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Tickets Please

Hidden Tickets

Hidden Tickets

Sometimes you need tickets that are not visible to the general public. Pre-sale access for newsletter subscribers, VIP tickets shared via a private link, or promotional pricing for a specific audience — these all require a ticket that exists but does not appear on the event page unless you have the right URL.

How Hidden Tickets Work

When you set a ticket’s visibility to hidden, two things happen:

  1. The ticket is removed from the public ticket section on the event page. Visitors browsing the event see only public tickets.
  2. An access token is generated and attached to the ticket. Anyone with the token can access the ticket through a private URL.

The private URL follows this pattern:

yoursite.com/event/my-event/?ticket_token=abc123def456

When a visitor opens this URL, the hidden ticket appears in the ticket section alongside any public tickets. The visitor can then add it to their cart (for paid tickets) or RSVP (for free tickets) just like any other ticket.

Creating a Hidden Ticket

  1. Go to Events > Tickets > Add New (or edit an existing ticket).
  2. Fill in the ticket name, price, capacity, and other fields as usual.
  3. Set the Visibility field to Hidden.
  4. Click Publish (or Update).

After saving, the Access Token field appears as a read-only value on the ticket edit screen. This token is auto-generated and cannot be changed manually.

Getting the Access URL

The ticket edit screen shows the access token after you save. To get the full URL that visitors will use:

  1. Open the ticket in the editor.
  2. Copy the access token value.
  3. Append it to the event URL: yoursite.com/event/{event-slug}/?ticket_token={token}.

Programmatically, you can call get_access_url( $ticket_id ) to retrieve the fully constructed URL. This is useful if you are building email templates or automated notifications that include the hidden ticket link.

Use Cases

Pre-sale tickets — create hidden Early Bird tickets and share the access URL with your mailing list before opening public sales. When the pre-sale window ends, either delete the hidden ticket or let its sale dates expire.

Invite-only events — set all tickets on an event to hidden. Only people with the access URL can register or purchase. Share the link in personal invitations.

Promotional pricing — create a hidden ticket with a lower price and share the URL through a specific marketing channel. Track how many sales come through the promotion by checking attendee records for that ticket type.

VIP access — create a hidden VIP ticket at a premium price. Share the link with select customers or embed it in a members-only area of your site.

Capacity and Hidden Tickets

Hidden tickets participate in the same capacity system as public tickets. If a hidden ticket uses shared (global) stock, it draws from the same pool as the event’s public tickets.

This means a hidden VIP ticket and a public General Admission ticket can share the same venue capacity. When the shared pool is exhausted, both ticket types show as sold out.

See Capacity Management for details on individual vs. shared capacity.

Security Considerations

The access token is a random string that is difficult to guess, but the URL is not encrypted. Anyone who has the URL can access the hidden ticket. Keep these points in mind:

  • Do not post the URL publicly unless you intend to make the ticket available to everyone. Share it through email, direct messages, or members-only pages.
  • Tokens cannot be rotated. If a token is leaked, the only way to revoke access is to delete the ticket and create a new hidden ticket with a fresh token.
  • The token does not expire. It works as long as the ticket is published and within its sale date window. Use sale dates to control the availability window.

Common Questions

Can I make a public ticket hidden after people have already bought it? Yes. Changing visibility to hidden removes the ticket from the public event page. Existing attendees and orders are not affected. Future visitors need the access URL to see and purchase the ticket.

Can I have multiple hidden tickets on the same event? Yes. Each hidden ticket gets its own access token and URL. You can share different URLs with different audiences.

Do hidden tickets appear in the admin ticket list? Yes. Hidden tickets appear in all admin views (ticket list, event editor, attendee management). The visibility restriction applies only to the public frontend.

Can I use the same access URL for multiple events? No. Each token is tied to a specific ticket on a specific event. You need a separate URL for each hidden ticket.

What happens if someone visits the event page without the token? They see the event page normally with only public tickets visible. There is no indication that hidden tickets exist.

Can I password-protect a ticket instead of using a token URL? Tickets Please does not have a password-based access system. The token URL is the mechanism for restricted access. For password-gated content, use WordPress’s built-in page password feature on the event itself, though this hides the entire event rather than specific tickets.

Next Steps