General admission in Altru is usually set up as a daily admission program: a guest buys a ticket for a date and walks in whenever they like. Timed entry asks a harder question: how many people can come through the door between 10:00 and 10:30, and what happens when that slot is full? Daily admission doesn’t track that well, so most organizations that need timed entry build it from scheduled programs instead, where every entry window is its own event with its own capacity.
That shift is the whole trick. The rest is planning slot sizes, keeping capacity honest across sales channels, and deciding how members fit in.
Decide the numbers before you touch Altru
Changing the slot structure after tickets are on sale is painful, so settle these first:
- Slot length. Every 15, 30, or 60 minutes. Shorter slots spread arrivals more evenly but multiply the number of events you have to create and maintain.
- Capacity per slot. Start from your building or gallery limit, divide by how many slots overlap given a typical visit length, and then subtract a buffer for walk-ups, members, and comps.
- Hours and exceptions. Regular days, closed days, early member hours, and evening events.
- How far out you sell. Two to four weeks of inventory is easier to adjust than a full season.
- Who needs a slot. Paying guests almost certainly. Members, free-admission groups, and staff guests are policy decisions, covered below.
Build the structure in Altru
1. Create a scheduled program for timed admission
Set it up as its own program (for example, “Timed General Admission”) rather than repurposing an existing exhibit or tour program. Keeping it separate makes reporting cleaner and lets you retire it later without disturbing anything else.
2. Attach price types
Add the same ticket categories you sell today: adult, child, senior, member, and any free categories you want tracked. If members reserve at no charge, give them a zero-dollar price type so they still consume capacity and show up in counts.
3. Create an event for each entry window
Each slot becomes an event with a start time and a capacity. Altru can generate recurring events for a program, but the exact options vary by version and configuration, so test the pattern on a single week in a sandbox before generating a month of slots. Check that start times, capacity, and locations came out right before you go further.
4. Make the events available online
Connect the program to your online sales so the public can pick a time. Confirm that what the website shows matches the capacity you set, and buy a test ticket in the final minutes of a slot to see whether that slot closes when you expect. If you’re not sure how your web forms handle sales close times or sold-out slots, ask Blackbaud support rather than finding out from a guest.
5. Set up the front desk
Desk staff need to sell into the same events through daily sales so walk-ups draw down the same capacity as online buyers. Show them how to find the current slot, what to do when it’s full (offer the next one), and how to handle a guest who arrives early or late. Write your grace-period rule down so it doesn’t change from one cashier to the next.
Members: the decision that causes the most friction
There are three common approaches:
- Members reserve like everyone else, using a free member price type. Your capacity numbers stay accurate, but members have one more step to take.
- Members walk in, and you hold back part of each slot’s capacity for them. This is simpler for members, but your attendance numbers become an estimate.
- A hybrid: members reserve on weekends and holidays and walk in on weekdays.
Whichever you choose, put it on your membership pages and in renewal communications. Members who have always walked in will notice the change.
Reopening or reduced-capacity periods
When capacity is being dictated from outside (health guidance, construction, a partial closure), plan for it to change several times. A few habits help:
- Release inventory in short windows so a capacity change only affects a few weeks of events.
- Lower capacity on future events before you announce the new limit, not after.
- Decide ahead of time how you’ll contact ticket holders if a slot has to be cancelled, and confirm you can pull those buyers with a query.
- Keep a small walk-up allowance even when you’re “reservation only.” Some guests will arrive without a ticket regardless.
Check that it’s working
After the first week, compare sold versus scanned or redeemed tickets by slot. Slots that consistently sell out while the slots on either side sit half empty usually mean the slot length or capacity needs adjusting. A high no-show rate on free member reservations may argue for overbooking those slightly. Altru’s ticketing reports and a query on the program’s events will give you most of this.
Quick answers
Can I keep daily admission and add timed tickets alongside it?
You can, and it can make a transition easier. The catch is that daily admission sales don’t draw down the capacity on your timed events, so the two together can sell more people than the building holds. If you need one hard limit, move everyone to the timed program.
How many events is too many?
If you’re worried about volume, confirm with Blackbaud support how your setup handles a large number of events. The cost you will definitely feel is maintenance: every schedule or capacity change touches each event, which is another reason to release inventory a few weeks at a time.
Showing availability on your website
Once the slots exist in Altru, guests still need an easy way to see which times are open. Social Good’s Calendar Builder creates embeddable website calendars for timed tickets that show real-time availability pulled from Altru, so visitors can see open and sold-out times before they start checking out. Altru remains where the events, capacity, and sales live.
