# Portals

Section: Guest Management · Page: https://artsvp.com/docs/guest-management/portals

(Plans: Expert)

Exhibitors at your fair, a gallery co-hosting a private view, sponsors with
collectors of their own, partners often need to invite guests to your event, and
a portal gives each one their own workspace for exactly that, within an
allocation you control. Partners invite under their own name, and every response
lands on your guest list, labelled with who invited them. You hand out invitation
capacity without handing over your admin.

Admins and event managers can create and manage portals. Activating one costs
**150 credits**, charged once when the portal is connected, and not refunded if
you later archive the portal.

**Portals** in the sidebar opens two pages. **Managed Portals** is this
guide: portal groups and allocations you create for your partners.
**Connected Portals** (Plans: All plans) lists portals another
organisation has shared with you. See
[Using Your Portal](https://artsvp.com/docs/guest-management/using-your-portal).

## The pieces

| Term | What it is |
|---|---|
| **Portal group** | A set of portals managed together (*"Spring Show exhibitors"*), with a shared welcome message, banner, and optional **Invitation reply-to**. |
| **Portal** | One partner's workspace, claimed by them with their own ARTSVP account. |
| **Allocation** | The number of guest places you grant a portal for one event or collection. Can be a number or unlimited. |

## Setting up

1. Open **Portals** → **Managed Portals** and create a portal group: name it,
   write the welcome message partners see, and add a banner. The banner sits
   at the top of the message at its full height; at least 1500px wide looks
   best.
2. Add a portal for each partner: enter their **Name** (required), optionally
   a **Portal email** (one address; used to share the portal link and send
   booking and check-in notifications, the same address the partner later
   sees as **Notification email** under **Settings** → **Notifications** in
   their portal), and grant allocations for events or collections with an
   optional guest limit on each.
3. Share each portal's link with its partner. The partner opens it, signs in
   or creates a free ARTSVP account, and clicks **Connect portal** to claim
   it.

Portals are added one at a time; there's no CSV upload for creating them in bulk.

## Invitation replies

By default, a guest who replies to a portal invitation writes to that portal's
**Notification email**. Set **Invitation reply-to** on the group if you want
every reply in one inbox, such as the fair's press desk, instead of scattering
across each exhibitor.

1. Open **Portals** → **Managed Portals**, then the group.
2. Click **Settings**, open **Advanced settings**, and enter
   **Invitation reply-to**.
3. Click **Save changes**.

Create the group first, then set it from **Settings**. Leave it blank to keep
replies with each partner. Partners cannot change the address. Their
**Settings** → **Email preferences** shows it as **Reply-to address**, reading
**Set by your organisation.** when you have set one.

One thing to be aware of: this only steers replies to invitations. Booking and
check-in alerts still go to each portal's notification email and WhatsApp
number.

## How a partner claims their portal

The partner opens their portal link, signs in or creates a free ARTSVP account,
and connects it to their own organisation. From then on the portal is theirs
alone: one portal belongs to one partner organisation, so a partner working two
fairs with you claims a portal in each group. Only that organisation's members
can open it. A colleague who is not on the partner's team sees
**This portal is locked** and can **Request access**. The request goes to the
partner organisation, not to you; they allow it as a team invitation. See
[Using Your Portal](https://artsvp.com/docs/guest-management/using-your-portal#bringing-in-your-team).

One thing to be aware of: once a portal is connected, changing its **Portal
email** or resending the link does not give anyone new access. The link still
opens the same locked portal, and the new recipient still needs to be on the
partner's organisation to view it. If they land on **This portal is locked**,
they click **Request access** and the partner organisation's owner allows it as
a team invitation, see
[Using Your Portal: When a colleague is locked out](https://artsvp.com/docs/guest-management/using-your-portal#when-a-colleague-is-locked-out).
If they have already created their own separate account, have them check the
**Signed in as** email on the locked screen and confirm they joined the
partner's organisation, not a different organisation with a similar name.

Your team keeps oversight from the portal group page, which shows each portal's
status and usage, and the group's welcome message arrives as the partner's
first inbox message.

