Revolutionise your group bookings & boost conversion rates with Pay with Friends

Festivals are better with friends. It’s always been that way. But what hasn’t always been as good is the ticket-purchasing experience. The need for one person to take the burden of the entire booking, before having to then extract money from the rest of their group is something event-goers will no doubt be keen to never do again.

That is why we developed Pay with Friends. It’s a payment solution that allows the lead booker to reserve tickets for their whole group while only having to pay for part of the payment upfront. The other members of the group are then sent their own unique links and have 48 hours to pay their individual part.

How does it work? 

At checkout, customers will be given the option to Pay with Friends. If selected, the lead booker will be asked how many friends they want to split their booking between before being asked to add the email addresses of the rest of their group. Alternatively, they will also be able to simply share a shareable link with their friends.

Once a ‘friend’ has received this invite, they will be able to access the order and pay for their share of the booking. All members of the group will be able to login and see the status of their booking, including a countdown tracker and details of those who have and have not already paid. If the full payment isn’t completed within 48 hours, then all friends who have paid are refunded, while the lead booker is refunded minus a 3% booking deposit. 

Watch our walk-through video below to see the full fan experience for yourself.

Pay with Friends has also been developed in response to the huge popularity of group bookings. Around 60% of festival-goers go in groups of more than three; 20% of those are more than six (source: Festicket consumer survey 2019). And festivals have become a popular alternative to group holidays with international festival travel increasing by 400% over the past five years (source: Festicket Wristband Report).

This payment solution is ideally suited for events that offer high value tickets, packages and items, such as major sporting events and ‘destination’ festivals and events. The ability to split the cost of packages that include tickets, accommodation and other extras is a huge win for customers. 

Destination Event Case Studies

US ‘destination’ festivals SerotonINN Sounds Series (DoubleTree Resort by Hilton Hotel, Denver, USA) and Revibe Wellness Retreat Festival (DoubleTree Resort by Hilton, Myrtle Beach, USA) are two examples of events that have used Pay with Friends to great effect.

SerotonINN’s Memorial Day Weekender saw the organisers take over an entire hotel facility to give fans a fully immersive experience. Guests were able book a room in the hotel with a balcony overlooking the stage, as well as enjoy on and off site daytime activities such as pool parties soundtracked by live DJ sets, and afterhours silent discos they could dial into straight from their room, with all packages available through Pay with Friends. One ticket accommodated up to four guests, and so Pay with Friends was the perfect solution to allow event-goers to easily split their booking, without the hassle of needing to use alternative payment methods such as Venmo, Paypal or CashApp. 

Revibe Wellness Retreat similarly took over an entire hotel resort. Groups of up to four were able to book a room and have their own private viewing area while staying socially distanced from others. 17% of all orders for the ReVibe Wellness Retreat festival were placed using Pay with Friends. 

Another example of an event taking advantage of Pay with Friends is the Moroccan series Soleil Rose. The series takes place at the beautiful Palmeraie Palace in Marrakech, where guests are able to stay and enjoy the hotel’s vast and luxurious facilities. Soleil Rose has had 11.4% of orders made via Pay with Friends.

Since launching the payment solution almost two years ago, we’ve seen it bring a number of benefits to events that have it activated, including:

•  Customers are five times more likely to book accommodation.
•  300% increase in average order value.
•  Increase in conversion rates.
•  Boosts on-sale impact thanks to reduction in time window between initial interest and purchases due to less organisation needed amongst groups.

If you’re interested in finding out more about Pay with Friends or any of our other egTicketing features, and how it can help your event, please get in touch today, we’d love to hear from you!