88 Restaurants gives restaurant owners the tools they need to minimize no shows, maximize revenue and streamline special events. Our event tickets feature allows you to charge a cover fee for events like live music performances or Sunday brunches.  You can also sell prix fixe menu tickets to events like wine tastings, Valentine's Day, and New Year's Eve.  For restaurants looking to enhance special events, charging for tickets in advance provides a clear advantage. Whether you're hosting a themed brunch, a holiday dinner, or live entertainment, tickets ensure reservations are secured with payment upfront. This effectively eliminates no-shows and helps you plan your events more efficiently.

The easiest way to learn about event tickets it to watch the video below.  The video covers how to set up tickets for Sunday Brunch reservations. We also offer some screen shots and instructions after the video geared towards selling Pre Fix tickets for Valentine's Day.

To handle ticket sales, your restaurant will need a Stripe merchant account to process payments. Simply login to 88 Restaurants and visit Settings > Stripe Setup. You can also go to Tools > Tickets and it will redirect you to your Stripe Setup. On this page there are brief instructions to set up a Stripe account, which takes approximately 15 minutes. Once you have set up an account, you leave Stripe open in another tab and click the connect with stripe button and approve the link. Please note that if you use our online ordering or gift card sales tools, you will have already setup and connected your Stripe account. When Stripe is linked properly, you will see a green check mark and the words connected next to the Connect with Stripe button shown below. 

Step 2: Create a Schedule Override for the Date with Tickets

Once Stripe is connected you can set up event tickets for any date. Most restaurants start with a Schedule Override for event tickets so they can define the start and end time of the event and the quantity of covers per time slot. However, you can also simply use your regular reservation inventory. For example, let's say you want to offer tickets for Valentine's Day Prix Fixe Menu with seatings at 12, 2, 4, 6, and 8pm and 40 covers per time slot. You simply create a schedule override for that date and put 40 in each time slot. The rest of the time slots will be 0 so that only the desired time slots can be chosen.  Access Schedule Override tool from the main Reservations screen and follow these instructions: 

This is what your Schedule Override Screen will look before saving.

Step 3: Set up the Event Tickets Details
Next, you’ll head to Tools > Tickets. It will open with the date ready to configure. In our Valentine's Day example, we select February 14th, add a Name, and select the time slots that will require payment.  You can add a details link to your valentine's day menu which gives customers more info if they try to book Valentine's Day without reviewing your menu first. You just add a description and custom reservation policy. These are displayed while booking. Lastly, add your ticket name and price. Note you can have multiple tickets for chicken vs. filet mignon and those will show up on in the Reservations Details screen.

Step 4: Managing Event Tickets as a Restaurant
Once event tickets are configured, all reservations with tickets will show up on the Reservations screen and Tables screen (if you use Table Management) with a green ticket icon as shown below. You can also view "i for info" to see ticket details if you have multiple ticket prices.

What Customers See When Booking
From the customer’s perspective, the process is seamless. When they visit your booking page, they’ll select the date, party size, and timeslot. If tickets are enabled for that date and time, a message will inform them of the ticket requirements. They will also have to agree to the custom reservation policy. Both are shown below. On the next step they will see an itemized cost and it will require credit card payment to complete the reservation. Upon successful payment, customers receive an itemized receipt via email along with their reservation details.

One of the most powerful aspects of the event ticket sales feature is the built-in reporting tools. To review stats about ticket sales, visit Reporting > Tickets. That will take you to summary page for all ticket sales.  At the top, a line graph shows your ticket revenue over time, allowing you to monitor trends and performance. You can filter the data by date range to analyze specific time periods. Below the graph is a table with detailed information about each reservation, including ticket type, reservation date, and customer email. You can sort the table or search for specific data fields as needed.

Our event ticket sales feature is designed to simplify how you manage special events while boosting your revenue. With the ability to pre-sell tickets and reduce no-shows, you’ll be able to better plan and execute successful events at your restaurant. We hope this guide helps you get started with ticket sales. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out.