If you need to provide a customer with access to specific seats, the Seat Holds feature allows you to reserve seats within a session and section, preventing them from being booked by others.
The customer is then given an Access Code, which they enter on the event homepage to be taken directly to the reserved seats and complete their booking.
If you are not needing the customer to book their seat, consider using our Reserve Seats option of an more simple approach. See: Reserving Seats on a Seating Plan
Use Cases
How does this feature differ from the standard reserved seats?
Standard reserved seats can only be booked by the event organiser. They are not accessible for the customer that they have been reserved for, allowing them to select and book themselves.
Seats holds not only reserves the seat for the customer, it allows them to access the reserved seats to complete their booking.
Outlined below are a few uses for this feature (not limited to).
Allowing VIPs or special groups to secure their reserved seats
Seat Holds are an effective way to reserve seats for VIPs, staff, sponsors, friends, family, or other special groups while maintaining accurate attendance records.
Rather than simply blocking out seats, this approach ensures guests receive a ticket for entry and are seated in the correct location. It also allows any unclaimed reserved seats to be released for public sale if they are not booked.
To achieve this, create an Access Code that includes all seats reserved for the specific group. You can then share the code with eligible attendees, allowing them to select their seats from the held allocation.
No payment required for these customers? Provide them with a Promotion Code to discount the ticket price by 100% (see: Promotion Codes and Discounts). The same code can be used for both access and discount purposes if preferred.
Moving a booking to accommodated additional attendees
If an existing customer would like to be seated with additional guests, you can move their current booking to a new location (see: Moving customer tickets).
Seat Holds can then be used to reserve the adjacent seats they intend to purchase, ensuring they remain available until the customer completes the additional booking.
Season Pass Renewals
Sports clubs and venues that offer season passes may wish to allow members to retain their seats from one season to the next.
Seat Holds make this process simple by reserving members' existing seats during the renewal period, while still allowing new memberships and season passes to be sold simultaneously.
How Seat Holds Works for the Ticket Buyer
With Seats Holds set up on your event, you will be able to provide your customer with a unique access code that will allow them to access a specific set of seats.
The Ticket Buyer does not have to book all seats that have been assigned to their access code. The access code will simply give them access to the seats set, and they can then choose from those seats to complete their booking.
They can make multiple bookings on the one access code, until the seat allocation on the code is exhausted. Once exhausted, the code will no longer be valid.
If the 'Only allow access code holders to purchase tickets' setting is enabled, then the Book Now button is removed from the Homepage and a Password/Access code field is displayed:
If the 'Only allow access code holders to purchase tickets' setting is not enabled, then both a Book Now button and a Password/Access Code field is present:
The Book Now button will allow those without an access code to book and select seats that have not been assigned in Seat Holds. Seats that have been selected for Seat Holds will show as Unavailable for these customers.
The booking journey for a ticket buyer that has been provide with an access code is outlined below:
On the homepage of your event the customer will enter the access code that has been provided to them in the Password/Access code field, and click Enter
The ticket buyer is then take to the ticket selection screen for the Session Time and Section that the seats in the access code has been set to. Here they will need to indicate how many tickets they wish to purchase
They will not be able to select more then the number of seats assign to the access code
With the tickets selected, the seating plan will appear, displaying only the seats assigned to the access code as available for Booking. From the seats available, the ticket buyer will then select the seats they wish to proceed with booking
With the seats select, they click Next to be taken to the custom form or check out to complete their booking
How to set up Seat Holds
There is no limit to the number of Access Codes for Seat Holds you can set up.
You will have two options for adding Access Codes Seat Holds:
Add Seat Holds/Access Codes Manually
This allows you to add in an Access Code for Seat Holds one at a time.
To add an Access Code:
From your Dashboard, under the Manage Events Overview, click on the name of your event
From the left menu, under Allocation, select Seat Holds
If you want only those with an access code to book for your event, enable the field 'Only allow access code holders to purchase tickets'
If you want bookings to be open to those with access code AND those without, keep this field disabledClick Add a Seat Hold
With Add a Single Access Code selected, fill in the following fields:
Access Code: Enter in the code you want them to use to proceed with booking their seats. This can be any combination of characters and is case sensitive
Session: Select the session for the seats you wish to hold for the customer
Section: Select the section for the seats you wish to hold for the customer
Seats: Click on the seats you wish to hold for the customer
When can the access code be used: Determine whether you want the seat hold/access code to be active for the full duration of your sales period or only within a specific date range
If 'As long as the booking window' is open is selected: the seat hold/ access code will remain on your event for the duration of your Booking Start and End date and time
If 'Specify a date and time range' is selected: You will need to enter in a 'From and To date and time' for the access code to be active on the event.
