Reserve tickets during checkout

Enable Hold tickets during checkout to reserve ordinary tickets while buyers complete attendee details, additional questions, and payment. The countdown starts after they select tickets and choose Continue. For recurring events and timed entry, they must also choose a concrete date or time slot.

​

Enable ticket reservations

1. Open Events → Edit event → Tickets.
2. Turn on Hold tickets during checkout, above the ticket list, and save the event. It is off by default and applies to every widget selling that event.
3. Open Settings → General → Checkout and set Ticket Hold Time in Minutes. Enter a whole number from 1 to 120; the default is 15. Save the site settings.
4. Preview the event, select tickets, and choose Continue. Confirm that the countdown appears while you enter attendee details and proceed to payment.

The ticket reservation duration is independent of Seat Hold Time in Minutes. Changing a duration affects new reservations. Turning the event switch off stops new reservations; existing reservations still need to complete, expire, or be released.

See the Checkout settings on mobile

Dates following the main event’s ticket settings inherit its reservation switch. Change it on the main event, or give the date its own ticket configuration before setting a different policy.

​

Complete attendee details before the timer expires

Once the server confirms a reservation, the buyer sees Your tickets are reserved for and the remaining minutes and seconds. Existing registration questions, waivers, and per-ticket attendee forms continue to apply. Returning to a previous step, editing answers, changing a promo code, or retrying validation does not restart the timer. Increasing quantities or changing a ticket/date checks the replacement before releasing the previous allocation. If the replacement is unavailable, the buyer must review their selection before continuing. Decreasing quantities or removing a cart selection releases the corresponding ordinary-ticket allocation.

See the countdown on mobile

Keep checkout open. The browsing cart and answers stay in memory; reloading the page clears them. Closing the page does not instantly release a reservation, but unpaid tickets become available when its deadline passes.

​

When a reservation expires

Checkout blocks a new payment attempt and offers Check availability. Entered answers remain in the current page. Selecting that button requests a new reservation; the tickets may have become unavailable while the first reservation expired. If only some tickets remain, change the quantities or remove the affected selection. An old cart does not guarantee admission. A successful purchase is required to confirm the booking.

​

Payment processing

The ordinary-ticket timer does not restart when payment begins. Once a payment may still complete, Payment processing. Your tickets remain reserved. replaces the countdown while Ticket Spot verifies its outcome. A timeout alone does not free tickets that could still be paid for. If a payment error appears, check the order/payment status before retrying. PayPal approval and Square card entry still need to reach the final payment action before the reservation expires. A free registration must also complete within its reservation window. After a successful purchase, the order confirmation replaces checkout and the reservation timer disappears.

​

Carts and capacity

Each event selection in a multi-event cart keeps its deadline. The cart shows the earliest relevant expiry and identifies that event. Adding another event does not renew earlier reservations. Review, renew, or remove expired ordinary selections before paying for the combined order. Seated selections retain their Seats.io deadline and existing payment-time renewal rules. When they share a cart with ordinary reservations, the cart also considers their known seat deadline. An expired seated selection must be chosen again or removed; the ordinary-ticket availability button cannot renew seats. Reservations protect both ticket inventory and event places. Two table tickets admitting six people each reserve two tickets and twelve places. Group tickets use their composition. See capacity used per ticket.

​

Supported checkout

Use this setting for ordinary ticketed events, recurring dates, and timed slots sold through Ticket Spot checkout. Embedded Ticket Spot checkout can use reservations even on a store-connected site when the event is not linked to an external checkout product. The switch is unavailable for seating charts, all-sessions passes, exclusive whole-slot bookings, membership-only sales, RSVP-only registration, and events linked to Shopify, Ecwid, or Square catalog checkout. Seating reservations and exclusive bookings keep their existing rules. Joining a waitlist does not reserve tickets. Before linking an event or series to external store checkout, turn off ordinary-ticket holds and allow outstanding reservations and payments to resolve.

​

Customize the wording

Open Design → Widget → All Settings → Text → Checkout → General. Search for Ticket Hold to find the countdown, expiry, processing, low-time warning, retry-button, and checking labels. Expand Reservation error messages to customize unavailable tickets, changed selections, a busy checkout, failed availability checks, required reservations, payment-status review, and access-code or membership errors. Keep {time} in Ticket Hold Countdown Text. Reservation failures use these messages rather than raw server diagnostics. The default wording follows the visitor’s supported language when Automatic translation is enabled. Custom wording stays as entered. Text changes do not change the reservation duration.