Booking technology experts to grow reach for six historic attractions

Experience-centric ticketing platform,  Expian will partner with the independent charity Historic Royal Palaces, to provide admission and membership solutions across all the historic sites in its care for the next five years. Attractions include the Tower of London, the most visited paid entry attraction in the UK¹, as well as Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, Banqueting House in Whitehall, Hillsborough Castle & Gardens in Northern Ireland and Kew Palace.

Expian is revolutionising the way Historic Royal Palaces sells tickets with all-in-one mobile point of sale (POS) solutions so staff can deliver full customer service, anywhere. This includes managing sales, lookup, ticket delivery, payment and scanning from their pocket. The organisation can also sell and manage memberships and the platform enables them to assign discounts for members and patrons on specific products. The API-first system also integrates with the organisation’s digital infrastructure to streamline administration and support admissions management, CRM and business reporting.

With a rich portfolio of heritage sites and a reputation for delivering an extraordinary range of events, Historic Royal Palaces focuses on providing truly memorable experiences for its visitors. Expian will provide the systems needed to support a seamless customer experience for ticketing and membership. Visitors will be able to add extras including suggested events, merchandise, audioguides and more at the point of booking. Through the Customer Portal feature, visitors can also easily amend bookings, manage memberships and cancel bookings too, so they can update and place new bookings at their convenience.  Trade partners will also be able to reserve and book directly via a portal or through a direct API integration. 

Expian’s first client win since it rebranded from Ticknovate, the appointment signifies how the ticketing specialist is enabling leisure operators to benefit from the growing experience economy. Easy purchase and easy management are at the founding principles for Expian’s platform as it seeks to support leisure attractions, event organisers and ferry operators to sell more than just tickets and curate the multi-faceted experiences consumers are looking for. 

Yiannis Maglaras, Managing Director at Expian, says “We are thrilled to support such a prestigious collection of historic landmarks. Admission income is the most significant source of income for Historic Royal Palaces and our first-of-its-kind platform will not only facilitate ticket sales but also enable visitors to view and add a range of appealing products to their basket, as well as upselling events, membership, donations and gift aid.

“These historic attractions remain popular with people from the UK and across the globe and we want to help Historic Royal Palaces make visits even more special, while generating the income that will conserve these iconic sights for future generations.” 

Aideen Flynn, Head of Ticketing and Systems Strategy at Historic Royal Palaces says “We are excited to be partnering with this innovative young company and are impressed with their ability to meet our complex and wide-ranging requirements. As a charity for everyone, we were particularly keen to find a partner that focuses on customer experience across all channels and can provide solutions that enable us to serve the needs of our different audiences.

We will start a phased transition early in 2024, and just a few of the benefits we’re looking forward to are the introduction of mobile point of sale and providing a seamless journey for our audiences, both online and onsite. Enabling visitors to manage their bookings, reservations and memberships online will provide a fantastic user experience and we look forward to welcoming even more people to our sites as a result of these changes. 

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