I am wondering if any venues have a stand-by ticket policy for sold out performances and how it works for you.
Do you sell comp tickets that aren't claimed?
How do you handle empty seats that have been purchased and not donated for re-sell?
Thank you in advance for your answers.
We have a waiting list we call when tickets for sold-out events become available. However, we don't leave messages - if no one answers, we move on to the next person on the list. We make that clear when we take their name. It works pretty well. FYI - we stop calling names around noon for evening events and the previous day for matinees. We make that clear to waiting list customers as well, so they don't get angry if they end up waiting at the box office before the event and find out that tickets are available.
As for comps not claimed, we treat them like paid tickets and don't give them away. But if it's a sold out event we sell standing room and will seat standees in empty seats just before the start of the event.
We do a few different things:
1.) If any event is a free-but-ticketed event we have a 15 minute will-call cut-off. If tickets aren't claimed 15 minutes prior to the show's start time, we release all unclaimed will-call to patrons waiting in a standby line. At 15 til, everyone in the standby line moves to the will-cal line (so if anyone is in line, they can still get their ticks) once the last patron is finished picking up their tickets, we release the unclaimed will call to the standby line patrons. This has worked very well.
2.) We do not "donate" seats for re-sale....if anyone turns in a ticket we call the first person in the standby line and they can choose to take the ticket or pass it a long to the next person in line.
We sell a specific number of standby tickets based on our no-show rate. The patrons pay ahead of time and then come to the theatre the night of the performance to see if they can get in. Then, right before curtain, any empty seats are given to stand-by ticket holders. 99% of the time we are able to seat our standby. If we can't seat them they get a refund and we offer them comp seats to another performance of that production. We don't keep a waiting list so our box office doesn't have to try and make calls every time a seat is exchanged or returned.