How do I sell reserved seats with a seating chart?

General admission (first come, first served) is simpler and works for most meetups and parties. Reserved seating is worth the setup when:

• seats differ in value (front rows, balcony, tables near the stage) and you want to price them differently;
• guests come in groups and want to sit together;
• the event is formal: concerts, theatre, gala dinners, graduations, conferences with assigned tables;
• the venue requires a seat count you must not exceed.

If none of these apply, sell a fixed number of general tickets instead. AET supports that in the same section: a number of tickets at a price, without a map.

In the event's Seat tickets section, choose Open the hall (territory) designer. It opens a full-screen editor with:

• Levels for floors or balconies.
• Rows of seats, which can be curved into an arc and rotated to match the real room.
• Tables with seats around them, for banquets and cabaret layouts.
• Zones for standing areas or general-admission blocks, and shapes for the stage, bar or entrances so guests can orient themselves.
• Price categories that color the seats, plus automatic numbering.
• Undo/redo and keyboard shortcuts for faster work.

Save the result as a template (My workspace → Halls) and reuse it the next time you run an event in the same venue. Templates survive even if you delete the event.

1. On the event page the guest sees the plan with free, taken and their own selected seats in different colors.
2. They pick seats (or a whole table if you sell it that way), enter a name and email, and optionally a name for each ticket.
3. A cart opens with a 15-minute hold timer. During that time nobody else can take those seats.
4. They pay on your payment provider's page (plata by mono or Stripe) and return to the event.
5. Each ticket arrives as a separate email with its own QR code. "Your tickets" on the event page shows the purchase and can resend the emails.

One order can contain up to 10 tickets. If the hold expires before payment, the seats return to sale automatically.

The section shows live statistics: sold, on hold, checked in at the entrance, and the number of seats in the hall. Clicking sold tickets opens the orders table with filters and search, where you can:

• refund one ticket or the whole order (money is returned from your provider account);
• resend the ticket email;
• add a private note to an order;
• export to Excel with two sheets, "Orders" and "Tickets".

The Overview tab in My workspace adds tickets sold and revenue across all your events.

• Price categories. Three to four categories are usually enough; too many make the map hard to read.
• Reserved for your side. Decide in advance which seats go to staff, press, sponsors or guests with accessibility needs, so you do not sell them by accident.
• Tables: whole or by seat? Selling whole tables avoids half-empty tables; selling by seat is friendlier to couples and solo guests.
• Refund rules. State them on the page before sales start.
• Door process. Every ticket is scanned individually at aet.events/qr; the scanner also flags unpaid and refunded tickets.

Reserved seating is often a premium feature elsewhere: some platforms reserve seat maps for higher tiers or charge per-ticket fees on top. AET offers the designer on Free with 0% platform fee, because you collect payments in your own account.

Large platforms still win in some cases: very large venues with complex sections and dynamic pricing, box-office hardware, resale marketplaces and dedicated organizer apps. AET is a good fit for halls, clubs, restaurants and conference rooms where you can draw the room yourself.

• An event uses either Seat tickets or Registration and paid participation, not both.
• Seat tickets are not available inside sub-events.
• Up to 10 tickets in one order; the hold lasts 15 minutes.
• Payments require your own business account with plata by mono (Ukraine) or Stripe.