Space Penguin Host Terms

1. The relationship between Bookers, Hosts and Space Penguin

Space Penguin provides the Service as a platform that connects Hosts and Bookers and facilitates the booking of Spaces. You understand and agree that Space Penguin:

• is not a party to any agreement between you and a Booker, even where that agreement takes the form of a Space Penguin booking confirmation, licence terms or house rules made available through the Service;
• is not an insurer, and does not provide insurance of any kind to you, to a Booker, or in respect of a Space or its contents;
• is not your agent (other than as your limited payment collection agent as expressly set out in clause 7.2), and is not the Booker’s agent;
• is not a real estate agent, conveyancer, property manager, lessor, sublessor or licensor of any Space, and does not hold or require a real estate licence in respect of any Space; and
• does not own, operate, manage, control or inspect any Space listed on the Service.

If a Booker reserves and uses your Space, the arrangement for that use is between you and the Booker. You are responsible for determining, and for complying with, the legal character of that arrangement. The Service is designed to facilitate short-term revocable licences to occupy, not leases or tenancies. You must not use the Service to grant any right that would constitute a retail lease, residential tenancy or any other interest in land, and you are solely responsible for ensuring that your listing and your dealings with Bookers do not create one.

2. Listing your Space

You are solely responsible for the content and accuracy of your listing. In particular:

• All information you provide must be accurate, current and not misleading or deceptive. This includes location and access details, capacity, hours of availability, inclusions, amenities, pricing, minimum booking durations, your cancellation policy, and any house rules or conditions of entry.
• Photographs and floor plans must be genuine, current and of the Space actually being offered. You must not use stock imagery, imagery of a different space, or imagery that materially overstates the condition, size, outlook or fit-out of the Space.
• Where the Service invites you to provide qualitative information about the working environment (for example internet reliability and typical speed, noise levels, natural light, seating comfort, air conditioning, accessibility, kitchen or bathroom access, or parking), that information must be an honest and reasonable representation of the ordinary experience of using the Space. These signals are central to what Bookers rely on when choosing a Space, and inaccurate qualitative claims will be treated as a serious breach of these Host Terms.
• You must keep your availability calendar current and must not list a Space as available if it is not genuinely available.
• You must promptly update your listing if any material change occurs, including any change to access arrangements, building works, amenity outages or a change in your right to offer the Space.

You grant Space Penguin a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, reproduce, adapt, publish, translate and display your listing content (including photographs, descriptions and your business name and logo) for the purposes of operating, promoting and marketing the Service and your listing. You warrant that you own or have all necessary rights in that content and that its use by us will not infringe any third party rights. This licence survives removal of your listing to the extent necessary for archival, legal and internal record-keeping purposes.

We may, at our discretion, edit, reformat, translate, categorise, decline to publish, reorder, de-rank, hide or remove any listing, and may determine how listings are displayed, ranked and promoted within the Service. We are not obliged to publish or continue to publish any listing.

3. Host obligations and Space standards

As a Host, you agree that:

• You are solely responsible for maintaining the Space in a safe, clean and fit-for-purpose condition and in compliance with all applicable laws, regulations, standards and local requirements, including work health and safety legislation, building and fire safety requirements, planning and permitted-use requirements, food safety requirements (where applicable), and accessibility and anti-discrimination obligations including under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth).
• You hold all insurances required by law, and any insurance reasonably necessary for the operation of your Space and its use by Bookers, that each such policy is current and will be maintained for as long as your Space is listed on the Service, and that offering the Space through the Service does not void, breach or limit any such policy. You must provide evidence of currency within a reasonable period of a request from us. Space Penguin does not provide, arrange, broker or guarantee any insurance for Hosts or Bookers.
• You are solely responsible for ensuring the Space is clean, tidy, serviced and ready to use at the start of each Booking, and that any inclusions listed (for example internet access, seating, screens, whiteboards, kitchen access or amenities) are available and in working order.
• You are solely responsible for ensuring that offering and booking the Space through the Service does not breach any lease, sublease, licence, mortgage, insurance policy, owners corporation or strata by-law, body corporate rule, building policy, planning permit or other agreement or instrument affecting the Space.
• You will ensure that the Space is available to the Booker at the confirmed start time and date. If the Space is not available, you must, at no additional cost to the Booker, make available for the originally scheduled time and date an alternative space in the same building of equal or larger size and comparable configuration, amenity and quality. If you cannot do so, the Booking will be treated as cancelled by you and clause 5 applies.
• You will provide clear access instructions and reasonable assistance to Bookers, and will respond to Booker enquiries and booking requests within the response times published on the Service.
• You will not impose on a Booker any fee, charge, condition, waiver or requirement that was not clearly disclosed in your listing before the Booking was made.
• You will not discriminate against any Booker or prospective Booker on the basis of any attribute protected under Australian federal, State or Territory anti-discrimination law.
• You will not use the Space, or permit the Space to be used, for any unlawful purpose, and you will notify us promptly of any incident, injury, damage, dispute, safety issue or unlawful conduct arising in connection with a Booking.

