Associated Seats

Associated seats are a way to link seats together when purchasing and holding. When one (or more) seats that are associated with each other are sold, the remaining associated seats are automatically held. This is useful for situations like:

ADA seats - where you want to automatically hold a companion seat for a period of time if the primary wheelchair seat is sold - at least until you can determine the patron's requirements
Dinner Theatre Seating - especially where there are a number of two-top tables that are beside each other. In this case, if a patron buys one seat at a table, then the other can be held so that nobody sits opposite the purchaser. Other two-tops that are side by side can be separated for dining privacy.
Social Distance Seating - where if somebody buys a seat, all seats around it are held automatically

How do associated seats sales work?

In the example below, the left image shows part of a venue that has not had sales yet. Some of the tables contain associated seats.

After clicking or selecting seats on the map to sell (refer to the ones that will be selected on the left)
The associated seats are immediately held using the (hold code in system preferences) to prevent sale by others (refer to the right diagram).

In the patron ticket window, the seats will show up as holds with the word Associated Seats in the icon column. These seats can easily be sold to the patron at a later date, if desired.

Where do associated seats work?

The short answer - everywhere a ticket is sold. Examples are:

Selling a ticket online If:
- One or more seats are held in a cart, all associated seats are also held until the patron picks other seats using Next Best Seatsor using Pick your Own.
- The patron checks out, the holds are made permanent.
- The cart is abandoned, the associated seats are released
At the box office during selecting a seat. It may be easier to drag select multiple associated seats when selling rather than clicking on them one at a time, otherwise you'll need to over-ride the hold
During sale of a seat for a subscription package. All associated seats are held for all performances during the sale, if possible

When making seats associated:
The first person to purchase one or more seats that are associated causes all other associated seats to be held in their name, under their patron account, permanently

If a seat is refunded, then any permanent holds on the associated seats (using the hold code in system preferences) will automatically be released

You can release an associated hold manually so the seats can then be sold from that point forward. However, if you refund the other associated tickets and resell them, the hold will be put back in place.

You cannot use associated holds until an associated hold letter is specified in System Preferences

Diataxis:

Explanation

Editing Associated Seats

Normally you would use the Social Distance Map feature to create these graphically within Theatre Manager.

However, if you like excel formulas and want to create an initial social distance map for later tweaking, you can also set the associated social distance seats an import them.

Associated seats can also be shown in the tab on the Seat Names tab on the Theatre Pricing Map window in the last column called Associated Seats. In the example, you can see that seats 1, 2 and 3 are associated with each other in some way.

Setting Associated seats

There are 2 ways to set an clear associated seats. You can:

On the Social Distance Map, use the context menu to select two or more seats to associate them with each other bidirectionally. In this example, seats 1, 2 and 3 are dependant on each other so that:
- if any one is sold, the others will be held and
- if one is released, the others will be freed from hold.
Export the map, edit the associated seats, and import them. With this approach, you can make one directional associations where:
- if seat 1 is sold, then 2 and 3 are held
- yet if seat 3 is sold, the other two night not be affected.

Editing the Associated Seats on the Map tab

The simplest way to set associated seats when there are only a few of them is to:

Use the Graphic Map tab
Select some seats that are associated - a table for example
Use the context menu to associate the seats. any previous associations for the selected seats will be cleared and re-associated with each other.
Repeat as required for all seats.

Editing the Associated Seats by Exporting/Importing

If you wish, you can edit the seat map in Excel to create the associated seats. This allows you to created custom uni-directional associations in any way you want.

To do so

Export the Seat Names file
In the column called Associated Seats, type the seat numbers that are associated, separated by a comma
Import the Seat Names file

For example, the image below shows some more complex associated seat setup that were edited in the seat names file:

if only seat 49 is sold (released), then Theatre Manager will hold (release) seats 50 through 56 as associated holds
if seat 55 or 56 is sold (released), then Theatre Manager will only hold (release) seat 51 (might be an example of a companion seat)
if seat 51 is sold (release), Theatre manager hold (release) seats 49 and 50 (which means that seats 55 and 56 per the above line are not affected).

Using Associated Seats For Social Distancing

	Normally you would use the Social Distance Map* feature to create these graphically within Theatre Manager.* However, if you like excel formulas and want to create an initial social distance map for later tweaking, you can also set the associated social distance seats an import them.
	You will need to decide how many seats you want to hold around the one being sold. It could be that: you need two on each side, and a row in front and behind. Loges or box seats may have a vertical distance imposed on the seats below. There may be differences in various areas because of aisle widths or crossover areas and whether moveable chairs or fixed seats.

It is possible to create a social distancing sales map using associated seats with purpose of:

You sell a seat and the specified seats around the one you just sold are taken off sale
If you release that seat, it will release the seats around it.

General steps to set up a social distancing sales map

The following is a recommended process for setting up social distance seating:

Select and edit a venue you want to implement social distancing for
Select the pricing map that you currently use and right-Click to duplicate it
After duplicating the pricing map:
- edit the pricing map and:
  - Change the internal name of the map to indicate it is for social distancing
  - Alter any price codes if you want to offer fewer
- Click on the Graphic Map tab and
  - Click on the Social button - make all the social distance seat holds as per the instructions in the link
  - Click on the Entry button - and select seats to assign a zone to (as per the instructions in the link)
Edit your ticket face and add the zone number to the ticket face in some prominent way
Find the events in the future and change the pricing map to the new one you just edited.
Add some performance notes similar per the image below to give the patrons some assurance, or customize your ticket event list to indicate that the performance is sold with social distance in mind.