Why Stripe

CoHub doesn’t hold or move money itself — every booking, hire and payout runs through Stripe, a third-party payments provider. That’s what lets us say payment is held securely and only released once a booking is confirmed or a task is completed, rather than asking either side to just trust the other.

If you’re booking a Space or posting a task (paying)

You don’t need to connect anything — you just pay with a card at checkout, the same as any online purchase. Your card is authorised for the full amount at that point, which reserves the funds without actually charging you yet.

  • Booking a Space: your card is charged (the authorisation is captured) once the booking is genuinely confirmed — instantly for Instant Book listings, or once the host accepts a Request to Book.
  • Posting a task: nothing is charged until you hire someone, and even then it stays authorised, not charged, until you confirm the completed work. Card holds do expire after about a week, so on a longer task we may ask you to authorise the payment again before the worker can be paid — see How CoHub Gigs works.
  • Buying a place at a paid MeetGreet event: charged in full at checkout, like any ticket — no hold, no later capture, because an event has no host-approval step. A free event charges nothing at all.

The price shown is exactly what you pay — CoHub’s fee comes out of the other side’s payout, never added on top of your total.

If you’re hosting a Space or completing tasks (getting paid)

To receive a payout, you connect a Stripe Express account from your host dashboard — look for the “Connect Stripe” button. It takes you to Stripe’s own onboarding flow to verify your identity and add your bank details; CoHub never sees or stores your bank details directly, Stripe handles that part entirely.

Once you’re connected, you can jump back into your Stripe dashboard any time from the same place to check payouts or update your bank details, without CoHub needing to build a separate page for it.

It’s the same connected account that lets you charge for a MeetGreet event — a paid event can’t be created without one, because CoHub doesn’t hold event money on your behalf either.

You’ll need to have Stripe connected before a booking or task payment can be captured on your behalf — if it isn’t connected yet, connect it as soon as you start hosting or applying for work so there’s no delay when your first payout comes through.

Fees

CoHub takes a flat 15% platform fee (called the Service Fee in our Terms), deducted from the host’s or worker’s payout only — never charged on top of what the guest, poster or event attendee pays. Two founding-member offers currently waive that fee entirely:

  • The first 50 hosts to list a Space pay 0% fee on that listing’s first confirmed booking.
  • The first 25 people hired on CoHub Gigs pay 0% fee on their first accepted gig.

One waiver per member, applied automatically while spots last. An offer that hasn’t been claimed can be withdrawn; a waiver you’ve already been given stays yours until you use it. Neither offer covers paid MeetGreet events — the 15% applies to every ticket sold.

Refunds and cancellations

For Spaces bookings, cancelling more than 48 hours before the start time gets you a full refund, including the platform fee — CoHub doesn’t keep any part of the fee on a cancellation made within that window. See How Spaces works for the full cancellation policy.

For a paid MeetGreet event, an attendee gets a full refund — CoHub’s fee included — if they cancel 48 or more hours before it starts, and nothing inside that window. If the host cancels the event, or moves its date, time or location, every ticket is refunded in full whatever the timing. See the MeetGreet Event Terms.

For CoHub Gigs, because payment is only authorised (not captured) until a Poster confirms a task is complete, cancelling before that point simply releases the hold — there’s nothing to refund because nothing was charged. See How CoHub Gigs works.

A note on trust

Money moves through Stripe rather than directly between the two of you, and for gigs nothing is charged at all until the poster confirms the work is done. For a space booking, payment is taken once the booking is confirmed and released to the host after the booking’s start date — so cancel inside the 48-hour window and the fee still applies, the same as it would for a no-show. That’s the whole reason payment runs this way rather than being paid directly, host to guest or poster to worker.