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What is a multi-visit pass?
A multi-visit pass is a prepaid bundle of a fixed number of play visits, bought at a discount and used one visit at a time. PlayAreaOS sells passes at the POS and punches each visit off as the family uses it; this entry defines the term, how a pass differs from a membership, and what a venue must track.
What is a multi-visit pass?
A family pays once for a set number of visits, ten for example, at less than ten times the single-visit price, and then uses them one at a time over the following weeks or months. The venue gets cash today and a reason for the family to come back; the family gets a cheaper visit and one fewer decision on a wet Sunday. Because the money arrives before the visits, the pass is a promise the venue has to keep track of: how many visits are left, when they expire, and who used the last one.
How is a pass different from a timed membership?
The unit. A pass is counted in visits; a timed membership is counted in days, a month or a term of unlimited visits. The pass suits the family that comes every couple of weeks and would not get value from a monthly fee; the membership suits the family that comes every couple of days and would burn through a visit bundle in a fortnight. A venue can offer both, and the pricing for each is different because the risk is different: a pass risks unused visits, a membership risks a family that visits every day. Both sit on the family record, and both are punched at the POS in the same way. The multi-visit passes and memberships guide covers designing the two side by side, and a calculator works out what a membership earns per visit once a family's real visit count is put in.
What must a venue track?
- Visits remaining on every pass, updated the moment a visit is used, not at the end of the day.
- Expiry, so the desk sees a lapsed pass before punching it.
- Who punched what, and when, so a disputed visit can be answered from the record rather than from memory.
- Mistakes. A visit punched in error must be undoable in a way that leaves a trace, and a double punch on a busy morning should be caught before it happens.
- Renewals. Whether unused visits carry over when a family buys the next bundle is the first thing a parent asks, so the rule needs to be stated on the pass and enforced by the system.
- Refunds and voids. If the sale that issued the pass is refunded, what happens to visits already used; and if a pass is voided, whether any money moves.
Why is a pass cash before it is income?
A strong month of pass sales looks wonderful in the POS and can mislead. The cash is real, but the visits are owed, and an accountant will usually treat unused visits as a liability, recognising revenue as each visit is punched. Two operational consequences follow. First, the venue should know at any moment how many visits it owes in total, because that is the service it has already been paid to deliver. Second, a pass with an expiry date needs a stated rule on what happens to visits that lapse, because the answer decides when the last of that liability is released. How to book it is your accountant's call; that the visits are an obligation is not.
How should a pass be priced?
Work from the single-visit price and the discount you are willing to give for cash up front, then check the result against how many of the visits you expect to be used. The formula is simple: effective price per visit = pass price ÷ number of visits. The judgement is in the discount and the expiry, and the number to watch afterwards is pass utilisation, the share of sold visits that are actually used, defined in the play area KPI glossary.
Illustrative example, not a benchmark: if a single visit is 10 units and a ten-visit pass is sold for 80 units, the effective price per visit is 8 units, a discount of 20 percent. If, over time, families use on average 8 of the 10 visits before expiry, the venue has delivered 8 visits for 80 units, the same as full price, and the discount has cost nothing but has brought the cash forward and the family back. Your own prices, discount and utilisation will differ; the method is what carries over.
How PlayAreaOS handles passes
Passes and memberships live on the family's own record, sold and punched off at the POS, so the desk can answer how many visits are left before the parent has finished asking.
Questions
What is the difference between a multi-visit pass and a membership?
A multi-visit pass is counted in visits: ten visits, used one at a time, usually before an expiry date. A timed membership is counted in days: a month or a term of unlimited visits. A pass suits the family that comes every couple of weeks; a membership suits the family that comes every couple of days. Both sit on the family record and both are punched at the POS.
Is the money from a pass sale revenue on the day it is sold?
Cash arrives on the day, but the visits are owed until they are used, so an accountant will usually treat unused visits as a liability and recognise revenue as each visit is punched. Ask your own accountant how to book it; the point for the operator is that a strong month of pass sales is cash before it is income, and that the visits still owed are a real obligation.
What happens when a family renews with visits still left?
Renewing keeps the unused visits and adds the new bundle on top, so nobody loses what they have already paid for. Whether they carry over is worth stating on the pass itself, because it is the first thing a parent asks.
Can families keep the passes they already hold when I switch systems?
Yes. Customers, your catalogue and outstanding balances come in from a spreadsheet or your current POS's export, and every import produces a check report you read before anything goes live, which is where a pass with the wrong number of visits left on it gets caught. The switching page walks through the move.
Does a pass visit start the child's play timer?
Yes. A punched visit puts the child on the timer board exactly as a paid session does, and counts the same in live occupancy, so the floor never has to know how a child got there.