Pricing plays a critical role in how attractions manage demand, deliver great guest experiences, and keep operations running smoothly. Between peak periods, school holidays, weather shifts, and group bookings, your demand can change quickly. Venues need a pricing approach that helps them stay in control, protect revenue, and delight guests, even when the day doesn’t go exactly to plan.
ROLLER’s pricing strategy software is designed with that balance in mind. Our strategic tools help you set clear, consistent price rules that run quietly in the background. And when you need to make short-term adjustments, you have tactical levers that help you stay agile without disrupting your core setup. It’s the best of both worlds: a solid foundation with the ability to adapt when you need it.
In this guide, we’ll walk through how to get the most from a modern pricing toolkit, how strategic and tactical levers work together, and practical examples of how to use them to stay full, manage demand, and support guest loyalty.
Strategic vs. tactical pricing: what's the difference?
A strong pricing approach has two parts: the long-term strategy that keeps your venue running smoothly, and the short-term levers that help you adapt when needed. Both matter and play distinct roles in shaping demand, protecting revenue, and supporting guest value.
Strategic pricing is the foundation for your venue. It reflects how you want to price across days, seasons, and session types. Price Rules help you automatically adjust pricing based on time, day, or group size, reducing manual work and ensuring your pricing stays aligned with how your venue operates. Once set, these rules keep running without the need for constant management.
Tactical pricing gives you flexibility. These levers help you encourage a specific action in the moment, like bringing back guests who haven’t visited recently, rewarding loyalty, supporting a seasonal campaign, increasing basket size, or improving checkout conversion. Discount codes, promotions, automated discounts, and Buy & Get offers all support these moments without requiring changes to your core pricing setup.
Used together, strategic and tactical pricing help you plan with confidence and adapt with ease. Strategic tools set your long-term structure, while tactical tools help you act quickly when opportunities arise. It’s a pricing approach that stays steady, but never static.
Practical ways to use pricing at your venue
Below are real examples of how attractions use strategic and tactical pricing to support their business goals.
Encourage earlier bookings
The early bird price rule is the strongest lever for this objective. Early bird rules reward guests who book ahead by offering a better price when they commit in advance. You set the rules, and the incentive appears clearly at checkout to prompt guests toward earlier booking decisions. Earlier bookings give venues a more accurate view of upcoming attendance, helping teams plan staffing, stock, and marketing activity with confidence. They also create a steadier booking pattern across the week rather than a late surge of last-minute reservations.
Increase ticket sales for quieter days or sessions
Time-based pricing is designed specifically to shift demand into quieter periods. Time-based automatically adjusts pricing for peak and off-peak periods, offering a better price for quieter times of day or days of the week. Once you set the rules, the price difference appears at checkout, giving guests a reason to choose a quieter session. This helps venues make better use of off-peak times and reduce pressure during busier periods.
Encourage group bookings
Quantity-based price rule helps you incentivize more group bookings. It allows you to offer a cheaper price when guests book more people. A “buy more and save” message appears at checkout, making it easy for families and groups to see the value of bringing more guests. This helps venues grow average booking value and drive higher attendance per transaction.
Bring guests back and reward loyalty
Discount codes are a great way to send targeted offers to guests based on the data you have on them. Send personalized offers, such as welcome offers, birthday vouchers, or “we miss you” messages, to specific guest segments, giving them a reason to return. Well-timed incentives help venues strengthen relationships, encourage loyalty, and bring lapsed guests back into the booking flow.
Leverage special events and seasonal moments
Promotions are the best lever for this objective. Promotions let you create broad, publicly available offers that appear automatically in your online checkout. They’re ideal for moments like holidays, Halloween, school holidays, or end-of-season events, when you want to build momentum and make it easy for anyone to take up the offer. Because promotions apply to all eligible guests, they’re a simple way to drive timely interest, support campaign activity, and maximize attendance during key periods without changing your core pricing structure.
Increase average order value
Buy & Get offers are a simple way to encourage guests to add more to their visit. These offers prompt guests to add items such as food, drinks, socks, or bonus activities while booking. The incentive appears directly at checkout, making upgrades feel simple and relevant. This helps venues lift basket size while giving guests a more personalised visit.
Improve checkout conversion
Automated discounts enhance your campaigns, making it easier for guests to complete their booking. Once you’ve set them up, eligible discounts are applied automatically at checkout, so guests don’t need to remember or manually enter a code. This creates a smoother booking experience, reduces abandoned carts, and helps lift conversion with no extra work for your team.
Ready to make pricing work harder for your venue?
A thoughtful pricing approach helps you stay full, guide demand, and keep operations running smoothly, without adding more work for your team. With the right mix of strategic rules and tactical levers, you can influence bookings earlier, support seasonal moments, reward loyal guests, and lift spend in a way that feels natural for both your venue and your visitors.
If you’re already using ROLLER, now is a great time to review your pricing setup and explore the tools available to you.
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Not a ROLLER customer? Schedule a chat to see how our pricing toolkit can help your venue stay full, guide demand, and support your business goals.
