Cinema Internet Booking
Discussion
I have an area for debate that has had me curious for a while and wondered if any of you PHers could shed any light on it.
When I go to the cinema I tend to book online first. I walk in, put my card in the machine, its gives me the tickets, and on I go to the screen. As opposed to queueing up and occupying somebody's time while they serve me, I'm sure this must be the cheaper option for the cinema.
However, it seems the norm to charge a booking fee of 50p/£1 per ticket for this privilege. I would have imagined that booking through the internet would cost the cinema less and so, if anything, there should be charging less?
The only reason I can think is that there is a chance people booking might not show (even though they have paid for the tickets) and therefore there are seats that are empty and they aren't going to be purchasing refreshments.
Just a question that popped into my mind and wondered if anybody involved with cinemas might be able to explain why this is?
When I go to the cinema I tend to book online first. I walk in, put my card in the machine, its gives me the tickets, and on I go to the screen. As opposed to queueing up and occupying somebody's time while they serve me, I'm sure this must be the cheaper option for the cinema.
However, it seems the norm to charge a booking fee of 50p/£1 per ticket for this privilege. I would have imagined that booking through the internet would cost the cinema less and so, if anything, there should be charging less?
The only reason I can think is that there is a chance people booking might not show (even though they have paid for the tickets) and therefore there are seats that are empty and they aren't going to be purchasing refreshments.
Just a question that popped into my mind and wondered if anybody involved with cinemas might be able to explain why this is?
I'm guessing they use the booking fee to pay the development/licensing costs of the booking technology and the costs of running it (hosting, bandwidth, maintenance etc.).
Maybe the cinema staff are going to be there anyway, hence buying from them personally doesn't need to attract additional booking charges.
Technology is wonderful and can aid convenience, but it isn't free.
Maybe the cinema staff are going to be there anyway, hence buying from them personally doesn't need to attract additional booking charges.
Technology is wonderful and can aid convenience, but it isn't free.
jeremyc said:
I'm guessing they use the booking fee to pay the development/licensing costs of the booking technology and the costs of running it (hosting, bandwidth, maintenance etc.).
Maybe the cinema staff are going to be there anyway, hence buying from them personally doesn't need to attract additional booking charges.
Technology is wonderful and can aid convenience, but it isn't free.
I am not necessarily saying I object to it, I was just curious as to why it might be. Most companies tend to offer lower costs to reflect the lesser overheads of buying through the internet to encourage it.
As its called a 'booking' fee, maybe the privilege is for advance reservation of the tickets rather than the convenience of their purchase.
It just seems to me that having made such an investment in the technology, they then 'tax' it to discourage its use. If the film I am watching hasn't just come out, I take my chances.
>> Edited by crazylegs on Thursday 6th May 12:28
puggit said:
Could be to cover risk of fraud.
There are no signatures so the cinemas are leaving themselves open to abuse
Moi?
I was referring to card holder not present claims.
For example.
You book ticket.
You collect ticket and pay.
You watch film.
You wait for cc bill to arrive.
You claim it wasn't you/ card must be fake/cloned/ please can I see the signature
but there isn't one is there. Chances are CC company would have start an investigation and Cinema has to spend time prooving it was you.
In practice, this is no different to any other Internet sale where there is no physical delivery, and even the fact the goods are signed+delivered I gather it's still not enough to prevent a chargeback if the person/bank is determined enough.
I think the cinemas have grown to like the "Booking Fee" + 10 minutes of revenue from the 0870 call that they would always get when you booked on the phone! With lots of people presumably booking online, I guess they just want to protect their profits..
I think the cinemas have grown to like the "Booking Fee" + 10 minutes of revenue from the 0870 call that they would always get when you booked on the phone! With lots of people presumably booking online, I guess they just want to protect their profits..
At the moment, internet booking is sold as a convienience - avoiding the need to que up, etc. As such, it's a premium service in much the same way as first class rail travel is.
