How to sell group tickets

Groups are the best customers you'll ever process badly: bigger baskets, better show-up rates, self-organising word of mouth — routed through one over-burdened organiser and a payment flow built for individuals. Fix the flow and groups become a channel.

Design the offer

• Thresholds where groups naturally form: 4+ (friends), 8+ (works do), 15+ (society/coach).
• 10–15% off, or a freebie ('10th ticket free') — freebies read more generous than their cost.
• Perks over discounts when you'd sell out anyway: queue-jump, reserved table, a round of drinks.

Fix the payment mechanics

The fronting-organiser problem kills group sales quietly — £180 on one card is a big ask. Platforms with split payment (each member pays a share against a reservation) or reserve-and-pay-later blocks remove it. Where you don't have those features, a discount code plus per-person purchase gets 80% of the way. Full platform picture: group booking platforms.

Blocks for coaches, schools and societies

1. Hold the block against a deposit (10–20%) with a named organiser.
2. Settle per head by a date 2–3 weeks out; release unsold seats automatically.
3. Deliver tickets per member, not a PDF of 30 QR codes to one phone.

The fee multiplication problem

Fixed per-ticket fees scale linearly with group size: eight £15 tickets at 59p fixed is £4.72 of pure fixed fees; at 6.95% + 59p the group pays £13.06 in fees total. On zero-fee rails the group price is just the group price — which is also the cleanest version of the offer to advertise.