How bartendersNow™ Works for Bartenders

A plain explainer of how the platform works from the bartender's side: the fee, who decides what, what a request shows you, and what it takes to take bookings.

• You set your rate. bartendersNow™ doesn't set or recommend it, and search results aren't ranked by price. Hosts see your rate and can filter by it.
• You keep 88% of your rate. The bartender-side platform fee is currently a flat 12% of your rate. Hosts pay a separate 12% service fee on their side.
• Nothing is booked without your yes. You accept or decline, and declining never counts against you.
• Identity verification is required. Government-ID verification through Stripe Identity, before you can take bookings.
• You must be 21 or older.

bartendersNow™ is a marketplace run by Midnight Logic, Inc. in Santa Clara, California. Hosts planning a private event describe what they need, and independent bartenders on the platform decide whether to take the work. You are an independent contractor running your own bartending business. The platform gives you the listing, the request, the event details and payment through our processor, Stripe; the service behind the bar is yours.

When you set up your profile, you enter an hourly rate. That number is yours.

You set your rate. bartendersNow™ doesn't set or recommend it, and search results aren't ranked by price. Hosts see your rate and can filter by it.

If you want to think through what to charge, How to Price Yourself and Setting Your Rates walk through the factors independent bartenders weigh, without telling you what your number should be.

• 12% service fee to the host, added on their side
• 12% platform fee on your side, retained before payout (currently a flat 12%)
• 88% of your rate is your payout

So if you set $60 an hour, the 12% fee is $7.20 and your payout is $52.80 for each booked hour, plus any extra time the host approves (or that's upheld if you dispute a declined overage). The host's fee is separate and is never taken from you, and card-processing costs don't come out of your payout either. Tips are yours in full. Add-ons and mileage you charge carry the same 12% fee.

This is a worked example only, not a suggested or typical rate. Your rate is whatever you enter; the arithmetic is the same at any number.

Connecting your payout account isn't part of signup; you can do it any time from your dashboard. Earnings are held for you and released once it's set up. The Bartender Payout Policy covers the details, and Tax Preparation Tips covers the tax side of independent work.

This is the part that matters most if you already have a job, a regular gig, or a schedule that changes. Work reaches you one of two ways, and both need a yes: a host sends you a request and you accept it, or you ask to work a host's open event and the host accepts.

If you're not interested, decline. If a request lapses, it expires and nothing is booked. We ask bartenders to answer requests within about a day so hosts can move on, but declining never counts against you. There is no acceptance-rate target and no minimum availability.

Our Terms of Service say it directly: you remain free to set your own rates, accept or decline any booking, and operate your business outside the platform. The one limit on outside work: bookings you get through bartendersNow™, and the messages and payments that go with them, stay on bartendersNow™.

In practice, bartendersNow™ fits around whatever else you have going on. A request that clashes with a shift, a family weekend, or another client is a request you can turn down.

Declining is not the same as cancelling. Once you accept, the booking is a commitment, and you work it yourself: you can't send someone else in your place unless they're registered, identity-verified and booked for that event on bartendersNow™. If you cancel an accepted booking, the host gets a full refund of anything they've paid and you aren't paid. A no-show, or cancellations that show a pattern of unreliability, can cost you access to the platform. The Cancellation Policy has the details.

Before you decide, a request lays the event out: the date and time, the general area (the full address once you're booked), the guest count, the kinds of drinks the host wants and how much, and — once you're booked and the host has built it — their stock list.

Bartender signup is open (21+). To take bookings, you need:

• An hourly rate and a service area. What you charge and where you work.
• Government-ID identity verification through Stripe Identity. You complete it yourself. It confirms your identity document; it is not a background check, not a credential, and not an assessment of your skills.
• You must be 21 or older.
• The Terms and the independent-bartender acknowledgments. You accept the Terms of Service and six acknowledgments covering independent-contractor status, keeping bookings on the platform, serving responsibly and legally, serving the host's alcohol rather than supplying or selling it, safety and professionalism, and that getting paid requires payout setup.

Alcohol-server certification is not something bartendersNow™ issues or checks. California requires current Responsible Beverage Service (RBS) certification from an ABC-approved provider for servers at licensed venues; a private event where the host supplies the alcohol and nothing is sold is generally treated differently. The requirement is yours to meet wherever you work. Our California RBS page explains the distinction.

Before hosts can book: bartender signup is open now, and host booking has not opened yet. There's no published date. When host booking opens, this section will say so.

Create your profile in the app. While setting up, you add a profile photo, your services and your rate, complete the identity check, and accept the Terms and the acknowledgments. The setup wizard saves your progress step by step, so you can stop and come back.

We offer an optional free live class for bartenders: the basics of independent private-event work, how to think about pricing, building your own profile, and open Q&A. It is a business and platform class, not an alcohol-server certification and not a credential of any kind. Where you serve at a licensed venue, California requires current RBS certification from an ABC-approved provider. We schedule sessions as people sign up — tell us when you can make it.

This guide describes how the platform works; it is not legal, tax or licensing advice. If anything here differs from our Terms of Service, Code of Conduct, Bartender Payout Policy or Cancellation Policy, those documents govern.