HauntPay is packed with features designed for professional haunters. In fact, our platform has so many features that it can be tempting to try to use all of them for your haunted attractions.
But there are a few features that we see haunts using over and over again, year after year. And for good reason: our most popular features are designed to help you increase your revenue while giving your customers more convenient options when visiting your attractions.
We wanted to share not only what our most popular features are, but also how you can set them up for your haunted attractions. It’s scary simple! (And as always, if you ever need help, our support team is here for you.)
Will you be using any of these features at your haunt this year?
#1: Timed Ticketing
Timed ticketing allows your haunt to control the size of crowds and keep lines moving quickly. You get options to schedule different time slots for entry to your attraction, set a ticket limit for each time, set a buffer between arrival times if necessary, and even make different ticket types available for different time slots – this option allows for variable pricing between slow and busy times. Time slots can be set for any duration. For example, you could have 100 tickets available each hour, 60 tickets every 30 minutes, or even all the way down to allowing just 1 group every 5 minutes.
Timed ticketing is a great way to help prevent overcrowding at your haunt. It will give you control of the number of people on-site at one time, allowing individual groups to be spread out. A buffer between time slots will help make sure all earlier groups have left before the next groups arrive, or offer an opportunity to take care of any required sanitization between groups.
How to Set Up Timed Ticketing for Your Haunt
The advanced time slots creator can be accessed by clicking the “Advanced Time slots” button in the Dates & Times section of the event editor. This opens up an expanded list of options to set up timed ticketing throughout the day. Use the advanced time slot creator to more quickly set up an event with multiple time slots offered each day. In addition to the start and end time for the day you can also set up individual time slot duration and a buffer between event times, as well as repeat regularly scheduled time slots into the future right at the time you first create the time slots.
In the Advanced Time slots editor, the “Start Time” and “End Time” options should be set to the time your attraction opens and closes for the day, respectively – i.e. 10 AM and 9 PM. “Duration of the Event” should be set to the length of an individual time slot – i.e. 45 minutes. A “Buffer Between Events” must also be set; use this in conjunction with the duration to to arrange your individual start times – i.e. a 45 minute duration and 15 minute buffer will create a new time slot every hour.
By default all ticket sales stop at the end time of the event (or the time your attraction closes for the night). If you want to turn off sales at a different time, enter the number of hours before you close in the “Stop Sales” setting here. This will set that up at the same interval for all future time slots created at this time. You can also set a “Ticket Limit” for all time slots (the maximum number of tickets available to be sold, regardless of ticket type, for that time slot).
Make sure to select ticket type(s) to assign to the time slots being created before continuing. Time slots created without ticket types assigned will not be able to be sold. (Note: Both on-sale time and ticket types can be changed later with the bulk editor.)
Finally, select the days of the week and a date range into the future over which to repeat these time slots. To ensure the best system performance if you have 10+ time slots per day, we recommend creating time slots only a few months in advance. Limiting the time slots will provide the best experience and ensure that everything loads quickly for your customers and in your admin section.
#2: Virtual Queues
Virtual queues are an alternative to timed ticketing and another solid strategy for streamlining the crowd flow at your haunt.
Instead of arriving during a specific time window, with a virtual queue guests can arrive any time. Instead of physically standing in line, they wait in a digital queue for their turn to enter. While they wait, guests are free to visit your midway, gift shop, or concessions area. It’s great for them (who likes standing in line?) AND it’s awesome for you because you have endless opportunities to earn more revenue from those customers if they’re not physically in line.
Setting Up Your Virtual Queue
To set up a virtual queue open the “Select an Option” dropdown menu, and choose “Virtual Queues” from the list. Then, click the “New Queue” button to open the setup page with the following fields:
- Name: For your identification, not seen by customers
- Added to Queue Message Text: Enter a custom message to send to the customer when they check-in and are added to the “Waiting” queue. Note: the default message is, “You are in the virtual line for [Haunt Name]. We’ll message you again once your turn is up!”
- Ready Alert Message Text: Enter a custom message to send to the customer when they are moved into the “Ready” queue. Note: the default message is, “It’s your turn to enter [Haunt Name]. Head to the entrance now!”
- Automatically keep ____ people in the “Ready” queue: Enter a number here to automate the process of moving groups from “Waiting” to “Ready”. This will move over the next group as soon as space is available, but your staff can still override and manually move groups.
- Allow Guests to Check Themselves In: This option will allow guests to check themselves in from their ticket, meaning you won’t need staff to scan them in.
- Require Guest to Be At Venue Location To Check In: Use this option in conjunction with allowing guests to check themselves in if you want them on-site before they can join the “Waiting” queue.
Select Ticket Types to Include in This Queue:
- (“Purchasers of the following Ticket Types will be added to this queue:”)
- Check the boxes for the ticket types that will be added to this queue. If you have multiple attractions, this allows you to set up separate queues to handle each attraction by selecting only its ticket type(s).
