Terms of Service

1. Introduction

Welcome to The Dinner Club. These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of our website, platform, and services operated by The Dinner Club, a company registered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands ("we," "us," or "our").

By creating an account or using The Dinner Club, you agree to be bound by these Terms, our Privacy Policy, and our Community Guidelines. If you do not agree to these Terms, please do not use our services.

These Terms were drafted in English and are intended for an international audience. In the event of any dispute, the English version shall prevail.

2. Description of Service

The Dinner Club is a platform that connects hosts who wish to share home-cooked meals with guests seeking meaningful social dining experiences in Amsterdam. We facilitate introductions between hosts and guests, provide a booking system, and process cost-sharing contributions on behalf of hosts. We do not organise, prepare, or serve meals, and we are not a party to the social gatherings that take place through our platform.

2A. Nature of The Dinner Club

The Dinner Club facilitates social dining experiences where hosts invite guests to share a home-cooked meal together. This is not a catering, restaurant, or commercial food service.

• Hosts dine alongside their guests as equal participants in the meal.
• Guest contributions help cover the host's costs (such as ingredients and beverages) and are returned to the host as supermarket vouchers — not as cash income.
• Dinners are private social gatherings in a host's home, not commercial food service operations.
• Hosts are home cooks sharing their table, not professional caterers or restaurateurs.
• The Dinner Club does not fall under the Dutch Hospitality Industry Act (Drank- en Horecawet) and does not operate as a food service establishment.

The Dinner Club is a social platform connecting people who want to share meals and make new connections — similar to how carpooling platforms facilitate cost-sharing for journeys.

No employment, agency, joint venture, franchise, or partnership relationship exists between The Dinner Club and any host or guest. Hosts are not employees, contractors, or agents of The Dinner Club.

3. Eligibility

To use The Dinner Club, you must:

• Be at least 18 years old.
• Be legally able to enter into binding contracts.
• Provide accurate and complete registration information.
• Maintain the security of your account credentials.

4. Account Registration

You must create an account to use our services. You agree to:

• Provide truthful, accurate, and complete information.
• Verify your identity as requested.
• Keep your account information up to date.
• Not share your account credentials with others.
• Notify us immediately of any unauthorised account access at hello@thedinnerclub.eu.

5. Host Responsibilities

As a host sharing your table through The Dinner Club, you agree to:

• Dine together with your guests as an equal participant in the meal.
• Set contribution amounts that reasonably reflect your actual costs (such as ingredients and beverages) rather than generating profit.
• Provide accurate descriptions of your dinner, menu, and home environment.
• Maintain a welcoming, clean, and safe dining environment for your guests.
• Clearly disclose all ingredients used in the meal and specifically identify the presence of any of the 14 EU-regulated allergens (gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, peanuts, soybeans, milk/lactose, nuts, celery, mustard, sesame, sulphites, lupin, and molluscs) in the dinner listing and again verbally before the meal is served. While guests bear responsibility for communicating their own dietary needs, hosts must provide the information needed for guests to make informed decisions.
• Follow basic food hygiene practices, including proper hand washing, safe food storage, clean cooking surfaces, and appropriate cooking temperatures.
• Honour confirmed gatherings or provide adequate notice of cancellation in accordance with Section 8.
• Welcome all guests without discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or national origin.
• Ensure your home is covered by a personal liability insurance policy (aansprakelijkheidsverzekering, or AVP) that does not exclude social gatherings. If you are unsure whether your policy covers hosting dinners through The Dinner Club, we strongly recommend contacting your insurer.
• Hosts may not set contribution amounts that exceed their actual costs. The Dinner Club reserves the right to suspend hosts who consistently request contributions above reasonable cost recovery.

6. Guest Responsibilities

As a guest joining a dinner through The Dinner Club, you are a social participant entering someone's private home. You agree to:

• Take personal responsibility for communicating your dietary restrictions, allergies, and food sensitivities to your host before the dinner. Review the ingredients listed by the host and ask questions if anything is unclear. If you have a severe allergy, you are responsible for taking appropriate precautions, including carrying any necessary medication.
• Engage as an equal participant in the social gathering, not as a customer expecting a commercial dining experience.
• Arrive on time or communicate any delays promptly to your host.
• Treat your host and fellow guests with warmth and respect.
• Respect your host's home, belongings, and any house rules they communicate.
• Stay home if you are feeling unwell.
• Honour confirmed attendance or cancel within the allowed timeframe set out in Section 8.

