How to enable Social Distancing Seats for Reserved Seating Events?

By understanding the needs of our event presenters, we have taken a step ahead and come up with a feature of "Social Distancing Seats," well It is just a by-product of COVID-19 that allows event presenters like you to sell a seat and automatically hold other seats around that seat so that people are provided a comfortable social distance between parties. Sounds interesting? We bet it does! 

Simply follow the below article in order to learn how to enable your account and set it up for your upcoming events. 

Before we start:-

Please note this feature is only applicable for Reserved Seating Events wherein you allow your customer to choose their own seats as opposed to General Admission wherein the seating arrangements can be managed by you on the event day.

1) How to Activate Social Distancing Feature on your account:-

Hover the Mouse Cursor on the Organization name at the top left and select "Settings" from the Dropdown list. 

Now you'll find the list of options to the left, we have to click on "Hold Management" followed by Configure against the "Social Distancing Hold" option.  

ii) Upon clicking configure, you will be prompted with the following options:-

a) Enable Social Distancing Holds: A switch needs to be clicked to enable/disable the feature. 

b) Enter Hold Name:- We recommend naming it as Social Distancing or it can be as per your preference. 

c) Seat to be Left Vacant Between Reservations (DropDown): This will help to block the number of seats beside the booked seats to maintain comfortable social distancing. You have the option to select Minimum 01 to Maximum 03 Seats. 

For example:- A row consists of 10 seats, which are numbered 1 to 10 from Left to Right and you choose the Seat to be Left Vacant Between Reservations as 1.

In this case, if the customer looking to buy a single seat and selects the first seat i.e. 1, it will block the second seat (number 2), however, he skips the first seat, and book's second seat i.e. (number 02), the functionality will block the seats around number 02, i.e 01 and 03 to ensure comfortable social distance is maintained. (The scenario shared considering none of the seats are booked) 

Note:- Please ensure you are selecting the number of Seats to be left vacant correctly while setting up the functionality as you wouldn't be able to edit it later directly from your account However if there is a need to do so, you can send us an email to support@yapsody.com from your registered owner email address along with the details in order to do the necessary changes. 

Once you are done adding up the inputs as per your requirement don't forget to click on "Save" to record and apply.

After Saving the configuration it must show the text “Enabled.”

Important:- In case, you disable the Social Distancing Feature from here, the functionality will be disabled for all the events however the seats blocked earlier won't be released automatically and it will show up the Hold Codes as "SD." You would have to release all the blocked seats Manually, to learn how to unblock the seats please Click Here. 

2) How to Activate Social Distanced Seating Feature as per the performance:- 

Awesome! By now we are done enabling the Social Distanced Seating Feature on your account however in order for it to function we also have to enable it for each performance/event you would like to maintain comfortable distances among your audience, keep reading, we are just a few steps away! 

i) Hover the Mouse Cursor on the Organization name at the top left and select "Box Office" i.e. the first option on the dropdown list. 

ii) Locate the event, click on it followed by "Edit" available at the top right. (Click Here to Learn how to Edit an event?)

iii) Now Click on "Hold Management" followed by the enable /disable switch available right next to "Social Distancing Hold" to enable it for the performance. 

Finally, don't forget to click on "Apply" after clicking on the enable/disable switch and then "Save & Proceed" at the bottom left (Scroll the page down until you see it) to ensure our system honors your inputs.

Note:- Any changes made will be applicable to the upcoming transactions. Seat selection changes are non-applicable to previously booked seats.

Moreover, in case, you have multiple performances of the same event and you would like all of them should maintain Social Distancing, please make certain we are enabling it for all of them by selecting/clicking on the performance date and time at the left and following the enabling process. 

Please be informed the Social Distancing Seats feature is built as per the performance and not the event.

Furthermore, you wouldn't be able to keep the number of Seats to "Left Vacant Between Reservations" different for different performances. 

Very Important:- In case, if you disable the Social Distancing Feature from here for a particular performance, the functionality will only be disabled for it however the seats blocked earlier wouldn't be released automatically and it would show up the Hold Codes as "SD." You would have to release all the blocked seats Manually, to learn how to unblock the seats please Click Here. 

3) Refunds:- 

By any chance, if you would have to refund seats or Partial refund, the refunded seats will be released automatically however the seats blocked beside them need to be manually released, due to the feature being in Beta, it wouldn't be released the blocked seats automatically after a seat is refunded. 

Please ensure to release the seats manually after the refund is successful to make sure they are re-available for purchase

We have also added a note on the Refund Details Pop-Up to ensure it attracts your attention and what you could do next. 

To learn how to release Hold Seats, please Click Here. 

Please Note:- Seats blocked due to this feature will show the Hold Code "SD" as shown in the image below. 

Few Points to remember to make the best of this feature:-  

a) Hold seats will get released in case the transaction fails due to an empty cart, transaction time out, or any other reason.

b) You have complete control over the blocking of seats hence at any point in time, if you want to sell those blocked seats, you can do so from your box interface, in order to learn how. Click Here.

c) If you have already Held seats for your special Guest / Performer etc., please ensure they aren't held under the rows which is available for General Ticket buyers because the Social Distancing Feature would block them which leads to a change in the Hold code.