SetVenue Cancellation Policy

Last updated: 2026-06-11

Plain-English Summary

This is the short version of how cancellations and refunds work on SetVenue. It is here for convenience — the numbered sections below are the operative legal text.

If you (the Guest) cancel your Booking, the refund you get depends on the Cancellation Tier the Host chose for the Listing — Flexible, Moderate (the platform default), or Strict. Each tier has a window: cancel early enough and you get 100% back; cancel inside the middle window and you get 50%; cancel close to the start time and you get nothing. The Moderate tier is the platform default — 30 days out for a full refund, between 7 and 29 days for 50%, inside 7 days no refund. Flexible runs 7 days / 1–6 days / under 24 hours; Strict runs 60 days / 30–59 days / under 30 days. The 100% includes the SetVenue Guest Service Fee — SetVenue does not keep its fee on a fully refunded Booking. The one piece that never refunds, in any scenario, is the Stripe Processing Fee (roughly 2.9% + $0.30 on a U.S. card), because Stripe does not return its fee to anyone when a charge is reversed. See Terms of Service §8.3 for the Guest Service Fee rate that applied to your Booking; the Cancellation Tier (Flexible / Moderate / Strict) is independent of the fee tier.

If the Host cancels, you (the Guest) get a 100% refund of everything you paid, including the Guest Service Fee; the non-returned Stripe Processing Fee is borne as allocated in §7.4 and is not deducted from your refund. The Host may face consequences — a handling fee, lower search ranking, a notation on their profile, or Account suspension if cancellations become a pattern.

If something genuinely impossible happens — natural disaster, mandatory evacuation, fire that destroys the property through no party's fault (a Host's electrical fire would not qualify — that is Host fault under §5(a)), active-duty military deployment of the Guest, communicable-disease isolation under a public-health authority, or a pandemic, epidemic, or government-ordered public-health restriction that prohibits gatherings of the size or character of the Booking — that is "Force Majeure" and the Guest is refunded fully (any unreturned Stripe fee is allocated per §7.4 — in many cases SetVenue absorbs it). Bad weather, a budget cut, or a permit the Host failed to obtain do not count as Force Majeure.

If SetVenue cancels for a safety, fraud, or platform-error reason, the refund follows the cause: Host fault means full Guest refund; Guest fault means no refund; platform error means full Guest refund and no Host penalty. If a Host enters bankruptcy, SetVenue treats it as a Host-attributed cancellation and refunds what is recoverable.

The all-in price you see at first display is the all-in mandatory price — that is California's "Honest Pricing Law" (SB 478), and SetVenue's pricing display is designed to meet that standard. This applies to search results, Listing detail pages, and every surface where price is shown: browse tiles show an all-in hourly rate that already includes the service fee, and the Listing page and checkout itemize the full Booking Total. The one fee that is not in the first-display total is the Stripe Processing Fee — Stripe keeps it when a charge is reversed, but in Guest-initiated cancellations SetVenue absorbs it and your refund is not reduced by it (this is the SB 478 carve-out described in §7.4).

Your chargeback rights are not waived. Nothing in this Policy limits any chargeback right you may have with your card issuer under Visa, Mastercard, or other payment-card network rules, or under the Fair Credit Billing Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1666 et seq. See §1 and §9.

This summary is provided for convenience only. The numbered sections below are the operative legal text and control in any conflict.

§1 Introduction and Scope

This Cancellation Policy ("Policy") applies to all Bookings made through the SetVenue Platform and governs the circumstances under which a Booking may be cancelled by a Guest, a Host, or SetVenue; the refund amounts owed to Guests in each scenario; the consequences for Hosts who cancel confirmed Bookings; and the process by which refunds are routed through Stripe. This Policy is incorporated by reference into SetVenue's Terms of Service ("Terms") at §10 and is a binding part of the agreement between SetVenue, Hosts, and Guests. Capitalized terms not defined in this Policy have the meanings given in the Terms.

Scope. This Policy applies to Bookings confirmed through the Platform — meaning Bookings where (a) a Host accepted the Guest's request (or the Listing is configured for instant-book and the Guest meets the criteria), and (b) the Guest's payment was authorized through Stripe. Pre-authorization requests that were never confirmed, Booking requests that are still pending Host acceptance, and Off-Platform Bookings (see Terms § 12 — Non-Circumvention) are outside the scope of this Policy.

What tier governs your Booking. The applicable Cancellation Tier is displayed on the Listing at the time of Booking and confirmed in the Booking summary the Guest accepts at checkout. The Guest is bound by the tier in effect at the time the Booking is confirmed, even if the Host later modifies the Listing's tier.

Conspicuousness of tier consequences. Consistent with Berman v. Freedom Financial (9th Cir. 2022), SetVenue surfaces both (i) the Cancellation Tier label and (ii) the substantive consequence of that tier (e.g., the tier's refund schedule with its windows and percentages) on the Listing detail page (PDP) and at checkout, before the Guest pays. A Guest is entitled to see the substantive consequence of the applicable tier's no-refund window — and any analogous tier consequence — before confirmation.

Chargeback rights preserved. Nothing in this Cancellation Policy waives or limits any chargeback right the Guest may have under Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, or other payment-card network rules, or under the Fair Credit Billing Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1666 et seq. The Guest's chargeback rights are independent of and additional to the refund mechanics in this Policy. The interaction between chargebacks and SetVenue's refund process is governed by the Dispute Resolution Policy § 4. Per California Civil Code § 1668, any attempt to waive a Guest's statutory or network-rule chargeback rights would be void.

For questions about whether a cancellation occurred, who cancelled, or whether a refund amount was correctly calculated, see the Dispute Resolution Policy at /legal/disputes.

