Frequently Asked Questions
All Hacienda Cooking hosts are approved by our team.
There is plenty of information available about your host. This info is provided during the registration process, so you’ll know exactly what their hobbies are and why they love hosting guests like yourself.
If you’d like more info, you’re welcome to contact them via our internal messaging system.
You will be able to see pictures of your host, including their home, surroundings, meals, and much more. These pictures set the scene so that you’ll have a pretty good idea of what to expect when you arrive.
We encourage you to read the reviews posted by other travellers on their profile pages. Guest reviews are a great resource as they provide insight into the type of experience you can expect.
Remember, you’re eating with your hosts – so the food is always good! Meals are prepared with care and attention as if you’re one of the family.
Should a problem be found with a host, you will receive a full refund and we will remove the host from the Hacienda Cooking community.
If you’d like to bring some information to our attention about a specific host, please feel free to contact us at host@Haciendacooking.com
Hacienda Cooking is ideal for gourmet travellers! Worldwide leader of social dining, our community is full of hosts ready to welcome you and show you the real taste of their city. Around the world, or just around the corner, re-discover the surroundings in a delicious and authentic atmosphere.
With Hacienda Cooking, you’ll never travel the same way again!
No need to be a professional chef to start hosting, the only required ingredients are a good sense of hospitality and a pinch of curiosity. From cooking classes, to food tours and dinners, Hacienda Cooking is for everyone that believes that people who love cooking and eating are the best type of people!
To book a seat for an event, you must have an Hacienda Cooking account.
Your profile allows hosts and fellow guests to learn a little bit more about you. It’s a fun way to get to know each other before attending an event.
You can edit your profile image, description and location in your Profile page.
With an Hacienda Cooking account you can message Hosts directly with questions, ask to book and receive updates regarding the events that you’ve signed up for.
There are several ways for you to evaluate the quality of our hosts. Firstly, you’re welcome to take a look at the pictures our hosts post on the website. That’s always a great way to determine their cooking style, and the overall quality of their meal.
We also recommend reading the reviews posted by other guests on our site. Our community of hosts and guests are encouraged to provide feedback on their dining experiences.
Remember, it’s all about the experience here at Hacienda Cooking. Our community of food fans gets to share so much more than a meal – it’s an unforgettable Hacienda Cooking experience!
Search by city, host name or title of experiences. Choose the number of seats you want to book and your preferred dates for an experience.
Choose your event from the list of “Upcoming Events”
On the right hand side, choose your preferred date and number of guests, and click "request to book".
You’ll be redirected to the payment page. Leave a message to your host, state any dietary restrictions, and complete payment.
If the experience can be booked instantly, it will be immediately confirmed. Otherwise, your booking will only be confirmed once the host has accepted your request. Once they have done this, you will receive your booking confirmation with the address and your host's details!
Booking request: By default, when you book an Hacienda Cooking experience you will usually be making a booking request - which means that you will need to wait for your host to accept and validate your request. Once they have done this, you will receive a confirmation email with the host's address and contact details. The booking button says "Request a booking".
Instant booking: An instant booking means that you can make a booking without having to wait for approval or validation by the host! You can see if an experience is instantly bookable if the booking button says "Book now" and there is the little lightning bolt, as per the photo below:
Hacienda Cooking takes a 20% commission on top of the price the host determines. This includes all taxes, payment processing fees.
If you feel that you have great cooking and hosting skills and you want to join our Host Community, simply click on ‘Become a Host’ then 'Become a host'.
You’ll soon receive a confirmation of your account and then you can go ahead and create your profile. Next step will be to create a new experience. Once you have sent your experience to be reviewed, our Community Team should get back to you within 14 working days.
It is 100% free to post your meals and be a host on Hacienda Cooking.
Unfortunately, standard tables at restaurants cannot be listed on our website but you as an individual, professional chef or member of the industry, can still be a host in your own home or in a private space. For example a restaurant owner and/or chef could host an event in a private room at their restaurant, or in their own home, or in a rented space, spaces that are memorable are always a good idea to host great events in,and if you served a unique menu not serving food from the standard restaurant menu that would be a listable hosting, for anymore information on this, don't hesitate to contact us at contact@Haciendacooking.com.
Everyone who is ready to welcome new people and show them the real taste of their city can be a Hacienda Cooking host. From cooking classes, to food tours, to dinners: you can provide something special for guests from all around the world!
