With the banks FINALLY dropping ATM fees (kudos to Choice and CBA), now it's time to ask this question again.
http://www.news.com.au/finance/money/costs/online-booking-fe…
Hoyts. Why Do You Charge Online Booking Fee?
louuisc on 28/10/2017 - 04:49
Last edited 28/10/2017 - 09:24 by 1 other user
Last edited 28/10/2017 - 09:24 by 1 other user
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Dendy dropped their booking fees so you could always support them if you wanted. (I see you're in Melbourne; I think there's a Dendy on Collins St?)
I am Hoyt. We do it to make more money.
No kidding.
So you are Hoyt, and together with your brothers, you are Hoyts?
Yes and live near a village. If I am readings this correctly.
Sure not at a greater union or palace.. yeah I am bad at this.
I think how it normally works is, Company A contracts Company B to build an online booking system for Company A. The options are hypothetically, to pay a total of $50k; or $5k upfront cost and $2.50 for every booking made. If you were in charge of finance and your budget is tight, which option do you think is more appealing from the business POV?
As the article from 2015 says-
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said the fees were legal, and businesses could apply various fees and charges for goods and services.
Almost 80 million cinema tickets were sold in Australia in 2014, and up to half of all tickets sold at some cinemas are bought online, potentially costing moviegoers more than $40 million.
Choice spokesman Tom Godfrey said it many cases, it might not be worth buying movie tickets online. “As a consumer you need to ask yourself if it’s worth coughing up these booking fees to cinemas and working out whether there is any value in them,” he said.
So the question is, why don't consumers try to save some money?
There is no incentive to drop the fees.I think because on tickets alone cinemas either break even or lose money.
The idea might be to encourage people to buy in person where they can spend money on candy bar items.
I always buy in person.
They wanna charge me for minimising their work getting payed up front? Fine, I'll just waste one of their employees time instead.
I never bother to buy online. If the cinema is that crowded I won't enjoy the film anyway so I pick quiet times. Saw Blade Runner 2049 for $10 the other evening. I was one of two people in that session.
I almost always buy online, because I like to pick my seats. We still line up for popcorn etc, so the booking fee really is irrelevant. There is almost never anyone at the ticket booth, and you have to buy your tickets at the food stand. We’re still going to be going through the same way, so why do we get charged the fee? They have made it really enjoyable with the new seats, this is just the one small thing that ticks me off. I go a lot, but I’d like to see the back of this fee.
It's so that you don't watch too many movies and become a movie addict.
This is now 2018, and I think they just raise their booking fee to $1.5. Can it be more disgusting??
I am with you 100% on this - the whole point of the internet was meant to increase convenience and allow cinemas to move staff to other areas like the snack bar. Instead they give us crappy websites that they charge us for AND cut staff to nothing across the cinema AND raise ticket prices AND keep complaining when people don't want to come around anymore!!!! (Ok I'm done).