Event ticketing

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.

Latest News

Related Articles

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

Season Ticket Software for Fall 2026: Subscriptions, Reserved Seating & Renewals

  • Vikram Bodas
    by Vikram Bodas • July 23, 2026

Fall subscription sales are the single biggest revenue moment for most performing arts organizations. Season packages, member renewals, and early access windows all open between July and September. So the season ticket software you pick this summer decides how the fall series actually sells. This guide covers what season ticket software needs to do in 2026, how to configure it for a theater, symphony, or concert series, and what SimpleTix costs for season-driven event programs. What season ticket software actually needs to do Selling season tickets is nothing like selling single-event tickets. First, one subscriber buys 4 to 20 events in a single package. Second, seats need to lock across the entire season. Third, renewals from prior subscribers happen weeks before the general public gets access. And fourth, add-ons like parking, pre-show dinner, and backstage passes attach to the subscription, not the event. So the operational checklist for season ticket software looks like this: Season pass or subscription products that group multiple events into one purchase Reserved seating with locked seats across the whole season, so the subscriber sits in the same seat every night Priority access windows for existing subscribers before general on-sale Payment plans or full-payment options so patrons can split large subscription costs Renewal workflows that let last year's subscribers re-up with one click Comp ticket management for donors, sponsors, and press seats Membership tiers with different pricing, benefits, and priority access Reporting by subscriber, not just by event If your current tool cannot handle these, you are probably running Excel spreadsheets on the side and losing renewals every year. What is season ticket software? Season ticket software is a ticketing platform designed to sell multi-event packages (season subscriptions) alongside individual tickets, with reserved seat continuity, subscriber priority access, and renewal workflows built in. The core difference...

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

Holiday Event Ticketing Software: Timed Entry, Reserved Seating & Capacity Control for...

  • Vikram Bodas
    by Vikram Bodas • July 23, 2026

If you run a holiday event, you are booking dates now. So the ticketing platform you pick this month determines how November and December actually go. This guide covers what holiday event ticketing software needs to do in 2026, how to configure it for the season crunch, and what SimpleTix costs for holiday events of any size. What holiday event ticketing software needs to do Holiday events compress a whole year of sales into six weeks. First, most tickets sell in a 4 to 8 week window between mid-November and January 1. Second, weather cancels outdoor events without warning. Third, family groups buy 4 to 8 tickets in one order, not 1. And fourth, capacity is measured per time slot, not per venue. So the ticketing checklist for holiday operators looks like this: Timed entry with per-slot capacity for drive-throughs, walk-throughs, and Santa visits Reserved seating for holiday theater, Nutcracker, and holiday concerts Group and family bundles so a family of six is one checkout, not six Fast scanning at the gate, including offline mode for cold outdoor venues Waitlists for when peak-hour slots sell out Add-ons for hot chocolate, photo packages, VIP tiers, and holiday merch Automated email reminders so guests do not forget their timed slot Same-day payouts to fund the season's operational costs If your current tool cannot do all of that, October is too late to switch. Move now. How do timed entry tickets work for holiday events? Timed entry lets you release a fixed number of tickets per time slot (typically every 15 or 30 minutes) so guests arrive in waves instead of one 6pm surge. For a Christmas light drive-through with a 45-minute route, that usually means 30 to 60 vehicles per 15-minute window. Over a 5-hour evening, you can process 600 to 1,200...

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

Eventbrite Pricing 2026: Fees, Refunds & What’s Actually Changed

  • Vikram Bodas
    by Vikram Bodas • July 8, 2026

Eventbrite pricing 2026 is a lot for event organizers to sort through. There are longstanding policies that quietly cost paid-event operators real money, and there is genuine news under new ownership. This guide covers what the fees actually cost you today, what actually changed under the Bending Spoons acquisition, and how the alternatives compare on real numbers. Below is the honest breakdown, sourced to Eventbrite's own pricing page and SEC filings. Eventbrite pricing 2026: current fee structure As of 2026, Eventbrite charges 3.7% + $1.79 per paid ticket for the service fee, plus 2.9% for payment processing. In-person sales carry a $1 + 2.9% fee. There is no per-ticket fee cap. For a quick benchmark of total organizer-side fees: On a $25 ticket, fees total about $3.44 (13.8%) On a $50 ticket, fees total about $5.09 (10.2%) On a $100 ticket, fees total about $8.39 (8.4%) On a $500 ticket, fees total about $34.79 (7.0%) On a $1,000 ticket, fees total about $67.79 (6.8%) The fees scale with ticket price with no ceiling. That is the story for anyone selling premium tickets, season passes, VIP tiers, or corporate packages. Eventbrite pricing 2026: no per-ticket fee cap Eventbrite does not cap total ticket fees. This has been true since 2018, when Eventbrite removed the previous cap during its IPO. For most organizers selling everyday tickets ($20 to $50), the absence of a cap rarely comes up in the math. But for organizers selling premium tickets, the uncapped structure translates into real per-event cost. Take a conference selling three ticket tiers on Eventbrite: $150 general admission: fee about $12.34 (8.2%) $400 VIP ticket: fee about $27.09 (6.8%) $800 sponsor ticket: fee about $50.90 (6.4%) For a 200-person conference with a mix of GA and VIP tickets, that translates into hundreds of dollars...

Sell More Tickets—More Easily

Attractions, seasonal events, performing arts centers and festivals love SimpleTix because it makes selling tickets… Simple!

GET STARTED FOR FREE