Best Smart Entertainment Alternative: TicketingHub

Selling only to the people who already found your venue?

SMART Entertainment builds booking software for one kind of business: the leisure venue — soft play, karting, laser tag, escape rooms. That focus is its strength, but it caps your reach at your own booking page: no OTA distribution, no reseller portal, and pricing that depends on which of its two products you pick. TicketingHub is built for operators who want both — a website that converts and a pipeline of extra customers from OTAs like Viator and GetYourGuide — all for a flat 3% per booking, no monthly fee, no setup fee. Operators' OTA sales through TicketingHub grew 401% between 2022 and 2025, and it's rated 5.0 on Capterra.

Founded in London, TicketingHub serves operators worldwide, from city tours and museums to water parks and boat trips.

What is Smart Entertainment?

SMART Entertainment is a UK company, registered at Companies House since 1998 and based in Lichfield, Staffordshire, that says it has built venue-management software for the leisure industry for over two decades: indoor soft play and role-play centres, karting and motorsport venues, farm parks, laser tag, and escape rooms.

It offers two products: BookMy Solutions, its longer-established venue-management platform, and WannaBook, a newer cloud-based system priced per booking with no monthly fees or contracts. Both cover session and ticket bookings, walk-ins, party-room scheduling, deposits, gift vouchers, discount codes, and digital waivers.

On Trustpilot, it holds a 4.0-star rating from a small sample of 7 reviews, a mix of praise for named support staff and one detailed complaint about the software and data handover, covered below.

What the pricing means for your venue

SMART Entertainment publishes real numbers. WannaBook has no monthly fee or contract: a percentage per booking, 3% per its pricing page, or 50 pence flat per ticket, plus payment processing fees. BookMy Solutions differs: from 84 pounds a month per venue plus VAT, with a 250-pound-plus-VAT setup fee, or 500 pounds per day onsite, on a 30-day rolling contract. FrontDesk, a lighter tier, starts at 42 pounds a month.

Do the maths at 10,000 pounds of monthly online bookings: WannaBook's 3% option costs 300 pounds a month, matching TicketingHub's rate. BookMy's flat 84 pounds is cheaper once bookings pass roughly 2,800 pounds a month — but it carries the setup fee and a 30-day contract, and the bill arrives in quiet months too. The real question isn't the sticker price, it's what the same 3% buys: on TicketingHub it includes OTA distribution and a reseller portal that neither SMART Entertainment product offers. Same rate, more channels selling for you. BookMy can win on price at high, single-venue volume; anyone who could sell beyond their own site is leaving bookings on the table.

Smart Entertainment vs TicketingHub at a glance

• Pricing — Smart Entertainment: WannaBook charges 3% per booking or 50p per ticket; BookMy charges a flat monthly fee from £84 per venue. TicketingHub: flat 3% per online booking, one model for every operator.
• Monthly fee — Smart Entertainment: none on WannaBook; from £84 (BookMy) or £42 (FrontDesk) per venue per month. TicketingHub: none.
• Setup — Smart Entertainment: £250 plus VAT online, or £500 plus VAT per day onsite, for BookMy. TicketingHub: none.
• Contract — Smart Entertainment: BookMy is a 30-day rolling contract, 3 months' notice for multiple venues; WannaBook has none. TicketingHub: pay-as-you-earn, no fixed contract.
• OTA channel manager — Smart Entertainment: not featured; its products focus on direct venue bookings. TicketingHub: real-time sync with Viator, GetYourGuide, and other resellers; OTA sales grew 401% between 2022 and 2025.
• Waivers — Smart Entertainment: digital waiver collection built in. TicketingHub: digital waivers via a Smartwaiver integration.
• Magic Link — Smart Entertainment: not featured on its site. TicketingHub: customers reschedule, cancel to a voucher, or convert bookings themselves.
• Support — Smart Entertainment: Trustpilot reviewers name individual staff members as helpful; one review flags slow data handover when leaving. TicketingHub: 24/7 chat and email support.
• Reviews — Smart Entertainment: 4.0 stars on Trustpilot from 7 reviews. TicketingHub: 5.0 on Capterra.

