FAQ: Packages

What is a Package?

Packages contain everything your guest receives when they are registered for your event. Packages contain the number of seats / places / registrations you are offering each guest. For paid tickets, they also contain the price of the ticket and a description of what the buyer receives. For 3rd Party sponsors / partners, they might contain a table or a number of seats at your event, a description of all the benefits your sponsor receives and instructions for their guest coordinator. 

The most simple Packages are the default Invite and Register Packages. The default Invite contains one ‘seat / registration’ at your event. When a guest clicks ‘Accept’ on an invite containing this Package, they are registered for the event. The default Register packages contains one ‘seat / registration’ at your event. When someone registers at your registration page using that Package, they are registered for the event.

What are the different Package types?

There are three basic Package types:

1. Invites: Invite Packages are created to be added to emailed Invites, sent from the Emails page. The default Invite Package contains one registration for the event. You can create Invite Packages containing more than one seat - which means if a recipient accepts one of these Invites, they will be registered and also be able to register additional guests - up to the total amount of seats in the Package. Invite emails sent with these Packages contain ‘Confirm / Decline’ buttons for the recipient to choose from. Clicking ‘Confirm’ automatically registers the recipient at your event. Therefore, Invites are always ‘free’ (do not have to be paid for). You can add a money ‘value’ to an Invite Package for event tracking purposes, but it cannot be paid for by the recipient.

2. Tickets: Ticket Packages are created to appear on your Register Page and contain a number of seats / registrations per package and a price. The default Ticket Package contains one seat / registration for your event and is set to $0, ready for you to set the price. You can create any number of Ticket Packages, each containing any number of seats / registrations for any price. Once toggled ‘on’, they appear on your registration page.

3. 3rd Party: These Packages are a subset of either Invites or Tickets. 3rd Party Packages are unique in that the initial user (either the Invite recipient or the Ticket purchaser) is not necessarily the individual attending the event. Rather, they are the coordinator of the guests who will use the seats in the 3rd Party Package. 3rd Party Packages are used for sponsors or event partners who may have multiple seats at your event and who want to manage those registrations themselves. 3rd Party Packages can be created as Invites and added to emails, or created as registration page packages and toggled on to appear for purchase on your registration page.

Can I create my own Packages?

Yes. For all paid events you will need to edit the default Ticket Package (to at least give it a price) and for many events you will create your own Packages to serve as different types of Tickets or Sponsor Packages etc.

To create a new Package, click the New Package button to display the Package creation panel. Below is an example of the panel, filled in for a new Package:

Open

1. Give your Package a name. If used on your event’s Register Page, this name will be visible to your ticket purchasers.

2. Define how many seats are included. This refers to how many seats / registrations each ticket holder will receive. e.g. if this number is set to '2', buying one ticket will give the purchaser two seats at the event.

3. Select whether the Package is to be displayed on the Register Page, or used internally to add to Invites you send.

4. Add Package Text. This is a description of what the registrant / purchaser receives for their registration / Ticket. If used on your event’s Register Page, this description will be visible to your ticket purchasers.

5. Set a Price. For Register Page Tickets this will be the price per Ticket that purchases will have to pay. For Invites, this acts only as an internal guide price for you as all Invites are free.

6. Select the Max Available. This is the maximum number of these Tickets that can be used. Once this number is reached, no more will be available. On the Register Page the Ticket Package will be marked ‘Sold Out’. For the Free Registration Package, the Package will display ‘Waitlist’ and give registrants the option of waitlisting for the event. For Invites, once this number has accepted an invite with this Package, subsequent invitees will be offered the option to go onto the event’s Waitlist.

7. Choose to show / hide the Ticket Fee. For paid tickets Seatrobot applies a processing fee. You can decide to have your purchasers pay this fee in addition to the face value of the Ticket, or opt to have Seatrobot deduct it from your Ticket price without affecting the purchaser.

8. Click Save.

9. (3rd Party options are discussed here)

The images below show how the above Ticket Package displays on the event’s Register Page

Open

Clicking the ‘Info’ button displays the Package Text:

Why do I have to add a Package to an Invite?

The most basic form of Invite RSVP is to ask someone to attend your event and for them to say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. For many events, Invites have to be no more involved than that. In this example, your recipient is saying ‘Yes’ to receiving one seat / place at your event.

But what if you want to give everyone who RSVP’s two seats (like a ‘plus one’)? Perhaps you want to Invite each guest to have a table of six seats? Seatrobot allows you ultimate flexibility over what you give to people who RSVP for your events, just as if you were creating special Ticket Packages for them.

To enable this control and flexibility Seatrobot requires you to add a Package to all your Invites, defining what your recipients are saying ‘yes’ to receiving. The most simple example is to add the Default Invite Package to your Invites. This gives recipients the option of RSVP’ing either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to one seat at your event. Simple. But you can create any number of different Packages and add them to your Invites for more complex events in the same simple way.

