Mehfil
What Mehfil charges
Two numbers. Both on this page. Neither changes at checkout.
0%
Hosts pay us nothing. You keep the full price of your space, including cleaning.
12%
Guests pay this once, on the price of the space only — never on cleaning.
Worked examples
These are calculated by the same code that prices a real booking, so this page cannot drift from what you are actually charged.
A birthday in a backyard
Rs 2,500 per hour × 4 hours, plus Rs 1,500 cleaning
| Space | Rs 10,000 |
| Cleaning | Rs 1,500 |
| Mehfil fee | Rs 1,200 |
| Guest pays in the app | Rs 1,200 |
| Guest pays the host on arrival | Rs 11,500 |
| Host keeps | Rs 11,500 (100%) |
An afternoon photo shoot
Rs 4,000 per hour × 3 hours
| Space | Rs 12,000 |
| Mehfil fee | Rs 1,440 |
| Guest pays in the app | Rs 1,440 |
| Guest pays the host on arrival | Rs 12,000 |
| Host keeps | Rs 12,000 (100%) |
A mehndi on a lawn
Rs 6,000 per hour × 6 hours, plus Rs 3,000 cleaning
| Space | Rs 36,000 |
| Cleaning | Rs 3,000 |
| Mehfil fee | Rs 4,320 |
| Guest pays in the app | Rs 4,320 |
| Guest pays the host on arrival | Rs 39,000 |
| Host keeps | Rs 39,000 (100%) |
Why cleaning is excluded
Cleaning is a cost you pass on, not income. Charging a percentage of it would mean taking a cut of your washing-up. Our fee applies to the price of the space and nothing else.
When the price is lower
A host can take something off a longer booking. The listing and the price both show it before you choose your hours, and our fee is worked out on the lower price.
A host can also answer your question with their own price for one evening: never more than the listed price, and never more than 30% below what those hours cost before any discount, with a long-booking discount counted in. Our fee is the same percentage, on the price you agreed, and the offer shows it before you book.
How the money moves
The guest pays the Mehfil fee in the app when they book. They pay you the rest — the space and any cleaning — in person when they arrive. We never hold your money, so there is no payout to wait for.
If a booking is called off
Only the Mehfil fee is ever refunded. The money a guest would have handed you
on arrival is simply never collected.
When the guest changes their mind, the fee comes back on the
cancellation policy shown on the listing before they booked — that is what the
policy is for.
When you call off a confirmed booking, the guest's whole fee is
returned however close to the evening it is. The policy governs what somebody
forfeits for changing their mind, and a host pulling out is not the guest's
change of mind. Nothing is taken from you: Mehfil never held your money in the
first place.
And if a guest brings us a problem and we decide it their way — they arrived
to a locked gate, the space was not what the photographs showed — we can return
the fee ourselves, with the reason recorded against the decision.