# Help with non paying guests



## CaptPaul (Dec 19, 2013)

Hello everyone & happy holidays,

I'm setting up to do another run of shows in jan, and I'd like to address an a problem from last run of shows. We do our shows in hotel ballrooms and bring in about 200-250 guests on avg. the problem we saw though is that guests would buy 2 tickets and then invite rest of family in by giving them the ticket stubs.
We were never really able to find a solid system to avoid this. It's obvious we lost sales from it. Now although there is only one entrance in and out of the ballroom it's easy for someone to walk by the pseudo gate crew. 
Has anyone had this come up and what can you suggest as solution? I'd like to stay way from tacky wristbands and maybe go a little more high tech . 

Thanks in advance 

CaptPaul


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## Pie4Weebl (Dec 19, 2013)

if you don't want to do wristbands (which I think would be the best solution) have you thought about switching over to reserved seating?


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## museav (Dec 19, 2013)

CaptPaul said:


> We do our shows in hotel ballrooms and bring in about 200-250 guests on avg. the problem we saw though is that guests would buy 2 tickets and then invite rest of family in by giving them the ticket stubs.


Are people really routinely showing up with larger parties and just two tickets? How do the original guests get out to distribute the ticket stubs to others and then get back in without their stubs (or is the issue no one checking for stubs when people return)? Do you take the tickets at the ballroom entrance or at the entrance to the building or prefunction space?


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## TheaterEd (Dec 19, 2013)

Marker on the hand with a sharpie when they walk in.


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## Footer (Dec 19, 2013)

Ya, you either need to wrist band or hand stamp when people leave. People can only get back in with a hand stamp/wrist band OR a new un-torn ticket. Only other option is to run a no re-entry policy.


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## CaptPaul (Dec 19, 2013)

First off...thanks for the great replies guys...big help...

I think the problem i have is the show has a few breaks / intermissions in it...and what seems to happen is there ends up being a larger crowd after 1st break then there was when show started and it continues to grow..and the $ isn't lol...so I need to figure a better way of preventing the extra guests coming in. 

I'm looking into a the wristbands...and also wristbands that have RFID in them. anyone used them before??


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## Footer (Dec 19, 2013)

CaptPaul said:


> I'm looking into a the wristbands...and also wristbands that have RFID in them. anyone used them before??



If they work 100% of the time, go for it... and you have to buy the hardware to use them and train people how to use them. If the wristband system is anything like the systems many ski resorts tried to use consider it a pointless endeavor. The number of times my card would not scan at one of those things really drove me up the wall.


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## tdeater (Dec 19, 2013)

To me, it sounds like a personnel problem you are trying to solve with technology. I don't have a good solution, other than try to focus on training the people at the gate. I think wrist bands are a pretty proven way to control things in that situation, but would still rely on the gate people doing their jobs. Reserved seating works, but is hard to do in a flexible space like a ballroom. Hand stamps might be the next best thing, but personally I don't like them.


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## soundman (Dec 19, 2013)

CaptPaul said:


> I'm looking into a the wristbands...and also wristbands that have RFID in them. anyone used them before??



I've had to wear them for festivals before. Made it easy for the security staff, they scanned your wrist and made a tone if you were allowed into the area or not. They also were your ticket into catering I think they might have been able to prevent people from making two trips through but I never tried. I think the same company did all three festivals. I think it makes more sense for a multi day massive event than a smaller one day event. When you are selling 90,000 tickets starting at $75 a pop it is a lot easier to bury the additional cost. Unless you need mutli day passes with changing clearances, multiple access levels and guest tracking RFID might be overkill. 

For the size of events it sounds like you are doing I would look into something like this http://www.uline.com/BL_821/Tyvek-Wristbands After that it is all about controlling access. Smart money would be one line for ticketed guests where they get their ticket taken and a wrist band put on by the staff. I would have another door for reentry where the staff checks for wrist bands. No band no entry.


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## zmb (Dec 19, 2013)

CaptPaul said:


> First off...thanks for the great replies guys...big help...
> 
> I think the problem i have is the show has a few breaks / intermissions in it...and what seems to happen is there ends up being a larger crowd after 1st break then there was when show started and it continues to grow..and the $ isn't lol...so I need to figure a better way of preventing the extra guests coming in.
> 
> I'm looking into a the wristbands...and also wristbands that have RFID in them. anyone used them before??



Release the lobby crash bars once the show starts to keep new people from coming in?

If this is a multi-night event, are you changing the paper color of the tickets each night to stop people from coming back the next night?


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## SoundTom (Dec 20, 2013)

My college uses a scanner system, where all guests are asked to scan out and back in during breaks/intermissions. When someone doesn't scan out (ie: goes out through the no-reentry doors, each of which has a "please make sure to have your ticket scanned out at the main doors" sign), their ticket is put under special scrutiny by the ushers. We're reasonably happy withthe results.


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## CaptPaul (Dec 22, 2013)

SoundTom said:


> My college uses a scanner system, where all guests are asked to scan out and back in during breaks/intermissions. When someone doesn't scan out (ie: goes out through the no-reentry doors, each of which has a "please make sure to have your ticket scanned out at the main doors" sign), their ticket is put under special scrutiny by the ushers. We're reasonably happy withthe results.



i think i kinda like that idea a lot...what kind of system (software etc) are you using on this?


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## SoundTom (Dec 29, 2013)

CaptPaul said:


> i think i kinda like that idea a lot...what kind of system (software etc) are you using on this?


It's the same system that runs our box office and uses wireless handheld scanners. I'm attempting to get a hold of our box office manager to find out exactly what we use, but the holiday is complicating matters.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk


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