§2 Definitions

In this Policy, the following terms have the meanings given:

• Booking Start Time. The agreed start date and time of the Booking as confirmed in the Booking summary.
• Cancellation Window. The period before the Booking Start Time within which a cancellation triggers a specified refund outcome, measured in calendar days unless otherwise stated.
• Cancellation Tier. The refund schedule the Host selects per Listing — Flexible, Moderate, or Strict — which determines the Guest's refund entitlement upon Guest-initiated cancellation. If the Host has not selected a Cancellation Tier, the Moderate Tier applies by default.
• Disclosed-at-First-Display Total. The fee-inclusive price displayed before checkout. On per-hour surfaces — a search-results tile, a list-view, map-view, filter, or comparison surface, and any other surface that shows an hourly price — it is the all-in hourly rate: the Host's listed rate plus the Standard-tier Guest Service Fee, labeled as including the service fee. On the Listing detail page and at checkout it is the itemized Booking Total: the Host's listed rate for the booked period, the Guest Service Fee, any Cleaning Fee that is mandatory, any Minimum Booking adjustment, and any other mandatory line item. Both forms are exclusive of (a) government-imposed taxes (e.g., transient occupancy tax) and (b) shipping/delivery charges. Per California Civil Code § 1770(a)(29) ("Honest Pricing Law" / SB 478), the price seen by the Guest at first display on each such surface is fee-inclusive, and the Guest Service Fee rate applied at checkout is never higher than the Standard-tier rate assumed in browse displays (Terms §8.3).
• Force Majeure Event. A circumstance beyond the reasonable control of both the Host and the Guest that renders the Booking physically or legally impossible — not merely inconvenient, impractical, or commercially unattractive. See §6 for qualifying and non-qualifying events.
• Guest Service Fee. The fee SetVenue charges the Guest at checkout, in addition to the Host's listed price. The applicable rate depends on the Booking's pricing tier (Terms §8.3): Standard Tier 10%, Founding Host Tier 8% (first 50 Hosts on the Platform × 24 months from each Host's first Listing approval), Verified Corporate Tier 6% (priority: lowest applicable rate wins; see Terms §8.3 for full eligibility and tier-priority rules). The Guest Service Fee is displayed in the Booking summary at checkout.
• Host Commission. No Host Commission is charged in v1 (rate is 0% in all cases). The defined term is retained as a placeholder for any future tier that introduces one; see Terms §2 (Definitions) and §8.3.
• Platform Fees. The Guest Service Fee (and any Host Commission, when applicable — currently 0% in all cases). The Guest Service Fee refunds proportionally with the Guest's refund entitlement under the applicable Cancellation Tier. See §3.3.
• Stripe Processing Fee. The payment-processing fee charged by Stripe on the Guest's original transaction. Stripe does not refund processing fees on cancellation, in any tier, for any reason.

Launch scope. For the current launch, the Moderate Tier is the only Cancellation Tier offered and applies to every Listing; the Flexible and Strict Tiers are defined for forward compatibility and are not currently selectable. The same launch scope applies to the §3.1 tier-selection duty ("Hosts must select…"), the §3.2 custom cancellation schedules, and the §3.5 per-Listing overrides: those mechanisms are not yet available through the Platform and are handled by support@setvenue.com on request.

§3 Cancellation by Guest

§3.1 Cancellation Tiers

Hosts must select one of the following Cancellation Tiers for each Listing before accepting Bookings. The selected tier is disclosed to the Guest before Booking confirmation and governs the Guest's refund entitlement if the Guest cancels. Refund percentages apply to the full amount the Guest paid at checkout — including the Host's listed rate, any cleaning fee, and the Guest Service Fee. The Guest Service Fee refunds in the same proportion as the host-rate refund. The only non-refundable component in any scenario is the Stripe Processing Fee (see §7.4 and §3.3).

Flexible Tier — intended for short-notice, low-risk, or lower-cost Bookings where the Host's preparation lead time is minimal.

Moderate Tier (Platform Default) — applied automatically to new Listings where the Host has not yet selected a Cancellation Tier. Calibrated for standard commercial venue rentals.

Strict Tier — intended for high-value properties, multi-day productions, or Listings where Host preparation requires substantial advance commitment (equipment rentals, crew scheduling, permitting).

Strict Tier — § 1671(d) reasonable-approximation recital and Host-justification gating. The Strict Tier's no-refund window (within 30 calendar days of Booking Start Time) is a liquidated-damages provision under California Civil Code § 1671(d). The parties acknowledge and agree that, for the categories of Listings to which Strict Tier deployment is permitted under this paragraph, (i) actual damages from a Guest's near-Booking cancellation are extremely difficult or impracticable to ascertain at the time of contracting because the Host's preparation costs (crew commitments, equipment rentals, location-specific build-outs, permit applications, and lost-rebook opportunity) are realized incrementally over the 30 days preceding the Booking and cannot reasonably be reduced to a per-day or per-hour formula; and (ii) full retention of the Booking amount is a reasonable endeavor by the parties to estimate fair average compensation for those preparation costs and the lost opportunity to rebook on short notice for a comparable-value engagement.

Eligibility gating. Strict Tier deployment is available only to Listings where the Host can document, in the Listing's Host-facing Strict-Tier opt-in flow, that the Host's anticipated booking-loss in the event of a near-Booking cancellation substantially exceeds the Booking value — for example, production sets with crew or talent already hired under non-cancellable terms, multi-day soundstage rentals with infrastructure or equipment committed in advance, or Listings with documented inability to rebook at comparable value within 30 days. The Host's documentation is part of the Listing record and is reviewable by SetVenue in the event of a Guest challenge. SetVenue may, in its sole and reasonable discretion, decline Strict Tier deployment for a Listing whose anticipated booking-loss does not meet this threshold and may, at any time, require a Host to demonstrate continuing eligibility; absent such demonstration, the Listing reverts to the Moderate Tier.