4. Booker conduct, damage and security deposits

You may publish reasonable house rules and conditions of entry in your listing. Those rules must be lawful, consistent with these Host Terms, and disclosed before a Booking is made.

If a Booker causes loss or damage to your Space beyond fair wear and tear, you must notify us through the Service within 72 hours of the end of the relevant Booking and provide reasonable evidence, including photographs and, where relevant, quotations or invoices. Where a security deposit or damage authorisation has been taken through the Service for that Booking, we may, acting reasonably and as your limited payment collection agent, apply all or part of it towards your claim, and we may facilitate communication between you and the Booker. We are not obliged to determine, mediate, arbitrate or fund any damage claim, and any recovery beyond amounts actually collected through the Service is a matter between you and the Booker.

You must not charge, withhold or attempt to recover any amount for loss or damage outside the Service or outside the process described above without first raising it through the Service.

5. Cancellations and changes

You are responsible for setting your own cancellation policy for each Space you list. Your cancellation policy must be lawful, clearly stated in your listing, and disclosed to Bookers before a Booking is made. It must not purport to exclude, restrict or modify any right a Booker has under the Australian Consumer Law, including where a Space is not of acceptable quality, is not fit for the disclosed purpose, or does not match its description.

Your published cancellation policy applies to Bookings of your Space and governs the refund treatment of Booker-initiated cancellations. Where you change your cancellation policy, the change applies only to Bookings made after the change is published through the Service, and does not affect Bookings already confirmed.

Space Penguin may, in the future, introduce standardised cancellation policy options or tiers within the platform in order to give Bookers a more consistent and predictable experience. We will consult and communicate with Hosts before doing so, and will give you reasonable notice of any such change and of how it affects your listings, in accordance with clause 17.

If you cancel a confirmed Booking, fail to provide access to the Space, or provide a Space that is materially different from your listing, then regardless of your cancellation policy:

• the Booker will be refunded in full for the affected Booking, and no Service Fee will be payable in respect of it;
• we may, at our discretion, reasonably compensate or re-accommodate the Booker and recover from you the reasonable direct costs of doing so, including any price difference for a comparable alternative space and any card processing or refund costs, and you authorise us to set off those amounts against amounts otherwise payable to you;
• we may block the affected dates on your calendar, remove or de-rank your listing, or suspend or terminate your account.

Repeated cancellations, non-response to booking requests, or failure to honour confirmed Bookings will result in removal of your listings from the Service.

6. Reviews, ratings and feedback

Bookers and Hosts may submit feedback following the completion of a Booking. You acknowledge and agree that other Users may publicly post ratings and reviews of you or your Space, and that Space Penguin may, but is not obliged to, moderate those postings. Subject to clause 13, and to the extent permitted by law, you release Space Penguin from any claim, cause of action, obligation or liability arising from or relating to those ratings and reviews.

You must not offer any inducement in exchange for a review, submit or arrange a false or misleading review, or attempt to have a legitimate review removed by pressuring a Booker. We may remove reviews that breach our content standards or applicable law.

7. Payment

7.1 Setting your Fee

You are solely responsible for establishing the Fee for your Space through the Service. You must set and maintain your Fee through the Service. Notifying a Booker directly of a change to a Fee is not sufficient and will not change the amount collected through the Service.

A change to the Fee for an hourly or daily Booking does not affect the amount billed for Bookings already made, even if the Booking has not yet commenced. A change to the Fee for a recurring or monthly Booking does not affect amounts billed during the then-current term of Bookings already made; for renewals, a Fee change takes effect from the first full month beginning at least 30 days after the change is made through the Service.

