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Safety guidance

The platform does its share of the work before you ever sit down: every listing is reviewed before it goes live, every photo is screened before it's shown, severe allergies block an application by default, and the cook's address is shared only after both sides have agreed. A person reads every report. Hosts who want a higher bar can require the verified badge — a hand-reviewed ID check — for any table. The rest of this page is the part only you can do: reading the room, and knowing what to do if something feels off.

What the platform does, before you ever sit down

  • Every listing is reviewed before it goes live.
  • Every photo is screened before it's shown — anything suspect is held for a human reviewer.
  • The cook's address is shared only after both sides have agreed.
  • Severe allergies block an application by default.
  • Every report is read by a person, and accounts can be held or banned.
  • The morning after a dinner, we check in — a flagged answer goes straight to a human.

Before you go

  • Tell someone where you are going and roughly when you expect to be home. Share the cook's display name and neighborhood, not their address.
  • If anything in the conversation has felt off, trust that and cancel. The platform does not penalize either side for canceling a confirmed meal.
  • Re-read the dietary disclosure on the event. Severe allergies are not something to negotiate.

When you arrive

  • You can leave at any time. Nobody on this platform owes anyone a stay-the-whole-meal commitment.
  • The cook's home is theirs. If they ask you not to enter a room or to remove your shoes or to wash your hands, do it.
  • If something happens that you would want reported, use the report button on the cook's profile when you get home. Admin reviews every report by hand.

If you are hosting

  • You can decline an applicant for any reason or no reason. The platform's rejection flow lets you reject silently if that is easier.
  • You can block someone from a specific event without adding them to your global never-dine list.
  • If a guest's behavior is the problem and not just the fit, report them. We'd rather see a report once than watch the pattern repeat.

Allergens

Severe allergies are a hard block on the platform's side; applying for an event that contains a severe-allergen disclosure is disabled by default. If an organizer chooses to override the block, both sides will see an acknowledgment. Allergens are not a thing to be polite about.

Something we should know? Write to support@barterkitchen.com — a person reads every message.