Terms & Conditions

These terms are a contract between you and Buddy Blind (“we”, “us”, “our”) for buddyblind.com and the Buddy Blind app (together, the “Service”). By creating an account, confirming a seat, starting a plan, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not create an account and do not take a seat.

Acceptance may be recorded electronically under the Electronic Transactions Ordinance (Cap. 553) where it applies. Our records of your acceptance, seat confirmations, and charges are evidence of those acts.

These terms include the Community Guidelines. The Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy explain personal data and cookies under the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Cap. 486). The Accessibility page is a voluntary statement only and is not a warranty.

1. What Buddy Blind is

Buddy Blind is a platform. It lets adults open, join, or host a seat at a restaurant or a private gathering. You choose the place, the time, and the number of seats. You do not get names or photos of the other people before you arrive. That is the product.

We are not a restaurant, caterer, dating agency, matchmaker, employer of other users, insurer, emergency service, or a party to your meal, your restaurant bill, or any contract between you and a restaurant or another user.

We do not employ the people at the table. We do not control what they say or do. We do not promise that anyone will like you, stay, show up, or pay their share of a bill.

A confirmed seat on Buddy Blind is a platform request and record. It is not a guaranteed restaurant reservation and not payment for food or drink.

2. Who can use it

You must be 18 or older and able to enter a binding contract under Hong Kong law. One person, one account. Fake, duplicate, or shared accounts are not allowed.

You are responsible for everything done under your login. Keep your credentials secret. Tell us promptly if you think someone else is using your account.

We may refuse, suspend, or end access where we reasonably believe you are under 18, these terms were broken, or the Service or other people are at risk.

3. Seats

Join, Invite, Quick Meet, and Host are requests on our platform. The restaurant may still be full, closed, or unable to take the table.

• Quick Meet is for today only.
• A private night is a Premium feature. The host sets the size, up to 20 people including the host.
• Seat counts are what users and the system report. They can change. They are not a guarantee from the restaurant.
• We may cancel, merge, move, or close a seat at any time if it breaks these terms, looks unsafe, looks fraudulent, or the place cannot take it — with or without notice where the risk is serious.

Confirming a seat does not, by itself, create a booking contract between you and the restaurant. Any table arrangement with the restaurant is between you and them.

We do not promise to monitor seats in real time.

4. The HKHK$5 trust and security fee

4.1 What it is

When you confirm a Join, Invite, or Host, we charge HKHK$5. That is a trust and security fee. It supports accountability features on Buddy Blind, including:

• linking a confirmed seat to a payment method you saved with us (through our payment provider);
• keeping seat and payment-related records that may help identify who was linked to a seat if there is a dispute, unpaid restaurant bill, dine-and-dash, fraud, or similar misconduct; and
• cooperating with the Hong Kong Police Force or other competent authorities where Hong Kong law permits or requires, as described in the Privacy Policy.

Example: Another user orders a large amount of food and leaves without paying. That has happened in Hong Kong. The HKHK$5 fee does not pay that bill. It helps us keep records that may support investigation and protect other users and restaurants, where lawful.

4.2 What it is not

The HKHK$5 fee is not payment for food, drink, or restaurant service; not a booking fee or deposit charged by the restaurant; not a guarantee of attendance, behaviour, or bill payment; and not insurance.

You pay the restaurant yourself, on their terms.

4.3 Charge

The fee is taken from the payment method you saved, through our payment provider (currently Stripe). By confirming, you authorise the charge. If payment fails, the seat is not confirmed.

You must not use a payment method without authority. You remain responsible for the fee even if a chargeback is attempted without a valid basis.

4.4 Refunds

The fee is not refundable once the seat is confirmed, including no-shows, lateness, dislike of other users, menu changes, or restaurant issues outside our cancellation of the seat.

We may refund only where Hong Kong law requires it, where we cancel the seat before it starts, or where the charge was a clear duplicate.

A badge discount, if shown, applies only to this HKHK$5 fee, at the rate shown when you confirm. It does not apply to the restaurant bill. We may change badge rates.

4.5 Records

Seat and payment-linked records are handled under the Privacy Policy (Cap. 486). We do not promise to disclose full card numbers, or any particular field, to any person on demand. Disclosure to authorities is only as Hong Kong law and the Privacy Policy allow.

5. Plans

New members may get Premium with a free trial. This build uses 90 days. The length shown at signup is the one that applies to you. We may change trial length for new signups.

During the trial, Premium features are available, including hosting a private night. If you do not cancel before the trial ends, we charge HK$50 for that month, then monthly until you cancel.

Deleting the app or stopping use does not cancel the plan. Cancel in the product, or email legal@buddyblind.com, before renewal.

Fees already due remain payable. No refund for a month that has started, except where Hong Kong law requires it.

We may change plan prices or features for future periods. We will show the price and renewal terms before you start or renew a paid period.

6. Points and circle colour

Points are a platform record only. Join adds 1. Invite adds 2. Host adds 5 after the HKHK$5 charge succeeds. Points may change circle colour. They are not cash, property, or transferable. We may adjust or reset points if a charge is reversed or these terms are broken.

