In this article we will look at how to use the "check for single seats" setting to enable or disable the option for customers to leave single seats when booking online.
Why can it be helpful to prevent customers from leaving a single seat?
When customers leave single seats scattered throughout a venue, it becomes challenging to accommodate groups and sell the remaining seats. Some customers may naturally leave a seat between their booking and another if it is an option. Discouraging gaps can benefit both the customers and the event organisers by optimising seat availability, enhancing the overall experience, generating more revenue, and improving operational efficiency. It reduces the hassle of managing individual seat assignments, reseating requests, and customer inquiries related to finding adjacent seats.
How to prevent customers from leaving a single seat when booking online
To do this we need to turn on the "check for single seats" setting. Enabling this setting prevents individual seats from being left as gaps in the seating plan when customers are booking online.
We can enable this on an account, show or event level.
Ticketsolve Tip
This setting does not apply at Box Office; staff will always be able to select any seats, even if leaving a single seat gap.
To enable "check for single seats" at Account level
If you want this rule to apply to all of your reserved seating shows apply it at Account level.
1. Go to Settings > General settings.
2. Find the setting called "Check for single seats".
3. Tick the box (blue) to enable and click Update.
To enable "check for single seats" at Show or Event level
Applying this setting at a Show or Event level might be more practical if you have a show that will sell out but you do not want to prevent customers from leaving single seats on your other shows.
Show level
1. Go to Manage > Shows.
2. Select your show and click the Settings tab.
3. Find the setting called"check_for_single_seats".
4. Tick the box (blue) to enable and click Update.
Event level
You may only want to apply this setting to one particular event date/time. To do this we can enable the setting at Event level, rather than Show level.
1. Go to Manage > Shows.
2. Select your show and select the Run (often called Default).
3. Click on your event date and select Settings.
4. Find the setting called"check_for_single_seats".
5. Tick the box (blue) to enable and click Update.
Ticketsolve Tip
Settings that are changed at Account level will apply to all existing and future events. However if the setting has been edited at Show or Event level it will override the Account level settings.
What the customer sees online
From a customer's view, when they select a seat(s) that leaves a single seat they will get the error below "Your selection leaves an empty seat" and they will be unable to purchase the ticket.
Important
If a seated event is set to "Seat Choice Best Available?" (a toggle setting at event level - blue when enabled) then this "check_for_single_seats" setting must be disabled at Show or Event level. It's important to do this because if this setting is enabled, and the seating selection is set at best available, customers can get stuck being assigned a seat that leaves a single seat, so can't checkout, but also can't change their seat selection.
Additional Setting - "Allow single seat at row end"
If enabled, this setting "Allow single seat at row end" allows online customers to leave a single seat available at the end of a row, even if the "check_for_single_seats" setting is enabled to otherwise prevent individual seats from being left as gaps in the seating plan.
Enabling this setting means that a customer can leave a single seat at the end of a row, but nowhere else.
Single seats may also be left when an event has lots of orders taking place at once. A customer may add seat A1 and A2 to their cart, another customer then adds seat A3, and a third customer then adds seats A4 and A5. Customer #1 checks out with seats A1 and A2, and customer #3 checks out with seats A4 and A5. However customer #2 decides not to checkout and seat A3 is then removed from their cart and available again. In this scenario, A3 is then left as an available single seat, even with this setting enabled, because at the time of purchasing, the single seat was not left available.
Want to know more?
Setting to allow multiple seat selection so groups can split their booking
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