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Online Payment/Reservation Systems for University Society Websites

We're trying to make a nice society website, where people can reserve and pay for tickets for events in advance.

So on average, imagine 1 event of 30-50 people every 2 months - what would be the most efficient online payment system to use? Would it be just the PayPal one?

Hopefully someone with experience or knowledge can shed light on this- would be much appreciated!
Reply 1
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Economister
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Economister
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Economister
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edjunkie
15
I've been to events both free and paid which have used this site:

www.eventbrite.co.uk

The underlying payment system is paypal or googlecheckout or standard credit card. If the event is free is there is no charge. The nice thing is, it can control numbers, release tickets at specified times and generate a printed ticket. The fee structure for paid events is set out. Only you can decide, if given the management it gives you over and above the payment mechanism if it is worth it.

PS I do not work for this company, I've only come across them attending events.:smile:
(edited 12 years ago)
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Economister
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Okay, thanks.

But what if we're trying to have the online payment/booking system on our own site... any ideas?
Reply 6
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edjunkie
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As I understand it you can customise the eventbrite page, so from your webpage you would have button saying buy tickets which could bring up a customised eventbrite page to handle the booking.

You can build your own page which handles date, time, number of tickets and then uses paypal or google checkout to handle the actual payment. But you will have to handle multiple people trying to book the last available ticket scenario, generating a unique ticket id/reference and if required physical ticket. You then have to factor in site maintenance, how easy is it to reconfigure your site for further events. Website maintenance, security and hosting time and effort should not be underestimated. Using something other than paypal or google checkout to handle payments as a start up can be costly and take a lot of effort to arrange. Assuming this system is meant to outlive the current society comittee, you would also need to have a hand over plan to continue the site in following years.

An alternative to eventbrite is www.eventelephant.com , the fee structure appears to be more competative, I've never used this site so you would have to satisfy yourself it does what you need. Why don't you try create a test free event and see if the customisation tools allow you to give the look and feel you want for your site.

Hope this helps or someone else comes up with something that matches your needs better.
Reply 7
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Economister
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Thanks Ed that's great advice

Any other suggestions would be great!

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