Expert Guide to Managing Seating Arrangements with zkipster
Q: I want to use the seating feature, where do I start?
A: Toggle the ‘Dynamic Seating Charts’ ON through the Event Settings page to enable the 'Seating' feature for that event. Click on the 'Allow guests to be seated in more than one floor plan' checkbox if you will be seating the same guests on multiple floor plans.
From the 'Seating' section on the left hand side menu, you can upload a floor plan image, add a seating block or table to your chart and rescale as needed.
Q: How I do seat my guests automatically?
A: If you want to seat your guests automatically on the Seating chart, first you need to create the seating chart with all tables and seats. On your spreadsheet file, you will need to have assigned both the Table Label and Seat Label to your guests. You can find more information about this here: How to Seat Guests Automatically
Q: How can I have the main guest and their +1s to seat separately?
A: When using the 'Total Guests' field to account for +1s, the default behaviour is that the main guest and their entire party are seated together (either to the right or left side of the main guest). If you want to seat +1s separately, you need to account for the additional guests using the Guest Relationships feature. You can read more about how to account for +1s with the Relationships feature here: How to Account for +1s using Relationships
Q: How would I go about seating a party that are more than the allocated seats on a table? Will the seating chart automatically seat them on 2 tables?
A: If you are accounting for +1s using the 'Total Guest' field, it would not possible to split the party into two different tables. The default behaviour is that the main guest and their entire party are seated together (either to the right or left side of the main guest). You can use the Guest Relationships feature to account for those +1s instead so you can seat the rest of the party on a different table.
Q: Is there a way to block seats after guests have been assigned seats on a row?
A: Once guests are seated on a row/table and you want to block any seating from that row/table, the seated guests will automatically be unseated. Blocking seats needs to be done in advance. If you need to block seats from rows with seated guests and you don't want to lose information of the said guests, you can export your seating chart first then reseat them after you blocked the seats.
Q: Is there a way to provisionally seat an unconfirmed guest?
A: It is not possible to seat guests with an 'Unconfirmed' status. Only guests that have a 'Confirmed' guest status can be seated in the floor plan.
As a workaround, you might consider uploading your guests with a 'Confirmed' status on a temporary guest list and as you receive RSVPs, move the guests that submitted a confirmation to a 'Final' guest list and remove the guests that declined attendance from the seating chart.
Q: After we overlay zkipster tables onto an uploaded floor plan, can we save this as a template for future events?
A: You cannot save a floor plan as an account level template at the moment however, it is possible to duplicate the seating chart as part of the Event Duplication feature. You can find out more about this here: How to Duplicate Events in zkipster
Q: Can I add the environment's dimensions, as well as see the dimensions of the tables? And is it possible to add custom sized objects/blocks within the space?
A: It is not possible to add the space dimensions or custom objects to the floor plan, however, you can upload the actual layout image of the venue and this image could already include the dimensions. The floor plan image limit of 5120 x 5120. If it is over 5120 x 512, you would need to adjust the image dimension in order to upload it. Here's an article which provide more information ob how you can design your seating chart: Designing Your Seating Chart
Q: How are the share-a-table links sent out? Will I be able to customize the email for the share-a-table?
A: After building your floor plan and tables, you can create a shareable link by using the 'Share Table' button in the Active Shares screen. Set up the name of the link, set up the guest list and limit the number of seats associated with the link. Once you have generated and configured the link, you can use the email option and send out the shareable URL directly via the Active Shares screen, but the email from this function is not customizable. If you want to send the links via a customized email, use the 'Copy' button and share it using the Invitations feature or outside of zkipster. You can find out more about this here: How to Set up Share a Table