One thing to be aware of: once a partner connects their portal, your team can no
longer open it or see its full guest list, including unanswered invitations.
Oversight stays with the group page's status and usage columns. Confirmed guests
appear on the event's **Guestlist** labelled with who invited them, and both the
**Bookings** and **Guest List** CSVs include a **Portals** column.

### Connecting a portal yourself

If an admin of your organisation opens an unconnected portal's link, you skip
the partner welcome and land on the dashboard. That preview does not activate
the portal; it stays **Inactive** on the group page until someone connects it.

To connect it, open **Settings**. Under **Portal information**, **Organisation**
reads **Not connected**. Click **Connect**. On **Connect your portal**, choose
the organisation that should manage it and click **Connect portal**. Activation
costs 150 credits, charged once, the same as when a partner claims.

One thing to be aware of: connecting locks the portal to that organisation. If
you connect it to your own, your team runs it, and a partner can no longer
claim it. Create a separate portal when you still need to hand one to a partner.

## What partners can do

Inside their portal, a partner can:

- see their allocations and how many places remain;
- invite guests personally, using the same invitation flow your team uses,
  including CSV imports;
- copy an allocation-capped booking link to share more widely;
- watch their own guest list of responses as they arrive, and download it as a
  **Guest List** CSV;
- ask you for more places, and message you in the shared inbox.

They cannot see your other guests, your events' settings, or anything beyond what
you allocated.

One thing to be aware of: when a partner imports invitations from a CSV, credits
are charged per invitation created. The import does not merge duplicate email
addresses within a file or across uploads, each row becomes a separate
invitation. Advise partners to remove duplicates from their files before
uploading to avoid extra charges and duplicate invitations.

## How allocations are counted

- **The unit is guests, not invitations.** A booking for four people uses four
  places, whether it came from one invitation or a booking link.
- **Places are held as soon as a booking starts.** A booking still in progress
  counts against the allocation; if it is cancelled, rejected, or times out, the
  places return. The "remaining" figure a partner sees counts confirmed guests
  only, so a few more places may be spoken for than it suggests.
- **The cap is enforced when a guest books**, not when an invitation goes out.
  Once an allocation is full, the partner's booking link stops accepting guests
  and their outstanding invitations can no longer be redeemed. A partner can still
  create and send invitations against a full allocation, so raise it before they
  send if you want those places honoured.
- **Leftover places smaller than the smallest ticket count as none left.** A
  pair ticket (**Guests per ticket** of 2) cannot take a single remaining
  place. Outstanding invitations then open **This invite is no longer valid**;
  the booking link opens **We are sorry, this link has been fully used.**
- **One allocation per portal per event.** Grant a partner more places by raising
  the existing allocation, not by adding a second one.
- **Unlimited is a valid setting.** Leave the limit empty when a partner should
  not be capped.

## Guests invited by more than one partner

Turn on **Force Unique Bookings** on the event's **Settings** → **Advanced**
tab when you want one booking per email. A guest who already booked and then
opens a second partner's invitation sees **Existing Booking Found** and can
**Notify** that partner.

**Notify** spends the second partner's allocation for the whole party, the
same way a new booking would. The guest appears on both partners' guest
lists, and the second partner receives the same booking alerts they would
for a new confirmation. The guest then sees the partner's name followed by
**Notified**.

One thing to be aware of: **Notify** needs enough remaining places for every
guest on the existing booking. If the second allocation cannot cover the
party, the guest sees **This invite is no longer valid**. When they already
have a booking, that page also says **You already have a booking for this
event.** and offers **Email me my booking link**.

Partners still cannot open each other's guest lists. Only a guest who
notifies a second partner appears on both.

## Managing allocations

Raise an allocation at any time from **Portals** → **Managed Portals**, then
the group. Open the portal's row menu, choose **Edit portal**, and change the
limit under **Guest allocation**. Lowering it below what is already used does
not cancel bookings that exist.

Partners can request more places themselves, up to 50 at a time, with an
optional note. The request opens a thread in your shared inbox, where you
accept it by raising the allocation.

