Payments & Deposits
How Vynue deposits, balance payments, platform fees, payouts and refunds work — including exactly when money is charged and when it reaches the host.
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Money moves at four defined moments: when you book, seven days before the event, after the event, and — if something goes wrong — whenever a refund is issued. Nothing happens in between, and nothing is left to be settled in cash on the night.
What a client pays
Your total is exactly the host's own rate — hourly, daily, or a fixed package price. There is no fee added on top and no charge added at the end; the price shown on the listing is what your card is charged, across two payments.
Vynue's platform fee is deducted from the host's payout after the event, not added to your total. It works the same way as cancellation compensation (see Cancellation Policy) — the fee always comes out of what the host receives, never out of what you pay.
Deposits
Every booking takes a deposit. There is no "pay on the night" option — a booking with nothing collected carries no commitment.
- Talent partners default to 25% of the total
- Venues default to 50%
- A host may set theirs anywhere between 10% and 50%
The percentage is locked to your booking the moment you book. A host who raises their deposit later cannot change what you already agreed to.
The balance
The remaining balance is charged automatically, seven days before the event, to the card you used for the deposit. You do not need to do anything.
Seven days rather than the day before is deliberate: if a card is declined there is time to fix it, instead of a crisis on the day.
If your card has expired or been replaced between booking and the balance date, the charge will fail and you will be emailed. A booking whose balance never clears can be cancelled by the host.
Vynue holds the money
When you pay, the money goes to Vynue — not to the partner or venue. It stays there until the booking is over.
That is the point. It means there is something to refund if the booking is cancelled, and something to hold if a problem needs resolving. A host cannot take your deposit and disappear, because they have not been given it yet.
Vynue is not an escrow service and does not describe itself as one — "escrow" names a specific regulated arrangement. What happens here is simpler: Vynue collects the payment and pays the host once the booking is done.
When hosts get paid
After the booking's scheduled end time, both sides get a one-tap prompt: it went well, or there was a problem.
| What happens | When the host is paid |
|---|---|
| Both sides confirm it went well | Immediately |
| Only one side confirms | 72 hours after the booking ends |
| Neither side responds | 72 hours after the booking ends |
| Either side reports a problem | Held until our team resolves it |
A host cannot release their own payment by confirming alone. Both sides are required for early release — otherwise a host could pay themselves before the client had any say, which would make holding the money meaningless.
Payouts arrive through Stripe, into the payout account the host connected during setup. A host with no active payout account cannot be booked at all, so this never becomes a surprise after the event.
Refunds
Refunds go back to the original card. How much you get back depends on the host's cancellation policy and how close to the event you cancel.
Two things are worth knowing before you cancel:
- Card processing fees are not returned by the payment network. Once a payment has been taken, that fee is genuinely gone. On a client-initiated cancellation the client bears it, so a refund is the amount you are entitled to minus that fee.
- A refund is reconciled against what's actually been collected, not capped at it. If you've paid more than your entitlement, you get the difference back. If you've only paid a deposit and your entitlement works out to less than that deposit, you may still owe the remaining cancellation amount and Vynue will attempt to charge your card for it — see Cancellation Policy for the full breakdown and a worked example.
When a host cancels, the client is refunded everything they paid regardless of policy. See Cancellation Policy and What happens if I cancel as a Partner?.
If a payment looks wrong
Do not try to settle it directly with the other party — contact support with the booking reference. Every charge, refund and payout is recorded against the booking, so it can be traced.
Never send or accept payment outside Vynue. Off-platform payment is unrecoverable if anything goes wrong, and asking for it is reportable. See Safety.
Related
For Partners
Listing your services on Vynue as a dancer, musician, bartender, photographer or host — setting rates and deposits, getting verified, and how payouts work.
Policies
Vynue's booking policies — cancellations and refunds, partner cancellation consequences, disputes and evidence, refund qualification, chargebacks, and the conduct rules that apply to everyone on the platform.