Ten o'clock on a bank holiday Monday
Your attraction sells timed entry online in half-hour slots. The 10am slot is full. At 9.55am, the car park fills and the queue at the gate stretches back to the road. The online bookers are there, but so are annual pass holders, who can come at any time, walk-ups buying at the kiosk and a coach party who booked the 9.30am slot and arrived late.
The gate team scan and sell as fast as they can. By 10.30am the queue has cleared, but inside, the café and the play area are overwhelmed, because everyone arrived at once.
Timed entry was supposed to prevent this. On paper, it did: the 10am slot was sold to capacity.
Why timed slots do not spread arrivals
Timed tickets only control the people who bought them. If pass holders, walk-ups, groups and complimentary tickets are not counted against the same slot, the slot limit is a fraction of the real arrivals.
Slot sizes are also often set once and never checked. They are based on how many people the site can hold, not on how many people the gate can process in half an hour, which is what creates the queue.
Late and early arrivals blur slots further. If visitors know nobody checks the time, a 10am ticket means 'any time in the morning'.
What the queue costs
| Cause | What visitors experience |
|---|---|
| Pass holders not counted in slots | Unexpected surges at popular times |
| Walk-up sales outside the slot count | Queues behind the kiosk |
| Slot size based on site capacity | Gate overwhelmed at slot start |
| Late groups | Coaches arriving into the wrong slot |
| No view of what is coming | Gate team cannot staff ahead |
Queues at the gate set the tone for the whole visit. They show up in reviews, and visitors who have queued spend less time and money inside.
One slot count for every way in
We connect your ticketing system, your gate or till and any pass system into one view of each slot.
- Every entry type is counted against the same slot: online tickets, walk-up sales, annual pass entries, group bookings and complimentary tickets.
- Pass holders can be asked to reserve a free slot on busy days, if you choose, through the same booking page.
- Walk-up sales at the kiosk are offered the next slot with space, so they do not all enter at once.
- Slot sizes are reviewed against your own arrival and scan data, so they reflect what the gate can handle, not only what the site can hold.
- The gate team has a screen showing expected arrivals for the next half hour, by type, including groups and coaches.
- After each busy day, a report shows arrivals per slot against the limit, and where queues built up.
If your ticketing provider already supports counting passes and walk-ups against slots, we set that up first.
Where the edge cases sit
- Visitors arriving very early or late: you set a tolerance, and the gate screen shows who is outside it.
- Groups on coaches: their slot can be adjusted on the day if the coach is delayed.
- Members of partner schemes: counted as their own entry type, so you can see their effect.
- Re-entry for visitors who leave and return: tracked so they are not counted twice.
A bank holiday afterwards
Pass holders reserved free slots, spreading their arrivals. Walk-ups were offered the 10.30am slot. Slot sizes had been reduced at opening time and increased later. The queue is shorter, and the café has a steadier morning.
- One slot count for all entry types
- Slot sizes based on how fast the gate can process
- Gate staff who can see what is coming
- A report after each busy day
Is this your attraction?
- You sell timed tickets but still have gate queues.
- Annual pass holders are not counted in slots.
- Walk-up sales are outside the slot system.
- Slot sizes have not been reviewed since they were set.
- The gate team does not know what is arriving next.