Terms of use

What you agree to by using Mehfil, in plain words.

Who we are

Mehfil is a marketplace in Pakistan for renting a space by the hour — a backyard, a rooftop, a terrace, a hall — for an event. It runs the app at app.mehfilofficial.com and the site at mehfilofficial.com. Mehfil for Venues is the part of it a banquet hall uses to keep its own diary. In these terms “we” is Mehfil and “you” is whoever uses it. A host lists a space; a guest books one. You can be both.

Mehfil puts guests and hosts in touch, takes the Mehfil fee, and decides problems brought to it. The space is the host’s, and the rental is between the guest and the host.

Your account

You must be 18 or over. By signing in you confirm you are.
Your phone number is your account. You sign in with a code sent to it; there is no password. Use a number that is yours, keep your phone to yourself, and never give anybody a code we send you. What is done from your account is yours to answer for.
One person, one account. Do not sign in for somebody else, or make another account to get round a decision about this one.
See where you are signed in in Profile, then Devices, and sign the others out. When somebody signs in to your account, your other devices are told.
You can leave whenever you like: Profile, then Delete my account. The privacy policy says what goes, what stays and why, and what holds a deletion up.

Hosting

List only a space you have the right to rent out, and for the uses you list it for. Permission from a landlord, a society or anybody else it needs is yours to have.
Describe it as it is. The photos, the size, how many it holds, the rules and the price must be true of the space on the day.
You are verified before your space goes live. Somebody from Mehfil meets you and sees your CNIC, and a moderator reads each space before guests can find it. We can turn a space down, or take it off, and we say why.
Honour what you agree to. Answer requests in the time the app gives you; a request you leave unanswered lapses. Have the space open, clean and as described at the hours booked.
The prices and the cancellation policy are yours to set, within the limits the app shows you, and the guest sees them before they book.
Look after your guests’ safety in your space as the law expects of you, and keep it to the number of people you list it for.

Booking

A booking is a few hours in a space, on the terms shown before you book: the price, the cleaning fee, the Mehfil fee, the cash to hand over on the day, the house rules and the cancellation policy.
Some spaces are booked at once; for others you send a request, and the host has a set time to say yes or no. A request that is turned down or not answered costs you nothing.
A booking is confirmed when the Mehfil fee is paid, in the app, by the time it shows. One not paid by then lapses, and the hours go back on sale.
What a booking was made under stays with it. A host changing their price or their policy afterwards, or us changing a setting, does not change a booking already made.
Contact details are hidden until a booking is confirmed. Before that you write to each other in the app, and a phone number or a messaging link written in a question is hidden. Once it is confirmed, each side sees the other’s number, and the guest sees the address.
Book through Mehfil what you found on Mehfil. Arranging to book a space you found here somewhere else, to save the Mehfil fee, is not allowed.

The Mehfil fee

Hosts pay us nothing. A guest pays the Mehfil fee, a share of the price of the space — never of cleaning — shown before they book, and it is the only money that passes through us. What Mehfil charges gives the share as it is today, with worked examples. A code off the fee takes off only what it says, and only from the Mehfil fee.

Cash on the day

The rest of the price — the space and any cleaning — the guest hands the host in person, in cash, when they arrive. It never passes through Mehfil, so we cannot hold it, return it or take it from anybody. The app shows both of you the amount; the host marks it received.

Cancelling, and refunds

Only the Mehfil fee is ever refunded, because it is the only money we hold. Cash not yet handed over is simply never paid.
If the guest cancels, the fee comes back as the space’s cancellation policy says — Flexible, Standard or Strict, shown before booking with what comes back until when. The app shows what you would get back before you confirm.
If the host cancels a confirmed booking, the guest’s whole fee comes back, however close to the evening.
If we call an evening off, or decide a problem the guest’s way, we can return the fee ourselves, and we say why.
If the guest does not come, the fee does not come back: the hours were kept for them. After the hours are over the host can mark that nobody came; a guest who did come can tell us, and a person looks at it.
How each of these is worked out is on What Mehfil charges.

Damage, and other problems

Take a few photos in the app at the start and the end: they are what a damage claim is decided on. A claim is made in the app within the time If something goes wrong gives, the other side can answer, and a person at Mehfil decides on the photos, the messages and what each of you sends. Mehfil does not insure your space. A decision can return the Mehfil fee, stop a listing or an account, or be recorded against either of you; it cannot take money from one of you and give it to the other. That page says how to disagree with a decision.

Reviews

After a booking, the guest and the host can each review the other. Write about that booking, honestly, and in your own name. No phone numbers or links, no abuse, and nothing offered or asked for in return for a review. Our moderators read reviews that may break these rules and can take one down.

What is not allowed

Anything against the law of Pakistan, in the app or in a space booked through it.
Threatening, harassing or cheating anybody, or a space or a profile that is not what it says.
Using somebody else’s number or account, or a code that was not sent to you.
Getting round the Mehfil fee, a block, or a decision about your account.
Sending people messages they did not ask for, or using Mehfil to collect anybody’s details.
Interfering with the app, or reading it by machine in ways it is not offered for.

If you do, we can take down what you wrote or listed, stop your account, or block your number from signing in. When we stop an account or take a space down, we say why, and you can ask us to look at it again: reply on the message that told you, or write to us.

What we are responsible for

We run Mehfil with care, and we keep to what these pages say. We do not own, inspect every hour of, or run the spaces listed, and we are not at the events held in them, so we are not responsible for what happens there — that is for the host, the guest and the people they bring. As far as the law allows, what we owe anybody over a booking is no more than the Mehfil fee paid for it. Nothing here takes away a right the law gives you that cannot be taken away.

If these terms change

We may change these terms as Mehfil changes. The date at the bottom says when they last did, and a change that matters we announce in the app. Using Mehfil after a change means you accept it; a booking already made keeps the terms it was made under.

The law

These terms are governed by the laws of Pakistan, and the courts of Pakistan decide any dispute about them.

Getting in touch

Help, inside the app, or support@mehfilofficial.com from anywhere.