Undated Admission Tickets

We started doing "Anytime Vouchers" that are valid for 6 months from date of purchase. We do have them online. However, we ask people to come and exchange them at our ticketing desk when arriving so we can give them tickets for the actual date. In our case, most people purchasing this option are those looking to buy gifts, etc... so the exchange piece didn't seem to cumbersome.  

Similar to Derrek's response, we sell them in advance as a type of Gift Certificate and then exchange them for their value at the front desk - in our case this is an admission/tour/add-on combo. That way we give them tickets for the actual date and tour that they go on. This also supports their function as gifts, which for us is also a common case. 

So Erin, you're using the native Gift Certificate functionality?

Have you ever had an issue of your ticket price changing and then the old gift certs not having enough value to cover the new ticket price?

Also, you both said your most common use case is gifts-- Do you anticipate an increase in sales of this ticket type/ do you plan on increasing marketing of this ticket type while the museums are closed?

Thanks,

Shelly

Our group sales department does non dated tickets.  We set it up as a monthly event, in its own production, and good for 1 year.  The start date is the beginning of the month and the end date being the end of the month for the next year.  The tickets do scan during that time frame.  We are looking at putting them online to select groups, I will more than likely use a promo code so they are not public.  

Hi Shelly

We rolled this out almost a year ago now and so far haven't had any issues like that as we haven't increased our ticket prices. That's an interesting case, though, good to think about... just not one that we've experienced. 

My position is located in our IT department, not our Marketing department, so I'm afraid I'm not sure whether or not there are plans to highlight this purchase option during this period. We are closed right now, of course; our last day open was March 13 if I remember correctly. Sorry not to be able to provide more details on this!
The Gift Certificate function here highlights the double-edge to the potential increase of sales of it, though - GCs are held as liabilities until they are redeemed. So while it is cash flow, it isn't the same revenue increase as it is something that the institution then needs to note as a liability until it is redeemed (the Payment Method for the tickets upon that in-person exchange is then the pre-purchased GC), which won't be possible until we reopen.

Best,
Erin

Pam, that sounds like a good option. We might look into that.

How does that impact your reporting, though? How do you get an accurate count of who actually attended today?

We use Attendance by Performance a lot, but that wouldn't work if the performance date and the attendance date are wildly different.

Thanks,

Shelly

Hi Shelly!

We have a similar set up to the one Pam describes above, and to record admission, we have a comp redemption price type that guest services sells in exchange for the ticket presented at the point of entry, in lieu of scanning.

I figured I'd offer that up, but Pam may have devised a better route. Hope this helps!

Michael

Originally we had an "Anytime Ticket" that was set to a year long performance from 1/1 to 12/31. It was difficult and confusing for the guest if they came in after the ticket expired though. Since then, we have had a custom procedure built.

It looks for any tickets that are the "Anytime" type and the end of each day and creates "General Admission" orders for that day in place of the "Anytime" order. So when we report. It's all together.

It's pretty handy.

How does it know what day to create a general admission order? It doesn't create a new order for every single day, does it?

Based on the "Start" and "End" times for the current day's daily admission performance.

So if an Anytime Admission ticket was scanned at 04/02/2020 at 10:45:00 AM, the procedure looks at what "Daily Admission" performance has a "Start" and "End" time that it can fall into, and creates an order for that day.