Coat Check Speed Test: Is Chexology Faster Than The Paper Ticket?
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
What happens when one of New York City’s busiest concert venues replaces paper coat check tickets with a paperless system during back-to-back shows? The results surprised everyone: 30% faster check-ins, 40% faster checkout times, shorter lines, lower labor costs, and smoother guest flow!
Located in the heart of Hell’s Kitchen, Terminal 5 has become one of New York City’s most iconic large-scale concert venues. Operated by The Bowery Presents, the massive three-level venue hosts some of the biggest names in music and nightlife, welcoming up to 3,000 concertgoers per show across its sprawling multi-floor layout, wraparound balconies, rooftop space, and industrial-style main room. Terminal 5 has hosted performances by artists like Kendrick Lamar, Fatboy Slim, Nine Inch Nails, and countless sold-out touring acts, making it an ideal venue for Chexology to run a real-world coat-check experiment.
Unbeknownst to the thousands of guests pouring into Terminal 5 during two back-to-back sold-out shows, an experiment was quietly taking place inside the coatroom.
Experiment
The question: Is Chexology faster than the paper coat check ticket?
1st Night: Traditional paper claim tickets
2nd Night: Chexology’s paperless coat check system
Same venue
Same staff
Same number of guests (3,000)
Coatroom Check-in Speed Test
Video showing Chexology's check-in speed.
“When I got introduced to Chexology, I was very skeptical,” explains Mo Belton, coat check supervisor at Terminal 5. “My first thought was, how is taking a photo and a cell phone number quicker than just handing off a piece of paper?”
That skepticism quickly disappeared once the sold-out crowd started pouring in.
“Once I got the hang of it in the middle of the shift, I was like, hm… all we're doing is tapping and going and hanging. The client’s just profiling themselves, and that’s what makes it so much faster compared to paper tickets.”
Average Guest Check-In Speed
Paper claim tickets: 34 seconds per guest
Chexology paperless check-in: 24 seconds per guest
“That’s a 10-second difference per guest,” Mo explains. “I was impressed! I thought it’d be closer.”
10 seconds may not sound dramatic. But at a large-scale concert venue processing hundreds, sometimes thousands, of coats during a rush, those seconds compound quickly into dramatically shorter lines.
Coatroom Checkout Speet Test
Video showing Chexology's checkout speed.
As 3,000 guests exit the building on the final night of this two-day experiment, Derek Pacqué, CEO and Founder at Chexology, sits down with Mike Venafro, the GM at Terminal 5, to discuss the results.
“Ok. I have the final numbers. Are you ready?” Says Derek. “We thought, there’s no way we’re going to beat the 17 minutes it took to get everyone through the door during our paper ticket night, but we got down to 13 minutes! And, it was almost twice the number of people!”
“I’m not surprised,” Mike states. “Your system is killer. It’s great. It does everything it’s supposed to do, and our team’s been using it for quite some time. It’s a great tool for us. So yeah, I’m not surprised.”
If check-in speed shapes a coatroom's first impression, checkout speed shapes the final memory guests take home after the show.
Total Coatroom Checkout Time
Paper ticket system: 17 minutes
Chexology paperless system: 13 minutes
Attendance on Chexology night: Nearly double the volume!
Biggest Surprise: Pre-tagging!
One of the most surprising operational insights from the experiment had nothing to do with checkout speed. It was the hidden labor cost required just to make paper claim tickets functional before doors even opened.
To prepare for each sold-out show, Terminal 5’s coatroom team had to spend over an hour pre-tagging hundreds of paper tickets before guests even arrived.
According to Chexology’s internal breakdown:
Average team needed for pre-tagging: 3 staff members
Average hourly labor cost: $22/hour
Pre-tagging labor cost per event: $66
Annual coat check events: 126
That added up to an estimated $8,316 per year spent simply preparing paper tickets before the first guest even checked a coat. Thankfully, that’s an ongoing annual cost Chexology clients do not have to deal with.
And despite all that prep work, paper still moved more slowly than Chexology’s paperless coat check system.
By eliminating the need for pre-tagging entirely, Chexology not only reduced labor overhead but also removed operational friction before the rush even began. Instead of arriving early to organize paper tags, staff could immediately begin checking coats digitally as soon as the doors opened.
The Results: Faster Lines, Happier Guests, Better Operations
Chexology’s live speed test at Terminal 5 ultimately confirmed what the venue’s operations team had already started to feel on busy nights: paperless coat check wasn’t just more modern, it was measurably faster.
Final Results From The Terminal 5 Speed Test
30% faster during coat check-in
40% faster during coat retrieval
Shorter lines encouraged more guests to check coats
Reduced labor spent pre-tagging paper tickets
Zero lost ticket issues
Zero “Did I leave my coat there last night?” phone calls to return
Perhaps the most important takeaway wasn’t the speed itself was what that speed created.
Shorter lines meant guests spent less time waiting and more time enjoying the show, grabbing drinks, and moving freely throughout the venue. Managers spent less time resolving lost ticket disputes. Staff spent less time organizing paper tags and more time interacting with guests. And the overall experience simply felt smoother from beginning to end.
As the two-day experiment came to a close, Mr. Venafro was asked whether he would ever return to their old paper ticket system. He smiled and said, “Not a chance. No way.”
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