ROH pricing survey

[MJW]

Just received a survey from the ROH in particularly regarding how seat prices affect decisions. Rather complicated 10 scenarios for different for five ballets. Rather disturbingly £200 for a seat was mentioned quite often. Hopefully responses will put paid to that !

[LinMM]

Well as top prices are already at £170 for the Ballet I can foresee £200 will not be that far off!! 

[FionaM]

Re the survey …. How they will unwind the criteria of show, ticket price, day of week and time of show … I’ve no idea. Complex.  
 

I seemed to choose the *none of these* option  quite often.   I was priced out.  
 

It will be illuminating to hear the results.  

Edited February 4, 2023 by FionaE

[alison]

I look forward to receiving it.

[Geoff]

I too got the survey and also got the impression they are looking for support to dramatically increase their prices.

 

Incidentally they ask some weasily questions at the outset about price thresholds but these have been constructed by someone who is not very numerate. I just put 0 in all those boxes so as not to engage with this part.
 

Here is the comment I added, in case of use to others:

 

>>A free ticket to an event can be a ticket to a great event so this question (and its later derivatives) is mathematically duff. One often worries about the quality of the people who design these so-called surveys.

[bridiem]

18 minutes ago, Geoff said:

I too got the survey and also got the impression they are looking for support to dramatically increase their prices.

 

They've already done that!

[Mary]

At least the survey is a good opportunity to give feedback.

I added a comment that I understood the problems, sympathised,  and wanted to support them, but...to be careful not to alienate the regulars.

Also, to consider more matinees and earlier finishes so I could save money on overnight stays.

 

[Candleque]

Thanks to posters above for reminding me of this survey. The name of the page in the metadata is: Royal Opera House Pricing, so yeah I think they are mostly interested in how high they can go.

Whenever given a text box, I took the opportunity to add things they didn't ask, like my wish list of ballets (Sylvia!) and how I felt about the Diamonds evening.

I also suggested if they really wanted to understand their hardcore fans, they should just invite all SCS ticket holders to a focus group. Way simpler than that convoluted set of scenarios question 🤣 

[Geoff]

1 hour ago, Candleque said:

I also suggested if they really wanted to understand their hardcore fans, they should just invite all SCS ticket holders to a focus group.   🤣

Great idea! Of course they don‘t really want to understand us…

[Scheherezade]

Well at least it was a proper survey, with boxes to add opinions. I took advantage of this opportunity to set out my views upon ticket prices, discounts, programmes and everything else that concerned me, particularly the effect that the price rises in the cheap seats are likely to have upon the ability of the less affluent to attend. 

[bridiem]

I haven't received the survey. I wonder how they selected the recipients? Or maybe they haven't finished sending it out?

[Linnzi5]

On 03/02/2023 at 18:35, MJW said:

Just received a survey from the ROH in particularly regarding how seat prices affect decisions. Rather complicated 10 scenarios for different for five ballets. Rather disturbingly £200 for a seat was mentioned quite often. Hopefully responses will put paid to that !

I received this too. £200 was mentioned frequently. I would not pay that much for a ticket. The £170 for SB and Cinderella was bad enough! It was a long and strange survey, I thought. I enjoyed writing in the comments box!

[Beryl H]

I received and did mine yesterday, can't imagine they could make a sensible report on me, except "old skinflint" 😉

[Peanut68]

I now know how low down the pecking list of ROH audience I am as only just got the survey email today!!! 😂

Edited February 6, 2023 by Peanut68
Typo

[LinMM]

I only got this email yesterday afternoon! 
I hope the marketing people are not thinking up ways to make the auditorium “more relaxed” like considering offering popcorn in tubs in the future! 

[Sim]

10 hours ago, jmhopton said:

At least you got one Peanut68. I still haven't had one so it looks if I'm not on the pecking order at all!

Ditto!  

[Blossom]

14 hours ago, Peanut68 said:

I now know how low down the pecking list of ROH audience I am as only just got the survey email today!!! 😂

I still haven't seen it! 

[EVWS]

1 hour ago, Blossom said:

I still haven't seen it! 

 

Neither have I!! 

[Emeralds]

17 hours ago, Peanut68 said:

I now know how low down the pecking list of ROH audience I am as only just got the survey email today!!! 😂

I think I’m quite low too....got mine around the same time. 

