New Which? research reveals that two thirds (67%) of people who were charged a booking fee told us that the level of fees seemed expensive in relation to the ticket’s face value and the overwhelming majority of people (93%) agreed that companies should always show any extra compulsory charges upfront.
Half of consumers (49%) who booked tickets online in the last 12 months said that additional compulsory charges had put them off from buying tickets for an event altogether.
In a separate mystery shopping investigation which looked at 15 different music, comedy and theatre events across the country with 20 ticketing companies, Which? uncovered extra charges of up to more than a third of the ticket's face value. Of the 78 individual bookings, in only two cases were tickets being sold at face value without any additional compulsory fees like booking or delivery charges.
Here at UKTW we use the SeatChoice ticket engine to find you all of the top suppliers so that you can see the difference and easily shop around. The Which? report did not look at tickets on discount, nor at some of the amazing hotel and meal deals that are available but di , rightly, highlight some of the continuing obfustication of fees that tends to catch the user unawares.