This page covers bookings paid through Hangout. If you paid the venue directly, the money never passed through us and you will need to settle it with them — though tell us anyway at support@hangout.ng, because a venue that will not refund fairly is one we want to know about.
How refunds are handled today: cancelling a booking is instant and you can do it yourself from your account. The return of the money itself is done by our team by hand, not by an automatic process, so we do not promise a fixed timeline. Once you have asked us for a refund, we will handle it and confirm inside the platform when it is back with your bank. We would rather tell you that than imply a machine is doing something a person is.
1. Before the venue accepts
A submitted order is a request. Until the venue accepts it, you can cancel it for any reason from your account page, and anything you paid is returned in full. Nothing has been committed on either side.
2. If the venue declines
You get every naira back. You do not need to argue for it and you do not need to chase us — a declined booking is not your fault. Venues decline for ordinary reasons: the place is full, an item ran out, the kitchen closed early.
3. If the venue doesn't respond in time
Venues accept or decline inside the platform. If a venue neither accepts nor declines before the time you booked for, the booking is treated as declined: you get every naira back, and we follow up with the venue on why they didn't reply. A venue that repeatedly leaves requests hanging will be suspended from the platform.
We do not currently offer a venue-initiated cancellation once a booking is accepted, so no third case (vendor cancels after accepting) exists on this page on purpose.
4. If you cancel after the venue accepted
You can still cancel from your account, but at this point the venue has held a table or a slot for you and may have turned other custom away. Our default policy applies to the money: cancel at least 24 hours before the booking and you are refunded in full. Inside 24 hours, the venue may keep what they would have earned from your booking — we ask the venue to confirm before any refund is paid out, and we would rather resolve it fairly than stand on the rule.
Vendors do not publish their own cancellation policy on the platform today, so the wording above is the only one that applies. If that changes, every venue page will say so before you book.
5. If you don't turn up
A no-show is treated as a late cancellation. The venue may keep the payment for the reserved items. If something genuinely prevented you from getting there, write to us — we will ask the venue, and we would rather resolve it than stand on the rule.
6. If the experience wasn't what was ordered
Tell the venue at the time, if you can — most problems are fixable on the spot. If it is not resolved, contact us within 7 days at support@hangout.ng with your booking reference and what happened. We will take it up with the venue and, where the complaint is made out, arrange a full or partial refund.
We are not the venue and cannot guarantee the standard of its food or service. What we can do is investigate honestly, refund where we hold the money, and remove venues that keep letting people down.
7. How refunds are paid
Refunds go back to the card or account you paid from — we cannot send them anywhere else. Because the process is by hand, we do not commit to a fixed number of days. Once we have issued it from the platform, we will mark the booking as refunded in your account and the funds will arrive from your bank on its own schedule. Contact us at support@hangout.ng any time after that for a status update — we hold the records, not a machine.
Refunds are made in naira, for the amount paid.
8. Venues: when you don't get paid
Your balance is credited when a paid booking is marked completed, net of commission. Bookings that were declined or cancelled are never credited to you. Where the customer had already paid, that money stays with us and goes back to them — it is their money, not yours, because the booking did not happen.
Where a customer's complaint is upheld and we refund them after you have been credited, we reverse the amount we credited you — the booking value less our commission — and we give up our commission on it too. We do not keep a fee on a booking you were not paid for. We will always tell you why, and we may set the reversal off against your next credit rather than ask you for the money back.
9. Your statutory rights
Nothing on this page limits your rights under the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2018. If you believe you have been treated unfairly and we have not put it right, you can complain to the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.
Our Terms of Service explain the wider agreement.