Advance Booking Periods (also known as Advance Sales) determine when tickets become available for purchase prior to a film's opening date. You can create periods of any duration, for example, 1 week prior to the opening date, or 3 days prior to the opening date.

Create Advance Booking Rules and assign them to Sales Profiles to provide different advance booking periods that can be assigned to new Film records prior to their release.

When an Advance Booking Period for a particular film is created, tickets are made available to the general public. Loyalty members can be given extra time that the public cannot access.

Advance Booking Rules are configured in Head Office by film buyers and enforced at the cinemas.

Steps

Vista recommends that you configure Advance Booking Periods centrally and download it to cinemas as required. 

1. Create an Advance Booking Rule.
   1. Create a new Rule record in Maintenance > Rules. For example: 1 week advance sales.
   2. Set the Type to Advance Booking.
   3. Select the Before Date to base the advance booking period on:
      1. Cinema Film Opening Date - The Advance Booking Period applies the specified number of days before the film's Opening Date.
      2. First Booking Date - The Advance Booking Period applies the specified number of days before the first session of the film at a Site, excluding sneak previews.
      3. National Film Opening Date - The Advance Booking Period applies the specified number of days before the film's National Opening Date.

         Tip: Configure your rule in Head Office and download your rule to all cinemas to start your advance booking periods at the same time.

   4. Set the number of days in the Advance Booking Period (day).

      Note: The Booking Start Time (hr:min) defaults to the start of the business day configured by the system setting StartTimeOfDay.

   5. (Optional) Set the maximum limit for extra time given to Loyalty members with advance booking rule limitations on recognitions.
   6. Click Save.
2. Create a Sales Profile and associate it with the Advance Booking Rule.
   1. Create a new Sales Profile record in Maintenance > Sales Profiles. For example: 1 week advance sales.
   2. (Optional) If you want a single rule applied to both paid and unpaid bookings, select One rule for all booking types.
   3. Select your configured Advance Booking Rule.
   4. If you want to allow paid bookings in advance but limit unpaid bookings, select Different rule per booking type.
   5. Select individual Advance Booking Rules for paid bookings, unpaid bookings, and regular ticket sales.
   6. Click Save.

      Note: Selecting Advertise open sessions in advance on the Sales Profile overrides the value of this option as configured against the individual Rule or Rules.

3. Associate the Sales Profile with any new Films.
   1. Open or Create a Film record in Maintenance > Films.
   2. On the Box Office tab, select the configured Sales Profile.
   3. Click Save. After creating sessions for your film, tickets may be purchased from the start of the advance booking period that is configured by the sales profile.
4. (Optional) Create a Loyalty recognition for Loyalty members.

Each film with that Sales Profile will now have the advance booking period defined by the rule (and any Loyalty recognition if applicable).

A Default Sales Profile can be configured, and all new Film records will automatically have it assigned. It is also possible to configure different rules and sales profiles for special occasions.

For example: The standard advance booking period may be three days before a film's release, but for certain blockbuster films it may be appropriate to increase this to 30 days, depending on agreements with distributors.

See also:

• Advance booking rule limitations on recognitions
• Giving extra advance booking time to Loyalty members
• Working with Opening Dates for Advance Bookings
• Working with Time Zones for Advance Bookings