How to Sell Tickets Online in the UK

Updated 17 October 2026 · 10-minute read

Selling tickets online saves you from paper ticket books, envelopes of cash and the dreaded double-booked seat — and it lets your audience book at midnight from the sofa. This guide walks through the whole process for UK organisers, whether you're running a school musical, an am-dram run, a comedy night or a charity quiz.

The process in brief

1. Decide where to sell your tickets.
2. Work out what it will cost — and who pays.
3. Set up your event, performances and seating.
4. Price your tickets.
5. Set your booking and refund policies.
6. Share your booking link everywhere your audience already is.
7. Take phone and door sales on the same system.
8. Run a smooth door on the night.
9. Reconcile, get paid and plan the next one.

1. Decide where to sell your tickets

You have three realistic options:

• An online ticketing platform. You create an event page, set prices and capacity, and share the link. The platform takes payment, emails e-tickets and stops you overselling. For almost every organiser selling more than a handful of tickets, this is the right choice.
• Your venue's own box office. Some theatres and arts centres sell tickets on behalf of hirers. It's convenient, but you usually pay the venue's commission, have little control over the booking experience, and may not see the money — or your audience's details — until after the run.
• A do-it-yourself setup. A payment link or bank transfer plus a spreadsheet. It costs little to start, but nothing stops two people buying the same seat, there's nothing to check at the door, and reconciling payments eats volunteer hours.

When you compare platforms, look past the headline fee. Does it handle reserved seating if you need it? Can your team take phone and door sales on it? Does it offer the payment methods your audience uses — for schools, that may mean ParentPay? And does it pay you as tickets sell, or hold the money until after the event?

This guide is for event organisers. If you're trying to resell a ticket you've bought for someone else's event, check that event's official resale or refund policy first.

2. Work out what it will cost — and who pays

Ticketing fees come in three shapes, and most platforms combine two of them:

• A percentage of each sale — for example 4.5%.
• A fixed fee per ticket or per booking — for example 20p. Per booking is much cheaper when families buy several tickets at once.
• A flat charge per event or per year.

Someone also has to pay for card processing. Some platforms include it; others send you to Stripe, PayPal or Square, where standard UK cards cost around 1.5% + 20p per transaction.

Here's how it plays out on a 4.5% + 20p per-booking fee. An £8 ticket bought on its own costs 56p in fees, so you keep £7.44. A family booking four tickets pays £32 and costs £1.64 in fees, so you keep £7.59 a ticket. For a side-by-side example using real UK platforms, see our comparison of ticketing platform fees.

Then decide who pays. Many platforms let you add their fee to the buyer's price as a “booking fee”. That doesn't make the fee any smaller — it moves it onto your audience, and an unexpected charge on the last step of checkout is a classic reason people abandon a booking. Absorbing the fee into a clean, round ticket price usually works better.

A note on VAT: platform fees are often quoted “+ VAT”, so check the VAT-inclusive figure. Whether you charge VAT on the tickets themselves depends on your organisation's own VAT position — if you're unsure, ask your accountant or check HMRC's guidance.

3. Set up your event

The event page

Treat your event page as the poster that does the selling. Include:

• a clear title and a short, specific description — what it is, who's in it and who it's for
• every date and start time, and roughly how long it runs
• the venue's full address, with parking and accessibility notes
• a strong image — it's what appears when the link is shared on Facebook or WhatsApp
• age guidance and any content warnings

Capacity

Set capacity to the number of seats you can genuinely sell, not the venue's maximum. Hold back seats for the tech desk, wheelchair spaces you'll allocate on request, and any restricted-view seats you'd rather not sell. Releasing extra seats later is easy; overselling is a nightmare.

Reserved or unreserved seating?

With reserved seating, your audience picks their seats from a plan. It makes booking feel special and ends the scramble for the front row — ideal for productions and concerts. Unreserved seating (general admission) is simpler and suits discos, quiz nights, comedy and standing gigs. If you go reserved, build the plan to match the room exactly, including the aisles and the seats you're holding back.

Ticket types

Keep the list short: adult, child or concession, and perhaps a family ticket. Add complimentary tickets for cast, crew or guests so they're counted in your capacity rather than squeezed in on the night.

4. Price your tickets

• Check comparable local events. What do the neighbouring school, society or venue charge?
• Use round numbers. £8 feels fairer, and is quicker on the door, than £7.85.
• Offer concessions or a family ticket if your audience is families — it encourages bigger bookings.
• Consider an early-bird price for the first fortnight to create urgency and bring money in early.
• Work back from your costs — rights or licence fees, venue hire, set, costumes and printing — and check how many tickets you need to sell to break even.

5. Set your booking and refund policies

Decide these before you open sales, and state them clearly where people book:

• Refunds and exchanges. Tickets for a leisure event on a specific date are exempt from the usual 14-day cancellation right under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, so a no-refunds policy is allowed. But if you cancel or significantly change the event, ticket holders should expect their money back.
• Personal data. You'll be collecting names and email addresses. Ask only for what you need, keep it secure, and don't add bookers to a marketing list unless they've opted in.
• Ticket limits. For oversubscribed shows — the school nativity, say — a per-booking limit keeps things fair.

6. Share your booking link everywhere

The booking link is your box office: the more places it appears, the more you sell.

• Your website — link to it prominently, or embed a list of your upcoming events.
• Email and newsletters — for schools, ParentMail, the weekly newsletter and class WhatsApp groups do most of the work.
• Social media — post the link with your best image, pin the post, and point a Facebook event at the booking page.
• Posters and flyers — add a QR code that goes straight to the booking page.
• Local listings — what's-on websites, local radio and community Facebook groups are free.

Then keep the momentum going: announce the date early, open booking, and post reminders two weeks out and again in show week. A simple “last 30 seats” post is often the most effective thing you'll share.

7. Take phone and door sales on the same system

Some of your most loyal audience will never book online. Choose a platform that lets your team take phone and in-person bookings on the same system, so a seat a volunteer sells over the phone instantly disappears from the website. Keep a float for cash on the door, and record every door sale so your final figures add up.

8. On the night

• Check tickets from a phone screen or paper — scan the code or tick names off the door list.
• Print a backup door list in case the Wi-Fi or a phone battery fails.
• Brief front-of-house on latecomers, wheelchair users and anyone whose e-ticket won't load.
• For a seated show, open the doors at least 30 minutes before curtain-up.

9. After the event

Run your sales report and reconcile online, phone and door takings. Check your payout has landed — on platforms that pay as tickets sell, most of it will already be in your account. Then thank your audience (those who opted in), ask for feedback, and announce your next date while the applause is still fresh.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Opening sales too late — give people at least three to four weeks for a community show.
• Setting capacity at the venue's maximum, then overselling once seats are held for crew.
• Surprising buyers with a booking fee on the last step of checkout.
• Running online and phone sales on separate systems, then double-booking seats.
• Picking a platform that holds your money until after the event when you have bills to pay first.
• Forgetting a backup door list.

Ready to sell?

Your Box Office is the UK online box office built for exactly this: reserved seating plans, phone and door sales, ParentPay for schools, no booking fees for your audience, and payments straight to your bank as tickets sell. See how it works for schools and theatre groups, or go straight to selling tickets online with Your Box Office.