Release 19 - October 2026

Release 19 is about the guest list and tickets. The guest list keeps one row and one paddle per person, releasing a seat keeps it at its table, and organizations with Sponsor Pages give ticket buyers the sponsor seat view in My Tickets. You can email or text selected guests from the Guest List, connect your CRM from your organization settings, and hide any item, even after it has bids or has sold.

Highlights

Email or Text Selected Guests

Select guests on the Guest List and click Message selected to send an email, a text message, or both. Each guest gets their own copy with their first name filled in. Before you send, you see how many guests will receive the message and who will be skipped, and why. Each guest’s record lists the messages sent to them.

For step-by-step instructions, see How to Email or Text Selected Guests.

If your organization uses Sponsor Pages, My Tickets now shows signed-in ticket buyers the same seat view as the sponsor page: every seat with its status and one next step: add a guest, send or resend the invite, open the seat’s ticket to text, email, download or print it, or release the seat. Buyers can hand a group of seats to a co-host and resend the co-host’s invite.

Guests who view their own ticket see their seat and the names of the others at their table. Contact details stay private.

See How to Manage My Guests as a Ticket Purchaser and How to Add Event Sponsors’ Guest Information.

Releasing a Seat

Release seat is now offered only for a seat that holds a registered bidder. The seat stays at its table position and keeps its sponsor, ready for a new guest, and the bidder keeps their paddle and bids. To change a seat that only has a name, edit it instead.

To give a seat to someone else, release it and invite the new guest. This replaces transferring tickets from the events site. See Transferring a Ticket to Another Person.

One Guest, One Row, One Paddle

An email that is already in your event can’t be added to a second guest. Handbid tells you who already has it.
At check-in, if a guest’s email matches a bidder with a different name, you are asked whether they are a different person instead of merging them automatically.
A guest who is already a bidder keeps their paddle number when you check them in or link them.
Linked guests stay linked, and a merge never takes a seat away from a ticket purchase.
Enter Mass Appeals shows new and changed paddle numbers right away.

See Check In Guests and Register Bidders from the Guest List and How to Link Bidder Accounts on the Guest List.

Connect Your CRM

You can connect, edit and remove your CRM from your organization settings.

Bloomerang: paste your API key and click Authenticate.
Salesforce NPSP: click Connect and sign in to Salesforce. Before the first connection, a Salesforce admin in your organization installs the connector app once.
Salsa Engage: existing connections can be edited or removed.

See Connect Your Organization’s CRM to Handbid and Bloomerang.

Hide Any Item

Hide Item now works on items that have bids or purchases, or have sold. A hidden item leaves your item lists and displays. Bidders who bid on it or bought it can still open it from their activity.

Also in This Release

Sponsor import: each sponsor now takes the first seat of their sponsorship and appears on the guest list. Use the new not-attending option to leave every seat open for guests. See How to Import Sponsors from a Spreadsheet.
Tables page (table seating, available on Core and higher plans): click an empty seat to choose who sits there: an unseated guest, someone seated elsewhere, or a new guest.
Guest-list emails for invites, sponsor and co-host links, and reminders now each have their own design. Sponsors also hear when their table is complete and when seats come back to them.
Handbid Live on your events site (available on Core and higher plans): when a stream is limited to registered bidders or ticket holders, the Live tab tells viewers what they need and starts playing once they have it.
A faster guest list on large events.

Fixes

Guests who sign up from a “Claim my seat” invite are registered and seated, and the sign-up form is filled in with the details the ticket buyer entered.
Co-hosts can name the guests in the seats they were given, and the Sponsor Page shows the co-host’s name.
The Guest-List Cleanup Assistant no longer merges two different people who share an email or phone.
Guests who register from a sponsor’s invite take the sponsor’s named seat instead of appearing twice.
Sponsors whose names contain “&” no longer appear as several groups.
Names with apostrophes, such as O’Brien, are saved and display correctly, including names saved before this release.
Registering a guest as a bidder in the iPhone app keeps their table.
An item sold from the iPad or by Buy Now shows as sold on every screen and on the TV ticker at once.
An extended item shows its countdown.
The CRM Sync page opens for organizations with a connected CRM.
International phone numbers can be saved on a bidder’s profile.