Questions and answers
Christmas attractions and light trails: questions, answered
bindro sells timed arrival entries for Christmas light trails: every night is cut into arrival slots, each slot holds its own inventory, and a visitor picks a night, picks an arrival time and pays on one phone-sized page. Peak nights and early-bird rungs are separate tiers with their own prices, windows and stock, and the price is derived on the server every time, so a stale page cannot buy a closed rung. The gate scans a wristband or a code with no signal at all. Money reaches the trail two days after the last night of the event it was sold under, never before.
Reviewed: 2026-08-09
What trails ask
How do I sell timed entry for a Christmas light trail?
Generate a grid of arrival slots and each one carries its own stock. You give bindro a date range, the entry times you want to run each night and how long an arrival window lasts, and it creates a session per time per night with an inventory pool for every ticket type. A visitor picks a night, picks an arrival time and pays on one page; availability on that page refreshes every fifteen seconds, and the last entry in a slot cannot be sold twice because the pool is locked in the same transaction that takes the money. Two hundred slots is the limit per generation, so a long season is generated in a few batches.
How should a light trail handle weather cancellations?
On the night itself, in one action. Open the night on your event, choose "Move or cancel", and the form tells you what is at stake before you press anything — how many bookings the night holds and how much money is sitting on them. You then choose what happens to that money: refund everyone to the card they paid with, give everyone a credit to spend on another night, or keep their booking for a date you will offer. Nothing is the default; you have to pick. Tick the box and every visitor on the night is emailed once the money has actually moved, and told which of the three happened to theirs. The night comes off sale immediately, so nobody buys into a night you are not opening. What bindro will not do is decide it for you: there is no forecast anywhere in the product, so the call, and its timing, are yours. Calling it before the arrival slots start is still kinder — until then a visitor can refund themselves from their own confirmation.
How do I price arrival slots to fill a season?
Price the ticket type, not the slot, and use rungs and pools to shape demand. A price ladder is successive tiers with successive on-sale windows, each keeping its own stock, and the rung is enforced when the money moves rather than in the page — a visitor holding a stale early-bird link is refused the closed rung. A peak-night price is a separate ticket type: open its pool on the nights it applies and set the off-peak type's pool to zero for those nights, one pool at a time. The price a visitor paid stays readable on their order after the ladder moves on, so a January reconciliation shows what each night actually earned.
When does a light trail actually get paid?
Two days after the last night of the event the entries were sold under, in one payment, never before delivery. That timing is per EVENT, not per night: if your whole six-week season is one event with two hundred arrival slots, every pound of it lands in one payout two days after closing night, no matter how completely week one sold out. Trails that need money during the season publish shorter events — a week or a fortnight each — and accept that the visitor sees several listings. There is no weekly payout setting to turn on and no advance against future sales.
Can I sell a season pass for my light trail?
No. The capability behind season passes is not enabled for this vertical, so the checkout refuses one and no page will offer it, even though a season pass appears in this vertical's own list of pricing models. Nothing on bindro sells unlimited entry or a resident pass this season. If what you want is a product somebody buys once and uses on a night of their choosing, a gift card is the closest real thing: it is stored value they redeem against a normal timed entry, so the slot still takes the stock it should.
What happens if somebody buys four entries and never names the other three?
Those places are refused at the gate. Any booking of more than one entry creates a group with a place per entry, and because a trail asks nothing about each visitor at checkout, every place starts unnamed. The booker is emailed a roster link straight away and can fill the names in themselves or send each place to the person taking it. A place nobody has named is left off the offline door list and refused by the online scan, so a family that ignored the email arrives with entries that do not admit. Your gate staff can still admit them by hand from the console once somebody names them.
Does the gate work when there is no signal in the field?
Yes, and that is deliberate for this vertical. Your gate device downloads a manifest of everyone expected before the night starts, admits a wristband or a code against that list with no connection at all, and replays its scans when it next reaches the internet. Anything that disagreed — the same band scanned at two gates, most often — is recorded as a conflict on a page you read afterwards rather than being resolved by guesswork at the time. Be aware there is no bindro scanner app: the manifest, the replay and the scan are an API your device calls.
Can I stop somebody walking the trail twice on one entry?
Not with software. Trails are configured as single entry and nothing in the engine enforces it: a second scan is recorded and flagged as a conflict for you to read later, whichever gate makes it, and that gate is told the credential has already been used to get in. It cannot work any other way when two devices are offline in a field — neither of them can know what the other just admitted. If re-entry matters to you, it is a wristband colour and a member of staff on the exit, and the conflict list afterwards tells you how big the problem actually was.
How do I run different prices on a Tuesday and a Saturday?
Make them different ticket types and control which one is open on which night. Price lives on the ticket type rather than the session, and slot generation gives every type a pool at every slot, so the way you get a peak price on Saturdays is to set the off-peak type's pool to zero on Saturday slots and the peak type's pool to zero the rest of the week. That is one edit per pool, so most trails settle on two or three types and a weekend-shaped pattern rather than pricing every night separately.
