When you hear "ticketing," general admission may be the first thing that comes to mind.
But at a family entertainment center, there are far more possibilities.
A laser tag mission at 2:00 PM. Toddler Time on a Tuesday morning. A Friday-night Glow Night. A summer camp. A Halloween event that only happens twice in October.
These are all experiences that can become ticketed opportunities with PCS Ticketing.
Ticketing gives family entertainment center operators a flexible way to create scheduled experiences and sell tickets online or in person. More importantly, it opens the door to thinking differently about your calendar, attractions, programming, and even traditionally slower periods.
If you're wondering what you could ticket at your facility, here are 15 ideas to get you started.
For indoor playgrounds, play cafés, trampoline parks, and other play-based facilities, open play doesn't always have to mean walk-in admission.
Operators can create scheduled open-play sessions throughout the day and make tickets available for specific times.
For example, you might offer:
Scheduled sessions give families the ability to choose when they want to visit while giving operators another way to structure their daily admission.
Laser tag is a natural fit for scheduled ticketing.
Instead of relying only on walk-up play, operators can create individual missions throughout the day. A facility could offer a new session every 30 minutes, for example, and make a set number of tickets available for each mission.
Guests can choose their time, purchase their tickets, and know when they're scheduled to play.
For multi-attraction facilities, this also creates an opportunity to sell a specific experience rather than requiring every visit to begin with general admission.
Your go-kart track can become a scheduled, ticketed experience, too.
Operators can create go-kart sessions at designated times and establish ticket availability for each one. This can be especially useful when promoting special racing experiences or designated sessions throughout the day.
It also gives your marketing something specific to promote. "Reserve your 7 PM go-kart session" gives guests a clear experience and time to act on rather than simply telling them go-karts are available.
Turn down the lights, turn up the music, and turn an ordinary evening into an event.
Glow Nights are a great example of how family entertainment centers can use Ticketing to sell more than everyday admission.
Create the event for a particular evening, determine ticket availability, establish pricing, and make tickets available online or in person.
The experience itself could incorporate attractions you already offer from laser tag, trampolines, skating, arcade games, go-karts, or indoor play but package them into something guests see as a special event worth planning around.
5. Parents' Night Out
What if a Friday evening could become something parents actively look forward to booking?
Parents' Night Out programs can turn select evenings into ticketed experiences where children enjoy supervised activities, games, attractions, crafts, or other programming while parents get a few hours to themselves.
Rather than offering the program every day, you could schedule it for select Fridays or Saturdays and promote each date as a special event.
It's also a great example of using Ticketing to create revenue opportunities beyond traditional birthday parties or walk-in business.
6. Toddler Time
Not every ticketed experience needs to be a major event.
A traditionally slower weekday morning could become a Toddler Time program designed specifically for younger guests and their caregivers.
Indoor playgrounds, trampoline parks, play cafés, and multi-attraction FECs could create designated sessions with age-appropriate activities or access.
This is where looking at your calendar becomes important. Instead of only asking when your facility is busiest, ask:
When could we create another reason for guests to visit?
7. Camps
School breaks can create entirely new programming opportunities.
Summer camps, spring break camps, winter break activities, and single-day camps can become scheduled experiences families can purchase ahead of time.
Depending on your facility, programming could center around your attractions, games, physical activity, STEAM activities, crafts, themed days, or a combination of experiences.
Ticketing gives operators a way to put those programs on the calendar and begin selling spots before camp begins.
8. Classes and Workshops
Classes aren't just for traditional educational businesses.
A play café might host an art class. An indoor playground could offer a sensory play workshop. A larger FEC might introduce a special activity or instructional program.
PCS Ticketing gives operators another way to turn those ideas into scheduled experiences guests can purchase.
This can also give facilities an opportunity to experiment with new programming without making it a permanent part of their everyday offerings.
9. Character Meet & Greets
Princesses, superheroes, holiday characters, mascots, and other themed appearances can turn an ordinary visit into something families plan around.
Rather than simply announcing that a character will be at your facility, create a ticketed experience for a specific date and time.
Now you have something concrete to promote across your website, email marketing, and social media for families have a direct way to purchase their tickets.
10. Virtual Reality Experiences
For facilities with virtual reality attractions, Ticketing can be used to sell scheduled VR sessions.
This can work especially well for experiences where equipment, space, or the number of participants naturally lends itself to designated time slots.
Instead of guests simply showing up and hoping the experience is available, they can select a session that works for them ahead of their visit.
11. Halloween and Holiday Events
Seasonal events give family entertainment centers a reason to create experiences that feel different from a normal visit.
Think Halloween laser tag, costume nights, holiday character visits, winter break events, Valentine's activities, or spring celebrations.
These events don't necessarily require building an entirely new attraction.
Sometimes the opportunity is simply repackaging what you already offer around a limited-time theme.
With PCS Ticketing, you can put those events on your calendar, create tickets, and start promoting them while excitement is building.
12. Fundraisers
Schools, youth organizations, nonprofits, sports teams, and other community groups are always looking for ways to bring people together.
Your facility can become part of that.
Create a designated fundraiser event, determine when it will take place, and give attendees a clear way to purchase tickets for the experience.
Beyond the immediate revenue opportunity, events like these can introduce new families to your facility and help strengthen relationships within your local community.
13. Tournaments and Competitions
Turn a little friendly competition into an event guests can plan around.
Depending on your facility, you could create a ticketed laser tag tournament, go-kart racing competition, or other competitive event and schedule it for a specific date and time.
This gives you another way to build an event around attractions you already have while creating something different from the everyday guest experience.
Tournaments can also give you something new to promote to your audience and another reason for guests to return to your facility.
14. Limited-Time Special Events
Sometimes an event doesn't fit neatly into a category and that's exactly the point.
Maybe you're bringing in a special entertainer. Maybe you're hosting a themed arcade night. Maybe there's a one-night tournament or competition. Or maybe you're testing an entirely new event concept.
Ticketing gives you the flexibility to create an experience around a particular date and time without making it a permanent part of your everyday admission model.
That gives operators more freedom to experiment with programming and give guests new reasons to come back.
15. Experiences During Slower Hours
This might be one of the biggest opportunities on the list.
You don't necessarily need another attraction to create another revenue opportunity. Instead, look at the hours and days when your facility isn't operating at its full potential.
Is Tuesday morning typically slow? What about Wednesday afternoon? Is there an evening where you could be bringing in more guests?
Then ask what experience could give someone a specific reason to visit during that time.
Toddler Time could help fill a weekday morning. A homeschool program could create midweek traffic. Parents' Night Out could turn a Friday evening into a ticketed event. A seasonal experience could make an otherwise ordinary weekend something families plan for.
The opportunity may already exist inside your facility. Ticketing gives you another way to sell it.
Turn More of Your Calendar Into Revenue With PCS Ticketing
The opportunity with ticketing goes far beyond selling general admission online. It's about finding more things to sell and more reasons for guests to visit.
PCS Ticketing helps operators take attractions, programs, special events, and creative ideas and turn them into scheduled experiences guests can purchase online or in person.
And because Ticketing is part of Party Center Software, you don't have to add another standalone platform just to introduce ticketed experiences.
PCS helps family entertainment centers manage online booking, point of sale, digital waivers, payments, memberships, gift cards, reporting, and more. Now, Ticketing adds another revenue-driving tool to the all-in-one PCS solution.
So take another look at your facility. Look at your attractions, your calendar, your slower hours, and the events your community already gets excited about.
Then ask one simple question:
What could you ticket?
Ready to see what PCS Ticketing could look like at your facility? Request a Demo!