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Tickets Please

Event Update & Cancellation Notifications

Plans change. Venues close, dates shift, and sometimes events get cancelled altogether. When that happens, your attendees need to know immediately. Tickets Please detects changes to key event fields and gives you control over whether and how attendees are notified, including a cancellation workflow that can process bulk refunds in a single action.

Event Update Notifications

What Triggers an Update Notification

When you save an event, Tickets Please compares the new values against the previous values for these fields:

  • Start date
  • End date
  • Venue
  • Website URL
  • Event status

If any of these fields changed, the admin sees a notice at the top of the editor after saving:

Notify attendees of changes? [Send Notification] [Dismiss]

This notice appears only when tracked fields change. Editing the event description, title, or other non-tracked fields does not trigger the prompt.

Sending the Notification

Click Send Notification to send the event_update email to all attendees in completed or checked_in status. The notification includes a before/after comparison of every field that changed:

FieldBeforeAfter
Start DateMarch 15, 2025 at 7:00 PMMarch 22, 2025 at 7:00 PM
VenueDowntown Community CenterRiverside Pavilion

This comparison gives attendees clear, actionable information about what changed.

Click Dismiss if you do not want to notify attendees (e.g., for minor corrections that do not affect logistics).

How the Admin Notice Works

The notification prompt is powered by an AJAX handler loaded from assets/js/event-updates.js. When you click Send Notification, the script fires an AJAX request that queues the emails and shows a success confirmation. The prompt disappears after you choose either option.

The prompt appears once per save. If you save again without making additional tracked changes, the prompt does not reappear.

Event Cancellation Notifications

The Cancellation Workflow

When an event’s status changes to canceled, Tickets Please presents a modal dialog with three options:

  1. Notify attendees + process refunds — sends the event_cancellation email to all attendees and automatically processes bulk refunds through the payment gateway for every paid attendee.
  2. Notify attendees only — sends the cancellation email without processing refunds. Use this if you plan to handle refunds manually or offer credits instead.
  3. Silent cancellation — cancels the event without sending any notification. Attendees are not informed.

The modal is powered by assets/js/event-cancellation.js and appears immediately when the status change is detected.

Refund Processing

When you choose option 1 (notify + refund), Tickets Please processes refunds in bulk:

  1. Each paid attendee’s linked WooCommerce order is identified.
  2. Refunds are submitted to the original payment gateway.
  3. Each attendee’s status transitions to refunded.
  4. The event_cancellation email is sent to every attendee, including the refund amount.

If a refund fails for any individual attendee (e.g., gateway error), that attendee’s status remains unchanged and an admin notice reports the failure. Successfully refunded attendees still receive their notifications.

Cancellation Email Content

The event_cancellation email includes:

  • The event name, original date, and venue
  • A clear statement that the event has been cancelled
  • The refund amount (if refunds were processed), using the {refund_amount} placeholder
  • Your site contact information via {site_name} and {site_url}

Customize the subject line and body template in Events > Settings under the event cancellation email section.

Recipients

Both update and cancellation notifications go to all attendees in completed or checked_in status for the affected event. Attendees in pending, failed, expired, refunded, or cancelled status do not receive notifications.

For cancellations with refunds, attendees in completed and checked_in status are refunded and then notified. Their status changes to refunded as part of the process.

Common Questions

What if I change the date and venue at the same time? The before/after comparison in the notification includes all fields that changed. Attendees see both changes in a single email rather than receiving separate notifications.

Can I edit the notification before it sends? No. The notification uses the event_update or event_cancellation email template configured in your settings. Customize the template in advance at Events > Settings. The before/after field comparison is generated automatically and cannot be edited per-send.

What happens if I cancel an event with RSVP-only attendees (no payment)? RSVP attendees do not have an order to refund. Choosing “Notify + refund” skips the refund step for RSVP attendees and sends them the cancellation email with no refund amount.

Can I undo a cancellation? Changing an event’s status away from canceled re-activates the event, but it does not un-send the cancellation emails or reverse any refunds. If you restore a cancelled event, you should manually notify attendees that the event is back on.

Do I get a notification as admin when attendees are notified? The success confirmation appears in the admin editor after the emails are queued. There is no separate admin email summarizing who was notified. Check your SMTP plugin’s email log for delivery details.

Is there a way to notify only some attendees? No. Update and cancellation notifications go to all eligible attendees. If you need to contact a subset, export the relevant attendees via CSV Export and email them directly.

What if the payment gateway is unreachable during bulk refund? Refunds that fail due to gateway errors are skipped. The affected attendees remain in their current status, and an admin notice reports which refunds failed. You can process those refunds individually later from the Attendee Management screen.

Next Steps