§3.2 Production Bookings with Negotiated Terms

For Bookings by production companies, agencies, studios, or other entities that arrange bespoke productions, including multi-day or single-day productions with special infrastructure, contingencies, or production-specific requirements — including Bookings with special equipment infrastructure, Bookings contingent on location-scout approval, or Bookings governed by a separate production agreement — the Host and Guest may agree in writing, through the Platform, to a custom cancellation schedule that supersedes the Listing's default Cancellation Tier. Custom terms must be (a) proposed by either party and accepted by the other through the Platform, (b) accepted prior to Booking confirmation, and (c) reflected in the Booking summary. Where no custom terms are agreed, the Listing's default Cancellation Tier applies.

§3.3 Proportional Platform Fee Refunds (Guest-Initiated Cancellations)

The matrix below describes the Guest-initiated cancellation outcome under the applicable Cancellation Tier. Refund mechanics for Host-initiated cancellations are governed by §4; refund mechanics for SetVenue-initiated cancellations are governed by §5; Force Majeure refund mechanics are governed by §6. The Guest Service Fee refunds in proportion to the Guest's cancellation outcome under the applicable Cancellation Tier. (Host Commission is 0% in v1 — the lines below remain Host-Commission-aware in case a future tier reintroduces one.)

• Full refund (100%): The Guest receives back the full amount paid at checkout, including the full Guest Service Fee. SetVenue retains nothing on a fully refunded Booking. The Host receives no payout.
• Partial refund (50%): The Guest receives back 50% of the full amount paid at checkout, including 50% of the Guest Service Fee. SetVenue retains 50% of the applicable Guest Service Fee. The Host receives a payout equal to 50% of the Host's listed price (no Host Commission deducted in v1).
• No refund (0%): The Guest receives nothing. SetVenue retains the applicable Guest Service Fee in full. The Host receives a payout equal to the Host's listed price (no Host Commission deducted in v1).

The only non-refundable component in any scenario — Guest-initiated, Host-initiated, SetVenue-initiated, or Force Majeure — is the Stripe Processing Fee. Stripe does not return processing fees on refunded transactions regardless of the refund amount or the reason for cancellation. See §7.4.

§3.4 Cleaning Fee Treatment

The Cleaning Fee, where charged, follows the same proportional refund rule as the host-rate component above: 100% refund returns the full Cleaning Fee; 50% refund returns 50%; 0% refund returns nothing. This bright-line proportional rule controls and is not subject to ad-hoc deviation based on the Host's anticipated or projected costs.

Documented prior costs exception. Where the Host has demonstrably and verifiably incurred cleaning-related costs prior to the Guest's cancellation (for example, pre-event cleaning was already performed pursuant to the Booking, or a third-party cleaning vendor was paid a non-refundable engagement fee), the Host may, with SetVenue's prior approval and on submission of documentation, retain documented prior costs up to the amount of the Cleaning Fee paid by the Guest; the Guest receives the difference. This narrow exception applies only to documented prior costs actually incurred, not anticipated, projected, or estimated future costs. The Host's actual incurred costs are not a basis to vary the Cleaning Fee refund schedule itself, and any retention under this exception must be disclosed to the Guest in writing with supporting documentation.

§3.5 Per-Listing Host Overrides

Hosts may, through their Listing settings, set a cancellation schedule that is more permissive to the Guest than any standard tier (for example, offering a 90-day full-refund window on the Strict Tier). For purposes of this §3.5, "more permissive" means a schedule that, relative to the standard tier, (i) extends the full-refund window earlier, (ii) increases the partial-refund percentage at any window, or (iii) extends the partial-refund window earlier — measured by Guest entitlement at each cancellation window. Hosts may not set a schedule that is more restrictive than the Strict Tier without express written approval from SetVenue. SetVenue's approval, if granted, is conditioned on the Host providing written reasonable-forecast justification (e.g., demonstrated 60-day rebook impossibility, equipment-deposit forfeiture, or production-specific committed cost) under California Civil Code § 1671(d). SetVenue reserves the right to decline or override per-listing schedules that it determines create unreasonable risk of harm to Guests.

§3.6 How to Cancel

Guests cancel through the Booking detail page in their Account dashboard, or — for confirmed Bookings — by contacting support@setvenue.com. The cancellation timestamp used to determine the applicable refund tier is the moment SetVenue's system records the Guest's confirmed cancellation, not the time the Host or SetVenue acknowledges it. Cancellations should be initiated through the Platform where the cancel control is available. SetVenue will accept cancellations by email or phone where reasonable accommodation is required (e.g., disability, technical access issue, account-access lockout, or other reasonable basis consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act and the California Unruh Civil Rights Act); in such cases, the cancellation timestamp is the moment SetVenue records the request, not the moment the Platform reflects it.

§4 Cancellation by Host

§4.1 Full Refund to Guest

If a Host cancels a confirmed Booking for any reason — including a Host's personal emergency, a scheduling conflict, a change in the property's availability, or failure to secure required permits (see §6.1 — Host's failure to maintain lawful permits is not a Force Majeure event but is a Host-attributed cancellation under this §4) — the Guest receives a 100% refund of the full amount paid at checkout, including the Guest Service Fee; the non-returned Stripe Processing Fee is borne as allocated in §7.4 (the Host) and is not deducted from the Guest's refund. SetVenue facilitates this refund through Stripe. In Direct-routing mode (Terms §8.2(a)), the host-rate portion of the refund is sourced from the Host's Connected Account and SetVenue separately releases the Guest Service Fee from its own retained balance; in Platform-collect mode (Terms §8.2(b)), SetVenue issues the entire refund from its own Stripe account and adjusts the Host's pending remittance ledger accordingly.