7.2 Space Penguin as limited payment collection agent

You appoint Space Penguin as your limited payment collection agent for the sole purpose of collecting, holding and remitting amounts payable by Bookers in connection with your Spaces. Payment of the Fee by a Booker to Space Penguin (or to our third-party payment processor) satisfies the Booker’s payment obligation to you to the extent of the amount paid, whether or not we have yet remitted that amount to you. Payments are processed by our third-party payment provider Stripe, and your use of the payment functions is also subject to that provider’s terms.

Amounts collected by us on your behalf (the “Amounts Collected”) comprise:

• for hourly and daily Bookings, the Fees for Bookings that were completed, or cancelled but not fully refunded under your cancellation policy;
• for recurring or monthly Bookings, the Fees, set-up fees and disclosed incidental charges for Bookings that commenced, renewed, or were cancelled but not fully refunded under your cancellation policy; and
• the portion of any security deposit properly claimed by you through the Service, if any, within 30 days after the end of the relevant Booking.

7.3 Payouts

We will pay you the Amounts Collected less the applicable Service Fee and any other amounts properly deducted under these Host Terms (the “Amount Due”). Payouts are made to the bank account you nominate in the Service, within 7 business days after completion of the relevant Booking. For recurring or monthly Bookings, the Amount Due will be paid within 7 business days after the start of each period. Payout timing may be affected by your payment provider’s verification and identity requirements, which you must satisfy before any payout can be released.

We do not pay interest on amounts held on your behalf, and we may hold Amounts Collected in a general account together with amounts collected for other Hosts, except where applicable law requires otherwise.

7.4 Withholding, set-off and chargebacks

We may withhold, delay, reverse or deduct from amounts otherwise payable to you:

• any amount reasonably necessary while we investigate a suspected breach of these Host Terms, suspected fraud, or a Booker complaint or safety incident;
• any amount charged back, reversed, disputed or otherwise not received by us from a Booker, a card issuer or a payment provider, together with any associated processing or chargeback fees;
• any refund payable to a Booker under your cancellation policy, under the Australian Consumer Law, or as a result of your act or omission;
• any Service Fee, host cancellation fee, or other amount you owe us under these Host Terms; and
• any bank fees arising from an error or omission in your payment or contact details.

If the amounts we are entitled to deduct exceed the Amounts Collected, we may invoice you for the shortfall and you must pay that invoice within 14 days. If we have already paid you an amount that is subsequently charged back or refunded, you must repay it on demand.

7.5 Payment details, records and disputes

You are solely responsible for providing and maintaining accurate and complete contact, banking, identity and tax information in your account. You must keep complete and accurate records of Space usage and payments by Bookers, and we may audit those records on reasonable notice to confirm compliance with these Host Terms.

If you dispute any payment or deduction made under these Host Terms, you must notify us in writing within 30 days of that payment or deduction. Subject to clause 13, failure to notify us within that period waives any claim in relation to the disputed amount.

8. Service Fees

The Service Fee is charged only on Amounts Collected in respect of Bookings that proceed and are not fully refunded.

Service Fees may vary from Host to Host. The Service Fee applicable to you is the fee agreed between you and Space Penguin, and may reflect factors such as the size and nature of your portfolio, the volume of Bookings, the length of your relationship with us, and any partnership, launch or promotional arrangement in place between us. Where a Service Fee has been separately agreed with you in writing, that agreed fee applies and prevails over the standard rate below to the extent of any inconsistency.

Where you have signed up directly through the Service and no Service Fee has been separately agreed with you, the standard Service Fee applies. The standard Service Fee is 15% of the booking fee.

A separate booking fee may be charged to Bookers, which is disclosed to Bookers at the time of Booking. That fee is retained by Space Penguin and does not form part of your Fee or your Amount Due.

We may vary the standard Service Fee, or the Service Fee applicable to you, in accordance with clause 17. A variation will not apply to Bookings already confirmed before the variation takes effect. Where a Service Fee has been separately agreed with you in writing, we will not vary it without your agreement.

9. GST, ABN and taxes

You are solely responsible for determining, reporting and paying all taxes, levies, duties and charges arising from your use of the Service and your dealings with Bookers, including GST, income tax and any State or local charges. Space Penguin does not provide tax advice, and you should obtain your own advice.