Out side this date range set, the access code will not be active. Should you have kept 'Only allow access code holders to purchase tickets' disable in step 3, the seats selected for the access code and not booked will be release to the general public for booking.
Click Save
Upload a list via csv file
If you have a number of Seat Holds that you wish to add to your event, using the Upload a list (csv) option allows you to upload all in one go.
To upload a list of Access Code for Seats Holds using a csv file:
Step 1: Prepare your csv file
The data needs to be prepared into a csv file. Open a new csv. spreadsheet document
Enter the following headings in the corresponding cells
Access Code in cell A1
Session Time in cell B1
Section in cell C1
Seats in cell D1
In column A, starting at row 2 (i.e. cell A2) enter in a access code of your choosing
In column B, starting at row 2 (i.e. cell B2) enter the Session Time for the Access Code. This needs to be entered in the format of d/mm/yyyy h:mm (e.g. for the session time 27 January 2024, 5pm enter it as 27/01/2024 17:00)
In column C, starting at row 2 (i.e. cell C2) enter the Section for the Access Code
In column D, starting at row 2 (i.e. cell D2) enter the Seats for the Access Code. If they are entitled to more the 1 seat, each seat needs to be included in the same cell separated by a semicolon
Continue working down the rows of the spreadsheet until all access codes and their criteria have been entered
Save the file down to your device
Step 2: Upload your Seat Holds csv file
From your Dashboard, under the Manage Events Overview, click on the name of your event
From the left menu, under Allocation, select Seat Holds
If you want only those with an access code to book for your event, enable the field 'Only allow access code holders to purchase tickets'
If you want bookings to be open to those with access code AND those without, keep this field disabledClick Add a Seat Hold
Click Upload a List (CSV)
Select the file from your device and click Open
Indicated when can the access code can be used
If 'As long as the booking window' is open is selected: the access codes will remain on your event for the duration of your Booking Start and End Date and Time
If 'Specify a date and time range' is selected: You will need to enter in a 'From and To date and time' for the access codes to be active on the event.
Out side this date range set, the access codes will not be active. Should you have kept 'Only allow access code holders to purchase tickets' disable in step 3, the seats selected for the access code and not booked will be release to the general public for booking.
Click Save
Having difficulties uploading your csv file? For some help troubleshooting see: Troubleshooting CSV file uploading errors
Editing or removing Seat Holds and their Access Code
Once your Seat Holds have been added you will have the option to:
Edit Seat Holds and their Access Code
Should you need to edit the actual access code that has been entered, the session, section or seats assigned, or date and time the access code can be used:
From your Dashboard, under the Manage Events Overview, click on the name of your event
From the left menu, under Allocation, select Seat Holds
Locate the Access Code you are wanting to edit
Tip: if you have a large list of access codes entered, use the search field to search by access codeClick on the Action Icon
to the right of the access code, and select Edit from the menu
Make the desired edits to the access code, and click Save
If you have a large list of access codes entered and you need to edit a large number of these, consider using the Download button to have them downloaded to a csv. file.
From here you can edit the file, click Delete All in the portal and re-upload the new file with the edited data.
Deactivate Access Codes
Should you no longer wish to have a access code or Seat Hold in play, you have the option to deactivate that access code. Deactivating the access code allows you to still keep a record of what access codes were initially set.
If a user attempts to use a access code that have been deactivated, they will get the message of "invalid code" when attempting to book with it.
Should you have the setting 'Only allow access code holders to purchase tickets' deactivated, once a access code has been deactivated, the seats select will be made available for others to select.
To deactivate an access code:
From your Dashboard, under the Manage Events Overview, click on the name of your event
From the left menu, under Allocation, select Seat Holds
Locate the access code you are wanting to deactivate
Tip: if you have a large list of access codes entered use the search field to search by access codeClick on the Action Icon
to the right of the access code, and select Edit from the menu
Click on the Active toggle to deactivate
Click Save
The Seat Holds list will then update indicating that the access code is no longer active:
Delete Seat Holds and their Access Code
Access codes that have already had booking activity recorded against them, can not be deleted. If you are wanting to delete an access code that has booking activity, consider deactivating the access code.
To delete an access code:
From your Dashboard, under the Manage Events Overview, click on the name of your event
From the left menu, under Allocation, select Seat Holds
Locate the access code you are wanting to delete
Tip: if you have a large list of access codes entered use the search field to search by access codeClick on the Action Icon
to the right of the access code, and select Delete from the menu