How to pass fees onto your ticket buyers

Learn how to add a booking fee or transaction fee to your tickets, to pass on your ticket fees and sell tickets for free.

Rhio avatar
Written by Rhio
Updated over a week ago

At Ticket Tailor, we allow you to choose whether you want to pass on, or absorb your fees for paid tickets.

You can add three types of fee, or a combination, to your ticket prices. You can add a booking fee, transaction fee, or sales tax.

  • Booking fees - a fixed fee charged per ticket sold.

  • Transaction fees - a fixed or percentage fee, or a combination of both, charged once per transaction, regardless of how many tickets are purchased in that transaction.

  • A sales tax - a percentage fee charged once per transaction, regardless of how many tickets are purchased in that transaction.

Fees can be set up as default settings, via 'Box office settings' > 'Checkout fees and tax', and can also be overridden for each event under 'Advanced settings' on the edit event form.

(Some ticketing platforms pass on their service fees as a booking fee to customers buying tickets so that it appears event ticketing is free for event organisers to use. This actually means that your ticket buyers pay more than the ticket price you set. We are totally transparent about our fees and give you complete control over how much your ticket buyers pay.)

πŸ’‘ We have provided an example of how you might add your fees so that your event ticketing is free at the bottom of this article, although your fees may vary depending on your payment processor and currency.


Adding a booking fee

Booking fees are set as a fixed fee per ticket. They must be added to each ticket type that you want to have a booking fee.

To add a booking fee:

  • Open your 'Edit event and tickets' page.

  • Under 'Create ticket types' click to 'Add a new ticket type'.

  • Select the checkbox to expand the 'Advanced settings'.

  • In the box labelled 'Booking fee' enter the fee amount that you would like to charge per ticket.

    Image shows the Ticket Tailor advanced ticket type settings, with an arrow pointing to the booking fee box.

Adding a transaction fee

Transaction fees are set as a fixed or percentage fee, or a combination of both, charged once per transaction, regardless of how many tickets are purchased in that transaction.

πŸ’‘ Your default transaction fee settings will apply to all of the events in your box office unless they have a custom transaction fee set.

To add a default transaction fee:

  • Open your 'Box office settings' page and then click on 'Checkout fees and tax' in the left-hand menu.

  • Enter the fee amount that you would like to charge per transaction into the 'Transaction fee' boxes. Leave the value as 0 if you don't want to charge either a 'Percentage', 'Flat fee' or both.

To set an event-specific transaction fee:

  • Open the event you want to set a transaction fee for.

  • Click 'Edit event and tickets'.

  • Scroll to the bottom of the page to 'Event settings', and expand the 'Advanced settings'.

  • Select the 'Set custom transaction fee for this event' checkbox and enter your amount.

Adding sales tax

A sales tax is a percentage fee charged once per transaction, regardless of how many tickets are purchased in that transaction. The sales tax applies to all events in your box office.

πŸ’‘ Your default sales tax settings will apply to all of the events in your box office unless they have a custom transaction fee set.

To add a default sales tax:

  • Navigate to your Ticket Tailor dashboard, and then 'Box office settings'.

  • Select 'Checkout fees and tax' from the left-hand menu.

  • Add the percentage fee you would like to apply to all sales.

  • Optionally, add a label to the fee. (This label will be shown on invoices if you chose to send them to your ticket buyers).

To set an event-specific sales tax:

  • Open the event you want to set a sales tax for.

  • Click 'Edit event and tickets'.

  • Scroll to the bottom of the page to 'Event settings', and expand the 'Advanced settings'.

Select the 'Set custom sales tax for this event' checkbox and enter your amount.


An example calculation using Stripe

Imagine I am using Stripe as my payment processor, and I have bought 100 Pre pay ticket credits for my upcoming event.

In my Stripe account, I can see that they charge me 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.

My Pre pay credits mean I pay Ticket Tailor $0.52 per ticket sold.

I will add 3 fees, so that all of my costs are passed on to my ticket buyers:


My ticket price is $10.00.

I'll add additional fees of:

Booking fee - $0.52 (to cover the Ticket Tailor fees).

Transaction fee - Percentage - 2.9% (to cover the Stripe percentage).

Transaction fee - Flat fee - $0.30 (to cover the Stripe flat fee).

If my ticket buyer buys 2 tickets, they will pay a total of $21.96, covering all of my fees.

πŸ’‘ Free tickets are always free. For more information about how we charge for paid or seated tickets, please visit our pricing page.

Did this answer your question?