Session-Based Ticketing Update: Pricing Bands, Discount Codes & More

Running an attraction or experience with multiple entry times can quickly become complicated. From managing capacity and attendee flow to preventing queues and overcrowding, there’s a lot to juggle.

That’s why we built Session-Based Ticketing.

Since launching the feature, we’ve continued to develop it based on your feedback. New updates, including Pricing Bands, date-based Discount Codes and improved cancellation tools, now make Session-Based events even easier to manage and more profitable.

Here’s everything you need to know.

What is Session-Based Ticketing?

Session-Based Ticketing allows event organisers to sell tickets to events with multiple entry times.

Instead of admitting all attendees at once, as you would at most other events, customers select and book an arrival slot that suits their needs. Not only does this improve the customer experience by offering greater flexibility, but it also assists organisers in staffing their events more efficiently whilst making them safer, eliminating the risk of overcapacity and preventing long queues from forming at the doors.

Sessions can be generated automatically at 15, 30, 45 or 60-minute intervals, and capacity is managed at session level, meaning all ticket types draw from the same pool of availability, helping to keep ticket inventory accurate. The capacity of an individual session can be amended from the ‘Manage Sessions’ view, accessible from the Skiddle Promotion Centre dashboard, which is particularly useful if the capacity of a session needs to be reduced or increased once it’s onsale. 

Should you need to hide a session from view on your listings so that other sessions can be prioritised for sales, helping to maximise revenue across less popular sessions, this can also be achieved via the Promotion Centre dashboard. 

Additionally, sessions can be set up in conjunction with our Event Series feature, particularly useful and time-saving for organisers running an event over multiple recurring dates that each require multiple entry times. 

Types of events Session-Based is ideal for:

• Museums and galleries
• Exhibitions and trade shows
• Guided tours
• Escape rooms
• Immersive experiences
• Christmas Grottos
• Pumpkin patches
• Halloween attractions
• Ice skating rinks
• Family attractions
• Pop-up experiences
  

Key benefits of Session-Based Ticketing:

• Reduce queues and bottlenecks
• Manage venue capacity with confidence
• Improve attendee flow
• Forecast staffing requirements more accurately
• Eliminate time-consuming manual ticket setup
• Maximise ticket sales across multiple daily sessions

What’s new to Session-Based Ticketing?

Pricing Bands

The first of our new updates, Pricing Bands, lets event organisers set different ticket prices for particular dates within an Event Series using timed sessions. You can choose from up to five Pricing Bands when listing your event on the Skiddle Promotion Centre – ranging from Super Off-peak to Super-peak.

Why would you need to use Pricing Bands?

Say, for instance, your weekend dates were more popular than the mid-week dates in your Event Series. You could opt to apply an Off-peak or Super Off-peak ticket to your midweek dates, which would lower your ticket prices compared to the weekend. This will help promote quieter dates in your series and get the most out of your venue. Likewise, you could apply a Super-peak ticket with a higher price tag on high-demand dates to capitalise on increased interest.

Pricing bands can only be applied at event or date level. If you apply a Super Off-peak pricing band to a midweek date, all the sessions across that event or date will reflect the same price.

Instead of manually creating separate ticket structures for peak and off-peak dates, organisers can also create Pricing Bands and apply them to days on the Sessions Calendar, saving hours of time that could be better spent elsewhere.

More on Pricing Bands.

More on the Sessions Calendar.

Discount Codes

Organisers rejoice! You can now create promotions for specific dates within an Event Series that have timed sessions.

Like Pricing Bands, creating promotions for dates across an event series can help boost midweek attendance when interest from potential customers is typically lower than at the weekend (tap into the data available via the Skiddle Promotion Centre to discover more about your customers and your busiest dates). But the benefits don’t stop there.

You can use Discount Codes to reward loyal and returning customers to your event by sharing exclusive codes via your mailing list or other owned channels. You could even use a Discount Code as part of a marketing campaign – for example, to attract new customers if you’ve recently launched a new concept.

Note: Discount Codes cannot currently be used in conjunction with Pricing bands when they are in use on sessions.

More on Discount Codes.

Session & Date Cancellations

Cancellations are an inevitable part of operating in the event promotion world. When an event date can no longer go ahead, you need the tools to communicate changes quickly and to be able to manage refunds without creating extra admin.

With these new updates, organisers can now cancel sessions individually, in bulk, or they can cancel an entire event date of sessions that already have ticket sales attached. In a real-world scenario, you might only need to cancel sessions that begin at a certain interval due to a change in the venue opening times. With this new update, you can cancel that interval across your event date and others using the Sessions Calendar swiftly.

This provides a more streamlined way to manage unforeseen circumstances while ensuring affected customers get refunded automatically and promptly.

No need to spend time contacting our support team for approval; you can manage cancellations easily yourself from the Skiddle Promotion Centre dashboard.

Ready to try out Session-Based Ticketing?

Whether you’re preparing for a busy festive season or planning your next visitor attraction, Session-Based Ticketing now offers even more ways to maximise sales while staying in control.

Log in or sign up for your free Skiddle Promotion centre account now, and create your first Session-Based event today.