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Author Topic: How well does assigned seating really work? Chris Medley Expert Film Handler Posts: 180 From: McKinney, TX, USA Registered: Jan 2004 posted 03-09-2004 03:04 PM                        Does anyone use assigned seating? How well does it work? Does it require more preshow lighting...basically what are the pros and cons  |  IP: Logged Jeremy Fuentes Mmmm, Dr. Pepper! Posts: 1168 From: Corpus Christi, TX United States Registered: Jan 2004 posted 03-09-2004 03:06 PM                     I dont think that assigned seating is a good idea at all. All you are doing is asking for complaints.  |  IP: Logged David Favel Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 764 From: Ashburton, New Zealand Registered: Feb 2002 posted 03-09-2004 05:56 PM                     Assigned seating, if done right can be benificial to customers and us. If a customer pre-books a seat, we print the ticket out then & hold it. It saves time in line & gives you an indication of how busy that session will be. It rewards the customer by giving the best available seat and then they are able to turn up at the last minute guaranteed a seat.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 03-09-2004 06:35 PM                     The Ziegfeld theater in New York City is the only one I can think of from memory that regularly sells assigned seating tickets. Thankfully, they didn't do that when I lived in NYC. I would have been pissed to get to the theater half an hour or more before the show to claim one of the better seats in the theater only to lose it to some asshole who phoned in his ticket, showing up to grab the seat well into the previews. I'm a firm believer in the first come first serve basis of seating. Unless it is some kind of special benefit screening, the best seats in the house should always go to those who arrive early.  |  IP: Logged Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 03-09-2004 11:21 PM                    Yes, but that would have only happened to you once as from then on you would be reserving seats, too.  |  IP: Logged Mark Hajducki Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 500 From: Edinburgh, UK Registered: May 2003 posted 03-10-2004 05:59 AM                     Reserved tickets are good in busy/sold out showings (provided the film is watchable from every seat). At quiet times the reserved ticketing is less useful and can be annoying. Other issues with reserved tickets include the need for extra staff to show customers to their seats. (considering some customers do not know what screen they are in). extra staff at box office (to ask where in the screen the customers want to sit). Groups are a problem when they want to book/pay seperately but still sit together. If they are booking together and paying cash this is easy, however if somebody wants to pay by credit card it is more complex.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 03-10-2004 06:00 AM                        The last cinema company I worked for operated reserved seating, and by and large the response was positive: comments in favour outnumbered complaints, and by a significant margin. The way we got round latecomers disrupting already seated customers was a fascist policy of refusing them admission under such circumstances and if they were more than 10 minutes late. People booking by 'phone were advised that if there was a risk of arriving late, they'd do well to book seats on an aisle in order to minimise the chances of being refused admission. As Steve points out, the idea is simply extending the principle of 'first come, first served' to 'first booked, first served'. Being 6'4" I'd always prefer reserved seats because there are generally very few seats in a given house with enough legroom to see the film comfortably, and by reserving in advance I can be sure I get one. With today's computerised box office systems it's no hassle to offer reserved seating, and regular customers will soon get used to the system.  |  IP: Logged Gunnar Johansson Expert Film Handler Posts: 181 From: Gothenburg, Sweden Registered: Mar 2003 posted 03-10-2004 11:15 AM                        Both major cinema companies in Sweden (SF www.sf.se and Sandrew Metronome www.sandrewmetronome.se) have reserved seating, and only that. Both in their multiplexes and singles. It´s been like this for as far as I can remember and everybody´s used to it. It works fairly well as far as I know or see. It also means that you can book seats on the internet and see where in the theatre they are and if there´s a lot of seats booked around you. The only thing is that if you reserve via telephone or internet you have to picck up your tickets no later than an hour before the show. Probably so that they can sell the tickets if it´s a popular show. It also means that people usually are there in time before the show. It also seems to me that they have the rule Leo talked about, if you´re too late you don´t get in. We do however in Sweden have quite a lot of trailers and commercials (which allegedly starts 5 min before showtime) so people can sneak in, but most swedes seem to enjoy the advertising, as it being part of the experience, and usually show up in time to see them. So in conclusion, everything that isn´t an independent (that is most of the cinemas) have reserved seating and it seems to be really good.  |  IP: Logged Aldo Baez Master Film Handler Posts: 266 From: USA Registered: Mar 2001 posted 03-10-2004 08:50 PM                    Arclight cinemas in hollywood does reserved seating for every show. During the week when its slow the usher just basically tells me to pick any seat. I for one love this as a TON of complaints at work are from people who don't want to sit in the front, or people who take a seat for their child or belongings or some other type of thing. Yes I know you can easily deal with it but it sometimes involves alot of headaches with customers something which assigned seating would easily take care of.  |  IP: Logged Martin Brooks Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 900 From: Forest Hills, NY, USA Registered: May 2002 posted 03-10-2004 09:45 PM                        The Ziegfeld only does assigned seating when they think the show is going to be close to a sellout. Most of the time, it's open seating. The Ziegfeld (thankfully) doesn't have a center aisle. And most people actually want to sit on the aisle. So even when there is an assigned seat performance, I usually get my favorite seat right in the middle anyway. They always laugh at the boxoffice when I ask for the exact seat I want by row and seat number.  |  IP: Logged

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