For every one online purchaser, there are probably 10 who would still rather pay at the door. Most of these are likely to pay in cash and so the cinema avoids the bank charges of CC processing.
Cost of technology, fraud protection and all the other issues are all valid too.
It's only when the option to pay at the door is totally removed will the cost come down (aka Ryanair/Easyjet/etc..)
For every one online purchaser, there are probably 10 who would still rather pay at the door. Most of these are likely to pay in cash and so the cinema avoids the bank charges of CC processing.
Cost of technology, fraud protection and all the other issues are all valid too.
It's only when the option to pay at the door is totally removed will the cost come down (aka Ryanair/Easyjet/etc..)
But processing cash costs a fortune too! Anyway I suspect most people pay by card.
It can;t be for fraud as you need to have the card to get the tickets out the machine.
Effectively its a way of getting more money out of the cinema goer.
It would be intersting to see what would happen if there was a campaign that on one day no one used advanced booking!
Personally I have grave doubts about safety at cinemas these days, they appear to have very few staff on, so an evacuation could be interesting. Equally there is no one to check your tickets as you go into the auditorium so kids can get in to 18 flms easily.
It can;t be for fraud as you need to have the card to get the tickets out the machine.
Effectively its a way of getting more money out of the cinema goer.
It would be intersting to see what would happen if there was a campaign that on one day no one used advanced booking!
Personally I have grave doubts about safety at cinemas these days, they appear to have very few staff on, so an evacuation could be interesting. Equally there is no one to check your tickets as you go into the auditorium so kids can get in to 18 flms easily.
they do it for 1 reason.
People will pay for the ease of not queing.
Simple.
if people want to be tight, they get to queue.
if people want to queue skip, they pre-book.
I do it all the time, for that exact reason.
Just like i would happily pay for 5 seats instead of 1
if it meant i got to loung in a lazy boy recliner, instead of those awful cinema seats.
My Odean used to offer 'luxury seats' at the rear. but they are gone now ;(
much is the shame.
I think there is a real market for luxury seats in cinemas.
just a shame the kids would ruin them.
People will pay for the ease of not queing.
Simple.
if people want to be tight, they get to queue.
if people want to queue skip, they pre-book.
I do it all the time, for that exact reason.
Just like i would happily pay for 5 seats instead of 1
if it meant i got to loung in a lazy boy recliner, instead of those awful cinema seats.
My Odean used to offer 'luxury seats' at the rear. but they are gone now ;(
much is the shame.
I think there is a real market for luxury seats in cinemas.
just a shame the kids would ruin them.
I recently booked tickets online and got the confirmation of the transaction etc, turned up to collect the tickets and watch the film - no tickets. Spoke to the manager who sorted it out but would not refund the booking fee as it was not Odeon that charge it but the company that run the website. In my view, the booking fee was charged for a transaction that failed, therefore I had to queue up anyway to purchase my tickets. Therefore I paid a premium for no reason. Surely the Odeon should accept some responsibility for this situation?
Liszt said:
Liszt said:
Could be to cover risk of fraud.
There are no signatures so the cinemas are leaving themselves open to abuse
Moi?
I was referring to card holder not present claims.
For example.
You book ticket.
You collect ticket and pay.
You watch film.
You wait for cc bill to arrive.
You claim it wasn't you/ card must be fake/cloned/ please can I see the signature
but there isn't one is there. Chances are CC company would have start an investigation and Cinema has to spend time prooving it was you.
Couple of bits here :-
1) their banking merchant will have different POS terms to online terms - this is a standard practice right now. Only very very very large companies can get good terms - took us 3yrs and we do £5m plus a day.. Thus their could be a real cost differential before you get to kit costs etc.
2) a surprising benefit of the in-cinema card machines is that they 'can' (not sure if they do this but we used to with vending machines) check the card to see if it's stolen when inserted. If so they retain the card and collect £50 from the issuing retailer. Why so interesting? well you'd be surprised how much theives use such systems to check to see if the card is still valid before using it in a face-to-face transaction - hence a good money spinner for the retailer...
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