§4.1A Guest-Fault-Induced Host Cancellations

Notwithstanding §4.1, where a Host cancels a confirmed Booking because the Guest has failed to deliver, on or before the deadline specified in the Listing, the Booking summary, or any incorporated content-type policy (including but not limited to the Adult Production Policy at /legal/adult-production-policy), (a) a required Certificate of Insurance, (b) a required production or filming permit, (c) a required production-eligibility document or attestation (including signed talent releases, model age-verification documentation, content-type-specific compliance documents, or any other document conditioning the Booking on a content-type requirement), or (d) any other document or condition required by the Listing's content-type policy and identified to the Guest at or before checkout, the cancellation is treated as a Guest-initiated cancellation for purposes of this Policy, notwithstanding that the Host is the party who executes the cancellation in the Platform. In such case:

• The Guest's refund is determined by the applicable Cancellation Tier window at the time the Host cancels, calculated as if the Guest had cancelled at that moment (the "cancellation timestamp" under §3.6 is the moment the Host executes the cancellation in the Platform);
• No portion of the cancellation is treated as a Host-initiated cancellation for purposes of §4.2 (Host Consequences); the Host is not assessed a handling fee, is not subject to search-ranking suppression, does not receive a cancellation notation on the Host profile, and does not accrue toward the three-cancellation threshold in §4.4 (Repeated Cancellations);
• The Host receives the host-rate payout the Host would have received on a Guest-initiated cancellation in the same tier window;
• The non-returned Stripe Processing Fee is allocated as in a Guest-initiated cancellation under §7.4 (SetVenue absorbs it in the 100% and 50% windows; no allocation question arises in the 0% window), not to the Host.

For the avoidance of doubt: this §4.1A applies only where the Host cancels because of the Guest's documented failure to satisfy a Listing-stated, content-type-specific document or condition. A Host's election to cancel for a reason unrelated to a Guest-fault condition — including any reason described in §4.1 (e.g., scheduling conflict, change in property availability, Host emergency) — is a Host-initiated cancellation under §4.1 and §4.2.

§4.2 Host Consequences

When a Host cancels a confirmed Booking, SetVenue may, at its discretion and proportionate to the circumstances, take one or more of the following actions:

(a) Handling-fee credit, re-marketing, and search-suppression. SetVenue may:

(i) Handling-fee credit. Assess against the Host's future payout balance a fixed Host-cancellation handling fee of fifty U.S. dollars ($50.00) per Host-initiated cancellation. The handling-fee credit is issued to the displaced Guest as a SetVenue platform credit usable toward a future Booking, applied automatically to the Guest's Account at the time the refund is processed; SetVenue's retention of the $50.00 from the Host's payout balance is reasonable compensation for the Guest-credit issuance, the rebooking-support operational costs in §4.3, and the platform handling overhead of the Host-initiated cancellation. The parties acknowledge that actual damages from a Host's cancellation are difficult to ascertain at contracting and that $50.00 is a reasonable endeavor by the parties to estimate fair average compensation under California Civil Code § 1671(d).

(ii) Automatic re-marketing. Where the cancellation occurs more than seven (7) calendar days before the original Booking Start Time, SetVenue may, as an operational courtesy, re-market the displaced Booking by surfacing the Guest's substantive Booking parameters (date, location radius, content type, budget) to comparable available Listings on the Platform. The re-marketing operation is provided as a §4.3-style operational courtesy and is not a guarantee that a replacement Booking will be secured.

(iii) Search-suppression escalation. A Host who initiates three (3) or more Host-initiated cancellations in any rolling twelve-month period is subject to temporary search-ranking suppression under §4.2(b) (proportionate to frequency and notice given) and may, on the basis of any further Host-initiated cancellations, be subject to Listing suspension or Account termination under §4.2(d) and Terms § 15.2.

For the avoidance of doubt: the $50.00 handling-fee credit in (i) is the only fixed-dollar Host-cancellation consequence under this Policy. It does not displace the proportionate, discretionary consequences in §4.2(b)–(f), which remain available to SetVenue independent of the $50.00 credit.

(b) Search ranking suppression. SetVenue may temporarily suppress the Listing's visibility in search results for a period proportionate to the frequency and notice given of Host-initiated cancellations.

(c) Cancellation notation. SetVenue may record the cancellation on the Host's Platform profile in a manner visible to future Guests, noting the number of confirmed Bookings cancelled in the preceding rolling twelve-month period.

(d) Listing suspension or Account termination. Three or more Host-initiated cancellations in any rolling twelve-month period may result in temporary Listing suspension or permanent Account termination under Terms of Service § 15.2.

(e) Account review. SetVenue may open an Account review under the Terms at § 15.2.

(f) Payout withholding. SetVenue may temporarily withhold the Host's pending payouts pending investigation under § 15.2.

§4.3 Rebooking Assistance

Where a Host cancels within 30 calendar days of the Booking Start Time, SetVenue will make reasonable good-faith efforts to assist the affected Guest in identifying available alternative Listings on the Platform. Rebooking assistance is provided as an operational courtesy and does not create a legal obligation on SetVenue to identify, locate, or secure an alternative Listing for the affected Guest. SetVenue does not guarantee that a replacement Booking will be available, that any alternative will be comparable in price or character, or that the Guest will be able to rebook on the same dates. SetVenue's rebooking assistance does not constitute a warranty of substitute performance, and SetVenue's failure to identify or recommend a specific Listing is not actionable.

§4.4 Repeated Cancellations

Hosts who cancel confirmed Bookings three or more times in any rolling twelve-month period may be subject to temporary Listing suspension or permanent Account termination under the Terms at §15.2, at SetVenue's discretion.

§5 Cancellation by SetVenue

SetVenue may cancel a confirmed Booking without a Host's or Guest's request in the following circumstances:

(a) Terms violation. If SetVenue discovers, before the Booking Start Time, that the Host or Guest has materially violated the Terms or any incorporated policy (for example, misrepresentation of a Listing, prohibited content type, COI fraud, or prior platform suspension under a different account), SetVenue may cancel the Booking to protect the non-violating party.