6A. Shared Dining Acknowledgment

By participating in The Dinner Club — whether as a host or guest — you acknowledge and accept that:

• Dinners are private social gatherings in people's homes, not commercial restaurant or catering experiences.
• Hosts are home cooks sharing their passion for food and connection, not professional chefs or caterers. Food is prepared in a domestic kitchen, not a licensed commercial kitchen.
• The social, informal nature of home dining differs from commercial hospitality standards. There is no table service, no commercial kitchen, and no health inspection certificate.
• All participants share responsibility for creating a positive, safe, and enjoyable experience.
• Guest contributions help hosts cover their grocery costs and enable more people to share meals together.
• You voluntarily participate in these gatherings at your own discretion and accept the inherent nature of home dining.

This shared understanding is fundamental to our community. The Dinner Club exists to foster genuine human connection around the table — a tradition as old as hospitality itself.

7. Contributions and Fees

Guest contributions are designed to help hosts cover their grocery and preparation costs, not to generate profit.

For Guests:

• Your contribution is required when your booking is confirmed.
• Amounts are displayed in Euros (€) and consist of the host's cost-sharing amount plus a platform service fee charged by The Dinner Club.
• The platform service fee is clearly displayed before you confirm your booking.
• All payments are processed securely through Stripe.

For Hosts:

• After a completed dinner, you will receive your portion of guest contributions in the form of supermarket vouchers (grocery vouchers), not as a cash payout.
• The Dinner Club deducts its platform service fee before calculating the voucher amount. The fee percentage is displayed before you publish your dinner.
• Vouchers are intended to offset your grocery costs for the dinner. This is cost-sharing, not income generation.
• Hosts are responsible for understanding their own tax obligations in relation to any reimbursement received. See Section 5 for more details.

Platform Service Fee:

The Dinner Club charges a service fee to guests on top of the host's cost-sharing amount. This fee covers the operation and maintenance of the platform. The exact fee is displayed to both hosts and guests before a dinner is published or booked.

8. Cancellations and Refunds

Guest Cancellations:

• More than 48 hours before the dinner: full refund of your contribution (including platform fee).
• Between 24 and 48 hours before the dinner: 50% refund.
• Less than 24 hours before the dinner: no refund.

Refunds are processed through the original payment method via Stripe. Please allow up to 5–10 business days for the refund to appear in your account.

Host Cancellations:

• If a host cancels a dinner, all confirmed guests receive a full refund.
• Hosts should provide as much notice as possible if they need to cancel.
• Repeated cancellations by a host may result in reduced visibility on the platform or suspension of hosting privileges.

Cancellation by The Dinner Club:

• We reserve the right to cancel any dinner if we have reasonable grounds to believe it poses a safety risk or violates these Terms or our Community Guidelines.
• Guests will receive a full refund in such cases.

9. Right of Withdrawal

Under the EU Consumer Rights Directive (Directive 2011/83/EU), consumers normally have a 14-day right to withdraw from online purchases. However, under Article 16(l) of the Directive, this right does not apply to services related to leisure activities where the service is to be provided on a specific date.

Because dinners booked through The Dinner Club are social gatherings scheduled for a specific date and time, by confirming a booking, you expressly agree that the 14-day right of withdrawal does not apply. Your cancellation rights are instead governed by Section 8 above.

10. User Conduct

You agree not to:

• Use the platform for any unlawful purpose.
• Harass, threaten, intimidate, or harm other users, whether during a gathering or through the platform.
• Post false, misleading, or defamatory content.
• Circumvent our payment system to transact directly with hosts or guests outside the platform.
• Use the platform for commercial food service, catering, or any regulated hospitality activity.
• Attempt to access other users' accounts or private information.
• Use automated systems, bots, or scrapers to access the platform without our written permission.
• Impersonate another person or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity.

11. Reviews and Content

• You may leave honest reviews after attending a dinner. Reviews must be truthful, relevant, and based on your genuine experience.
• Reviews must not contain hate speech, personal attacks, discriminatory language, or content that violates our Community Guidelines.
• We reserve the right to remove reviews that violate these Terms or our Community Guidelines. Where possible, we will notify you if a review is removed and explain the reason.
• By posting content on the platform (including reviews, photos, and profile information), you grant The Dinner Club a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to use, display, reproduce, and distribute that content for the purpose of operating, promoting, and improving the platform. You retain ownership of your content and may delete it at any time through your account settings, after which we will cease using it within a reasonable timeframe.

12. Intellectual Property

The Dinner Club name, logo, branding, website design, and all original platform content are the intellectual property of The Dinner Club. You may not use, copy, modify, or distribute our materials without prior written permission, except as necessary to use the platform as intended (for example, sharing a dinner listing link with a friend).

13. Platform Role and Limitations

The Dinner Club is a social platform that facilitates introductions between hosts and guests. We do not organise, prepare, or serve meals. We are not a party to the social gatherings that take place through our platform, and we do not act as the host, caterer, or food service provider.

While we take reasonable steps to verify user profiles, review host applications, and maintain platform quality, we cannot and do not guarantee:

• The quality, safety, taste, or hygiene of any dining experience.
• The accuracy or completeness of information provided by hosts or guests, including allergen disclosures.
• The behaviour, reliability, or conduct of any user.
• Uninterrupted or error-free access to the platform.

