When do Guests get Sent Their Guest Link?

Every guest at your event has their own private event page. It is where they bid in the silent auction, give to your fund-a-need, see their table assignment and paddle number, and check themselves out at the end of the night. They reach it through a unique, secure link tied to their ticket, and that link should not be shared with anyone else.

Guest Link Visibility controls when BetterUnite sends that link out on its own. It does not control whether the guest page exists, and it never blocks a link you choose to send yourself. Think of it as the automatic delivery schedule.

The four options at a glance

Upon Scheduled Communication (Default)

WHAT IT DOES

This is the default, and it is the quietest option. BetterUnite does not send a guest link on its own at any point. Guests receive their link only when you send it: through the Send Guest Links email you schedule from the campaign's Communications hub, through a scheduled text or email that includes the guest link merge field, or through the Send button on an individual guest's record.

WHEN TO USE IT

Use it when you want to control the timing yourself, which is most of the time. A common pattern is to schedule the guest link email to land the morning of the event, so the link is near the top of everyone's inbox when they arrive, and then rely on check-in staff to resend it to anyone who cannot find it.

Also use it when your guest list is still moving. Tickets bought weeks out, table assignments reshuffled, names swapped: none of that matters if the link does not go out until you say so.

Upon Purchase

WHAT IT DOES

As soon as someone buys a ticket, or a ticket buyer assigns a seat to a named guest, that guest is texted their link. The link also appears on the purchase confirmation page and in the confirmation email, so a guest who bought with no cell number on file still receives it.

The link stays on the confirmation page for 15 minutes after the purchase, which covers the guest who buys and immediately wants to start browsing.

WHEN TO USE IT

Use it when there is something for guests to do before the event. Online-only auctions, silent auctions that open days ahead of the gala, early fund-a-need giving, guest profile or dietary forms you want filled in advance: all of these depend on guests being in their page as early as possible.

Be aware that this puts a live link in a guest's hands weeks before the event. If your auction is not open yet, they will land on a page with nothing to do, and they may not go looking for the link again on the night. Pair this setting with an auction that is actually open, or use the default instead.

Upon Check-in

WHAT IT DOES

The link is held back until the guest physically arrives and a volunteer checks them in, whether from the admin check-in screen or the BetterUnite mobile app. At that moment the guest is both texted and emailed their link, so a guest who gave you only an email address still gets it.

Because the same guest record has a manual Send button sitting just above the check-in button, BetterUnite will not send the same link twice within 10 minutes. If a volunteer sends the link by hand and then checks the guest in seconds later, the guest receives one message, not two.

WHEN TO USE IT

Use it for in-person galas where all the bidding happens in the room. The link arrives exactly when it is useful, on the phone the guest is holding, and there is no chance of someone bidding from home on an item they never saw.

It also solves the no-show problem: a guest who never arrives never receives a link, so your bidding activity reflects the people actually in the room.

Note: when this option is selected, the guest link merge field is removed from scheduled text messages. That is deliberate, since the point of the setting is that nobody gets a link before the door. If you also want a pre-event text carrying the link, use the default setting instead.

Never

WHAT IT DOES

No automatic guest link is sent at any point in the guest journey. The guest link merge field is stripped out of scheduled text messages, and the Already Registered? link is hidden from your public event page, so guests cannot look their own link up by entering their phone number or email.

WHEN TO USE IT

Use it for events where the ticket is the whole transaction and there is nothing for a guest to do online: a lecture, a golf outing with no auction, a members' dinner, a paid workshop. Sending everyone a personal event page they have no reason to open only generates confused replies to your inbox.

Note: Never turns off automatic sending. It does not override you. A Send Guest Links email that you schedule from the Communications hub, or a marketing email built with the guest link merge field, will still deliver links to your guests. If you have set this to Never, do not schedule those.

Setting a different rule for one ticket type

The campaign setting is the default for the whole event, but any individual ticket or sponsorship can override it. Open the ticket in your event's offers list and set its own Guest Link Visibility. A ticket left on the inherited option follows whatever the campaign is set to; a ticket with its own selection ignores the campaign entirely.

This is how you handle an event with mixed audiences. A few examples:

• A gala set to Upon Check-in, with a Virtual Bidder ticket set to Upon Purchase, so remote bidders can participate from home while in-room guests get their link at the door.
• An event set to Never, with a single Auction Preview ticket set to Upon Purchase for the donors you want bidding early.
• A conference set to the default, with a Staff or Volunteer ticket set to Never, so your own team is not sent a bidding page.

If your event uses sub-campaigns, such as an event series or a team structure, the parent event's setting governs. Set it once at the top rather than on each child.

What this setting does not change

• The guest page always exists. Every guest has one regardless of this setting. You are choosing when the link is delivered, not whether the page is created.
• You can always send a link by hand. Open any guest record and use the Send button. This works under all four settings, including Never.
• Links already sent stay valid. Changing the setting later does not revoke links guests already have. If you switch an event from Upon Purchase to Never a week before the gala, everyone who already bought a ticket still holds a working link.
• Check-in still works. Checking guests in, assigning tables and paddle numbers, and running the event from the admin side are all unaffected.

Where to find it

Open your event, go to the campaign's settings, and look for Guest Link Visibility in the guest settings group, alongside Guest Self Checkout and Suggest Donation Amounts on Guest Page. Choose an option and save. The change applies to every ticket that has not been given its own override, and it takes effect immediately for purchases and check-ins from that point forward.

Guest Link Visibility Setting

• Your guests will be sent their link upon registration or ticket assignment unless you change the options for this.
• Click on Edit Event on your Manage Event page.

• Select Guest Experience Tab and find the option for Guest Link Visibility.
• If this option for Guest Link Visibility is left  to Default, guests will be provided their guest link upon registration or ticket assignment.
• You can change this option to Upon Purchase or Upon Check-in as shown below.

Guest Messaging

• You can send your guests their unique guest link using the Guest Messaging Service under your Guest Messaging Tab.
• You can choose to Email Guest Links or Send Text/SMS Messages to Guests to sent your guests their  unique guest link as shown below.

Event Reminder

• Your guests will be sent their guest link 3 days, 8 hours, and 1 hour before event (virtual & auction), or 3 days and 8 hours before a regular event). See the detailed article Does the System Remind Event Guests About the Upcoming Event?
• In your Edit Event page under Communications tab, you can write a specific content for the Event Reminder to be sent to your guests as shown below.
• The guests will be sent an automated reminder with their guest link included unless you tick the box to turn this option off.

Multiple tickets purchase or when updating ticket holder

• When someone purchases a ticket, we assume they are the ticket-holder for the first ticket in their purchase.  However, they can always change the ticket holder after purchase. Also if they purchase multiple tickets, we'll assume the purchaser is the first ticket holder, they can change this slot, as well as provide guest information for the additional slots available in their purchase.  
• When the purchaser updates the ticket holder information on each slot, the new guest will be notified of their guest link. If the ticket holder was someone else previously, then this will be replaced by the new ticket holder. Any previous ticket holder guest pages will be invalidated.
• In the example below 2 tickets are being purchased, where the purchaser will receive their guest link based on this.

• The purchaser can then Edit the guest information for both the first ticket and the second ticket.
• Based on the new ticket holder information that is entered for both tickets, the guests will be sent their unique guest link accordingly.

Need Additional Help?

We're here to assist you in any way we can. Don't hesitate to reach out to support@betterunite.com

Let's go do some good.