The no single seat rule

Part 1What the rule does

Single empty seats are very hard to sell. With this rule on, an online buyer cannot make a selection that leaves a gap too small to sell. The rule is on for every new chart.

1. 1Picture a row with four open seats. A buyer who wants two can take the two on the left or the two on the right.
2. 2Notice that they cannot take the middle two, because that would leave one empty seat on each side.
3. 3Know that the rule only looks at gaps the buyer's own selection would create. A single seat that was already stranded can still be bought.
4. 4Know that each row is checked on its own, and the check runs again on our side at checkout.

Part 2Turn the rule on or off

1. 1Click Seating in the dashboard sidebar. The Gap rule column shows the setting for each chart, such as No gaps under 2 or Off.
2. 2Click the chart name to open it.
3. 3Scroll the panel on the right to Selection rules.
4. 4Check or uncheck Never leave a single seat.
5. 5Choose the Smallest gap allowed: 2 seats (no singles), 3 seats or 4 seats. With 3 seats, buyers cannot leave a gap of one or two seats.
6. 6Click Save chart.

The rule belongs to the chart, so it applies to every event that uses that chart.

Part 3What a buyer sees

1. 1When a buyer clicks a seat that would strand its neighbor, the seat map first tries to help by adding the stranded seat to their order.
2. 2The buyer then sees: "We added the neighbouring seat too, so no single seat is left behind." They can remove seats if they do not want the extra one.
3. 3If adding the seat would go over the event's Max tickets per order, or would not fix the gap, the click is refused.
4. 4The buyer then sees: "That would leave a single seat on its own. Please move your selection along one, or take the last seat too."
5. 5The seats that would be stranded are highlighted in orange so the buyer can see the problem.

With a larger gap setting the message can read: "That would strand 2 seats that are too few to sell together. Please adjust your selection."

Tips

• Walkways, beams, missing seats and removed seats all break a row. Seats on opposite sides of a gap are not neighbors, so one seat left beside a walkway counts as a single seat.
• The box office is exempt. Your sellers can sell any open seat, including a lone single, because a walk-up customer often wants exactly that.
• The rule also covers chairs at tables sold by Individual chairs. Whole tables are never affected.
• If sales slow down near a sellout, you can turn the rule off so the last odd seats are easier to buy online.

If something goes wrong