(b) Safety concern. If SetVenue has credible information that proceeding with the Booking poses a material safety risk to any person — including risks posed by the property's physical condition or by a party's conduct — SetVenue may cancel.

(c) Platform or payment error. If a Booking was created due to a system error (for example, a calendar-sync failure resulting in a double-booking, or a payment that failed after Booking confirmation), SetVenue may cancel and re-initiate the process.

(d) Host insolvency or bankruptcy. If a Host enters bankruptcy or insolvency proceedings, has a receiver or trustee appointed over its assets, or otherwise is unable to perform under the Booking, SetVenue may, in its discretion, treat the situation as a Host-attributed cancellation under §5(a), refund the Guest in full to the extent funds are recoverable from Stripe, and pursue any shortfall from the Host's payout balance, the Host's Connected Account, or the Host directly. SetVenue does not guarantee Guests against Host insolvency. Where the Host is in active bankruptcy, recovery actions are subject to 11 U.S.C. § 362 automatic-stay considerations.

(e) Recording-disclosure failure. If a Guest discovers an undisclosed audio or video recording device at the property in violation of Property Owner Agreement § 4.4, the Guest may, in addition to any private remedy under Guest Agreement § 10, request that SetVenue cancel the Booking under this §5(e). Where SetVenue does so, the Guest receives a 100% refund of the full amount paid at checkout, including the Guest Service Fee; the non-returned Stripe Processing Fee is borne as allocated in §7.4 (the Host) and is not deducted from the Guest's refund. The Host may also be subject to the consequences in §4.2 and AUP enforcement.

Refund outcomes on SetVenue-initiated cancellations:

• If the cancellation is attributable to the Host's violation or condition: the Guest receives a 100% refund of the full amount paid at checkout, including the Guest Service Fee; the non-returned Stripe Processing Fee is borne as allocated in §7.4 (the Host) and is not deducted from the Guest's refund. The Host may also be subject to the consequences in §4.2.
• If the cancellation is attributable to the Guest's violation: the Guest is not entitled to any refund beyond what is required by applicable consumer-protection law, and SetVenue may also retain its portion of any earned platform fee. No portion of the amount paid at checkout is returned except as required by applicable law (including, without limitation, any non-waivable chargeback or payment-card network right preserved under §1).
• If the cancellation is due to a platform or payment error: the Guest receives a 100% refund of the full amount paid at checkout, including the Guest Service Fee, and neither party is penalized.

SetVenue's cancellation of a Booking is an operational decision, not a legal adjudication. A SetVenue-initiated cancellation does not constitute a finding that any party violated any law or committed any civil wrong. Disputed SetVenue cancellations may be raised under the Dispute Resolution Policy.

§6 Force Majeure

§6.1 Qualifying Events

A Force Majeure Event is a circumstance beyond the reasonable control of both the Host and the Guest that makes the Booking physically or legally impossible — not merely difficult, expensive, or undesirable. Qualifying events include the following non-exhaustive list. Other circumstances of similar character and severity may also qualify upon SetVenue's good-faith review.

• Natural disasters that physically prevent access to or use of the property (earthquakes, wildfires in evacuation zones, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes);
• Government-ordered mandatory evacuation, lockdown, quarantine, or shelter-in-place orders that prohibit occupancy of or access to the property;
• Declared national or state emergencies that specifically restrict the category of activity covered by the Booking;
• Pandemic, epidemic, or government-ordered public-health restriction (including any binding federal, state, county, city, or tribal-government order, declaration, or directive that prohibits gatherings of the size or character of the Booking, or that restricts the category of activity covered by the Booking);
• Sudden and complete loss of the property due to fire, structural collapse, or similar casualty beyond either party's control (a fire or casualty attributable to a party's negligence or non-compliance is not a Force Majeure Event but a cancellation attributable to the at-fault party).

Active-duty military deployment. If the Guest (or, if Guest is an entity, its principal individual) receives official military orders for active-duty service or deployment after Booking confirmation, the Guest may treat the Booking as subject to Force Majeure cancellation upon submission of (i) a copy of the orders, redacted as necessary for security, and (ii) a written declaration that the deployment requires the Guest's absence on the Booking date. Refund treatment: full refund; SetVenue absorbs the non-returned Stripe Processing Fee per §7.4. This carve-out aligns with the protective spirit of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (50 U.S.C. § 3901 et seq.) and the California Military and Veterans Code § 408. Those statutes are not directly applicable to this Platform service; SetVenue extends the relief as a matter of policy.

Communicable-disease isolation. Where a public-health authority (CDC, state department of public health, county or city health officer, or tribal health authority) has issued a binding isolation order applicable to the Guest (or, if Guest is an entity, its principal individual present on the Booking date) — or where the Guest has tested positive for a Tier-1 reportable communicable disease (currently including, without limitation, novel coronaviruses, tuberculosis, measles, or any disease subject to mandatory isolation under applicable public-health law) and submits a healthcare-provider attestation of recommended isolation through the Booking Start Time — the Guest may treat the Booking as subject to Force Majeure cancellation upon submission of (i) a copy of the order or attestation, and (ii) a written declaration that the isolation prohibits the Guest's presence on the Booking date. Refund treatment: full refund; SetVenue absorbs the non-returned Stripe Processing Fee per §7.4. SetVenue may verify the attestation through reasonable means; the Guest's medical privacy is preserved per the Privacy Policy. Medical attestations submitted under this paragraph are processed solely for Force Majeure determination, are not retained beyond twelve (12) months after the Force Majeure determination, and are not disclosed to any party other than as necessary for Force Majeure verification, consistent with the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (Cal. Civ. Code § 56.10) and the Privacy Policy.

