An online ticket booking system lets guests pick a date and time, choose their tickets, pay and get an e-ticket with a QR code, while you see who is coming and scan tickets at the door. For tours, attractions and classes, it sells the same activity in time slots, with a set number of places each time.
This guide explains what ticketing adds to online booking, how it differs from event ticketing, which ticket types to sell, how timed entry and QR check-in work, and what it costs. It is written for businesses that sell tickets for a time, such as tour operators, attractions, workshop studios, escape rooms and tasting rooms.
What is an online ticket booking system?
An online ticket booking system is software that sells tickets for a set date and time on a booking page, takes payment, sends each guest an e-ticket and keeps a live guest list. It counts the places left in every time slot, so it never sells more tickets than you have room for, and it lets your team check tickets on the day.
You will also see it called an online ticketing system, ticket reservation software or an online booking and ticketing system. They all describe the same job: selling a place at a set time and checking it at the door. Booking software and reservation systems do that job too, under names from other industries. Our guide to what booking software is explains where each name is used.
Many small businesses still sell without one. In Arival's Technology & Connectivity report (January 2023, more than 3,500 operator responses), nearly half of all operators and three in five small operators had no online booking system. That included more than half of tour operators and one in four attractions.
How online ticketing works
The booking itself works like any online booking system. Guests pick a time from live availability and pay, or choose to pay on arrival, and the system holds their places while they pay. Our guide How does an online booking system work? follows one booking through every step. Three steps are specific to ticketing:
- You set ticket types and prices. For example adult, child and family tickets, a price for a private group and extras such as lunch or a photo package.
- Every guest gets an e-ticket. The confirmation email links to a ticket with the booking code, a QR code, the date, the time and where to meet. The reminder before the activity carries the same link.
- You check tickets on the day. You scan each QR code with a phone, or tick guests off on the guest list, and record anything still to pay.
Event ticketing vs ticketing for tours, attractions and classes
Event ticketing platforms are built for one-off dates, like a concert, a conference or a festival. Each event gets its own page, its own ticket types and often a seat map. That works well when you sell one date at a time.
Tours, attractions and classes sell the same activity again and again. A walking tour that runs twice a day for a season has hundreds of time slots. On an event platform, that means hundreds of events, or one event with a long list of dates to manage. Ticketing built for time slots works the other way round: you set a schedule once, and the system creates the time slots ahead and keeps the places in each one up to date.
The pricing usually differs too. Event platforms tend to charge a fee on every ticket. Eventbrite's pricing page, for example, lists a service fee of 3.7% + $1.79 per paid ticket plus a payment processing fee of 2.9% per order, paid by buyers by default (checked October 2026). Booking software for activities more often charges a monthly plan, a percentage of online payments, or both.
| Event ticketing | Time slot ticketing | |
|---|---|---|
| What you sell | One-off events | The same activity at set times, again and again |
| How you add dates | One event at a time | A schedule that creates time slots ahead |
| Capacity | Per event, often with seats | Per time slot, often with a shared guide, boat or room |
| Typical pricing | A fee on every ticket | A monthly plan, a percentage of online payments, or both |
| Good for | Concerts, conferences, festivals | Tours, attractions, classes, workshops, tastings, escape rooms |
If you run both, say a weekly class and a one-off evening event, time slot ticketing can usually sell the event as one extra time slot.
Which ticket types should you sell?
Ticket types let guests pay different prices for the same time slot. Start with the fewest that cover your guests, because every extra choice slows checkout down.
- Standard tickets: adult, child, student, senior or family. Each takes one place, or several for a family ticket.
- Private group: one price for the whole time slot, so a group gets the tour, boat or room to themselves.
- Add-ons: extras such as lunch, a photo package or equipment hire. They don't take a place.
- Free tickets: a price of 0 for infants, companions or a free tour, so you still know how many people are coming.
Keep the names plain, like "Adult" or "Child (4 to 12)", and say what each one includes. If a ticket has a rule, such as an age range, put it in the name or the description, not in small print.
Timed entry and capacity: never sell more than you have
Timed entry means every ticket is for a set start time, not just a date. It spreads guests across the day, cuts queues at the door and stops a room, a boat or a tour from filling past its limit.
A good ticketing system controls capacity in three ways:
- Places per time slot. Each time slot has a number of places, and sales stop when they are gone.
- Shared resources. When two activities need the same guide, boat or room, the system stops both from being booked at the same time.
- A booking cut-off. Online sales stop a set time before the start, so nobody books five minutes before you leave.
Bookings your team adds by hand, such as a phone booking or a walk-in, take places from the same count. That is what stops double bookings: one list of places, whoever makes the booking. Attractions and museums can see how timed entry works on our museum ticketing page, and tour operators on our tour booking page.
E-tickets and QR check-in
An e-ticket is the proof of booking a guest shows on their phone. It replaces paper tickets and printed lists, and it carries everything a guest needs on the day.
A good e-ticket shows:
- the booking code and a QR code to scan
- the date, the start time and where to meet, with a map link
- what the guest booked and whether anything is still to pay
- what to bring, and any waiver to sign before arrival
- a way to move or cancel the booking within your policy
You don't need special hardware to check tickets. Most systems let you scan the QR code with a phone camera, which opens the booking with a check-in button. If a code won't scan, you type the booking code instead. For a group, one scan checks everyone in, or only the people who have arrived so far.
On the day, the guest list for each time slot shows who has checked in, who hasn't and who still owes money. Walk-ins can be added on the spot, so the list and your capacity stay right. After the start, anyone who never arrived can be marked as a no-show, which gives you real numbers to work with. Our guide to reducing no-shows explains what to do with them.
What does an online ticketing system cost?
Online ticketing systems charge in three main ways: a fee on every ticket, a percentage of online payments, or a monthly subscription, often with one of the others on top. Card fees from your payment provider are charged separately in every case. Our guides to booking software costs and taking online payments show how to work out the cost of a normal month.
Checklist: how to compare online ticket booking systems
| Question | What to look for |
|---|---|
| Can I sell time slots, not just events? | A schedule that creates time slots ahead |
| Which ticket types can I set? | Adult and child, private group, add-ons, free tickets |
| Does it stop overselling? | Places per time slot, shared resources, a booking cut-off |
| How do guests get their ticket? | An email with a link to an e-ticket with a QR code |
| Can I check tickets with my phone? | Camera scanning, booking code search, group check-in |
These are the questions that matter for tickets. Our guide on how to choose booking software covers the rest, such as payments, team access and the cost of a normal month.
How TicketPa handles ticketing
TicketPa is booking software for businesses that sell time slots, such as tours, attractions, classes, workshops, escape rooms and tastings. You set a schedule, and TicketPa creates the time slots about four months ahead, each with its own number of places. One-off times, like an evening event, are added in the calendar.
Each activity can have ticket types such as adult and child, a private group price, add-ons and free tickets. Resources stop a guide, a boat or a room from being booked twice at the same time. Guests book on a booking page in 15 languages, pay online by card or PayPal or pay on arrival, and get an e-ticket by email with a QR code, the meeting point and a map. A reminder goes out before the activity, and guests can move or cancel within your policy.
On the day, your team scans tickets with a phone camera or types the booking code, checks in a whole group or part of it, adds walk-ins and records payments taken on the spot. TicketPa sells places in time slots and has no seat maps, so a theatre with numbered seats needs event ticketing.
Plans start at €19 a month plus 2% of online payments, with no fixed fee per ticket and no fee on bookings paid on arrival. See every feature or the plans side by side.
