Using Your Portal
Your portal is the workspace an organiser has given you so that you can bring your own guests to their event. Whether you are exhibiting at a fair, co-hosting a private view, or sponsoring an evening, you invite under your own name, from a number of guest places the organiser sets, and you watch the responses arrive as they happen.
This page is written for you, the partner. The organiser’s side of the same feature is covered in Portals. Claiming a portal needs only a free ARTSVP account: there is nothing for you to buy.
Claiming your portal
The organiser sends you a portal link. Open it, sign in or create an account, then on Connect your portal choose which organisation manages it: one you already belong to, or Create a new organisation. A new organisation asks for an Organisation name and What best describes your team? (Art Fair, Gallery, Artist, or Other).
From that moment the portal belongs to that organisation alone. Only its members can open it. If you work two fairs with the same organiser, you claim a separate portal for each.
Once connected, the portal also appears under Portals → Connected Portals in that organisation. Open portal takes you back into the workspace. A colleague who is not on the team sees This portal is locked and can Request access; Bringing in your team covers how that request is allowed.
Your allocation
An allocation is the guest capacity the organiser has granted you for one event or collection. It carries a cap, or reads No limit where they have chosen not to cap you. Three rules shape the count:
- The unit is guests, not invitations. A booking for four people uses four places, however that booking arrived.
- The cap bites when a guest books, not when you send. You can create and send invitations against a full allocation, but they cannot be redeemed until the organiser raises it.
- Remaining counts confirmed guests only, so a few more places may already be spoken for by bookings still in progress.
Your portal home shows Invited guests, Confirmed guests, and Allocation used for each allocation you hold.
Inviting your guests
Two routes lead to the same booking flow, and both draw on the same allocation.
- Invite Guests sends a personal invitation to a named guest, who then books their own place. Before you send, Send me a test delivers the invitation as you’ve written it to your own address; your guests are not contacted, and the test link cannot be used to RSVP.
- Copy link gives you a booking link capped by your allocation. Anyone holding it can book while places last, which suits a newsletter, a group chat, or a post.
Open a guest from your guest list and click Edit to change their name or email. If you created the invitation without an email, add it here, then click Send invite. Once they have booked, the invitation can no longer be edited.
Invitation emails include a footer, Unsubscribe from Gallery B invitations, named for your organisation (or the portal name if you have not connected one). A guest who uses it stops receiving further invitations from you, not from the organiser. Send me a test shows the same footer.
Invitations you create, and the names and contact details on them, stay private to your portal. The organiser sees a guest only once that guest confirms.
When you send, guests see your portal name as the sender. Replies go to the Reply-to address under Settings → Email preferences. You cannot change it. If the organiser has set one for the group, it reads Set by your organisation. Otherwise it reads Replies go to your notification email.
If the organiser has turned on Force Unique Bookings, a guest who already booked and opens your invitation sees Existing Booking Found and can Notify you. That uses your allocation for their whole party, puts them on your guest list, and sends you the same booking alerts as a new confirmation. They then see your portal name followed by Notified.
If you do not have enough remaining places for the party, they see This invite is no longer valid instead. 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.
Asking for more places
When the organiser allows allocation increase requests, open the allocation’s availability badge or choose Increase allocation. Choose how many extra places you need, up to 50 at a time, add a message if it helps your case, and the organiser reviews it. The request opens a thread in Inbox, so the conversation stays attached to the portal rather than scattering across email. If neither control appears, contact the organiser directly.
Following the responses
Your guest list fills as invitations are answered and links are booked, and on the day it moves again as guests are checked in at the door. Once an event has ended it drops out of your actionable list, though your guest data stays readable.
On Guestlist, click Download and choose Guest List. The CSV is emailed to the address on your account, not the notification address under Settings → Notifications. It matches the tab, search, and Filter you have open: every guest and invitation in that view, with the details your portal shows. Organiser notes and tags stay off the file.
Each portal can alert you by email and by WhatsApp when a guest books and when a guest checks in. All four alerts are on by default. Change them, along with the address and number they reach you on, under Settings → Notifications.
Bringing in your team
Admins invite colleagues from Settings → Share access with Copy team invite, or from Manage team. Anyone who joins your organisation can help run the portal. Your guests are visible to your portal team and to the organiser of the events they book into. Another partner cannot open your guest list. A guest who already booked through someone else, and then notifies you, appears on both lists.
When a colleague is locked out
If they open the portal link signed in with an account that is not on your organisation, the screen reads This portal is locked. They click Request access, confirm, and the screen shows Request sent. Your organisation’s owner receives an email with Allow access.
Allow access opens a page where an admin of your organisation chooses their Role (Admin, Event Manager, Booking Manager, or Check-in only; Event Manager is selected) and clicks Accept & send invitation. That invitation adds them to your organisation with the role you chose, not only to this portal. Roles are covered in Teams.
One thing to be aware of: the request email goes to the organisation owner. Other admins can still accept it if they have the link. If your plan has no free team seats, the page offers Upgrade plan instead of sending the invitation.
Once you have allowed access, their locked screen shows Access allowed. with Accept invitation. After they accept, the portal opens for them. A second request is not sent while one is still waiting. If they turn the invitation down, Request access appears again.
When a portal goes read-only
A portal becomes read-only four months after it is activated. Its settings lock and it issues no new booking links, with existing links shown as disabled. Your guest data stays readable throughout, and links you have already shared keep working until the allocation runs out. For a new season, expect the organiser to open a fresh portal rather than revive this one.
Keep reading: Portals · Reporting and Exports · Invitations · Teams