Non-qualifying events (not Force Majeure): inclement weather that is unpleasant but not dangerous; routine non-isolation illness of one or more crew members (Guest may send a substitute); financial difficulty or budget cuts; change in production schedule; loss of a shooting permit attributable to the Guest's failure to apply or failure to comply with permit conditions; change in creative direction; Guest-side equipment failure (failure of equipment supplied or operated by the Guest, or by the Guest's crew, vendors, or invitees). For the avoidance of doubt, failure of Host-supplied or Host-integrated equipment (e.g., a sound stage's grid, a commercial-grade kitchen range, an HVAC system, or other equipment that is part of the Listing's stated amenities) is not "equipment failure" in the Guest's risk allocation but is a Host-attributable condition under §4 (Host cancellation) or §5(b) (safety concern). Non-qualifying also includes any government action that follows from the Host's failure to maintain lawful permits or comply with applicable zoning, occupancy, or short-term-rental rules — those situations are Host-attributed cancellations under §4 (if the Host initiates or recognizes the issue) or §5(a) (if SetVenue discovers a Host violation before the Booking Start Time), not Force Majeure.

§6.2 Refund Outcome

When a Force Majeure Event is verified by SetVenue under §6.3:

• The Guest receives a full refund of the full amount paid at checkout, including the Guest Service Fee.
• The Stripe Processing Fee is non-refundable under Stripe's network rules; the allocation of the economic loss of that non-return is governed by §7.4 — in Guest-side Force Majeure events (military deployment, communicable-disease isolation), SetVenue absorbs the non-returned Stripe Processing Fee from its retained balance; in Host-side Force Majeure events, the Host bears it; in mutual-no-fault events, SetVenue and the Guest share the non-returned fee equally as set out in §7.4. SetVenue will disclose the applicable Stripe Processing Fee amount at the time of refund processing.
• Neither party is penalized. The Host is not assessed a cancellation fee, and the Guest's account is not noted as having cancelled.

§6.3 Documentation and Process

The party claiming Force Majeure must:

(a) Notify SetVenue at support@setvenue.com as promptly as practicable after the Force Majeure Event becomes apparent, and no later than the original Booking Start Time;

(b) Provide documentation corroborating the event — for example: a government agency's official emergency declaration, a mandatory evacuation notice, a fire department or building-department closure order, public-health isolation order, tribal-government emergency or evacuation order, healthcare-provider attestation of mandatory isolation, military deployment orders, or an equivalent authoritative record; and

(c) Submit the refund request within 30 calendar days after the Force Majeure Event ends (or, if the event extends beyond the original Booking Start Time, within 30 days after the event's end) — provided that initial notice under (a) has been given within a reasonable time after the event begins. Where the Force Majeure Event is open-ended (e.g., long-duration military deployment, extended public-health isolation, extended evacuation), the Guest may submit the refund request within 30 calendar days after the Booking Start Time or after the Force Majeure Event ends, whichever is later, but in no event later than 180 calendar days after the original Booking Start Time.

Evidence threshold. SetVenue's Force Majeure determination is operational and good-faith. SetVenue may request additional documentation, including authoritative external records (e.g., NWS storm reports, USGS earthquake catalogs, declarations from city emergency-management offices, WHO/CDC public-health declarations). The party claiming Force Majeure bears the burden of presenting reasonable, externally verifiable evidence. Where the claiming party is unable to obtain requested documentation through reasonable effort due to disability, lack of access to government records, language barrier, or similar reasonable basis, SetVenue may accept alternative reasonable corroboration consistent with §3.6 reasonable-accommodation principles.

SetVenue will review the documentation and make a facilitated, good-faith determination of whether the event qualifies. This determination is operational in nature, not a legal adjudication. If either party disputes SetVenue's Force Majeure determination, they may pursue the matter under the Dispute Resolution Policy.

§6.4 Ancillary Costs Not Covered

Force Majeure refunds the Booking only. SetVenue does not compensate any party's ancillary costs arising from the cancelled Booking — including equipment rentals, crew time, permits, travel, or third-party deposits. Those are the party's risk and should be insured separately where material.

§7 Refund Mechanics

§7.1 Stripe Routing

All refunds are processed through Stripe. SetVenue's role is to initiate the refund request in Stripe. In Direct-routing mode (Terms §8.2(a)), the host-rate portion of any refund is sourced from the Host's Stripe Connected Account and the Guest Service Fee portion is released by SetVenue from its own retained balance. In Platform-collect mode (Terms §8.2(b)), SetVenue issues the entire refund from its own Stripe account (which received the original payment as merchant of record) and makes a corresponding adjustment to the Host's pending remittance ledger, or recovers any already-remitted host share per the Property Owner Agreement §5.3. SetVenue does not fund any amount beyond what it has collected for the Booking. In Host-initiated and SetVenue-initiated (non-Guest-fault) cancellations, both portions are refunded in full per §4 and §5.

§7.2 Timeline

Refund processing times are governed by Stripe and the Guest's card issuer and are outside SetVenue's control once the refund is initiated. Typically, refunds appear on the Guest's payment-method statement within 5–10 business days of SetVenue initiating the refund. SetVenue is not responsible for delays caused by Stripe, card networks, or the Guest's bank, provided that SetVenue has timely initiated the refund through Stripe. Delays caused by SetVenue's failure to initiate are not within the scope of this exculpation (consistent with California Civil Code § 1668, which invalidates exculpation for violation of law). Consistent with California Civil Code § 1723 and Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17538, SetVenue's refund policy and approximate timeline are disclosed at checkout (in addition to this Policy) so that the Guest has clear and conspicuous disclosure at or before the time of sale.