What's the different between a Ticket Package and a 3rd Party Package?

3rd Party Packages are a subset of either Invites or Tickets. 3rd Party Packages are unique in that the initial user (either the Invite recipient or the Ticket purchaser) is not necessarily the individual attending the event. Rather, they are the coordinator of the guests who will use the seats in the 3rd Party Package. 3rd Party Packages are used for sponsors or event partners who may have multiple seats at your event and who want to manage those registrations themselves. 3rd Party Packages can be created as Invites and added to emails, or created as registration page packages and toggled on to appear for purchase on your registration page.

For complete information on using 3rd Party features, click here.

I created a new Ticket Package but it's not showing up on my event Register Page

Ticket Packages in your Packages section will display on your Register Page when they are ‘toggled on’.

Go to Packages and select the checkbox to the left of the Package to make it appear on your Register Page, as in the image below:

How do I control my event guest numbers?

1. Free registrations (default). When you first set up your event you are asked whether you will be allowing free registrations. This includes both free registrations via your Register Page (Default Registration Package) and people you Invite (Default and all custom Invite Packages). The Maximum Free Registrations number you set at event setup acts as the default limit for Free Registrations and Invites combined. Once this limit is reached, anybody attempting to Register at your register Page, or trying to accept an email Invite, will not be able to register and will be given the option to go onto the Waitlist.

Example: At event setup, I set the Maximum Free Registrations number to 100. This will create the setup below in Packages, with the total of Free Seats available at the event in the green badge:

The Free Registration Package is toggled on to appear on my Register Page.

Now let’s say I also send an email Invite, using the Default Free Invite Package, to 200 contacts.

If 25 of those 200 individuals Accepts the invite, there will be 75 places available (100 Max Free less 25 Invite RSVP’s) for people to register at the Register Page, and the 76th person to attempt to do so will instead be offered the option of going onto the Waitlist.

If 80 people had already registered using the register Page when I sent out the email Invites, there would only be 20 registrations left and the 21st person to try to RSVP would be offered the Waitlist option instead.

Max Available (Free Registration). You can also specify a ‘Max Registrations’ number for the Free Registration Package by accessing the Package details (click on the Package name), as below:

This will act as the limit on the number of people who can register for your event for free using your Register Page.

So, in the same example as above, if my Max Free total event limit was set to 100, but my Max Registrations on the Register Page was set to 20, the 21st person to try to register at the Register Page would instead be offered the Waitlist - even if my event did not yet have 100 ‘free’ guests. (But 80 people could still RSVP via free email Invites)

2. Tickets & 3rd Party. When you create paid Tickets or 3rd Party Packages, you specify a Max Available number for each Package, as below:

This Max Available number is the maximum number of these Packages which can be sold. Once this number is reached, the Package will be marked ‘Sold Out’ on your register Page.

3. Tracking all the totals. On the left hand side, Seatrobot displays in green badges the totals of all available seats in the Free Packages and the Tickets / 3rd Party Packages. These totals are all the toggled on Packages, i.e. all the seats that are checked on the left as available for people to register. Here’s an example setup:

a. Free Packages Max is 100 (upper green badge). This is the maximum number of people who can register for this event for free, set at event setup. (Note: the free registration Package is NOT toggled on (no checkbox), so will not display on the event Register Page. Therefore for this event, free registrations would only be available to people who receive email Invites)

b. Paid / 3rd Party Max is 150 (lower green badge). This number is the sum of all the available seats in all toggled-on Paid / 3rd Party Packages. In this example, the All-Access Ticket Package is toggled on. It contains one seat per package and there are 50 Max Available - so this Package provides 50 seats in total. The Basic Ticket (Package open for editing) is toggled on also. It contains two (2) seats per package and there are 50 Max Available - so this Packages provides 100 seats in total. The total seats of the two toggled-on Packages combined is 150.

How does Waitlisting work with Packages?

Seatrobot’s Waitlist feature is designed to help you manage an event with set maximum attendees. It kicks in by default when certain registration limits are reached. In such cases, people trying to register or accept invites to your event are given the option to be put on the Waitlist instead. They receive a special Waitlist Confirmation email and are displayed in a blue, separately sortable row in your event Guest List.

Waitlisting only applies to Free registrations (email Invites and Free Registration Package on the Register Page). Paid Tickets display ‘Sold Out’ when they reach their maximum registrations.

Waitlisting Free registrations. The Maximum Free Registrations number you set at event setup acts as the default limit for Free Registrations and Invites combined. Once this limit is reached, anybody attempting to Register at your register Page, or trying to accept an email Invite, will not be able to register and will be given the option to go onto the Waitlist.

The Waitlist also kicks in if you set an individual Max Registrations limit on your Free Registration Package. Once this is reached (even if the event’s Maximum Free Registrations numbers not reached), all people attempting to register for free at your Register Page will only be offered the Waitlist option.