Cancellation & refund policy

Last updated 13 October 2026

When you book on MiniParty you pay a ₹5 booking fee online to confirm, on top of your order, and the full order value directly to the host at the venue on the day — part of it as an advance before the host confirms, if the venue asks for one. Only the booking fee ever passes through us, so the booking fee is what we refund. Cancelling never leaves you owing the rest of the order value, and an advance you paid the host comes back from the host under the rules below.

• Before the host confirms

  Cancel any time while your request is waiting for the host and you get the booking fee back, minus the payment gateway's charge of about 2.36%, which Razorpay doesn't return.

• After the host confirms

  The booking fee is non-refundable, however far ahead you cancel. You don't owe the rest of the order value. If you paid the host an advance, the venue's cancellation policy decides how much of it the host returns (see below).

When your booking fee comes back

Some cancellations are not your fault, and in those cases your whole booking fee is returned automatically, without you having to ask — nothing is deducted:

• The host declines your booking request.
• The host does not respond within 24 hours, so the request expires.
• The host cancels a booking they had already confirmed.
• We cancel the booking ourselves — for example if a listing turns out to be invalid.
• Your payment did not complete in time, so the booking never held the slot. Usually nothing was charged; if the money was taken anyway, it comes back the same way.

Why the deduction when you cancel yourself: Razorpay, our payment gateway, takes a charge of about 2.36% (its fee plus GST) on every payment it processes, and it does not give that charge back when a payment is refunded. We refund everything else and keep nothing ourselves — on the ₹5.00 booking fee in the example above, you get ₹4.88 back and the gateway keeps ₹0.12. The cancel screen and your booking page show your exact amount.

If you paid the host an advance

An advance is paid to the host directly, not to MiniParty. The host must return all of it within 3 days if they decline or don't confirm in time, if the host or MiniParty cancels the booking, or if you cancel before the host confirms. If you cancel after the host confirms, the venue's cancellation policy (shown on its page) decides how much of the advance comes back. You never owe the rest of the order value on a cancelled booking. If a host doesn't return an advance they owe, report it from your booking.

When you cancel a confirmed booking, the venue's policy — shown on its page and fixed when you book — applies to the advance:

• Flexible: all of it back up to 24 hours before the start, none after.
• Moderate: all of it back up to 72 hours before the start, half up to 24 hours before, none after.
• Strict: half of it back up to 7 days before the start, none after.

The host returns it to you directly, within 3 days. If they don't, report it from the booking in My bookings: we take it up with the host, and a host who keeps an advance they owe can be removed from MiniParty.

How to cancel

Open My bookings, choose the booking, and cancel from there. Before you confirm, the screen shows exactly what will be refunded, what the host returns of any advance, and what you no longer owe the venue, so there is no guesswork. A cancellation cannot be undone — the slot is released immediately for someone else to book.

How long a refund takes

We submit the refund to the payment gateway as soon as the cancellation is processed — usually within minutes, and always on the same day. From there it is the bank's timeline: typically 5–7 working days to appear on a card or in an account, and sometimes faster for UPI. The money returns to the method you paid with; we cannot send it anywhere else.

You can watch the status on the booking itself. If a refund has not arrived after 7 working days, raise a ticket on the contact page with your booking code and we will chase it with the gateway on your behalf.

If the party did not go as promised

If a venue was materially not as described, or the host did not turn up, report it from the booking in My bookings — with photos if you have them. Reports open when the party starts and stay open until the Wednesday after the week it took place; the booking shows the exact date. We investigate with the host and, where the complaint is upheld, refund your booking fee (less the payment gateway's charge on it, which is never returned). Money you paid the host at the venue did not pass through us, so we cannot refund it ourselves, but we take the complaint up with the host and can remove a listing that does not deliver what it promises.

Bookings paid in full online, before the booking fee

Bookings made before we introduced the booking fee were paid in full online, and they keep the rules they were booked under. Before the host accepted, cancelling returned everything. After that, the venue's cancellation policy, recorded on the booking, applies to the venue amount:

• Flexible — 100% of the venue amount back up to 24h before
• Moderate — 100% of the venue amount back up to 72h, 50% up to 24h
• Strict — 50% of the venue amount back up to 7 days, none after

Refunds cover the venue amount. The platform fee and its GST are not refundable. The cancel screen on the booking shows the exact amount.