Guest Passes

A guest pass link is a link worth a set number of free tickets for one date. You create it, you send it to whoever is bringing the guests — a performer, a sponsor, a partner — and each person who opens it gets a real ticket in a few seconds. No checkout, no code to type, no account needed. The link stops working by itself once the passes on it run out.

The tickets are ordinary tickets: they arrive with a QR code, they save to a phone wallet, and they scan at the door like every other ticket. They cost nothing, so they never show up in your revenue or your payout.

There are two ways to give free tickets, both on the event’s Guest passes page:

Invite by email is for inviting guests one by one: you enter each guest’s name and email, and their tickets are sent to them. On a date with reserved seating you also choose their seats.
Invite by link is for when you don’t have your guests’ names or emails: you share one guest pass link, each guest enters their own details and gets a ticket, until the number you set runs out.

Guest passes are for events selling tickets on Esora. A pass link can’t choose seats, so on a date with reserved seating you invite guests by name instead, choosing their seats.

Create a pass link

In the Esora Organizer app, open the event and tap Guest passes. In the web console, open the event and choose Guest passes in its menu.

Three things to fill in:

Who is this for? — a name only you see, like “Aram + family”. It’s how you’ll recognize the link later.
Date — the date these passes are good for. One link covers one date; make another link for another date.
Passes to give away — how many free tickets this link can hand out in total. Once that many are claimed, the link stops working.

You can also set an optional Expires time. Without one, the link stops when the date ends.

Send the link to the person bringing the guests. Whoever opens it adds one guest at a time — a name and an email — and that guest’s ticket is sent right away; they repeat this while passes remain, or forward the link so each guest claims their own. Anyone holding the link can claim from it, so treat it like a key — the most it can ever give away is the number of passes you put on it.

The name you gave the link is what makes a problem visible: “Aram + family: 4 / 4 claimed” while Aram says he hasn’t sent it to anyone is something you’ll spot immediately. For every link you can see how many passes are left and who has claimed them.

Issue a pass at the door

Someone at the door who should be on the list? Open the link and use Issue a pass at the door: enter the guest’s name and email, and their ticket is emailed to them straight away. It comes out of the link’s remaining passes.

Close it, or add more passes

Close the link to stop anyone new claiming. Passes already claimed stay valid — nothing is taken back from the guests who have them. You can reopen the link later.
Raise the number of passes at any time. You can lower it too, but not below the number already claimed.

Invite a guest by name

When you already know who the guest is, skip the link and send them their tickets yourself. On the Guest passes screen, choose Invite a guest:

Type the guest’s name and email. The tickets are sent to that email, and the guest uses it to find them again, so it has to be the guest’s own address.
Pick the date, if the event has more than one.
On a date with reserved seating, choose the seats on the hall map. Any seat nobody has bought or is buying can be given, whether it’s on sale or not. On any other date, choose how many places.
Tap Send invitation. The guest gets one ticket per seat or place by email, with a QR code each, right away.

What if someone buys a seat while I'm choosing, or the connection drops?

If someone buys one of the seats while you’re choosing, nothing is sent: you’re told which seats were taken, and you pick again. If the connection drops while you send, tapping Send invitation again doesn’t create a second invitation.

Your invitations are listed on the Guest passes screen with the guest’s name and their seats or places. An invited seat also shows as Invited · {guest name} on the event’s Seats page.

Cancel an invitation

Choose Cancel invitation next to it on the Guest passes screen, or on the invited seat on the Seats page. The guest’s tickets stop working and they get an email saying so. A seat that was on sale goes back on sale; a seat that wasn’t stays not on sale. An invitation can’t be cancelled once the guest has been scanned in.

Invitations are free tickets like guest passes: they never show up in your revenue or your payout. Each one is counted at its ticket’s price as given away, the same as a claimed pass.

Which ticket do guests get

You don’t choose a ticket type when you make the link, and neither does the guest. When someone claims, Esora gives them the cheapest ticket that still has room on that date — hidden and public types alike.

If the cheapest one is full, the next one with room is used instead. A guest you promised is never turned away while the date still has a seat somewhere.
A paused ticket type is never used for a pass. Pausing a type is how you keep it out of guest passes entirely.
If nothing on that date has room left, the guest is told the event is full.

How do I set seats, or one particular version of the ticket, aside for guests?

Want your guests on a fixed number of seats, or on one particular version of the ticket (the one with the drum, the one with the bus seat)? Make a hidden ticket type priced at 0 for it and give it the quantity you want to hand out.

Passes use that type first, because nothing is cheaper than free. Two things to know:

Those seats are one shared pool for every pass on that date, not a reservation per link. Whoever claims first takes them, from whichever link.
Once that type is full, claims move on to the next cheapest type with room. The free seats are a preference, not a hard limit — that way a promised guest is never refused while the date has a seat.

Hidden types are created like any other type; see Ticket Types & Pricing for how visibility, price and quantity work.

Ticket Types & Pricing — the types your passes draw from
Promo Codes — discounts for buyers who go through checkout
Orders, Guests & Refunds — finding guests and their tickets
Check-In: Scanning Tickets at the Door — passes scan like any ticket

Questions about guest passes? Get in touch.