Why operators switch to TicketingHub

Fill sessions your own website can't

Neither SMART Entertainment product lists OTA or reseller distribution — your reach ends where your marketing does. TicketingHub's channel manager keeps availability synced with Viator, GetYourGuide, and other resellers in real time, and a reseller portal lets local agents book against the same live availability. Quiet weekday sessions fill with demand you didn't have to generate, and there are never double-bookings to apologise for.

One rate, nothing fixed to cover in a slow month

BookMy's model stacks monthly fees, setup costs, and a rolling contract; WannaBook's percentage option is closer to TicketingHub but still leaves out distribution. TicketingHub is one model — 3% per booking, nothing else fixed — so a half-term-holiday surge and a dead February both cost you exactly what they earned you.

Get your front desk out of the rebooking business

Every party reschedule handled by phone is staff time you're paying for. Magic Link lets customers reschedule, cancel to a voucher, or convert bookings themselves — you keep the sale, your staff keep serving the queue in front of them. Waivers travel too: the Smartwaiver integration covers every sales channel, so guests arriving via an OTA are as signed-in as the ones who booked direct.

Support that doesn't depend on one person

SMART Entertainment's reviewers praise named individuals — but one also described difficulty getting help and their own data when switching away. TicketingHub backs every account with 24/7 chat and email support, whoever is online. As Hannah J., a director, puts it on Capterra: "It's refreshing to have a service that actually has good customer service."

What reviewers say about Smart Entertainment

SMART Entertainment holds a 4.0-star Trustpilot rating from just 7 reviews. The recurring positive theme is personal service: reviewers name individual staff as responsive. The clearest negative, a detailed review, describes WannaBook as buggy and hard to navigate, and says the company was slow to hand over customer data during a platform switch. Given the small sample, treat this as a limited data point, not a verdict — but slow data handover is worth weighing, because it's your customer list on the line if you ever want to leave.

Who is Smart Entertainment right for?

• Single-venue leisure businesses, like soft play centres, karting tracks, laser tag, or escape rooms, that mainly take bookings through their own site.
• Operators happy with a monthly subscription and a short rolling contract in exchange for a UK-based, venue-specialist product.
• Venues that value a named, personal point of contact over a self-serve support model.

Who is TicketingHub right for?

• ✅ You want OTA customers from Viator and GetYourGuide on top of your own site's bookings.
• ✅ You want one flat rate — 3% per booking — with no monthly fee, setup fee, or contract to cover in slow months.
• ✅ You want digital waivers and self-serve rescheduling working identically across every sales channel.
• ✅ You want 24/7 support that doesn't depend on one specific person being online.
• ✅ You have customers booking from more than one country and want a checkout in their language and currency.
• ✅ You want your first product live in minutes, with no setup fee to negotiate first.

Proof it works

"TicketingHub is a fantastic booking management system. The abandoned cart emails have noticeably reduced the number of people that don't book," says Shannon R., a small business owner, on Capterra — recovered bookings from customers who almost walked away.

• Lions Water Adventure Park went from around $50K to $260K in online revenue in a year with TicketingHub.
• Egypt's Sound and Light Shows grew ticket sales more than 500%.
• Jungle Cat World, a wildlife park in Ontario, saw growth of more than 300%.

FAQs about switching from Smart Entertainment

How do I move my bookings and waiver data over?

Switching costs you an afternoon, not a season. TicketingHub's team imports your products, availability, and customer records free — no setup fee, no migration negotiation, no waiting on a data handover.

Is TicketingHub cheaper than Smart Entertainment?

Against WannaBook's 3% option it's the same headline rate — but the same 3% also buys OTA distribution and multi-channel waivers, so each booking channel is working for you at no extra fee. Against BookMy, TicketingHub has no setup fee or contract, though BookMy can be cheaper at higher monthly volumes — do the maths for your own numbers.

Can I try TicketingHub without signing a contract?

Yes, and it costs nothing to find out. No setup fee, no fixed contract: list a product, start taking bookings, and move your whole operation over only when the results convince you.

Same 3%, more customers

If you're already paying around 3% per booking, the only question is what it buys you. On TicketingHub it buys the OTA and reseller channels your venue software doesn't have — plus Magic Link, 24/7 support and free migration. Setup is free, your first product can be live in minutes, and there's nothing to cancel if it doesn't earn its keep.