Smart Seat Blocking (Beta)

The new Smart Seat Blocking feature allows organisational teams to reserve or restrict seats on a seating plan for internal use (for example: media, cast, promoters, or production). This updated functionality introduces named block groups with colour coding, making it easier to see:

• Which seats are blocked
• Why they are blocked
• Who they are reserved for

Seat blocks prevent seats from being purchased online, while still allowing manual sales through the box office if required.

APRIL 2026 - BETA TESTING - GET IN TOUCH TO JOIN THE TESTING

Creating a seat block

Follow these steps to create a new seat block from the Box Office seating plan.

1. To begin, find the Event in your Box Office listings page and click View Tickets to open up the seating map.

2. Select the Blocks tab near the top of the screen.

3. Use the lasso tool to select the seats you want to block.

4. Click Create New.

5. Enter a Block Name (for example: Tech Holds) and a Block Description (optional). 

6. Choose a Block Colour.

7. Click Create Block.

Once created:

• The selected seats will be blocked from online sales.
• A coloured border will appear around the seats to indicate the block group.

 Ticketsolve Tip

Use consistent colours for common block types (for example: blue for media, yellow for promoter holds) to make seating plans easier to interpret.

Selling seats within a block

Blocked seats can still be sold manually by box office staff.

1. Go to the Ticket Prices tab in the seating plan.

2. Select the blocked seat.

3. Choose the ticket type (for example, Full Price).

4. Complete the sale.

5. The seat will:

• Be marked as sold
• Remain associated with its block group

 Important

Blocking a seat only prevents it from being purchased online. Box office staff can still sell blocked seats manually if needed.

Creating blocks during show setup

Seat blocks can also be created during show configuration, allowing you to reserve seats before tickets go on sale.

1. Go to Mange > Shows > Runs > Event > Master Allocation > Ticket Allocation.

2. Select the Blocks tab.

3. Click Create New Block.

4. Enter a block name (for example, Promoter Holds).

5. Choose a colour and save the block.

6. Select seats and assign them to the block.

7. This ensures reserved seats are configured before tickets become available to the public.

What happens with existing blocked seats?

When we enable the new feature for you, rest assured that all blocked seats will remain blocked and can't be purchased online. However the appearance of the blocked seat will change slightly within the seat plan in Boxoffice and during the Show Set Up phase initially. So don't alarmed if you see something like the below.

Before 



After



Now that the feature has been enabled, we can then run a migration for you to enable the old blocks into the new blocks functionality. 
Once run, you'll see the new tab for 'Blocks' with a new 'default' block allocation which has been created for previously blocked seats. This default allocation is called 'Blocked Seats' but with the edit icon you can rename the blocks to whatever you wish and also give it a colour of your choosing. 

Want to know more?

• How to create and manage ticket allocations