Authorization release before capture. Where a Booking is cancelled before the Guest's payment has been captured (i.e., while only the checkout card authorization is outstanding — see Terms §8.1, authorize-then-capture), no refund is processed because no charge has occurred: SetVenue cancels the authorization, and the hold on the Guest's card is released by the card issuer (release timing depends on the issuer, typically within a few business days). The 5–10-business-day refund timeline above applies only to captured payments.

§7.3 Partial Refund Calculation

Where a partial refund is owed (for example, 50% under a Moderate Tier cancellation), the refund is calculated as the applicable percentage of the full amount the Guest paid at checkout, applied to each component, then summed:

(i) the host-rate component refunds at the applicable tier percentage; (ii) the Cleaning Fee component (where charged) refunds at the applicable tier percentage; (iii) the Guest Service Fee component refunds at the applicable tier percentage, where the Guest Service Fee is calculated on the host-rate component (Terms § 8.3); and (iv) the Minimum Booking adjustment (Terms § 8.4), where applied, and any taxes refund at the same tier percentage as the rest of the payment.

Example A (no Cleaning Fee). A Guest who paid $1,100 at checkout ($1,000 host rate + $100 Guest Service Fee at the Standard 10% rate) and cancels in the 50% window receives $550, with no Stripe-fee deduction (§7.4).

Example B (with Cleaning Fee). A Guest who paid $1,200 at checkout ($1,000 host rate + $100 Cleaning Fee + $100 Guest Service Fee, where the Standard 10% rate is applied to the $1,000 host-rate component) and cancels in the 50% window receives $600, with no Stripe-fee deduction (§7.4).

§7.4 Stripe Processing Fees

Core rule. Stripe does not refund payment-processing fees to SetVenue, the Host, or the Guest when a transaction is reversed under Stripe's network rules. The Stripe Processing Fee is non-refundable in all scenarios — it is the only non-refundable component of any Booking. On the Booking transaction itself (the Guest's original charge at checkout for a completed Booking), SetVenue absorbs the Stripe Processing Fee as a cost of payment processing under Terms § 8.5; the Guest does not pay a Stripe Processing Fee on a completed Booking, and the all-in first-display price the Guest sees is the all-in price the Guest will pay. On cancellation, the Stripe Processing Fee that was already paid by SetVenue to Stripe on the original transaction is not returned by Stripe to anyone — the fee is economically borne by the party identified in the allocation table below. The Guest's refund quoted in §3, §4, §5, and §6 is not reduced by the non-returned Stripe Processing Fee, except in the two scenarios where this Policy expressly allocates a share of the non-returned fee to the Guest: Guest-fault SetVenue-initiated cancellations and the mutual-no-fault Force Majeure split, each per the table below.

Stripe Processing Fee allocation by cancellation scenario — the table below identifies, for each scenario, the party whose funds bear the economic cost of the non-returned Stripe Processing Fee. In no scenario does this fee "come back" to anyone; the table allocates the economic loss of the non-return.

The estimated Stripe Processing Fee (approximately 2.9% + $0.30 for standard U.S. card transactions; rates vary for international or specialty payment methods) is disclosed in this Policy. In any scenario where the table above allocates any part of the non-returned fee to the Guest, SetVenue discloses the applicable Stripe Processing Fee amount at the time of refund processing and in the refund-issued email.

SB 478 safe-harbor classification. The Stripe Processing Fee is not a "mandatory fee" within the meaning of California Civil Code § 1770(a)(29) for the following independent reasons, any one of which is sufficient:

1. SetVenue absorbs the Stripe Processing Fee on the Booking transaction itself (Terms § 8.5). The Guest does not pay any Stripe Processing Fee on a completed Booking. The first-display price the Guest sees is the all-in price the Guest will pay on a completed Booking. On cancellation, the Stripe fee already paid by SetVenue to Stripe on the original transaction does not return; the allocation table above identifies which party's funds bear that economic loss in each scenario. In no scenario does the Guest pay a Stripe Processing Fee in addition to the first-display price. In Guest-initiated cancellations, the Guest's refund is not reduced by the fee at all (SetVenue absorbs it); the only scenarios in which the Guest bears any part of the non-returned fee are Guest-fault SetVenue-initiated cancellations and the mutual-no-fault Force Majeure split, each per the allocation table above and disclosed at the time of refund processing.

2. The fee is contingent and realized only on the limited subset of cancellation scenarios identified in the table above. A fee that may or may not be incurred depending on whether and when a future cancellation occurs, and which party causes the cancellation, is not a "mandatory" fee within the meaning of SB 478 because it is not "imposed as a condition of purchase" at the first-display stage.

3. The fee is set by a third party (Stripe and its payment-network partners) and is not within SetVenue's control to set, retain, or eliminate, analogous to government-imposed taxes excluded under the SB 478 safe-harbor at § 1770(a)(29)(B)(i). SetVenue does not retain or benefit from the Stripe Processing Fee.

4. The fee amount varies based on the Guest's selected payment method (card type, network, card country, etc.) and is not knowable at the first-display stage. SB 478 expressly recognizes that fees that "cannot reasonably be calculated in advance" need not be included in the first-display total.

5. The fee is disclosed in this Policy and at the time of refund processing in any scenario where the Guest bears any part of it; no fee component is realized against a Guest-initiated cancellation refund at all.

Cancellation-schedule disclosure surfaces. Consistent with Berman v. Freedom Financial (9th Cir. 2022), the Listing detail page (PDP) and the booking checkout display the applicable Cancellation Tier's refund schedule before the Guest pays.

Chargeback scenario. Where a Guest pursues a chargeback through their card issuer rather than a Platform cancellation, the Stripe Processing Fee allocation is governed by Stripe's network rules and the Dispute Resolution Policy § 4. A successful chargeback typically results in the Host's Connected Account bearing the original Stripe Processing Fee plus a Stripe chargeback fee (approximately $15–$25 per chargeback). An unsuccessful chargeback typically results in no additional fee allocation beyond Stripe's normal rules. This Policy does not waive or limit the Guest's chargeback rights (see §1).

