“Add the planetarium show and save $3.” “Buy a membership today and your admission is free.” “Two exhibits, one price.” Pricing like this is common at museums, zoos, and gardens, and visitors expect it. In Altru, getting it to work cleanly takes a bit more planning than you might expect.
The short version: Altru’s discounts are mostly built around a single item or a single order. A rule that says “take $X off only when items A and B are in the same cart” is not something you can count on finding as a ready-made setting. That doesn’t mean you can’t offer combos. You usually build them as a product rather than as a discount.
First, decide what kind of combo you actually mean
“Combination discount” covers several different pricing setups. Each one fits Altru differently, so name yours before you start configuring anything.
- Fixed bundle: general admission plus one add-on (a film, a tour, a train ride) for one set price. This is the most common case and the easiest to handle.
- Multi-program pass: access to two or three programs on the same day, sometimes with timed entry for each.
- Conditional discount: “if you buy X, you get Y off.” The discount depends on what else is in the order.
- Quantity or family pricing: two adults plus up to three children for a flat price.
- Cross-sell discount: buy a membership and today’s admission is waived or credited.
Fixed bundles and family pricing usually have workable answers in Altru. True conditional logic (“only when both are present”) is where you’ll run into limits.
Approach 1: Make the bundle its own price type or program
The most dependable way to sell a combo is to make it something staff and the website can sell directly, so the system never has to work out whether a discount applies.
- Create a price type for the combo (for example, “Admission + Show”) on the program it belongs to and set its price to the bundled amount.
- If the combo spans two programs that both need capacity tracking, decide which program “owns” the sale and how you’ll account for attendance on the other. Some organizations sell the combo on the main program and scan or count the add-on separately. Others sell the add-on as a separate $0 price type in the same order so both programs track attendance. Pick one method and use it everywhere.
- Name the price type so cashiers can’t mistake it for a single-item ticket.
The catch is revenue. If the bundle is one line item, the revenue lands in one place. If your finance team needs the split between admission and the add-on, agree up front on how you’ll allocate it (a fixed percentage, or the add-on recorded at its standalone price with the difference on admission). Then build a report or query that applies that split consistently.
Approach 2: Use an order-level or item discount with a staff rule
Altru supports discounts that staff can apply at the point of sale, and depending on how you configure them, they can apply to an item or to the whole order. You can use one as a combo discount by pairing it with a clear desk rule: “Apply ‘Show Combo’ only when the order includes both admission and a planetarium ticket.”
This approach is quick to set up, but it depends on people. Expect occasional misapplied discounts, and plan to check them. A simple query on orders that used the combo discount but are missing one of the two qualifying items will show you how often that happens.
Whether a particular discount can be restricted to specific programs, price types, or sales channels, and whether it will apply automatically online, depends on how your discounts are configured. Test it in a sandbox or a closed-off test program before you advertise anything. If the behavior isn’t clear, ask Blackbaud support how your discount settings handle that scenario.
Approach 3: Promo codes for online combos
For web sales, a promotion code tied to a discount can stand in for a combo offer: “Use code SHOWPAIR when you buy admission and a show.” It’s easy to market and easy to track by code. The weakness is the same as Approach 2: unless your setup can enforce what has to be in the cart, someone can use the code on a single item. Decide how much leakage you can tolerate, and review usage weekly while the offer runs.
Membership plus admission
“Join today and your visit is free” is really a cross-sell, not a combo discount. The cleanest handling is usually a written refund-or-credit policy at the membership desk: sell admission as usual, and when the guest joins the same day, refund or credit the admission against the membership. Write down which staff can do this and how it gets recorded, so membership revenue and admission revenue stay accurate.
Before you launch any combo
- Run every sales channel. Ring up the combo at the desk, sell it in advance, sell it to a group, and buy it online. Combos often work in one channel and not another.
- Check capacity. Make sure a combo sale reduces availability on every timed program it includes.
- Check scanning. Confirm the ticket gets the guest into both experiences without a manual override.
- Check reporting. Pull the daily reconciliation and confirm finance can see the revenue where they expect it.
- Set an end date. Seasonal combos have a way of staying on sale long after the poster comes down.
Quick answers
Can Altru automatically discount items only when they’re bought together?
Don’t assume it can. Conditional “buy both, save” logic isn’t something to rely on without testing. Building the combo as its own price type is the safest route.
What’s the lowest-maintenance option?
A dedicated combo price type at a fixed price. Staff sell it like any other ticket, and there’s no discount for anyone to misapply.
How do I keep revenue split correctly?
Decide the allocation rule before launch and apply it in one shared report or query. Don’t let each person split it differently by hand.
