When we launched our self-service reserved seating solution last year, we were thrilled to see thousands of event organisers immediately start to create thousands of events—from music, dance, and theatrical performances to sporting events, fashion shows, and charity galas. It was clear that there was a need for an easy-to-use tool that gave event organisers ultimate control and flexibility for their reserved seating events.

I’m excited to share that we’ve released a new feature this week that lets your attendees choose their own seats at your reserved seating events!

More options for everyone

In a recent study, we found that 3 out of 4 attendees want to pick their own seat at events. Now, you can allow them to do just that, and also offer the best available seat assignment for any reserved seating event. We’ve worked for months on developing a seamless web interaction and checkout experience that helps you drive more sales, even when giving attendees these additional options.

When you have the pick your own seat feature enabled, attendees have 2 options: they can select their desired quantity of tickets on the event page, or click on the seat map to start their search.

Just a click away

Both interactions will take the attendee to a vibrant seat map with color-coded seats representing the different ticket tiers or types. An attendee can simply click on a seat to add or remove it from their order. If they already selected their desired quantity on the previous screen, they’ll automatically see the best available seats in their order. But they can also change their mind and select different seats.

As is often the case, your attendees won’t be the only ones buying tickets at a given time. The seats update in real-time to a gray color as they are taken by others, encouraging ticket buyers to select their seats as quickly as possible.

The system will also help them find the best seats when they’re on the seat map. Based on the selling order you set and their desired quantity of tickets, we’ll automatically select seats and place them into their order.

Easy registration experience

The final checkout experience is our standard, simple registration flow. We will confirm your seat selection and show the location of your seats in the seat map.

How to get started

If you already have an existing reserved seating event, you’ll see the option to enable the pick-a-seat feature on Step 2 of the Create/Edit page of your event. Once you click on the box, it will automatically give your attendees the option to select their own seats. If you’re new to this, follow these instructions to create a reserved seating event.

Reserved seating is only available for events using Eventbrite Payment Processing to ensure that we can deliver an intuitive and seamless registration experience.

What’s next

We’re still working on refining the seat selection experience on mobile, so until we’re ready, your attendees will continue to get the best available assigned seat when they buy tickets on their phones. Stay tuned for more updates soon!

To learn more, visit eventbrite.co.uk/reserved-seating.