• You must tell us, and keep current in your account, whether you carry on an enterprise in Australia, your ABN, and whether you are registered for GST.
• The Service Fee payable by you is inclusive of GST, and we will issue you a tax invoice for the Service Fee.
• If you are required to quote an ABN and do not do so, we may be required to withhold tax from payments to you at the rate prescribed by law and remit it to the Australian Taxation Office. We may withhold payouts until you provide the information we reasonably require to satisfy our tax and reporting obligations, including any obligations under the sharing economy reporting regime.

10. Use of Spaces by Space Penguin personnel

You authorise Space Penguin personnel and contractors to book and use your Space through the Service as reasonably needed for testing, quality assurance, listing verification and operational support. Any such use requires your approval, is subject to availability, and is at no charge. We may also conduct reasonable listing verification, including requesting evidence of your rights in the Space, photographs, or a site visit by arrangement.

11. Additional representations and warranties

In addition to any other representations and warranties in the Terms of Use, you represent and warrant on a continuing basis that:

• each Space you offer is free of any known condition or defect that would pose a hazard to, or risk the safety of, any Booker or other person;
• you have sufficient right, title, interest and authority in and to the Space to offer it through the Service, including all necessary permits, approvals and consents, and your participation as a Host will not breach any agreement or instrument affecting the Space;
• you hold and will maintain all insurances required under clause 3;
• all information you provide to us and to Bookers, including in your listing and your cancellation policy, is accurate, current and not misleading or deceptive;
• you and your personnel will comply with all laws applicable to your participation in the Service, including the Australian Consumer Law, the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Spam Act 2003 (Cth) and applicable work health and safety legislation; and
• you are entitled to receive the payments made to you under these Host Terms and are not subject to any sanction, restriction or order that would prevent you from participating in the Service.

12. Indemnity

You indemnify Space Penguin, its related bodies corporate, and their respective officers, employees and contractors against all loss, liability, claims, demands, damages, costs and expenses (including reasonable legal costs) arising out of or in connection with:

• your breach of these Host Terms or the Terms of Use;
• the condition, safety, availability, use or occupation of your Space, including any personal injury, death, illness, loss of or damage to property occurring at or in connection with the Space;
• any claim by a Booker, a landlord, an owners corporation, a mortgagee, an insurer, an authority or any other third party in connection with your listing or a Booking;
• your listing content, including any claim that it is misleading or deceptive or infringes third party rights; and
• your handling of personal information obtained through the Service.

Your liability under this indemnity is reduced proportionally to the extent that our negligence or breach caused the relevant loss.

13. Liability and Australian Consumer Law

Nothing in these Host Terms excludes, restricts or modifies any consumer guarantee, right or remedy conferred on you by the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth), including the Australian Consumer Law, or any other applicable law that cannot lawfully be excluded, restricted or modified. Where a statutory guarantee applies and we are permitted to limit our liability for a breach of it, our liability is limited, at our option, to supplying the services again or paying the cost of having them supplied again.

Subject to the paragraph above and to the extent permitted by law:

• the Service is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis, and we do not warrant that it will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that it will generate any particular level of enquiries, Bookings or revenue for you;
• we are not liable to you for the acts, omissions or conduct of any Booker or other User, including damage to your Space, non-payment, or breach of your house rules, other than to the extent of amounts we actually collect and are obliged to remit to you;
• we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss, or for loss of profit, revenue, anticipated savings, goodwill, business opportunity or data, however arising; and
• our aggregate liability to you in connection with the Service and these Host Terms is limited to the total Service Fees you paid to us, for the specific listing that gave rise to the event, in the 6 months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the liability.

14. Suspension, removal and termination

You may remove a listing or close your account at any time through the Service, provided that you must honour all Bookings already confirmed at that time, or the cancellation consequences in clause 5 will apply.

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service, remove or de-rank any listing, or cancel Bookings, immediately and without liability to you, if:

• you breach these Host Terms or the Terms of Use;
• we reasonably consider that a Space or your conduct presents a safety, legal, regulatory or reputational risk;
• you provide false, misleading or incomplete information, or fail to provide information we reasonably require;
• you become insolvent, or an insolvency event occurs in relation to you; or
• we cease to operate the Service or that part of it, in which case we will give you reasonable notice where practicable.

On termination, you remain liable for all amounts payable to us, we will remit any Amount Due properly owing to you after all permitted deductions, and clauses 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18 and 19 survive.

15. Privacy, confidentiality and Booker data

Any personal information you obtain about a Booker through the Service (including names, contact details, booking details and access records) may be used only for the purpose of providing and administering that Booking and complying with your legal obligations, including any building sign-in, security or WHS requirements.

