Deciding which type of ticket to use for your event can be a minefield.
Why?
Because there’s a lot at stake.
Get it wrong, and it can impact the entire event experience for your guests (and not in a good way). Even worse, they might shy away from buying tickets altogether.
Get it right, and you have a sold-out event and a healthy profit to show.
At Eventbrite, we help event organizers promote their events and increase ticket sales. That’s why we’re sharing our tried-and-tested knowledge from working with real creators.
By the end of this article, you’ll know how to choose between reserved seating and general admission and whether it really matters for your event.
Before we dive in, let’s walk through the pros and cons of each.
What is general admission, and is it right for your event?
General admission (GA) tickets don’t have specific seats assigned. Instead, guests have the freedom to move around and choose where they go.
This ticket type is ideal for events held in wide, open spaces where seating isn’t necessary, like music or food and drink festivals, or large summits.
Even though GA ticketing doesn’t allocate specific seats, you can still offer tiered ticket pricing to increase your event’s revenue.
Take a look at the Duck Club, for example. They plan music events and festivals with different types of general admission tickets — day-of-sale (cheapest), advance (mid-range), and VIP (high-value).
Pros and cons of general admission tickets
Need help determining whether general admission is right for your event? Here are just some of the pros and cons to consider.
Pros
- Freedom to move: Remove restrictions to a single seat, allowing guests to mingle and find their ideal spot to watch the event (if it’s a live show).
- Quick check-in: Create a faster check-in process for guests and event staff by removing the need to find seats or direct people to the right areas.
- Sell more tickets: Increase the chances of a sell-out show with GA low-cost ticket options.
Cons
- Guests need to arrive early to get a good spot: With no allocated seats, it’s up to guests to get the best view possible.
- Difficulty in groups: If you have general admission in a seated venue, unallocated seats can make it hard for groups to find seats together.
- Overcrowding: Given that no one has a set place, managing crowds in standing venues may be more difficult. This could have health and safety implications.
Now, let’s weigh compare with reserved seating.
What does reserved seating mean, and when should you use it?
Reserved seating means guests buy tickets for physical seats. Their choice could be based on their personal preferences, seat availability, and budgets.
It’s ideal for events where guests should be seated the entire time, like an opera (check out the Youth Musical Theatre events as an example). Reserved seating is also useful for large events to create a safer, more organized space — like a baseball game or a family-friendly event.
Upsell tickets and boost event revenue with Eventbrite
Adding reserved seating is also a great way to upsell tickets, encouraging guests to spend more for better seats. With 78% of attendees planning to spend as much or more on events in 2024 compared to 2023, this is an ideal way to boost event revenue.
Pros and cons of reserved seating tickets
Here are the main benefits and drawbacks of choosing a reserved seating arrangement for your event:
Pros
- Increase ticket prices: You can vary ticket prices based on each seat’s location, charging a higher price for better views or a VIP experience.
- Enhance the guest experience: Allows guests to choose their preferred seats ahead of time, ensuring friends and families can sit together.
- Encourage early ticket purchase: Increase early sales to secure the best seats before they sell out.
Cons
- Higher chance of empty individual seats: When people buy tickets in groups, individual seats can be left empty. These are less likely to sell, potentially reducing revenue.
- Out of budget: Higher-priced tickets might be out of reach for some guests, which risks putting them off buying tickets altogether.
- Planning a seating chart takes time: Need to spend time and effort creating an optimal seating chart for your event.
💡Pro tip: Use Eventbrite’s reserved seating tool to easily create custom seating arrangements that are smart, scalable, and simple to manage.
How to choose the right types of event tickets
Some event organizers instantly know which type of ticket to sell. They have a seated venue lined up or a big open space for a music festival, so it’s not hard.
For others, it’s not so easy.
Here are some things to consider when deciding between general admission, reserved seating, or a mixture of both for your upcoming event.
What’s the vibe: Laid back and casual or lively and upbeat?
