How to sell Halloween party tickets

1. Pick the format before the price

The format decides what the ticket includes, how many you can sell and what you need at the door. Common ticketed Halloween event ideas:

• Costume party or club night. General admission, a DJ and a costume contest. The ticket is entry, so the door and the capacity limit matter most.
• Haunted house or scare maze. Small groups go through one after another, so the number of guests per hour sets how many tickets you can sell. Run it on several nights: one event can have more than one date.
• Halloween bar crawl. One ticket for entry to every bar on the route. Say on the page where guests check in and which bars take part.
• Family Halloween party. An afternoon or early evening slot with adult and child tickets, games and a children's costume parade.
• Halloween fundraiser. A haunted house or party where the money goes to a school or a charity, often with a donation on top of the ticket.

Write down what each ticket includes: entry, a drink, a contest entry, a fast lane. Every line you promise is a cost you need to cover.

2. Set up early bird, regular and VIP tickets

Three tiers are enough for most Halloween parties. Each one is its own ticket type in Swarmtix, with its own name, description, price and quantity.

• Early bird. A lower price for a limited number of tickets or a limited time. Give the ticket type a sales end date, or a small quantity, so it ends on its own.
• Regular. The main price. Start its sales when early bird ends, and end it at the time you stop online sales on the night.
• VIP. Only worth it if it includes something real: early entry, a separate bar, a reserved booth or a skip-the-line lane at a haunted house. Describe the extras in the ticket description so nobody argues at the door.

Other settings that help at Halloween:

• Minimum and maximum per order. Costumes come in groups. Sell a group ticket with a minimum per order, and set a maximum so one buyer can't take half the room.
• Checkout questions. Add a custom question at checkout, such as "Are you entering the costume contest?", so you know how many contestants to plan for.
• Promo codes. A percent or fixed discount, with a usage limit and start and end dates, for all tickets or only some. See the promo codes guide.
• Access codes. Hide a ticket type until a guest enters a code. Use it for a presale to last year's guests or your mailing list.

Not sure what to charge? The ticket pricing calculator and the break-even calculator work out a price from your costs and expected attendance.

3. Plan the timing backwards from October 31

Halloween falls on a different weekday every year. When October 31 is midweek, most adult parties move to the Friday or Saturday before it. Pick your date first, then count back:

• 8 or more weeks out (late August): book the venue, the DJ, the decorations and the security. Put the numbers into the event budget calculator.
• 6 to 8 weeks out (early September): publish the event page and open early bird tickets. Add a countdown to your website with the event countdown generator.
• 3 to 4 weeks out: end early bird and promote the regular tier.
• Final week: set the costume contest rules, brief the door staff and check the sold count against the capacity.
• On the night: close online sales at a set time, then sell the last tickets at the door.

Plan the night itself with the run of show generator (doors, DJ sets, costume contest, prizes), and build the full to-do list with the event checklist generator.

4. Set capacity you can actually hold

The ticket quantity is your promise. Start from the venue's legal capacity, then take away staff, performers and guest list places. Costumes take up more space than everyday clothes, so leave room. Split what is left across your ticket types, so the total of all quantities never goes above the room.

For a haunted house, count how many groups can go through per hour and multiply by the hours you are open. That number, not the size of the building, is your capacity. The venue capacity planner works out how many guests fit for standing, seated or mixed layouts.

5. Do the fee math before you set prices

Swarmtix charges $0.99 + 1.5% per paid ticket. Free tickets are free. Stripe's card processing fee is extra and depends on your Stripe account. You choose who pays the Swarmtix fee: absorb it, or add it at checkout so you keep the full ticket price.

An example with three tiers, when you absorb the fee:

The same numbers apply in euros, pounds, Canadian dollars and Australian dollars. A €20 ticket pays €0.99 + €0.30 = €1.29. Check the card fee for your country with the Stripe fee calculator, and see Swarmtix pricing for the full details.

Ticket money goes to your own Stripe account. Swarmtix never holds your revenue, which helps when the venue, the DJ and the decorations are paid before the night.

6. Get the door ready for a crowd in costume

Most guests arrive in the same hour, in masks and make-up. If there is an age limit, ask guests to lift their masks for the ID check. Plan the door like the rest of the night.

• Scan tickets on phones. Every ticket has a QR code. Door staff scan it with the Swarmtix check-in app for iOS and Android. A scan count shows if a ticket was already used.
• Use more than one entrance. Add door staff as team members. Check-ins sync across devices, so two lanes see the same list. At a bar crawl, put a scanner at the first stop.
• Plan for weak signal. Check-in needs an internet connection and has no offline mode. Test the signal at the venue on a busy night, and keep a printed attendee list as a backup. Each ticket also has a security code for manual lookup.
• Sell the last tickets at the door. Door sales mode lets your staff sell and record tickets on the night.

The check-in guide covers scanning, manual lookup and multi-device check-in in detail.

7. Write an event page that answers questions

Guests compare several Halloween parties before they buy. Put the date, the start and end time, what each ticket includes, the costume rules (no masks at the bar, no fake weapons), the contest prizes, the age limit and the refund policy on the page. Use the event description template to write it. If you print tickets for sponsors or guest list places, the ticket maker makes a printable ticket.

The party comes back every year. Next autumn, duplicate the event from your events list, then set the new date and check each ticket type before you publish.