★ Select Ticket Types to Highlight and Prioritize:
- (“Purchasers of the following Ticket Types will be marked with a VIP star in this queue:”)
- If you have prioritized ticket types like VIP or Fast Pass, check the boxes next to them here. This will add a star (★) next to the group name in the virtual queue making them easy to identify. You can then drag the groups with a star next to their name to the top of your queue to prioritize them.
Using Your Virtual Queue
To use a virtual queue open the “Select an Option” dropdown menu and choose “Virtual Queues” from the list. Then, click on the name of your queue from the list to open it. This takes you to a page with two lists: “Waiting” and “Ready”.
Customers are added to the Waiting queue when they are first checked in by scanning of their ticket, the guest list, or using self-check-in. The list goes from the oldest check-ins at the top to the newest at the bottom, and includes the customer names and the number of tickets they have for their group.
You can manually move customers from the Waiting queue to the Ready queue, or have the queue set to automatically keep a certain number of people in the Ready queue.
Waiting Queue options:
- Check Mark Icon: Click the check mark to move the guest over to the Ready queue
- ‘X’ Icon: Click the ‘X’ to remove the guest from the waiting queue
Ready Queue options:
- Check Mark Icon: Click the check mark when a Ready guest comes up to admit them into the haunt. Their name will disappear from the queue at this time
- ‘X’ Icon: Click the ‘X’ to move the guest that has not shown up back to the “Waiting” queue
- Bell Icon: Click the bell to resend the notification to a guest
If you are using the feature to automatically keep a set number of people in the Ready queue, you will need to load the Ready queue at the start of the night. The automatic queueing will take over once you’ve reached the number set. After that you can still manually add more groups to Ready if you choose. For example, the Ready queue has 6 open spaces, but the next group up in the Waiting queue has 8 people: you may opt to move this group over by clicking their check mark. If necessary, you can also choose to push over groups from further down the list.
Managing Groups in the Virtual Queue
Aside from moving groups through the queue you also have options to check and edit the groups information.
If a customer entered an incorrect phone number or needs to update it for any other reason, click the first Edit icon on their group. This will open a quick form to enter a new phone number and save.
If you need to check what tickets the group has on their order, click the second info icon to pull up a list of their tickets.
If you need to merge multiple groups into one, click the “Group Queue Members” button above the Ready queue. This will add a check mark next to each group in the list. Select the groups that want to be merged, then click the “Group Selected” button to save.
Manually Adding Guests to the Virtual Queue
Customer information is not collected for in person sales. So, when doing in person sales for a virtually queued attraction you will need to add the group into the queue. This feature also gives you the option to freely admit walkups (guests of honor, giveaway winners, etc) without ringing up a sale. The “Add to Queue” option is displayed at the bottom of the queue with fields for First Name, Last Name, Phone Number and Group Size. Manually adding a customer will place them at the bottom of the Waiting queue with the group name and size displayed. The group’s phone number will also be on file so they’ll receive your queue’s text notifications.
#3: Customer Choice Bundles
While bundles let you sell a set package of tickets or products, a customer choice bundle allows customers to pick and choose items from a list that you present to them. The ability to select different options makes a customer choice bundle great for haunts with multiple attractions. There is also the option to exclude individual items from the customer choice if you want something to always be included in the package.
Setting Up Your Customer Choice Bundle
To set up a customer choice bundle start by clicking the Bundles tab at the top of your admin area, then the Add Bundle button. This uses the same form as any bundle; to make your bundle customer choice select the checkbox for “Make This a Customer Choice Bundle.” This will bring up a new field labeled “Number of Items Customer Should Choose” – enter the number of selections you want the customer to make here. Then add all of the items to present as possible choices by selecting them under the Add Event Items (for tickets) and Add Product Items (for products).
Each bundle item will have two settings next to it:
- Max Quantity – Set this to the highest number the customer can include in a single bundle. For example, if you want each guest to be able to visit an attraction only one time during their visit, set the max quantity at “1.” On the other hand, if the customer can use all of their selections for the same attraction, then set the max quantity equal to the Number of Items Customer Should Choose.
- Include in Customer Choice – Deselect this option if you want the item to be required. Keep this selected to have it be one of the options from which to choose.
Other bundle options:
- Allow Promo Code Usage With This Bundle – Select this option if you want to allow additional promo code discounts to be applied to the bundle.
- Hide Bundle Contents on Ticket – By default the ticket for a bundle purchase will show each individual item and its quantity. Select this option to hide the individual items, and only show the name of the bundle and number purchased.
Final Thoughts
There’s a good reason these are some of our most popular features. Flexibility and choice make for more happy haunt customers. Ultimately, these features help you to manage guest flow and increase revenue while giving your customers that flexibility and choice that they crave.
HauntPay helps thousands of haunts reach more fans and sell more tickets every year. Want to see what we can do for YOUR haunted attraction? Schedule a demo with one of our guaranteed-zombie-proof event experts!