Once an event has ended it drops out of a partner's actionable list, though
their guest data stays visible. A cancelled event stays on **Allocations**
and reads **Cancelled**. **Invite Guests** and **Copy link** are disabled;
invitations and booking links already sent open the cancelled message. When
a portal has served its purpose, archive it to switch it off.

### Removing an allocation

Removing an allocation takes that event or collection off the partner's
**Allocations** tab. They lose **Invite Guests** and **Copy link** for it.
Their guests, invitations, and booking links stay on the portal: the guest
list, its counts, and its **Guest List** CSV keep them, and **Filter** lists
the event under **No longer allocated**.

In **Edit portal**, a row that already has guests, invitations, or links
shows how many hang off it, for example
*8 guests · 5 open invitations · 1 link*. The event or collection on that
row is fixed. To grant a different event, remove the row and add another
with **+ Add allocation**.

Choose **Remove allocation**. When you click **Save changes**, those guests
stay on the portal's guest list. If invitations or links have already gone
out, choose one of:

| Choice | What happens |
|---|---|
| **Allow what's already sent to be used** | The default. Sent invitations and booking links can still book against the original allocation until it is full. |
| **Force close the allocation** | Nothing already sent can be used from now on. Guests who have booked keep their places. A later cancellation does not free a place for someone new. |

A row with nothing on it comes off when you save, with no further choice.
**Undo** takes the mark off a row you have not saved yet.

One thing to be aware of: adding the same event or collection back with
**+ Add allocation** restores that allocation, guests and all, and reopens
it if you had force closed it. Set the new limit on the restored row.

On the portal group table, the **Usage** column opens a breakdown. Live
allocations sit under **Allocations**. Removed ones follow under
**Removed**, outside the totals, and may show **Closed** or **Full**. The
popover notes that their guests stay on the portal, and that invitations
and links already sent still work unless the allocation was force closed.

## The shared inbox

Every portal has a message thread between your team and the partner. Use it for
briefings, allocation requests, and door instructions, so the conversation stays
attached to the portal rather than scattered across email.

Turn on **Allow allocation increase requests** in the portal group settings when
you want partners to use **Increase allocation**. Their requests open a thread in
the portal inbox for your team to review.

### Who is notified about inbox messages

When a partner sends a message, the email notification goes to the **Support
email** set under **Settings** → **Info**. If that field is empty, it goes to
the organisation owner's email. The Support email is also the default reply-to
address on booking emails sent to guests, so consider setting it to a shared team
inbox.

When you send a message to a partner, the notification goes to their portal's
**Notification email** under the portal's **Settings** → **Notifications**.
If no Notification email is set, the message still appears in the portal's
**Inbox**, but no email notification is sent.

Partners also get notified as their guests respond. Each portal can receive email
and WhatsApp alerts for new bookings and for check-ins; all four are on by
default, and the partner controls them (along with the notification email
address and phone number) from their portal settings.

**Duplicate portal**, from a portal's row menu, copies its allocations and
booking links into the same group. The copy is **Inactive** until it is
connected, and the 150-credit activation applies when that happens. Notification
email, phone number, and notification preferences are not copied.

## The read-only deadline

A portal becomes read-only **four months after it is activated**. Its settings
lock, it can no longer issue booking links, and its existing links are shown as
disabled inside the portal; guest data stays readable, and portal group pages
show a **Read-only** badge and let you filter by it. Links the partner already
shared keep working until their allocation runs out, so lower the allocation if
you need to close a season off completely, and create a new portal for the next
season rather than reusing an old one.

> **Tip:** Set allocations slightly below your real ceiling. Raising one takes a
> moment, but places already promised are hard to take back.

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Keep reading:
[Using Your Portal](https://artsvp.com/docs/guest-management/using-your-portal) ·
[Exhibitors and allocations](https://artsvp.com/docs/art-fair-guide/exhibitors-and-allocations) ·
[Booking Settings](https://artsvp.com/docs/events/booking-settings) ·
[Invitations](https://artsvp.com/docs/guest-management/invitations) ·
[Billing and credits](https://artsvp.com/docs/settings/billing-and-credits)

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