Circle colour is not a character reference, identity check, or police clearance.

7. Restaurants and venues

Listed places are independent businesses. We do not cook food, set prices, hold licences, or promise dietary suitability. Allergies and diet needs are between you and the restaurant. Ask them before you go.

Physical access to the venue (steps, toilets, lifts, and so on) is the venue’s responsibility. See the Accessibility page.

We are not liable for food, drink, hygiene, service, or anything on their premises, except where Hong Kong law does not allow this limit.

When a seat is confirmed we may tell the place the time, date, and number of people. We do not give them your phone number for other guests to see. Further sharing is only as the Privacy Policy allows.

8. Meetings are your risk

You will meet people we have not screened. We do not run police checks, identity guarantees, or employment checks.

You decide whether to go, stay, or leave. Meet in the public place on the seat. Do not move to a private place you do not know if you are unsure. Buddy Blind does not supervise the table and does not insure you.

If you are in immediate danger, contact the Police (999 in Hong Kong). We are not an emergency service.

To the fullest extent Hong Kong law allows, you use the Service and attend seats at your own risk, including discomfort, offence, no-shows, extra guests, unpaid bills by others, injury, loss of property, and conduct we did not authorise.

9. Your conduct

You must follow the Community Guidelines. Without limiting them, you will not:

• harass, threaten, stalk, hate, or discriminate;
• record people without required consent;
• send unwanted sexual content;
• bring weapons, use illegal drugs, spike drinks, steal, or commit fraud;
• leave without paying your share of a bill you are responsible for;
• scrape the Service or misuse data;
• dox others (phone, workplace, photo, address, and similar);
• pretend a private night is run, insured, or endorsed by Buddy Blind;
• charge guests a side “access” fee that pretends to be our fee.

We may remove content, seats, or accounts for breach. A report is not a promise we will act in a particular way.

10. Your content and our IP

You keep ownership of content you upload. You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide licence to host, reproduce, resize, and display it to operate the Service, until you delete it or close the account, and afterwards in backups for a short period and as needed for disputes, security, or law. You warrant you have the rights to upload it and that it does not break Hong Kong law or these terms. We may remove content at any time.

Buddy Blind names, logos, and product design are our intellectual property. You may not use them to suggest we run, endorse, or insure your private night without our written permission.

11. Accounts, suspension, and closure

We may suspend or close an account, or remove a seat, if we reasonably believe these terms were broken, a charge failed or was charged back without basis, a trust or security concern arises, or the Service or others are at risk. We do not have to give prior warning where the risk is serious.

You may close your account by emailing legal@buddyblind.com. Closure does not cancel fees already due or erase records we may keep under the Privacy Policy (including bans, payments, and trust records).

12. Messages

Service messages about seats, charges, trust and security, or your account may be sent while you use the Service.

Marketing that uses personal data needs a separate opt-in under Cap. 486 Part 6A (see Privacy Policy). Commercial electronic messages with a Hong Kong link are also subject to Cap. 593 where it applies. Details and opt-out: Privacy Policy / privacy@buddyblind.com.

13. No warranty

The Service is provided “as is” and “as available”. To the fullest extent Hong Kong law allows, we disclaim all warranties, including implied warranties.

We do not warrant that seats will fill, people will attend, restaurants will honour a table, other users will pay, the app will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that a night will go well.

14. Liability

Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for any other liability Hong Kong law does not allow us to limit.

Subject to that, to the fullest extent Hong Kong law allows:

• we are not liable for other users, restaurants, no-shows, unpaid bills by others, food, drink, venue access, your decision to meet, third-party sites or processors (including Stripe), loss of profits or opportunity, or indirect or consequential loss;
• we are not liable for failure to meet voluntary guidelines (including WCAG);
• our total liability arising out of the Service in any 12-month period is limited to the fees you paid us in that period, or HK$100 if you paid less.

15. Indemnity

You will indemnify and hold harmless Buddy Blind and its officers, employees, and agents against claims, losses, damages, and reasonable legal costs arising from your content, your conduct at a seat (including any unpaid bill you are responsible for), your breach of these terms or the Community Guidelines, or your infringement of someone else’s rights, except to the extent caused by our negligence.

16. Changes, suspension of the Service, and force majeure

We may change the Service, features, or these terms at any time. The new terms apply from the date on this page. Continued use means you accept them. If you do not, stop using the Service and cancel any paid plan.

We may suspend or stop the Service for maintenance, security, legal, or business reasons. We are not liable for delay or failure caused by events beyond our reasonable control.

17. General

Hong Kong law governs these terms. The courts of Hong Kong have exclusive jurisdiction, except we may seek urgent relief in any court.

If a clause is unenforceable, the rest still stands. Our failure to enforce a right is not a waiver. You may not assign these terms without our consent; we may assign them in a business transfer. Clauses that by nature should survive (including fees due, trust records, licences, indemnity, liability limits, and governing law) survive closure of your account.

These terms, the Community Guidelines, the Privacy Policy, and the Cookie Policy are the whole agreement on this subject and replace prior versions on the same subject.

Contact: legal@buddyblind.com (Terms) · privacy@buddyblind.com (privacy / data).