 

I left a lot of my identifiers “prefer not to say” as I don’t believe audiences should be profiled according to age, gender, ethnicity, income, single/married/etc, kids/childless etc. People can enjoy shows whatever their age, profession, ethnicity etc. There is no such “trend” or “ pattern”, and if they still insist on trying to prove whether women like Ashton more than men, or whether more men pick Verdi or more twentysomethings watch Wheeldon than fiftysomethings, they’ll end up barking up the wrong tree.  

 

And the opera house should be accessible to audiences with disabilities whether they answer a survey or not. 

 

Rather bemused to see I was given options to programmes I said I had no interest in seeing, and the bizarre logic of options offered, eg if I clicked “yes” to £80 in the balcony, “no” to £120 in the Stalls, why would I click “yes” to £120 in the rear Amphi? 

 

I did think some options eg £300 for an opera ticket in the Stalls (you might be obscured by someone taller in front) were so ludicrous that I wondered if I was being pranked. 

 

Don’t worry, fellow members, am sure the survey will get round to everyone eventually. You might wish you hadn’t received it though.....lol.

 

 

Edited February 7, 2023 by Emeralds

[J_New]

21 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

Rather bemused to see I was given options to programmes I said I had no interest in seeing, and the bizarre logic of options offered, eg if I clicked “yes” to £80 in the balcony, “no” to £120 in the Stalls, why would I click “yes” to £120 in the rear Amphi? 

Yes, I was bemused as well - the options seemed completely illogical and pointless given that none of them offered my usual seating choices, and they were for programmes I had already said I was not interested in. I'm not sure what they'll learn from my answers, but I did it as well as I could! And the prices mentioned seemed incredibly high too.

[bridiem]

21 minutes ago, J_New said:

Yes, I was bemused as well - the options seemed completely illogical and pointless given that none of them offered my usual seating choices, and they were for programmes I had already said I was not interested in. I'm not sure what they'll learn from my answers, but I did it as well as I could! And the prices mentioned seemed incredibly high too.

 

I haven't received this survey (yet?) but it's this sort of thing that worries me; I always suspect that they will find a way of interpreting the answers to give them 'permission' to do things/set prices that the respondent/s would in no way approve of, just because of the way in which the questions have been asked. In my experience surveys are generally designed in order to elicit the responses that an organisation wants, or to only offer a range of equally unpalatable alternatives. 

[Diandri]

1 hour ago, Emeralds said:

Rather bemused to see I was given options to programmes I said I had no interest in seeing, and the bizarre logic of options offered, eg if I clicked “yes” to £80 in the balcony, “no” to £120 in the Stalls, why would I click “yes” to £120 in the rear Amphi? 

 

I did think some options eg £300 for an opera ticket in the Stalls (you might be obscured by someone taller in front) were so ludicrous that I wondered if I was being pranked. 

 

I was too angry to do the opera option after the ballet as the feeling I got from the ballet pricing is that they are going to push prices as far as they can regardless of how anyone responds to this survey. I feel ROH is already overpriced even for my personal favourite ballets & have reduced consumption accordingly, if £200 per ticket is their goal it is only a short matter of time before it starts edging £300 because opera will increase to £400 etc. How management will argue such prices are not elitist & exclusive to a small minority will be interesting.  The knock-on effect of moving to a 'once a year type treat' instead of maintaining regular attendees means less varied rep for audiences & dancers because you can only charge those prices for high profile, usually full length ballets. One only has to look to the opera programming & its endless runs of Traviatas, Butterflies & Bohemes in place of the rarer jewels to see how the ballet rep could end up. 

 

[Dawnstar]

3 hours ago, Emeralds said:

Rather bemused to see I was given options to programmes I said I had no interest in seeing, and the bizarre logic of options offered, eg if I clicked “yes” to £80 in the balcony, “no” to £120 in the Stalls, why would I click “yes” to £120 in the rear Amphi? 

 

I did think some options eg £300 for an opera ticket in the Stalls (you might be obscured by someone taller in front) were so ludicrous that I wondered if I was being pranked.

 

£300 as top price for opera doesn't seem too unlikely to me, given it's been up to £285 top price for certain operas in recent seasons. £120 for rear amphi is however totally & utterly ludicrous in my opinion. I think over £100 for front amphi is too much, let alone for rear amphi.

 

I've not yet had this survey but I'm not expecting to like it if I do get it. I'm starting to wish I hadn't got into ballet watching at the end of 2018. At least when I was only seeing opera seeing something once per run was usually enough but with ballet a big part of the interest, at least for me, is being able to see several casts in the same ballet in a run, which of course makes it much more expensive. I feel as though I'm just about clinging on to be able to afford the cheapest stalls circle seats & fear soon I'll be priced out altogether & have to stop attending.

