's guests confirm, you seat them yourself.

Assign Seats puts the tickets in an order onto the seats you pick on the map, and the buyer gets their tickets by email once every ticket in the order has a seat. When you send guest tickets on a seated event, you choose the seats on the map in the same form, so a guest list never ends up in seats you were selling.

Ask Fai, the assistant inside your dashboard, to block the front two rows for press night or to unblock them on the day. She shows you the seats first and changes nothing until you approve.

  • Seat Blocking: seats kept off sale until you release them
  • Assign Seats: a seat for each ticket in an order
  • Guest tickets on the map: guests seated where you choose
  • Ask Fai: block or unblock seats after you approve

Send Your Best Seats to the People You Invite

Sponsors, members and a cast's families expect good seats, and they should not have to race the public for them. On Predefined Invitations, group seats into channels, each with a name and a colour, and assign seats to each channel on the map. Send a guest an invitation by email, credit the promoter who brought them, and the guest books from the seats you kept for them.

The Recipients table lists every invitation with its seat and status. Resend an invitation a guest cannot find, copy its link to send another way, or withdraw it to put the seat back in your hands.

  • Channels: groups of seats with a name and a colour
  • Predefined invitations: a guest books the seats you kept
  • Resend, copy or withdraw: every invitation in one table

Sell Every Night of the Run From One Seat Map

For a run of shows or a multi-day event, add a seat map event for each date and time, and buyers choose their performance from the seat map calendar before they choose their seats. Each night sells on its own, so a sold-out Saturday never blocks a quiet Tuesday. Add a main seat map when you sell bookings that cover every day, such as a season seat, and one seat is held for that buyer across the whole run.

  • Seat map events: a date and time for each performance
  • Main seat map: one seat booked across every day of the event
  • Enable or disable a night: take one performance off sale

Move a Ticket Holder to Another Seat

When a buyer needs a different seat, Change Seat on their order shows seat availability on the map, so you choose the new seats and decide whether to release the old ones back on sale. To move a buyer to another part of the house, change their ticket type on the same order, and they keep one order with every ticket in it.

Change Ticket Type also works for every ticket in the order at once, and tells you which tickets it cannot change, such as a ticket already checked in or listed for resale. Use Override stock when you move a buyer into a ticket type that has sold out, for example to fix a booking error.

  • Change Seat: a new seat on the existing order
  • Release current seats: the old seats go back on sale
  • Change Ticket Type: another part of the house
Ticket Fairy order window with three Stalls tickets and their seats, Change Ticket Type above them and a ticket menu open on Edit Ticket and Change Seat

Sell a Seated Show Without Drawing a Map

For a studio theatre, a comedy room or a fringe venue with unreserved seating, sell a place in each part of the house with no map at all. The Theatre show template asks how you want to sell: one seat price, stalls, circle and balcony, or premium stalls on top. Say yes to concessions or an opening night and you also get a concession ticket or a reception add-on, with a programme add-on and door times ready to sell.

Pick the map when buyers care which seat they sit in and the house has numbered seats. Pick the template when the room fills first come, first served, or when you want to be on sale this afternoon. You can add a seat map to the event later.

  • Theatre show template: prices for each part of the house
  • Programme add-on: sold with the ticket
  • Concessions: a discounted ticket at its own price
Ticket Fairy Theatre show template questions, with how you want to sell, concessions and an opening night, before the event is built

How Organisers Sell Reserved Seats

  • A Theatre Run

    A producer adds a seat map event for each of twelve performances and a main seat map for subscribers. Subscribers keep the same seat every night, and the public picks a date from the seat map calendar, then a seat.

  • A Seated Concert

    A promoter links a premium ticket type to the front stalls and a standard one to the rest. The front rows sell at the higher price first, and the house seats stay blocked until the artist's team confirms its guests.

  • A Sponsor Night

    A venue puts two rows in a Sponsors channel and sends each sponsor contact a predefined invitation. Contacts book from their own rows, and the venue resends the two invitations nobody opened.

  • A Comedy Club

    A club with unreserved seating answers the Theatre show template, chooses one seat price and adds a concession. It is on sale the same afternoon with door times printed on every ticket.

  • A Box Office Fix

    A buyer asks to move to an aisle seat for access. The box office opens the order, selects Change Seat, picks the aisle seat and releases the old one for sale, all on the order the buyer already has.

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Questions About Reserved Seating

Reserved seating

Ticket Fairy builds the seat map with you from your venue's layout and makes it available for your venue. You then attach it to your event with Attach Existing Map, link your ticket types and manage the seats yourself.

Yes. Select Attach Existing Map and choose from the maps available for your venue. Each event keeps its own sales and seat statuses on the map.

Only before ticket sales start. Once tickets have sold, the seat map stays on the event so every buyer keeps their seat. Ticket Fairy can remove a map from an event that has no sales.

It is held for that buyer, so another buyer cannot take it. If the buyer leaves or their checkout time runs out, the seat goes back on the map for the next buyer.

Once every ticket in the order has a seat. Assign Seats sends the tickets to the buyer's email address as soon as the last ticket in the order is seated.

You choose. Release the current seats after assigning the new ones to put them back on sale, or keep them blocked if you want them for someone else.

Yes, with Change Ticket Type on the order. Tickets that are checked in, cancelled, refunded or listed for resale stay as they are, and the dialog tells you which ones before you save.

No. A seated ticket from the Concert or Theatre show template sells a place in a seated part of the house. Numbered seats need a seat map.

Yes. Fai can list the seat maps on your event, block and unblock seats and change how ticket types link to the map. She shows you each change and waits for your approval before she makes it.

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