Guest Sponsors and their Guest List
This article explains what a Guest Sponsor is in Handbid, how sponsors fill in their own guests, and how you can manage a sponsor’s seats from the Guest List.
What is a Guest Sponsor?
Section titled “What is a Guest Sponsor?”A Guest Sponsor is anyone who holds more than one seat at your event. That includes:
- Someone who buys more than one ticket
- Someone who buys a ticket that admits more than one guest, such as a table or a golf foursome
- A sponsor you import from a spreadsheet
Each seat the sponsor holds appears as a guest slot on your Guest List. The sponsor’s contact is listed as both the Sponsor and the Purchaser, and usually takes the first slot.
For example, Mattyr Istesting buys a Golf Foursome. The purchase creates 4 slots on the Guest List. Mattyr takes the first, and the other 3 stay open for his guests.
How sponsors name their guests
Section titled “How sponsors name their guests”We recommend letting your sponsors manage their own guests. They know who’s coming, and it saves your team time.
- The sponsor signs in to your Handbid events site.
- If any guest details are missing, Handbid asks Who’s Coming? They can fill in their guests now or skip for later.
- To come back later, they click the Ticket icon in the upper right of the event page.
- Their own seat is listed first as Seat 1. For each open seat they click Add guest, or click a guest’s name to edit it, and add the guest’s name, email, phone number and any custom question answers.
- Each seat shows its next step: Send invite, Resend or Add email. The invite includes the guest’s ticket and a link to register as a bidder. Once a guest registers, the sponsor can view, email or print their Ticket, or Release seat if that guest can no longer come.
When a sponsor sends an invite, an Invited status appears next to that guest on your Guest List.
For step-by-step instructions to share with your sponsors, see How a Ticket Purchaser Can Manage Their Guests.
Managing a sponsor’s guests from the Guest List
Section titled “Managing a sponsor’s guests from the Guest List”You can also fill in or change a sponsor’s guests yourself in the Manager, under People › Guests › Guest List.
- Find a sponsor’s guests. Filter the Guest List by Sponsor to see every seat for that sponsor, filled or open.
- Fill in a guest. Open the guest slot and add their name, email and phone number.
- Change the sponsor name. For example, change a purchaser’s name to their company, such as “Super Great Company.” The Purchaser stays the same. See How to Bulk Edit Guests. Only you can change the sponsor name after the purchase; sponsors and their guests cannot change it from the events site. (A purchaser buying on behalf of a company can still enter it at checkout.)
- Seat many guests at once. Import a guest list with the Sponsor column filled in, and each guest takes one of that sponsor’s open seats. See How to import a guest list.
- Free up a seat. If a registered guest can’t come, Release seat keeps the seat on the sponsor’s table, in the same position, as an open seat so someone else can take it. The released person stays a bidder (same paddle and bids), and their old ticket QR code stops working. A guest who has not registered can’t be released: just edit their name and email instead. See Guest list attendance statuses.