Each participant is responsible for their own conduct, communication, and decisions before, during, and after a gathering. By using the platform, you accept that home dining experiences are inherently informal and personal, and that your participation is at your own discretion and risk.

14. Limitation of Liability

To the extent permitted by applicable Dutch and EU law:

• The Dinner Club's total liability to you for any and all claims arising from your use of the platform shall not exceed the total amount of platform service fees you have paid to The Dinner Club in the 12 months preceding the claim.
• The Dinner Club shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages, including but not limited to loss of profits, loss of data, personal injury arising from a gathering, food-related illness, property damage at a host's home, or loss of goodwill.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits our liability for:

(a) Death or personal injury caused by our own negligence;
(b) Fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation by us;
(c) Any liability arising from intentional misconduct (opzet) or gross negligence (grove schuld) on our part; or
(d) Any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited under mandatory Dutch or EU law.

For clarity: The Dinner Club is not liable for the acts, omissions, food preparation, hygiene practices, or conduct of hosts or guests. Hosts and guests interact with each other as independent individuals, and any claims related to a dining experience should be directed to the relevant host or guest, not to The Dinner Club.

15. Indemnification

For Hosts: As a host, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless The Dinner Club, its directors, employees, and agents from any claims, damages, losses, or expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from: (a) the dining experiences you organise through the platform, (b) illness, allergic reaction, or injury suffered by a guest at your home or as a result of food you prepared, (c) your breach of these Terms, or (d) your violation of any applicable law or regulation, including food safety rules.

For Guests: As a guest, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless The Dinner Club from any claims, damages, or expenses arising from (a) your breach of these Terms, or (b) damage you cause to a host's property or harm you cause to other participants during a gathering.

Consumer protection: This section does not affect any rights you may have as a consumer under mandatory Dutch or EU consumer protection law. In particular, nothing in this section requires you to indemnify The Dinner Club for losses caused by our own negligence, intentional misconduct, or gross negligence.

16. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Netherlands.

Informal resolution: We encourage you to contact us first at hello@thedinnerclub.eu so we can try to resolve any dispute informally. We will make good-faith efforts to resolve your concern within 30 days.

Formal proceedings: If we cannot reach a resolution informally, any disputes shall be submitted to the competent court in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

EU consumer rights: If you are a consumer resident in the European Union, you retain the right to bring proceedings in the courts of your country of residence, as provided by Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 (Brussels I Recast).

Online dispute resolution: You may also use the European Commission's Online Dispute Resolution platform at https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr.

17. Termination

By you: You may delete your account at any time through your account settings or by contacting us at hello@thedinnerclub.eu. Deleting your account does not affect any outstanding obligations (such as contributions owed for confirmed bookings).

By us: We may suspend or terminate your account if:

• You materially or repeatedly breach these Terms or our Community Guidelines.
• Your conduct poses a safety risk to other users.
• We have reasonable grounds to believe your account is being used fraudulently.
• Your account has been inactive for more than 12 consecutive months.
• Required by law or a binding court order.

Where possible, we will notify you before or at the time of suspension and explain the reason. If you believe your account was suspended in error, you may contact us at hello@thedinnerclub.eu to request a review.

18. Force Majeure

The Dinner Club shall not be liable for any failure or delay in performing our obligations where such failure or delay results from circumstances beyond our reasonable control, including but not limited to natural disasters, pandemics, government orders or restrictions, strikes, power failures, or internet outages. In such events, our obligations are suspended for the duration of the force majeure event.

19. Third-Party Services

The Dinner Club relies on third-party services to operate the platform, including but not limited to Stripe (payment processing), Supabase (hosting and authentication), and third-party voucher providers. Your use of these services may be subject to their own terms and conditions. The Dinner Club is not responsible for the availability, accuracy, or performance of third-party services.

20. Electronic Communications

By creating an account on The Dinner Club, you consent to receive communications from us electronically, including by email and platform notifications. These communications may include booking confirmations, policy updates, safety notices, and promotional messages. You may opt out of promotional messages at any time, but transactional and safety-related communications are a necessary part of using the platform.

You agree that electronic communications from us satisfy any legal requirement that such communications be in writing.

21. Changes to Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. For material changes, we will notify you at least 14 days in advance via email or platform notification and clearly indicate what has changed. Minor corrections or clarifications may be made without advance notice.

Your continued use of the platform after the effective date of updated Terms constitutes your acceptance of those changes. If you do not agree with the updated Terms, you may delete your account before they take effect.

22. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, unlawful, or unenforceable, that provision shall be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable, or if modification is not possible, it shall be severed. All remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect.

23. Contact Us

If you have questions about these Terms, please contact us: