External Booking Links for Public Events
Public events can now send guests to an external site to book and pay instead of using Ferb's built-in checkout. This is useful when a partner venue or third-party platform handles registration for the event.
Booking modes
When you set an event's access mode to Public, you can choose a Booking mode:
Ferb checkout (default): Guests book and, if tickets are enabled, pay through Ferb as before.
External booking: Guests are sent to an external URL to book. Ferb does not sell tickets or collect payment for the event.
The booking mode selector only appears for public events. Private link, host-private, and internal hold events always use Ferb checkout and are unaffected by this change.
Setting up an external booking event
Start creating or editing an event and set its access mode to Public.
Set Booking mode to External booking.
Enter the External booking URL the guest should be sent to (for example partner.example.com/events/1).
Ferb automatically adds https:// to the URL if you did not type a protocol.
When external booking is selected:
Attendee checkout, ticket price, and tax slot fields are hidden and cleared, since Ferb is not handling payment.
The external booking URL is required before the event can be saved or published.
URL requirements
The URL must use https:// (or have no protocol, in which case Ferb adds it automatically).
The URL cannot include a username or password.
Links using other protocols (for example ftp://) are rejected.
FAQs for public events
Public events, whether they use Ferb checkout or an external booking link, can include a list of frequently asked questions that show on the event's public listing.
Add one or more question and answer pairs while creating or editing a public event.
Rows where either the question or the answer is left blank are dropped automatically and are not saved.
FAQs are saved and re-ordered in the order you enter them.
Where this is available
The event creation wizard, from both Planning and the Scheduler.
The event detail page for an existing published event, where staff can add or edit external booking details and FAQs.
Switching back to Ferb checkout
If you change the booking mode back to Ferb checkout for a public event, the external booking URL is cleared and standard ticketing fields (attendee checkout, price, tax slot) become available again.
Protections once an event has bookings
Once a public event already has at least one booking, publishing changes to any of the following from the scheduler is blocked:
Booking mode (switching between Ferb checkout and external booking)
Price or unit cost
Tax slot
Whether tickets are enabled
Whether the event is bookable
This prevents guests who already booked from being affected by a change to how the event is sold. To change these settings, cancel or move existing bookings first.