For the avoidance of doubt: a Guest who does not cancel pays no Stripe Processing Fee. A Guest who cancels in a 100%-refund window receives the full amount paid at checkout (SetVenue absorbs the non-returned Stripe fee). A Guest who cancels in a 50%-refund window receives 50% of the amount paid at checkout, with no Stripe-fee deduction (SetVenue absorbs the non-returned fee). A Guest who cancels in a 0%-refund window receives nothing. The fee is implicated only in the narrow cancellation scenarios above.

§7.5 Currency

All refunds are denominated in U.S. dollars. SetVenue is not responsible for currency-conversion losses, foreign-transaction fees, or exchange-rate differences between the original charge date and the refund date.

§7.6 Honest-Pricing Surface Compliance (SB 478)

Consistent with Cal. Civ. Code § 1770(a)(29), the Disclosed-at-First-Display Total under §2 must be shown on every Platform surface where price is displayed before checkout, including but not limited to:

• search-results tiles,
• list-view and map-view results,
• the Listing detail page (PDP),
• any filter, sort, or comparison surface,
• any promotional or featured-listing surface,
• and any preview or summary surface in a Booking-request flow.

Per-hour surfaces (search-results tiles and other browse, list, map, and comparison surfaces) satisfy this requirement by displaying the all-in hourly rate — the Host's listed rate plus the Standard-tier Guest Service Fee — labeled as including the service fee; the Listing detail page and checkout satisfy it by displaying the itemized Booking Total. The Guest Service Fee rate applied at checkout will never exceed the Standard-tier rate assumed in per-hour browse displays, and the Booking Total at checkout will not exceed the Disclosed-at-First-Display Total computed from the displayed all-in rate, any mandatory Cleaning Fee, and any Minimum Booking adjustment, except for (a) government-imposed taxes and (b) shipping/delivery charges, both excluded under the SB 478 safe-harbor exemption at § 1770(a)(29)(B)(i). A mandatory Cleaning Fee is a flat per-Booking charge that cannot be expressed in a per-hour unit price; it is disclosed on the Listing detail page and is included in the Booking Total from the first surface on which a Booking Total is displayed. Where a Cleaning Fee is optional, it is disclosed at checkout. A Cleaning Fee is "mandatory" under this Policy if the Guest cannot avoid paying it by Guest action alone; Host-side waivers or discretionary adjustments do not convert a mandatory Cleaning Fee to optional.

Stripe Processing Fee is not displayed in the first-display total because, as set out in §7.4, the Stripe Processing Fee is (a) absorbed by SetVenue on a completed Booking, (b) contingent on a future cancellation, (c) third-party-set and varies by payment method, and (d) not "imposed as a condition of purchase" at the first-display stage. The Stripe Processing Fee is disclosed as set out in §7.4.

Damage Hold is not displayed in the first-display total because, as set out in Terms of Service §9.2, the Damage Hold is a contingent pre-authorization or saved payment method that releases unless the Guest affirmatively accepts a specific Damage Charge Request. The Damage Hold amount is fully disclosed at checkout.

§8 Damage Hold Cancellations

A Damage Hold is a separate mechanism from a Booking cancellation and is governed by §9 of the Terms. Key interaction rules:

• Cancelling a Booking ends the Damage Hold: SetVenue releases any pending Damage Hold authorization upon cancellation (where a Damage Charge Request is already pending at the moment of cancellation, the release occurs at the conclusion of that pending request), and the Host may not capture a Damage Hold after a Booking has been cancelled, regardless of whether the event giving rise to the alleged damage occurred before the cancellation.
• The Affirmative-Accept gate (Terms §9.3) and the Expiry-Release default (Terms §9.4) apply to Damage Charge Requests arising from completed Bookings and are not affected by this Cancellation Policy. The multi-touch notice protocol (Terms § 9.5) and the Guest's extension right (Terms § 9.5) likewise apply to Damage Charge Requests on completed Bookings and operate independently of this Cancellation Policy.
• Cleaning Fee disputes beyond the amount disclosed at checkout are governed by the Damage workflow in Terms §9, not by this Cancellation Policy.

See the Terms at §9 for the complete Damage Hold and Damage Charge workflow.

§9 Disputes About Cancellations

If a Host and Guest disagree about whether a cancellation was properly initiated, which Cancellation Tier applies, whether a refund amount was correctly calculated, or whether a Force Majeure Event qualifies, they should follow the process in the Dispute Resolution Policy at /legal/disputes. SetVenue's role in any cancellation dispute is that of a facilitator — SetVenue may review evidence and offer an advisory recommendation, but does not render binding decisions between Hosts and Guests. See the Dispute Resolution Policy for the full escalation ladder.

§10 Modifications and Contact

SetVenue may modify this Cancellation Policy at any time in accordance with §20 of the Terms. Material changes will be communicated with reasonable advance notice through the Platform or by email — typically at least thirty (30) days before the effective date. The version of this Policy in effect at the time of Booking confirmation governs that Booking; modifications do not apply retroactively to confirmed Bookings.

Active-Booking grandfathering. The version of this Policy in effect at the time of any specific Booking confirmation governs that Booking through completion, including any cancellation thereof. Material modifications take effect prospectively for Bookings confirmed on or after the effective date. If SetVenue modifies the definition of a Cancellation Tier (for example, the Strict full-refund window, the Moderate mid-window percentage, or the Flexible 24-hour cut-off), the modification applies prospectively only; confirmed Bookings retain the tier definition in effect at the time of confirmation.

For questions about a specific cancellation or refund:

• General support: support@setvenue.com
• Cancellation disputes: disputes@setvenue.com
• Mailing address: Set Venue LLC, 6927 Willis Ave, Van Nuys, CA 91405