Can I sell parking, hot chocolate and a photo package alongside entry?
Yes, in two different places, and they behave differently. Add-ons are sold at checkout with the entry: a catalogue item with options, each option holding its own stock, priced from your catalogue rather than the form. On the night, the F&B and merch tills sell to whoever is standing there. The difference that matters is money: checkout add-ons flow through bindro and reach you in the payout, while till takings never enter the platform ledger because they were already yours.
Does bindro handle US sales tax on entries?
Yes, price-exclusive, applied server-side on the one money derivation the quote and the charge both use. You set a rate on the event, the checkout itemises the tax separately from the entry price and from the platform fee, and the collected tax is held on its own account rather than credited to your balance — so it can never be paid out to you by mistake and it is never part of what the platform charges its fee on. Filing and remitting it remains yours: bindro calculates and holds, and reports what it collected. It does not transmit anything to any tax authority.
Can I take a walk-up sale at the gate on a busy night?
Yes, by card, through the same machinery as an online sale. A walk-up takes a real hold against the arrival slot, derives the price the same way, applies the same registration rules and issues a real credential, so a gate sale cannot oversell a slot that just filled online and cannot skip anything a website booking would have to satisfy. The day-of page shows live remaining capacity per slot while you do it. Cash entry sales are deliberately not supported: the platform never held that money, and crediting your balance for it would pay you twice.
What does bindro charge a light trail?
A percentage plus a fixed amount per paid entry, and nothing at all for free entries — there is no monthly fee, no season minimum and nothing to pay before you sell. You choose who carries it: the trail absorbs it, the visitor pays it on top, or you split it. The rate itself does not change with that choice, only which side of the sale it comes out of, and the checkout shows the visitor what they are paying either way. Collected sales tax is never part of what the fee is charged on.
What visitors ask
What does my arrival time mean — do I have to be there exactly then?
Your arrival time is the start of a window during which the gate will let you in, not the moment the trail begins for you. The trail sets how long that window lasts when it builds its slots — often fifteen or thirty minutes — and arriving inside it is what keeps the queue moving, because the whole point of timed entry is that the same number of people are not all at the entrance at seven o'clock. Walking the trail itself usually takes considerably longer than the window, and nobody moves you along.
Can I change my entry to a different night?
No. There is no date change on a light trail booking: you cannot move an entry to another night, and you cannot swap an arrival time for a later one. What you can do is refund yourself in full from the link in your confirmation email, right up until your arrival slot starts, and then book the night you actually want at whatever price is on sale then. After your slot has started that link stops offering a refund and it becomes the trail's decision, so if your plans change it is worth acting before the gate opens.
I bought entries as a Christmas present — can I put them in someone else's name?
Not on a light trail. Entries cannot be transferred to another person and the name on a booking cannot be changed after payment, so the entry stays attached to the booking you made. In practice this rarely matters at the gate, because the trail scans a code or a wristband rather than checking anybody's ID — you can simply forward the confirmation email to the person going. If you would rather give something they choose the date for, ask the trail whether they sell gift cards, which are redeemed against whichever night suits.
What happens to my booking if the trail closes for bad weather?
Whether to close is entirely the trail's decision — nothing here predicts weather or calls a night off by itself. When they do call one off, they choose what happens to every booking on that night at once: a refund to the card you paid with, a credit to spend on another night, or keeping your booking for a date they will offer you. If they ask for it, you get an email saying which of the three happened to yours, sent after the money has actually moved. Their published policy is what decides between them, so it is worth reading before you book. If your arrival slot has not started yet you can also refund yourself immediately from the link in your confirmation email rather than waiting.
How do I get a refund, and how long do I have?
Use the link in your confirmation email, which opens your own booking without a password, and refund the whole of what is still refundable. The window is open until your arrival slot starts — there is no notice period and no fee held back — and if the trail has cancelled every night of the event, it stays open indefinitely so your money cannot be trapped. Once your slot has started, the decision belongs to the trail and you will need to ask them. Anything paid with a gift card goes back to the gift card.
Is the trail buggy and wheelchair friendly, and where do I say what we need?
The booking page has an access requirements box where you can describe step-free access, seating, an assistance animal or a need for a quieter arrival time, and what you write is passed to the trail with your booking. It is a message to them, not a setting that changes anything automatically: nothing reserves an accessible space, holds a quieter slot or reroutes you. Whether the path itself is buggy friendly depends on the site, so if the answer decides whether you come, contact the trail before you book rather than after.
Do I need to print anything, or install an app?
Neither. Your confirmation email carries the code the gate scans, and showing it on a phone screen is exactly as good as paper — there is no app to install and no account to create. Some trails post or hand out wristbands instead, in which case the band is what gets scanned and it is linked to your booking beforehand. If your phone is dead at the gate, the staff can find you by name in their list and let you in by hand, so it is worth knowing which name the booking was made in.
Can I buy a gift card for a light trail instead of picking a night?