As a host you are responsible for determining the applicable tax laws in your country related to the payment you receive. This can range from VAT, surcharges, sales taxes, goods and services taxes or personal or corporate income taxes.
All you need to know about pricing your experience
To choose the price of your experiences you can make an average of the amount that you spend on the ingredients you need for it and also consider the time that you are going to give to every event.
You have to include all the beverages and the food in the price of your experience. If you prefer, you can also suggest guests to bring their own bottle.
Please keep in mind that your guests will pay 20% more than the price indicated. For example, if you set the price of your event at £20 your guests will pay £24.
As a new host, you don't have reviews yet, or just a few.
This means that your number one goal is to gain reviews!
In order to do that, you need to set an attractive price to your experience and to level it up from there according to the amount of reviews you have and your experience's popularity. We advice you to deduct 25% from your goal price and deduct at least 25%. So if you wish to price your experience at £50, you should price your experience at £37. Once you have more than 20 reviews with a high score above 4.7, you can set your goal price and see how it goes.
The price that will be displayed on the website is the total of the price you set for your experience plus the 20% Hacienda Cooking fees.
The price is calculated with the fees on top of the price you have set, so that you will always get what you set on your experience.
Because we’re dedicated to keeping a high standard and bringing on board quality hosts we review all applications manually. That is why it can take up to 21 business days to review your application.
If any changes are necessary, you will receive an email with the requested changes. If there’s nothing to change, our team will contact you to let you know that your experience will be approved and published on the website!
You will also be asked to schedule a Demo event.
The Demo Event is the final stage for aspiring hosts who are based in one of our most visited cities. It is like a live audition, an opportunity to test the menu, to get amazing pictures, to attract guests and to get the first glowing reviews to help promote your experience!
Once the host's experience has been approved by our team, hosts need to set up a date to welcome their first guests and start getting the hang of hosting experiences! Usually Demo Events are set at a lower price in order to attract more people to the table.
After hosting the Demo Event, the host's profile will be ready to launch and we'll be very proud to share it with our guests all around the world!
It can take time to build your brand as a host, but fear not! Here are some tips for promoting your event and growing your brand.
Invite friends: your personal network is the best place to start promoting your brand as a Hacienda Cooking host. Have friends attend your events and leave reviews, which will go a long way in boosting your ranking on the page.
Promote on social media: share your event on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Posting regularly can help get the word out and build your brand as an Hacienda Cooking host. Don’t forget to use a hashtag, such as #Hacienda Cooking
Connect with food blogs & websites: reach out to food writers and bloggers in your area. They love hearing about new foodie trends and might be willing to promote your Hacienda Cooking event.
Join groups & forums: discover food-related groups on Facebook and forums from people in your area. Sharing your events there can help you get connected with the most enthusiastic foodies.
Attend meetups: many cities have events that bring chefs and foodies together. These are great opportunities to make connections and promote your Hacienda Cooking event.
It’s perfectly legal to host guests in your home for a meal. The payment you receive is compensation for the time you’ve spent preparing the meal and to cover the costs of the ingredients. Please consider your country’s tax regulations in respect to the money you earn from hosting guests.
It’s important that you spend time with your guests. They want to learn about you and your story. Just imagine like you were having friends coming over. You don't have to sit down and eat with them, but make sure you spend time together to create an unforgettable experience.
Every host and guest needs to create profiles on the website and give some information about themselves. This way we make sure you get to know a bit about the guest and what you can expect. The message system helps you ask all the questions you want so things are clear. The guests will not receive your contact details until you validate the booking.
Hacienda Cooking Hosts are paid directly on their bank account through our secure online payment system Stripe.
We process all the payments 48 hours after the event via bank transfers. However depending on your bank institution and on the day you hosted the event, it may take up to 5 working days for your payment to reach your account.
To protect your privacy, we cannot see or migrate your payment details, so please make sure you have added/updated your payment information on your Account Settings.
If you are a new Host and you do not see where to add your payment information on the Account Settings page, please clear your browser cache and try again.
Hacienda Cooking is about sharing a meal together. It is really important that guests feel like visiting friends so any exchange of money during the event is not allowed.
Furthermore, cash payments do not guarantee any reimbursement in case of last minute cancellations, holding loose cash is not recommended and you would be in breach of the terms you have agreed with Hacienda Cooking.