• You must handle that information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles, whether or not the Act would otherwise apply to you.
• You must not add Bookers to any marketing list, or send them any commercial electronic message, without their consent obtained in accordance with the Spam Act 2003 (Cth).
• You must not sell, licence or disclose Booker information to any third party except as necessary to provide the Booking or as required by law.
• You must keep confidential any non-public information we provide to you about the Service, including pricing, Service Fee arrangements, product plans, performance data and platform metrics.
• You must notify us within 24 hours of becoming aware of any actual or suspected unauthorised access to, or disclosure of, Booker information in your control, and cooperate with us in relation to any assessment or notification required under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.

16. Non-circumvention

The Service is how you obtain the benefit of Space Penguin’s marketing, demand generation and payment infrastructure, and the Service Fee is how we are paid for it. Accordingly:

• you must not direct, encourage or induce a Booker to transact outside the Service in order to avoid the Service Fee, including by offering off-platform pricing, providing direct payment details, or requiring a Booker to contract with you outside the Service;
• you must not include contact details, external booking links or off-platform payment instructions in your listing, messages or photographs, except as expressly permitted by the Service; and
• where a Booker first contacted you, enquired about your Space, booked your Space, or was introduced to you through the Service, and you subsequently enter into any arrangement with that Booker outside the Service for use of that Space (or another space you control) within 12 months, you must notify us and pay us the Service Fee that would have applied had the arrangement been transacted through the Service, calculated on the amounts payable by the Booker for up to 12 months from its commencement. We will invoice you directly for those amounts.

17. Notices and changes to these Host Terms

We may give you notice by email to the address in your account, by message through the Service, or by posting on the Service. You may give us notice by email to legal@spacepenguin.io or by post to Suite 1208/530 Little Collins Street, Melbourne, 3000

We may vary these Host Terms from time to time. We will give you at least 30 days’ notice of any variation that is materially adverse to you, by email and through the Service. This includes any increase to the standard Service Fee and any introduction of standardised cancellation policy options under clause 5. If you do not accept a variation, you may remove your listings and close your account before the variation takes effect; continuing to list a Space after that date constitutes acceptance. A variation does not apply to Bookings confirmed before it takes effect.

18. Dispute resolution

Informal resolution first. If you have a dispute with us relating to these Host Terms or your use of the Service, you agree to contact us first at legal@spacepenguin.io and to attempt in good faith to resolve it informally. We will do the same. Neither party may commence proceedings (other than for urgent interlocutory or injunctive relief) until at least 21 days after written notice of the dispute has been given.

Mediation. If the dispute is not resolved within that period, either party may refer it to mediation administered by the relevant mediation authority under its mediation guidelines, with the parties sharing the mediator’s costs equally. If you are a small business, you may also be able to access the dispute resolution services of the Victorian Small Business Commission or the equivalent body in your State or Territory, and nothing in these Host Terms prevents you from doing so or from making a complaint to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission or any other regulator.

Courts. These Host Terms are governed by the laws of Victoria, Australia. You and Space Penguin submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Victoria and the courts of appeal from them. Nothing in this clause limits any right you have to bring proceedings in a court or tribunal where the law confers that right on you and it cannot be excluded.

19. General

• Independent parties. Nothing in these Host Terms creates a partnership, joint venture, employment or franchise relationship between you and Space Penguin, or makes either party the agent of the other, except as expressly stated in clause 7.2.
• Assignment. You may not assign or novate these Host Terms without our written consent. We may assign or novate them to a related body corporate or in connection with a sale of our business.
• Severability. If any provision is unenforceable, it is severed to the minimum extent necessary and the remainder continues in force.
• Waiver. A failure or delay in exercising a right does not operate as a waiver of it.
• Force majeure. Neither party is liable for a failure to perform caused by an event beyond its reasonable control, other than an obligation to pay money.
• Entire agreement. These Host Terms, together with the Terms of Use, the Privacy Policy, and any Service Fee arrangement separately agreed with you in writing, form the entire agreement between you and Space Penguin in relation to your use of the Service as a Host.
• Inconsistency. If there is any inconsistency, these Host Terms prevail over the Terms of Use to the extent of the inconsistency in relation to Hosts, and a Service Fee arrangement separately agreed with you in writing prevails over these Host Terms in relation to Service Fees.

Last revised on 29/6/2026