If the trail has switched them on, yes — and it is the sensible way to give a light trail as a present, because entries themselves cannot be transferred or moved to another date. A gift card is stored value bought from the trail and redeemed at checkout against a normal timed entry, so the person receiving it picks the night and the arrival time that suit them. It behaves as payment rather than a discount, and if a booking paid for with one is later refunded, the value goes back onto the card.
Can we all arrive together if we booked separately?
Only if you booked the same arrival slot, and even then bindro does nothing to keep you together — it counts entries against a slot, and two separate bookings for the same time are simply two bookings that both admit at that time. There is no way to link them, no group booking to join after the fact and no seat map. If it matters, book once for everybody: one booking for six entries arrives as one party, though the person who booked will need to name all six before the gate will admit them.
What does bindro NOT do for a trail?
A capability this vertical does not declare is refused by the engine rather than quietly missing, so it is listed here rather than left to be discovered.
- bindro will not decide the weather for you. Calling a night off is one control on the night itself — it comes off sale, you choose refund, credit or keep-their-booking, and every entry on that night is settled that way in one action — but nothing watches a forecast and nothing calls it for you. There is no weather provider anywhere in the product, so the decision, and its timing, are yours.
- There is no general message tool. The only mail bindro sends to a night's visitors is the one that goes with calling that night off, and only if you tick the box asking for it: one mail per person, after the money has actually moved, saying what happened to it. There is no "message this night" control for anything else — a change of parking, a late opening — so that still goes out from your own mail tool, off the visitor CSV.
- A part-refund is not a part-cancellation. The bulk settlement applies one policy to the whole night; a goodwill gesture to the family who queued in the rain is still one refund at a time, from the console.
- No season pass. This vertical's configuration lists a season pass among its pricing models, but the capability behind it is not enabled here, so the checkout refuses one and no page offers it. Unlimited-entry passes, resident passes and "come as often as you like" products are not something a trail can sell on bindro this season — a price ladder rung or a gift card is the nearest real thing.
- No transfers and no date changes. A visitor who cannot come on the Friday cannot hand their entry to a neighbour and cannot move it to the Saturday: this vertical resolves neither ticket transfer nor deferral, no name on an entry can be changed after payment, and there is no credit note to issue. The only lever is money out — a refund, and then they book again at whatever price is on sale.
- No donation box and no charity receipts. Many trails raise money for a hospice or an air ambulance; bindro does not resolve the donation add-on for this vertical, so there is no "add a donation" control at checkout, nothing totals gifts separately from entry income, and nothing issues a receipt for one. Charitable giving has to run alongside bindro, not inside it.
- No waiting list. When an arrival slot is full the page says sold out and stops. Nobody joins a list, nobody is emailed when an entry is refunded, and a refunded entry does not return to sale on its own. If you want to resell it, raise that slot's capacity by one.
- bindro does not stop a wristband being used twice. Trails are configured for single entry, but nothing in the engine refuses a second scan: it is recorded and flagged as a conflict for you to read afterwards, whichever gate makes it, and that gate is told the band has already been used to get in. Two devices in a field with no signal cannot agree in real time, so keeping people from walking the trail twice is a rope-and-staff problem.
- There is no bindro scanner app. The door is an API: an offline manifest your gate device downloads before the night, a replay call that reconciles its scans afterwards, a conflicts page to read what disagreed, and an online scan route for a gate that has signal. In the console itself you get a searchable visitor list with a tap-to-admit button and a day-of dashboard. Binding a wristband to a visitor is an API call with no console screen at all, so plan for someone technical before your first night.
- Every place on a multi-entry booking has to be named before the gate will admit it. Buying four entries creates a booking with four places and no names — this vertical asks nothing about each visitor at checkout — and the engine refuses a place nobody has named, on the offline door list and the online scan alike. The booker is emailed a link to fill the names in. A family that ignores that email arrives with entries that do not work.
- Parking is a question, not a controlled product. The vehicle registration box is stored and shown to you; it does not reserve a space, does not price anything and is not checked at the gate. You can sell parking as a paid add-on with its own stock, which is a real limit on how many are sold in total, but nothing caps parking per arrival slot and nothing reads a number plate.
- Money taken on site never enters the platform ledger and is never paid out to you — it is already yours. Mulled wine at the F&B till, hats at the merch till and walk-up card sales at the gate are recorded so your numbers are complete, and cash-recorded entry sales are deliberately not implemented at all: crediting your balance for money bindro never held would pay you for it twice.
- bindro does not pay out mid-season and you cannot choose the schedule. One event gets exactly one payout, scheduled only once its last night has ended and released two days later. A whole season published as a single event therefore pays once, in January. Publish shorter events if you need the money sooner — the pricing guide explains how — because there is no weekly payout option to turn on.
- bindro cannot enforce your refund policy. Every visitor can refund themselves in full from the link in their confirmation email, right up to the moment their arrival slot starts — there is no notice window to configure and no fee to withhold. After the slot has started the decision is yours alone, from the console.
What else should I read?
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