Chester Zoo Chester Zoo sold out of membership entry tickets but can book advanced tickets

Been waiting a while to book tickets for Chester Zoo as, with the current situation, you have to book them online. But every time I go on, they always seem to be "sold out".

What I have noticed is, even though I can't book membership tickets, I can book advanced tickets and pay full price. What's going on here? Are they limiting the membership tickets? I don't want to jump to conclusions, but at a glance, it looks like they're just letting new paying customers in so they can get more money.

Here are the two booking interfaces:

(don't seem to be able to embed imgr links so here it is Imgur)

 

I think you'l find many zoos are doing this, they do need the money so if members fill the limited entry that's not going to help them.
Whipsnade release them in 2 weeks blocks and then if they have spare spaces in the paid tickets they email members offering them the extra places, well they did on the last release.

It must hard for them to get it right for everyone and we as members must try and be patient, first lot of tickets released at whipsnade had quite a high percentage of people booking multiple dates and not turning up so that has now been reduced to twice per block

 

They will probably have a certain percentage of slots each day for members to use. They can't allow unlimited member's visits as they need income from the paying visitors that are also selling out. It is just a case of patience and persistence I'm afraid - if they let all the slots be available to members there would be days with very few paying visits at all and other zoos (Whipsnade, as noted by @amaroc, and Colchester certainly) have had a lot of problems with members booking and no-showing, depriving both other members and paying visitors the chance to visit - and leaving the zoo with no additional income for that slot at all.

 

Just been on for members there's August 25th and all days for the first 2 weeks of September for members to book

 

Yes, I think the zoo's financial situation clearly requires a ring-fenced number of tickets for paying visitors. Nonetheless, it's frustrating for members who are continuing to pay for membership not to be able to make use of it.

 

RZSS are now allowing members access after 2pm everyday, without having to book in advance.

 

How many members do they have? I would love Chester to do that same but I suspect the numbrs that could turn up would be unmanageble.

 

I'm not sure how many members RZSS have, the 2018 annual report details income of approx £1.4m from Memberships, if you based that on the adult membership price of £70 (it would have been slightly less that this in 2018) that gives a rough figure of 20,000 members.

https://www.rzss.org.uk/media/7244/...ments-for-the-year-ended-31-december-2018.pdf

 

It's a dilemma and I can understand why members' slots might be limited. However, I would be annoyed if it happened at 'my' zoo - Paignton - where we've been pass holders for many years. We usually visit twice a week and always have a coffee. In the depths of winter, we've been the only customers in the restaurant at times and staff have said 'What on earth are you doing here? You must be mad!'

 

In these critical times I'd rather the Zoo, any zoo, received £50 from "ordinary" visitors' admission than zero from our attendance as members (and we are unlikely to spend more than they on food etc).

 

One of the reasons I stayed away from Chester, I also gave a pretty big donation, I can wait to come back to see the place.

 

Chester has at least 10,000 more members, in fact suspect its probably double that before the lockdown, I suspect they lost a few in lockdown.

By how popular members days are I suspect they would be over whelmed if offer no bookings at 2pm for them.

 

I don’t think Twycross have limited there number of members per day they haven’t said so any ways but as a member you can only book one visit in one day guess this helps stem the flow

 

They would benefit from using a contemporary booking system, such as Eventbrite which is used by the National Trust, rather than cobbling together their own in a rather shambolic fashion.

I have a members' ticket for this coming Monday that I don't want to use, but I can't cancel it, and chances are I'll never get a reply to my email.

 

Thank you for this, and I dont think you are on your own. Since re-opening we are beginning to see some trends - a low level of season ticket use, whilst sales of such tickets (to both renewals and new holders), continues to be strong - secondly a large proportion of new visitors, with surveys are showing almost 50% have not been to us before - repeat visits being made by people who chose to pay each time, rather than buy a season pass, because they know this will help us.
All very positive, and very much appreciated.

These are produced by commercial companies and are expensive, and not without their own issues. I can well see that a large zoo with its own IT department would choose to do it themselves.

 

Not able to visit on this date?
If you are no longer able to visit, please cancel your booking by logging into your members account, and ensure the space is freed up for someone else to enjoy.

Not able to visit on this date?
If you are no longer able to visit, please cancel your booking by clicking the button below so that the space is freed up for someone else to enjoy.

 

Most of the IT department would be furloughed, and Chester outsource anyway to website companies such as Code. There is obviously a cost of using third-party systems, but it would be outweighed by the positives of a booking system that didn't constantly crash and produce errors, leading to a lot of customer frustration.

Well that's new (since I booked anyway) so thank you for drawing my attention to it. Duly cancelled.

 

Presumably then Chester did not deliberately source a second rate system from Code, and until it was properly tested by volume after re-opening, they would not have been in a position to know exactly how deficient you say it is - and by then it is too late to start from scratch...

 

To the OP, I think this article sums up the main problem: Chester Zoo have had more than 1,000 'no show' visitors this week

I find it really shocking that people who supposedly support the zoo act like this. Presumably if the zoo didn't limit the number of free member tickets per day, they might book up all the available slots, robbing the zoo of much-needed income.

There have been people on some Facebook groups openly trading and selling zoo admission tickets, its become almost like the concert ticket touting industry! I find it very hard to believe that so many people book a slot and then can't go.

 

I don't think there's anything hugely shocking about it - if you have to book to visit 4+ weeks in advance, which is currently the case, there's always a risk that you might have to change your plans. Perhaps more publicity for the cancellation option (discussed by SMR/littleRedPanda above) would be a good step?