One of the venues we work with is a dinner theatre. They assign seats by table, not specific seats at the table. We are currently running into an issue where people are mad because they didn’t get the specific seats they picked online when they arrived that night. Our current setup is one large section, each table is a row, and then the seats are numbered at the table. Any thoughts on making this clearer?
Hi @ralbaugh, we don’t do tables regularly, but have also struggled with the maps when those events crop up. We tend to do something similar to you, with table numbers in the row column. I think the most effective thing we implemented to avoid frustration/confusion was to simply start adding very obvious language on the graphic map that said something ALA “table arrangement is subject to change and individual seats are not numbered night of the event.” It’s not a particular techy or elegant solution, but it was up front so most people understood when they arrived.
Once we time slot admissions by creating a reserved map with seats, but setting up a custom map page online that didn’t show the map and just let patrons select the time slot (row) drop down. If you don’t need the reserved map pieces, something like this may work too. Patrons pick the drop down for table number and the system keeps track of the number of “seats” available at each table, but patrons are seeing or selecting a specific seat. I think we customized the e-ticket for this too. This one is definitely more complicated to get setup up and requires creating custom web pages, so maybe not an ideal solution.
I’m sure others do table setups more than we do, though, so hopefully you’ll get more well-tested ideas than this!
Thank you. Glad to know we are not alone.