Club tickets and guest lists: presale, door sales and entry

Presale, door sales, guest list: three ways to the door

Every guest gets into your club one of three ways: with a presale ticket, by paying at the door, or via the guest list, with free or reduced entry. All three have their place. Presale brings in money before the night and shows how well a series is doing. Door sales catch spontaneous guests who are out in the city. The guest list rewards DJs, crew, regulars and partners. Problems only start when nobody knows how many spots are already taken.

How to plan series, line-ups and promotion is covered in the guide Planning club nights. This one is about how guests get to their spot on the dance floor.

Finding the right ticketing provider

The market is big but falls roughly into four groups. Major ticketing platforms such as Eventim in Germany or oeticket in Austria have huge reach and many sales outlets, but are often oversized for a weekly club night. General event platforms such as Eventbrite are quick to set up and work well for parties, workshops and specials. Scene apps such as Resident Advisor, DICE or Shotgun reach people who are looking for electronic music and club culture; guests actively browse them for events in their city. Self-hosted shops such as the open-source system pretix run on your own website, but you have to build the reach yourself.

More important than the name is whether the provider fits your venue. Compare at least two or three offers using the same questions and read the full terms, especially on exclusivity and payouts.

Calculating fees and price tiers

Almost every provider earns per ticket sold, usually with a fixed amount, a percentage or both, and there are often extra costs for card or wallet payments. The level depends heavily on the provider, your volume and your negotiation, so compare offers using your real numbers: how many tickets do you sell per month, and at what price? The break-even calculator shows how many paying guests a night needs to cover DJ fees, staff and rent. A fully worked example with admission, bar revenue and break-even is in the guide running a profitable club.

You can add the fee to the ticket price or absorb it yourself. Either way, guests must see the final price including all fees from the start. In Germany, § 3 of the Preisangabenverordnung (Price Indication Ordinance) requires the total price; in Austria the Preisauszeichnungsgesetz (Price Labelling Act) applies. Details are in the guides to price labelling in Austria and in Germany. A “service fee” that only appears at the last step annoys guests and is legally risky.

Setting capacity and allocations

The limit for every night is not set in the ticket shop but in your permit: in Austria it follows from the Betriebsanlagengenehmigung (operating facility permit) and, depending on the state, from event law; in Germany from the building permit and, for larger rooms, the Versammlungsstättenverordnung (places of assembly regulation) of your state. This maximum applies to all guests at the same time, whether with a ticket, on the guest list or with a free pass. Factor crew and artists in the room into your calculation, too.

Over time you will know your no-show rate, the share of tickets bought but never used. Even so, never oversell beyond the approved capacity: anyone turned away for overcrowding despite holding a ticket will rightly say so in a review, and safety always comes first.

Entry control with QR codes

Almost all providers issue tickets with a QR code or barcode that your team scans at the door with a smartphone app. Each code is valid only once, and a second scan shows a warning right away. That makes screenshots shared around a group chat worthless. Make sure the app also works without a stable connection, because reception is often weak in a basement or behind thick walls.

• Separate lanes: one queue for tickets, one for door sales, one for the guest list. Ticket holders are inside in seconds.
• Prepare the devices: charged phones or scanners, power banks, brightness up, scanner app synced with the tickets beforehand.
• ID and ticket together: where age checks are needed, the same person checks both, then hands out a stamp or wristband.
• Door sales through the till: cash and card payments at the door need a receipt, in Austria from a Registrierkasse (cash register), in Germany from a till system with TSE.
• Plan B: a list of sold tickets as a file on a second device in case the app or battery fails.

Who gets turned away and why is decided by your door policy, not by the ticket. How to organise the door, security and awareness is explained in the guide Door, security and awareness. State in your ticket terms that a ticket gives no right to entry if someone breaks the house rules or is visibly very drunk.

Guest list: clear rules, not shout-outs

The guest list is a tool, not a favour on request. Without rules it grows longer than planned, arguments start at the door and the entry money is missing from the accounts. Set a fixed allocation for every night and split it: a few spots per DJ, some for the team and the rest for partners or press. The simplest way is to manage the list in your ticketing system as free tickets with names, so it automatically lands in the same scanner app.

Refunds, cancellations and transfers

Many guests believe they can return a ticket bought online within 14 days. For leisure events on a fixed date, however, the statutory right of withdrawal for distance contracts does not apply: in Germany it is excluded under § 312g (2) no. 9 BGB, in Austria under § 18 (1) no. 10 FAGG. Still say so clearly in your shop so nobody is surprised.

It is different if you cancel yourself or change the event substantially. If a night is cancelled, guests are in principle entitled to the ticket price. What applies to a postponement or a line-up change depends on the case and on your terms; if in doubt, WKO or IHK (the chambers of commerce) and a lawyer can help. Whether the provider refunds its fees as well is set out in its contract.

An official resale platform, which many providers offer, saves you work: anyone who cannot come resells their ticket at the original price, a new code is issued and the old ticket becomes invalid. That protects guests from fakes on classified ad sites and keeps the spot for someone who will really show up.

Data protection for tickets and guest lists

Tickets and guest lists contain personal data, and the GDPR applies equally in Austria and Germany. For a ticket purchase you usually only need a name, email and payment details. Ask only for what you really need for entry. A date of birth, for example, only makes sense if you personalise tickets or want to check age in advance.

If you want to tell ticket buyers about new nights later, build your own newsletter with double opt-in instead; how that works is explained in the guide Newsletters for hospitality. For questions, contact the Datenschutzbehörde (data protection authority) in Austria or the data protection authority of your state in Germany.

In the end, almost every guest reaches the ticket through your website: an event page with line-up, entry time, prices, age limit, house rules and a direct link to the presale sells more than a Linktree profile. See what that can look like in our examples of club websites.