Hosting events is one of the best ways for nightclubs to get guests through the doors and to make extra cash on an otherwise standard night. But in order to make that cash, you have to sell tickets, and that’s where third-party ticketing vendors come in. Yet, what most nightclubs fail to realize is that some third-party vendors don’t set your event up for financial success. That’s why it’s more important than ever for you to ask vendors during the vetting process where every cent of your money goes.
The Problem
Most ticketing vendors collect your customers’ payments in their own banks until after the event is over. Once your event has passed, they’ll cut you a check for what you earned…or so you thought.
The fees many of these vendors impose are astronomical and unnecessary. We’ve been trained for years to believe service fees are a necessary evil to selling tickets, and while this is true to some extent, it shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg for your venue and your guests. We’ve seen some ticket vendors charge a service fee to the nightclub for using their service, a service fee to the guest for buying from the service, and a handling fee for the guest for handing their ticket purchase. The first fee is taken directly out of your revenue stream, and then second two fees are typically added on top of the price of the ticket for your guest to pay. The two fees coupled with the price of the ticket can make the cost of the event not worth it to many guests, which turns away otherwise excellent patrons to your event, which in turn takes a hit on profit you could have made.
Not only are you losing revenue from all the fees, but you’re also not getting the money you eventually earned until after the event happened. So even if you were smart and went through the effort of pre-selling your tickets to earn a profit and pay all your vendors ahead of time, your efforts were essentially in vain since you may not actually get paid until weeks after the event happened (and months since your guests even purchased their ticket).
The Solution
Look to a ticketing vendor that ensures payment goes directly through your merchant services provider and into your bank account right from the get-go. This type of vendor won’t collect any of your money in its own bank account and will work with you and your merchant services provider to make sure every cent you earn is given directly to you, even when you’re conducting pre-sales. That means you’ll be able to pay for your event before it even happens and enjoy the extra profit weeks afterwards rather than worry when your money will arrive.
What’s more is you can wave goodbye to grotesque service fees going this route. Since the vendor isn’t handling your money, there wont’ be extra unnecessary service fees for you to pay. That’s a big financial win for both you and your guests.
Whitney Johnson is the global director of marketing at BookBottles. Contact her at whitney.johnson@bookbottles.com.
