Social distance laws instituted during the coronavirus may stick around for a while in many cities and states. Yet even as venue capacities are lifted, patrons may feel unsafe to return to indoor environments seated alongside unfamiliar neighbors. By providing visual indicators to show safe social distances between seats, you demonstrate your commitment to customer safety. Our social distance blocking shows seats with a visual indicator -- in this case, an "X" is overlaid each seat -- along with a corresponding key to show patrons they are to remain empty and safely distanced. There are two primary ways of automating social distance for your venue seating.
Use reserved seating with pre-spaced social distance seating
Under normal circumstances, many music venues, for example, use general admission seating with a combination of table seating and standing room only. By switching to a reserved seating layout, you can follow local laws to space tables at required distances. Whether you offer two-tops, four-tops, or more, consider selling tables only. In other words, your customers will purchase all seats at a table at pre-determined prices.
Automated spacing in row seating
If you use standard, fixed, row seating, take advantage of our automatically applied social distance seating as purchases are made. Handling seat blocking on a per-event basis would be time-consuming. We've completely automated the process with a "set and forget" automation setting that blocks one, two, or three seats to the left and right of the purchased seats. Whether you have a single guest a group of six, we'll set the desired number of seats with visual indicators.
Given the reluctance of more mature audiences to return to live entertainment, it makes sense for venues serving this age group to employ automatic seat blocking for social distance.
Additional option for social distance for venue seating
In addition to automating social distance for patrons, we allow you to manually block individual seats, rows, or entire sections. If you wish to block every other row, use our seat blocking tool to block all seats in the desired row with a single click.
Flexible and automated seat blocking
Rules may relax as more of our population gains immunity or as more strides are made in the virus. At any time, you may relax your own seat blocking. Unblock any previously blocked seats or rows with a click. If you decide that three seats between neighboring patron groups are too many, simply reduce the social seat distance to automatically reduce the blocks.
We understand that events can change at any time, so flexibility provides the ability to reflect those changes in your seating. Further, we know that rules can be tightened as quickly as they may loosen.
Automation and efficiency
By automating social distance for venue seating, we aim to assist venues in facilitating the return of customers. We've tried to create the most comprehensive and automated seat blocking available for reserved seating today. If for some reason your event is ultimately postponed or canceled, we have many options to increase your efficiency.
Batch refunds to a gift card -- If your patrons are willing, hold onto revenues by performing a batch refund to a gift card. All buyers will be awarded a gift card redeemable for the future. By processing in bulk, you can process gift cards for hundreds or thousands of guests with a click.
Batch or single refunds -- For those that do not wish to receive a gift card even for postponed events, consider processing single refunds first before providing gift cards for your remaining members. Alternatively, if the show is canceled with no postponement date, use our batch process to handle all refunds for an event with a single click.
Invite customers to donate tickets -- Tickets may be donated back to your organization. This allows patrons to feel good while helping organizations suffering through the effects of the shutdown. All proceeds are tracked to the customer record, and we'll send automated thank you emails on your behalf.
Allow customers to exchange their tickets -- Customers may exchange their own tickets to another date if either you or your patrons are forced to cancel, saving you from time-consuming administration.
Handling event cancellations and postponements - With growing concerns from Coronavirus (COVID-19), we address common questions and concerns regarding the handling of event cancellations and postponements.