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Plan Your Haunted House With This Square-Integrated Ticketing System

  • Riley Manning
    by Riley Manning • June 22, 2022

Riley Manning has worked as a travel and entertainment writer for more than 10 years. Today, he writes about unique events and the technology that helps make them happen.

A spooky looking haunted house for all the tips we have about planning your event, including an eventbrite alternative.

With over 4,000 paid Haunted House events in the nation, it is easy to see that these attractions draw serious crowds—and revenue.

Haunted houses can be complex attractions. Operators should strive to engineer every part to add to the spooky ambiance and raise the tension. But friction in the ticketing process, lines at the gate, and bad logistics can kill the vibe for visitors.

With the right ticketing platform, you can solve several problems with one convenient tool.

Reducing friction with this Eventbrite alternative

an eventbrite alternative.

Make ticketing simple

The ability to buy tickets online is a game-changer for any attraction. It’s not uncommon for haunted house proprietors using SimpleTix to wake up to several hundreds of dollars in overnight sales. But it’s great for customers too. They can buy at their convenience when they’re in the mood to buy, and if they need to change their day or timeslot, they can do it right within the app.

Streamline the line

While anticipation is a vital element of a spooky experience, long lines can stall the excitement. Mobile tickets can be scanned in a blink, whether they’re on a phone, a print-out, or even a smartwatch. If tickets were bought in a group, your gate staff can scan part or all of the group in with just one scan.

Hype up your haunted house

With SimpleTix,  you can dig into the analytics of your ticket purchasers and send them waivers, promo codes, and survey questions from inside your ticketing platform. You can also keep them informed about things like parking, weather updates, and other information.

an eventbrite alternative.

Early Bird Tickets and Instant Payouts

Haunted Houses tend to see a large volume of early bird tickets. SimpleTix, unlike other Eventbrite alternatives, will pay those purchases out instantly. With this instant remuneration feature, event organizers have cash in hand to pivot to other expenses associated with the Haunted House. This financial flexibility is a great value add for the event planner and reduces the hassle of dealing with banks or other lending institutions.

Maybe you would like to leverage this financial flexibility for more marketing and advertising campaigns? Paying upfront for those aforementioned web-based services will give you a better idea of where you stand in your P&L books before the start date of the event rolls around.

Or perhaps you could start making your merch purchases? Concessions, t-shirts, hats, other apparel, art, and take-home trinkets can all be sold and purchased through your ticketing application. This saves you time and hassle by not having to administer multiple, redundant systems during your haunted house event, and your event staff will not have to be trained on different systems. The final result is a happier customer presented with more opportunities to spend money on your platform.

All of these optimizations are easily rolled into one ticketing solution. The Haunted Field of Screams is a Colorado-based Haunted House that leveraged the SimpleTix platform as an Eventbrite alternative for festival ticketing. With a scary carnival, a haunted corn maze, and a paintball battle with rotting zombies, this festival had several different activities wrapped up in their ticketing platform.

With over 20,000 attendees, they found SimpleTix to be flexible to their needs and robust enough to handle that high volume of sales. Like any other SimpleTix event, the organizers were able to use the platform to track sales and contact ticket purchasers with event details. The platform’s integration with Square technology allowed for on-site, day-of-event ticket sales.

SimpleTix has offered an affordable, premium event ticketing platform that outperforms Eventbrite and similar apps for over 12 years. Compared to the competition, SimpleTix offers better options at a better price point. To learn more, call us at +1 (855) 550-3670 or email us at support@simpletix.com.

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A spooky looking haunted house for all the tips we have about planning your event, including an eventbrite alternative.
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Accept In-Person Payments with Stripe in the SimpleTix Organizer App

