You can use Price Bands to differentiate between the price points of different areas of your seating plan(s). You set the price of each available Ticket Type in each available Price Band when you create your Price Lists.
In this guide you will learn how to set up and configure Price Band Overlays so you can designate which Price Bands should be assigned to which seats on your seating plan(s).
You can create different Price Band Overlays for the same seating plan, allowing you to change the price point of areas without requiring an entirely new seating plan to be designed.
Before you read this article, make sure you’re familiar with:
Before you get started, make sure you know the name of the Price Band(s) in the Price List(s) you’ll be using for your Event(s).
Creating a new Price Band Overlay
- In Admin > Seating > Seating Plans, click the name of the Seating Plan that you wish to create a new Price Band Overlay for.
- From here, a new screen will open with the different Overlay types listed across the top. Select Price Bands, then click New to create a new Price Band Overlay.
- Enter a name for the Price Band Overlay (this name is only visible in the Admin Interface, so be as descriptive as needed) and click OK.
- Make sure your new Price Band Overlay’s name is selected in dark green, and click the Edit button to make changes.
Assigning a Price Band to Unreserved seating plans
As Price Bands are used to designate different price points based on where an audience member chooses to sit, unreserved seating plans only use one Price Band.
- Choose one Price Band from a list of all available Price Bands on your system, and click Save.
Assigning Price Bands to Multi-Area seating plans
For seating plans which contain multiple unreserved areas, you’ll need to make sure that each area has the correct Price Band assigned.
- Select the area from the dropdown list in the top left-hand corner of the screen.
- Choose the correct Price Band, and click Save.
- Repeat for each area.
Assigning Price Bands to Reserved seating plans
For reserved seating plans, you need to assign each seat on the seating plan to the relevant Price Band. You can click on each seat individually, or use the following shortcuts to select seats in bulk.
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Hold the Shift key on your keyboard, and click two seats on the same row; any seats in between will also be selected:
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Choose Rectangle Mode from the top left of the plan (for seats that are in a straight line) and click and drag to select all seats under the rectangle:
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Choose Paint Mode (best for seats that are on a curve) and click and drag your cursor to 'paint' over the seats that you want to select.
Once you've selected all the seats that you want to assign to a particular Price Band, click the arrow next to the Assign Price Band button and choose the Price Band from the list of all available Price Bands.
The selected seats will then change to the color assigned to that Price Band.
We'd advise making sure that all your Price Bands are set up with clear, distinguishable colors; these are visible in the Admin Interface, in the Sales Interface and online, so you want to make sure that it's always clear at a glance which seats are in which Price Band.
Make sure you view the seating plan with the relevant Layout Overlay applied, allowing you to see which seats have been masked and any changes to the background image. Just choose the Layout Overlay in question from the dropdown bar:
Editing an existing Price Band Overlay
You can change the Price Band Overlay for any Instances that are already on sale. This will only affect available seats - any seats that are already sold will not be changed. Depending on which Instances are using the Price Band Overlay, and if you want to update all or some of these instances, there are several ways to apply an update to a Price Band Overlay.
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You can update a Price Band Overlay via the Seating Plan, changing it for use going forward, or to update it for certain instances where it is currently being used.
Head to Admin > Seating > Seating Plans and select the seating plan in question. Click Price Bands from the options listed at the top. Select the Price Band Overlay you wish to edit, then click Edit and reassign seats to different Price Bands as required. Click Save and a pop-up will appear:
Select the relevant option and click OK.
Any Instances which are not included in the criteria you select above will now have a 'Custom' Price Band Overlay that reflects the original version.
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It might be the case that you don't want to make a global change to a Price Band Overlay, but simply need to change the Price Band Overlay for a particular Instance.
- In Admin > Events, search and click on the event name.
- In the Instances tab, click the Instance you wish to edit.
- In the Seating Plan tab, click Edit in the bottom right corner.
- In the Price Band Overlay dropdown, select Custom.
- In the popup that appears, reassign seats to Price Bands as required.
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If you need to update the Price Band Overlay for a number of Instances, you’ll need to make sure you create the new Price Band Overlay first.
- In Admin > Seating > Seating Plans, find the seating plan in question and create an entirely new Price Band Overlay, either starting from scratch as before or copying an existing one.
- To copy a Price Band Overlay, click the down arrow next to its name and select Copy.
- This copy will be named "Price Band Overlay Name - Copy", which you can then rename.
As with any overlay, you can have as many different Price Band Overlays as you want, to configure your seating plans in different ways. You can follow the steps above to copy an existing price band overlay to make modifications, or you can start from scratch by clicking the New button. Just be sure to give them names that make sense, as you’ll be selecting from these names when you set up an Event.
- If you have added any new price bands to the overlay, make sure you create a new Price List to include the new price bands.
- You can then use the Bulk Instance Updater tool to update all the necessary Instances.
The Bulk Instance Update Tool allows you to select multiple Instances, across different Events if necessary, and update a range of properties for each Instance - including Price Lists, Overlays and any Instance Attributes that you’ve got set up on your system.
One final thing! Spot check some of the Instances in the Sales Interface to make sure your Price Band Overlay has updated as expected. If there are any failures in the Bulk Instance Update report, head to the Admin interface and check that the price bands used in the Price List for the Instance match the Price Band Overlay on the Seating Plan.
You should now be able to create and edit Price Band Overlays in Spektrix. For more information about pricing and seating plans, see the Set up Events, Offers and Merchandise section of the Support Centre.