[Bruce Wall]

I am one of those who have not received this survey - and am, again, another who perhaps wishes it is one pleasure that might be indefinitely postponed.  It all sounds a most distressing round towards what - on the surface at least - appears to be an already self-determined end.  If the prices are in reality at a level such as has been suggested above, I will, I fear, simply make more pilgrimages elsewhere for my balletic and operatic fare and wish the good people of Covent Garden well in their marketing efforts.  I simply drop this note asking: Wasn't there a previous marketing effort by a third party agency hired by the ROH management which - in its infinite wisdom - appeared to want to do away with so-called 'regulars'?  I seem to recall that there was.  From what I'm reading, this current survey appears to simply be a further 'wish fulfilment' of their previous efforts.  These actions I believe can and will speak for themselves. 

 

 

Edited February 7, 2023 by Bruce Wall

[Swan]

My survey arrived this evening and I stated how important matinees are to me to be able to travel home from London. I know there are many others on this forum in a similar situation and it’s not always convenient to stay overnight. Agree that the section with the pricing options was a bit odd.

[JohnS]

I’m pretty sure I haven’t received the survey but I’d be very grateful if someone who has received the survey would be able to say whether it’s a ROH email and the subject, just in case I’ve managed to miss something.

As others have said top Ballet and Opera prices are already approaching the £200/£300 mark.

I noticed that my Friends subscription due at the end of the month is increasing by 10.9%. I can’t help wondering if people might reduce their level of membership?

[J_New]

Mine was an email  - subject “We want to hear your thoughts on the ROH”

[jmhopton]

4 hours ago, bridiem said:

 

I haven't received this survey (yet?) but it's this sort of thing that worries me; I always suspect that they will find a way of interpreting the answers to give them 'permission' to do things/set prices that the respondent/s would in no way approve of, just because of the way in which the questions have been asked. In my experience surveys are generally designed in order to elicit the responses that an organisation wants, or to only offer a range of equally unpalatable alternatives. 

 

Yes, takes me back to an old episode of Yes Prime Minister where Sir Humphrey 'surveyed' Bernard and elicited 2 opposite answers just by phrasing the questions differently.

[LinMM]

I’d love it if they could add more weekday matinees.  At the moment these tend to be just for schools. 

[jmhopton]

3 hours ago, Bruce Wall said:

I simply drop this note asking: Wasn't there a previous marketing effort by a third party agency hired by the ROH management which - in its infinite wisdom - appeared to want to do away with so-called 'regulars'?  I seem to recall that there was.  From what I'm reading, this current survey appears to simply be a further 'wish fulfilment' of their previous efforts.  These actions I believe can and will speak for themselves. 

 

 

Yes, there was Bruce. I remember as that's what caused me to write my first rather angry letter to Alex Beard on the subject of not taking your regular audience for granted as they are the ones who will turn up for several casts as often as they can afford it. These days thst is getting more difficult. I think the person who ran it left after all the bad feelings it created though I'm not sure about that.

[alison]

What really got me was the early-on question of at what price would you think something would be so cheap as to be not worth seeing.  Given the price of standing tickets I certainly didn't want to suggest that those were too cheap, so I put £0 or some such!  It's a ridiculous question, given that the ROH must have a wider range of price bands than just about anything else.  So, a standing ticket at around a tenner or so might suggest that something wasn't worth seeing, whereas a Grand Tier ticket at maybe £200 for the same performance would suggest that it was?  Ludicrous.

[FionaM]

The standing tickets are great value!  Let’s not have those changed 🤞

[Emeralds]

15 hours ago, JohnS said:

I’m pretty sure I haven’t received the survey but I’d be very grateful if someone who has received the survey would be able to say whether it’s a ROH email and the subject, just in case I’ve managed to miss something.

As others have said top Ballet and Opera prices are already approaching the £200/£300 mark.

I noticed that my Friends subscription due at the end of the month is increasing by 10.9%. I can’t help wondering if people might reduce their level of membership?

JohnS, the sender is “Royal Opera House’ with the email address “no-response@roh.org.uk” and the email subject is “We want to hear your thoughts on the ROH”. I think it may be the same email that some of the announcements get sent to us on. Wow, that’s also a substantial increase in the subscription price. The organisation may wish to consider creating a cheaper level with slightly fewer benefits, or some people might not renew altogether- which would be worse than if they just got a smaller amount of revenue from these members instead.