Spektrix allows you to lock off specific seats in order to hold them back from general sale, and also to make these locked seats available for certain customers to purchase. In this article we’ll look at how to sell locked seats in the Sales Interface, and how to make locked seats available to purchase on your website. Here’s what we’ll cover:
NOTE: for details of how to set up Locks in your Spektrix system, see our article on Setting Up Lock Types.
Locked seats in the Sales Interface
Users with access to the Sales Interface can sell locked seats from Instances with either reserved or unreserved seating plans – we’ll look at reserved areas first, and then unreserved.
Locks in reserved areas
In the Sales Interface you’ll see each Lock Type represented by its corresponding icon – normally this will be a letter or, in the case of wheelchair accessible seats, the wheelchair symbol. Here’s an example of how that might look:
Selling locked seats
Selling locked seats is no different to selling any other seat – they can be selected and added to the basket as normal.
The only exceptions are if locked seats have been set up to require a password to unlock them (in which case a password prompt will display when adding them to the basket), or the global setting has been changed to restrict this action to staff with Sales Administrator permissions only.
When selling a locked seat, the Lock Type will be retained against the seat, allowing you to report on seats sold by Lock Type. This also means that if you later return a locked seat or cancel a transaction partway through, it will retain its Lock Type and will not appear available for general sale.
Clearing locked seats
To release a locked seat for general sale, you’ll need to clear the Lock Type. Again, password protected or restricted Locks will require the correct password or role to do this.
Clearing locks is possible by selecting Clear locks from the Actions dropdown menu above the seating plan:
From here, select the locked seats you want to clear, then click the Clear locks button beneath the seating plan.
Alternatively, you can clear the locks and add seats into the basket in one step using the Clear locks and add to Basket button.
Any seats that have their Locks cleared will not revert back to being locked if they are returned, or if the transaction is cancelled before purchasing the seats, but will instead return to general sale.
Locks in unreserved areas
Unreserved seating areas don’t have visible seating plans; in order to check how many tickets are locked you need to look at the Summary section at the bottom of the page:
Editing locked seats
You can add or remove locked seats on unreserved seating plans by going through the Actions menu and selecting Edit locks:
The Update Seat Locks screen allows you to clear any locks that you’ve already set by reducing the quantity by type, or to add locks by increasing it:
All you need to do is adjust the number against the relevant Lock Type(s) and click the Save button.
Selling locked seats
If you want to sell a locked seat on an unreserved plan you can either:
- Clear the lock and sell it as normal (via the Actions menu as described above)
- Any seats that are sold in this way don’t retain their Lock Type and will not revert to being locked if they are returned, or the transaction is cancelled before purchasing the seats
- Sell the seat maintaining the Lock Type underneath it
- In this case the Lock Type will be retained against the seat, allowing you to report on sold seats with a Lock Type. If you later return a locked seat or cancel the transaction partway through, it will retain its Lock Type and will not appear available for general sale
- For this option you need to select which Lock Type you are selling from the Allocation drop down:
- In this case the Lock Type will be retained against the seat, allowing you to report on sold seats with a Lock Type. If you later return a locked seat or cancel the transaction partway through, it will retain its Lock Type and will not appear available for general sale
Eligible customer can purchase locked seats online (for reserved seating) in one of the following ways, depending on how each Lock Type’s eligibility has been set up:
- By entering the correct Promotion Code
- By logging into their eligible account first
When customers access the seating plan they will see all available seats as normal, while any locked seats will display in one of three ways depending on how the Lock Types are set up and whether the customer is eligible to buy them:
Eligible customer + Lock Type(s) set to display icon online
Locked seats that customers have access to will display with the relevant icon - normally a letter, or in the case of wheelchair accessible seats, the wheelchair icon:
Eligible customer + Lock Type(s) NOT set to display icon online
Locked seats that customers have access to will display with a star icon:
Ineligible customers
Locked seats will display as unavailable - therefore greyed out - in the same way as sold seats:
Assuming a customer can see a locked seat – whether it displays as a star or with the Lock Type’s relevant icon – they can select it, add it to the basket, and purchase it as normal.
Selling locked seats in unreserved areas online
Locked seats can be sold online as long as it is made available for website users and the checkbox for "In unreserved areas, sell eligible customers these seats before the general allocation" in Limits has been checked.
When an eligible customer is logged in and selects a seat from an unreserved area, the seat will be pulled from designated locked seats.
***
If you have any questions about selling locked seats or would like to discuss anything in more detail, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the Spektrix Support team.