  • Vikram Bodas
    by Vikram Bodas • February 23, 2026

Event organizers can now conduct Stripe in-person ticket sales directly through the SimpleTix Organizer app using Stripe Terminal Selling tickets at the door should be easy. Now it is. SimpleTix now supports Stripe in-person ticket sales directly inside our Organizer mobile app using Stripe Terminal, giving event organizers a simple, secure way to accept credit card payments anywhere. Whether you’re running a concert, festival, class, fundraiser, or community event, you can now turn your phone into a fully integrated mobile box office. Sell Tickets at the Door — Without the Chaos Door sales are often where revenue is won or lost. Long lines, cash-only limitations, manual entry errors, and disconnected payment systems create unnecessary stress. Even worse, using a separate POS system means double entry and messy reconciliation after the event. With Stripe Terminal integrated into the SimpleTix mobile app, everything stays in one system: Accept credit and debit cards in person Support Apple Pay, Google Pay, and contactless cards Automatically sync ticket inventory in real time Issue tickets instantly See online and in-person sales in one dashboard A True Mobile Box Office for Event Organizers Small and mid-sized event organizers need flexibility. Events don’t always happen behind a counter. Now you can sell tickets: At the entrance At pop-up locations Inside large venues At festivals and outdoor events From multiple staff members simultaneously All transactions process securely through Stripe, while ticket inventory updates immediately in SimpleTix so you never oversell. Fast, Secure, and Reliable Stripe Terminal provides enterprise-grade payment security, including: EMV chip card processing End-to-end encryption PCI-compliant transactions Contactless and mobile wallet support You get the reliability of Stripe’s payment infrastructure combined with the simplicity of SimpleTix’s event management platform. Why This Matters for Growing Event Organizers For small to medium-sized events, adding a full POS system can...

A spooky looking haunted house for all the tips we have about planning your event, including an eventbrite alternative.
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PayPal Ticketing Software: Sell More Tickets with Trusted Payments

  • Vikram Bodas
    by Vikram Bodas • February 2, 2026

When ticket buyers reach your checkout page, the last thing you want is friction. Every extra step, every unfamiliar payment form, every moment of hesitation costs you sales. That's why offering PayPal—the payment method over 400 million people already trust—can transform your ticket conversion rates. SimpleTix integrates directly with PayPal to give your attendees a seamless checkout experience. One integration unlocks PayPal, Venmo, Pay Later options, and credit card processing—all the ways your customers want to pay. Activate PayPal → Why PayPal Matters for Event Ticketing Your attendees aren't just buying a ticket. They're making a decision in a moment—often on their phone, often in a hurry. PayPal's brand recognition removes doubt at the exact moment it matters most. The numbers tell the story: merchants using PayPal see 46% higher checkout conversion compared to other payment methods. For event organizers, that translates directly to more tickets sold from the same marketing spend. PayPal isn't just another payment option—it's your all-in-one checkout solution. Through a single integration with SimpleTix, you can offer: PayPal — The trusted standard for online payments Venmo — Tap into 92 million active accounts (US) Pay Later — Let customers pay in installments while you get paid upfront Credit and debit cards — Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover at competitive rates Country-specific payment methods — Reach international customers with local payment options Increase Average Order Value with Pay Later Ticket buyers don't always want to pay everything at once—especially for premium events, multi-day festivals, or group purchases. PayPal's Pay Later options (Pay in 4 and Pay Monthly) let customers split their purchase into manageable payments while you receive the full amount immediately. This isn't just convenient for buyers. It drives measurable business results: merchants with Pay Later see 55% higher average order values compared to standard PayPal transactions....

A spooky looking haunted house for all the tips we have about planning your event, including an eventbrite alternative.
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Eventbrite Is Being Acquired. Here’s What It Means for You.

  • Vikram Bodas
    by Vikram Bodas • December 10, 2025

On December 2, Eventbrite announced it's being acquired by Bending Spoons for ~$500M, down from a $1.7B peak valuation. The deal takes Eventbrite private and puts it in the hands of a firm known for aggressive cost-cutting and price increases. If you're an Eventbrite customer, this is worth paying attention to. Who is Bending Spoons? Bending Spoons is a Milan-based tech company that acquires underperforming software brands (Evernote, Vimeo, WeTransfer, Meetup, AOL) and restructures them for profitability. Their playbook is consistent: cut headcount (often 50-75%), raise prices, and streamline operations. That's not speculation. It's their stated model. What This Likely Means for Eventbrite Customers Higher fees. Bending Spoons is explicit about monetization being a priority. Eventbrite has already experimented with pricing over the past two years. Expect that to accelerate. Reduced support. Major headcount reductions typically mean fewer experienced support reps and longer response times, especially during the transition. If you run complex events (reserved seating, multi-day festivals, timed entry), this matters. Product stagnation. Ownership changes usually mean roadmap resets and internal focus on cost savings. Don't expect new features anytime soon. Questions to Ask Yourself You don't need to panic. But you should treat this as a prompt to evaluate your options: What are you paying in total fees today? How sensitive is your margin to a 10-20% increase? How critical is hands-on support to your events? Can you afford slower response times mid-season? What's your contingency plan if pricing or policies change after you've already committed to your event calendar? If any of those questions give you pause, now is the time to explore alternatives, not after new pricing is announced. Why SimpleTix Is Different SimpleTix was built for organizers who care about margins, flexibility, and responsive support. A few key differences: Transparent pricing with a hard fee...

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