Event Booking and Ticketing System
Guide
Selling tickets or taking bookings is the easy part. The hard part is everything after: collecting each guest’s menu choices and allergies, taking deposits, seating the room and briefing the kitchen. This guide covers your options for event booking and ticketing, and why keeping the booking connected to the pre-order matters.
Creventa is an events management platform for restaurants, hotels and venues, covering enquiry management, guest pre-orders, allergen and dietary compliance, deposits and payments, drag-and-drop seating plans and guest feedback. For ticketed and self-service event bookings, guests book and pay online, then flow straight into pre-orders, allergens and seating, so there is no separate system to reconcile.
Your options for event booking and ticketing
1. A general ticketing platform
Eventbrite, TryBooking and DesignMyNight sell tickets and take payment well. The limitation for hospitality is that they stop at the ticket: no per-guest menu choices, no allergen capture, no seating, so you still run a spreadsheet alongside for the actual dinner.
2. A booking or POS system you already run
If you already run a booking or point-of-sale system such as SevenRooms, Lightspeed, Tevalis or OpenTable, it handles reservations and payments well. Creventa integrates with these and layers on the detailed pre-order, allergen, deposit and seating workflow for ticketed events and shared party nights that the reservation function alone treats as secondary.
3. A purpose-built events platform (Creventa)
Creventa takes the booking or ticket online and then carries the guest straight into pre-orders, allergens, deposits and seating, all in one record. Guests self-book without calling, the organiser manages their own party, and the kitchen and floor get accurate reports automatically. It works alongside your existing booking system rather than replacing it.
The biggest challenges we had were for our ticketed and Christmas events. It was a lot of manual work with spreadsheets, slow, confusing and hard to communicate. Now, with Creventa, everything’s in one place, smooth sailing.
Rachel Desousa
The Parmar Collection
Frequently asked questions
What is the best way to take bookings and sell tickets for events?
It depends on how much happens after the ticket sale. A general ticketing platform (Eventbrite, TryBooking, DesignMyNight) sells the ticket and takes payment but stops there. A reservation system with a booking add-on suits table bookings. A purpose-built events platform such as Creventa takes the booking or ticket online and then carries the guest straight into pre-orders, allergens, deposits and seating, so a ticketed Christmas night or gala dinner runs from one system rather than three.
Can guests self-book ticketed events without calling the venue?
Yes. Creventa lets guests self-book and pay for ticketed events online, which removes phone-and-spreadsheet admin from your team. The Parmar Collection uses this for its ticketed and shared Christmas party nights for up to 500 guests.
Does the ticketing connect to pre-orders and seating?
Yes, and that is the point. Once a guest has booked, the same record captures their menu choices, allergies and table, and feeds the chef sheet, food pass and place cards. Nothing is re-keyed between a ticketing tool and a separate pre-order tool.
Can I take deposits and payments for event bookings?
Yes. Creventa collects deposits, balances or full payments through Stripe and Adyen at the point of booking, which reduces no-shows and secures revenue for high-demand dates.
Related reading
- Best pre-order management software for hospitality venues
- Christmas party booking and pre-order system
- Pre-ordering system for group and party bookings
Last reviewed
Reviewed July 2026. Third-party products are named for comparison and are trademarks of their respective owners.