Your event’s mood can indicate the type of ticket you choose. Consider the following questions to determine the vibe of your event — and whether reserved seats are a necessity:
- How long will the event last? If it’s very long, guests may want to sit down.
- What’s the venue’s layout? Choose a venue that fits with the ticket options you want to offer.
- Will it feature upbeat, live music? If so, people may want to move around, dance, and enjoy the music. Take a look at Beyonce’s Renaissance Tour. Guests took to social media to share their confusion at people being seated for this epic show.
Seated tickets can work for live music events, but you need to manage expectations. If you want to allow people to stand up and enjoy themselves, let them and your event team know.
Adele does this pretty well at one of her Las Vegas shows. However, the event organizer didn’t make it clear that guests could stand at the show, forcing Adele to defend a fan when security and other guests asked him to sit down.
Think about your audience: Are they happy to stand, or would they prefer seats?
Reserved seating is a better option if your ideal audience includes people who may have reduced mobility or families with young children. However, if your event is more physical, like Salt Lake Power Yoga, general admission is likely the better choice.
Ultimately, you need to figure out what your ideal audience prefers. You can gather feedback from previous events and social media, and review competitor events to understand what your target audience prefers.
💡Pro tip: Use Eventbrite’s analytics to analyze past events and uncover audience preferences. Analyze sales by ticket type, date ranges, and quantity to better understand what types of tickets appeal to your audience.
Promote your event to the right audience
Consider your pricing strategy: Which option makes the most financial sense?
Weigh up your ticket pricing strategy to determine which ticket type is the best fit for your event. This means identifying:
- How much revenue and profit you need to make from each ticket (use a budget planning template to help you calculate this). The average revenue per user (ARPU) is predicted to be $115.90 in 2024.
- Whether your target demographic will pay more for better seats.
- Whether you’ll alienate potential customers with your seating choice.
General admission tickets tend to be cheaper, but lower price points can lead to higher ticket sales.
With reserved seating, it’s easier to create many pricing tiers and offer “luxury” spaces at a higher price. This is great for profit if you sell your best seats, but not everyone has the budget to splash out on high-cost tickets.
💡Pro tip: Don’t scare loyal customers away with crazy high prices for reserved tickets when they’d prefer general admission. Talk to past attendees and review the market to understand how much they’d be prepared to pay.
The best of both worlds: Can you offer reserved seating and general admission?
In some cases, reserved seating and general admission work hand in hand. Take a look at the SoulfulofNoise Juneteenth Concert as an example.
They had guests seated in the front rows, and others standing behind. By combining these ticket types, event organizers can charge a higher price for better seats but still appeal to those who prefer general admission.
As long as your venue allows for it and your audience research indicates there’s a market for both types of tickets, it’s a great way to improve your event and increase revenue.
Wondering how to create an event that uses both GA and reserved tickets? We’ve got you covered.
How Eventbrite handles reserved seating tickets
Having the right system in place is crucial to success when creating and selling event tickets. The good news is that we have years of experience helping event organizers handle different types of tickets. When you add an event to Eventbrite, the standard seating choice is general admission, but you can make amendments to offer reserved seating, too.
Here’s how to create reserved seating with Eventbrite:
- Log in to your account and go to Events
- Select Create event
- Under Location, select Venue and enter a physical address
- Select Reserved seating
Yep — it really is as simple as that! You can choose general admission, reserved tickets (which we’ll also align with your venue seating plan), VIP, or something totally custom.
You can use Eventbrite to create and edit multiple ticket types for a single event.
Looking for a way to promote your event and grow ticket sales?
There’s no right answer when choosing between general admission and reserved seating tickets. As the event organizer, you must identify what’s logistically possible, what your audience wants, and what will help sell more tickets.
The good news is that we can help you figure this out.
Eventbrite’s ticketing software helps event organizers plan, manage, and track ticket sales. You can even produce custom ticket types for general admission or reserved seating, helping you create a great ticketing experience for your guests, and sell more tickets.
