Why sell by time slot?
Selling a timed entry rather than open entry lets you control how many people are present, spread attendance across the afternoon and plan your staff. Customers know when they start and when they finish.
Fixed sessions or rolling departures?
- Fixed sessions: everyone starts on the hour. Easy to supervise, but everyone arrives at reception at the same time.
- Rolling departures, for example every 15 minutes: arrivals are spread out, reception can breathe, and each customer has their own end time. This is how most trampoline parks work.
Setting the right capacity
Capacity is the maximum number of people present at the same time. It must never exceed your building’s authorised occupancy, nor the limits set by your equipment manufacturers, such as the number of users per trampoline. Within those limits, adjust it to your team: a full venue without enough supervisors is not a good day.
One capacity for the counter and the website
The classic trap: the POS on one side, online booking on the other. On Saturday, a slot is sold at the counter while it is also sold online, and the venue goes over capacity. Ticketing must count places in real time, whatever the sales channel.
Coloured wristbands and end time
One wristband colour per time slot lets supervisors see at a glance who needs to leave. Print the start time on the ticket and announce the end of sessions: overstays drop sharply.
Reading your schedule at a glance
At reception, the team must know in a second where there is room left. A schedule in 15-minute boxes, coloured by occupancy, is far easier to read than a list of bookings. Birthday parties and groups must appear there too, since they take up places.
Common mistakes
- time slots that are too long, leaving gaps at the end of the afternoon;
- an online capacity that differs from the counter’s;
- groups and birthday parties entered separately, which distorts the remaining places;
- a team sized for the average rather than for the peaks.
And with Lago?
In Lago, every counter sale and every online booking fills the same schedule. The 15-minute slots appear as tiles that turn from blue to red as they fill up, capacity is tracked live, and the wristband colour is shown at the time of sale. A timeline view also shows the day’s sessions, events and birthday parties. Discover scheduling and booking in Lago.
Further reading: AFNOR, NF EN ISO 23659, AFNOR, XP S52-370-1, AFNOR, XP S52-370-2 (trampoline park standards). General information article.