Frequently asked questions

Lounge Links is a directory and website platform for bars, lounges, breweries, and similar venues. Patrons can browse venues, see what's open, check menus and events, and save favorites. Venue owners can list their bar and optionally get a full hosted website.

Being listed in the Lounge Links directory is free forever — once your venue is set up, your bar automatically appears with nothing separate to submit, no trial and no card required. Patrons can find you when they browse or filter by location, type, or features. Posting events and having them show up on the main events page requires adding events to a Directory Listing ($15/month) or the Hosted plan, but appearing in the directory itself never costs anything. Your bar is listed by default; if you ever want to hide it from the directory, you can toggle that off anytime from your dashboard.

Lounge Links uses magic-link sign-in. Enter your email and we send you a link — click it and you're signed in. There's no password to remember.

Email us at info@loungelinks.com and we'll get back to you. Both venues and patrons can also find detailed help pages inside their account.

Yes. On the directory or events page, tap the "Near me" button and let your browser share your location. Results filter by distance from you and sort closest-first. You can adjust the radius from 5 to 100 miles. Your location is only used to filter the current page — it isn't stored or shared with venues.

No. Patron accounts are free.

Browse and favorite lounges to keep tabs on the places you love, save events you don't want to miss, reserve tickets for venue events, get reminder emails so you don't forget, manage your newsletter preferences, and view all your upcoming reservations in one place.

Favorites are bars you like — they appear in your account and help personalize what's shown to you. Saved events are individual events you've bookmarked to come back to. When you reserve a ticket for an event, it's automatically added to your saved events too, so you always have a quick reference.

Yes. The day before each event, you'll receive a reminder email with the time, location, and your reservation details. Reminders are sent during reasonable hours in the venue's local time zone, so you won't get a 4am notification for a show across the country.

Yes. From your account's Saved Events tab, tap the × on any upcoming reservation to cancel. This frees the spot for someone else and notifies the venue. Have multiple tickets and only need to cancel some? Use the stepper in the cancel dialog to pick how many.

Yes. Each account uses its own email address, so if you'd like both a bar owner account and a personal patron account, just sign up for each with a different email.

On any event page, you can tap "I'm going" to let other patrons know you'll be there. You can add an optional short note (up to 280 characters) — something like "Looking for a friend group" or "Will be at the bar around 9" — and choose public visibility to appear in the attendees list, or private if you'd rather attend without being listed publicly. It's a casual way to coordinate plans with other patrons. You can edit or remove your attendance anytime.

Yes. From your account Settings tab, you can upload a profile picture (JPEG, PNG, or WebP up to 2MB) and set a display name (2–30 characters). Both appear on event attendee lists when you mark yourself going with public visibility. Your display name defaults to the part of your email before the @ symbol — you can change it anytime.

Yes — when another patron marks themselves going to an event you're going to, you'll get an email, helpful for coordinating plans ahead of time. You can turn these off anytime from your account Settings under "Notifications." This is separate from the newsletter, which is for event discovery.

Yes. On any event's attendee list, click the block icon next to a patron's row. Blocking is symmetric — once you block someone, neither of you sees the other in any attendee list across Lounge Links. You can manage who you've blocked (and unblock anyone) from your account Settings under "Blocked users."

Every venue gets a free page in the Lounge Links directory forever — name, address, hours, photo, contact form, features, genre, and an About section — with patron favorites included, no trial and no card required. Adding events costs $15/month and unlocks unlimited event posting with photos, patron event saves, the "I'm going" attendance feature, and newsletter inclusion. The Hosted Website plan ($25/month) includes everything in Listing with events, plus a complete hosted website — homepage hero, photo gallery, full menu, contact form with subjects, custom branding (colors and fonts), a custom domain, event ticketing and check-ins, site analytics, and the ability to invite a manager.

Your venue page in the Lounge Links directory — name, address, hours, a card photo, features list, genre tags, and an About section — is free forever, with no trial and no card required. Patrons can favorite your venue and use "near me" location filtering to find you at this free tier. An outbound link to your existing website or Facebook page is included too. Adding events costs $15/month and unlocks: unlimited event posting with photos and details, webhooks, automatic inclusion on the main Lounge Links events page, eligibility for the email newsletter, patron event saves, and the patron attendance feature where guests can RSVP with optional "I'm going" notes, react to each other's notes, and see who else is coming. If you want a complete hosted website with ticketing, custom branding, analytics, your own domain, and more, the Hosted Website plan adds all that on top.

Hosted gives you everything in Listing with events enabled, plus a complete branded website and built-in tools for events, customer engagement, and growth. On the site itself: a customizable homepage with hero section, About, photo gallery, hours, full menu, and a contact form with embedded map; custom colors, fonts, and a built-in logo maker that generates a logo from icons or text with your business name and brand color; banner announcements; Google Reviews integration; favicon and social-share images; and your own custom domain at no extra cost. For events: unlimited posting with photo support including a free Unsplash stock photo picker, ticketing with QR-code check-ins at the door, automatic reminder emails to ticket holders the day before, and one-tap payment marking for unpaid reservations. For patrons: RSVPs, optional "I'm going" notes with reactions, event saves, profile pictures with display names, and moderation controls per event or venue-wide. For your dashboard: page-view analytics, manager invites with limited backend access, and a complete patron management view. Everything is mobile-friendly and built on a fast modern stack.

We've seeded the directory with venues we know about, and those pages are already live and free to browse. If you spot yours, click "Is this your venue?" on the venue page. You'll be asked for some basic info plus proof of ownership (a business license, ABC license, utility bill, or similar document). We review every claim by hand and reach out by email once approved — typically within a day or two. Claiming your venue gives you a free, permanent Directory Listing with no trial and no card needed. You can add events for $15/month whenever you're ready, starting with a 14-day free trial.

Two options. If you're the owner and ready to manage it yourself, sign up at any time and we'll create your venue. If you'd just like to suggest a venue that should be on Lounge Links — yours or one you love — use the Suggest a Venue link in the footer. We'll review the submission and add it to the directory, after which the owner can claim it.

Yes. On the Hosted plan, you can invite a manager with limited backend access — you control what they're allowed to edit, such as the menu or events.

Yes. Hosted plan venues can connect their own custom domain at no extra cost — just point your domain to us and your site lives at your own web address. Directory Listing venues link out to their existing website or Facebook page instead.

Custom domains are available on the Hosted Website plan. In your dashboard, go to the Custom Domain page and enter the domain you'd like to use. You'll be shown the DNS records to add at your domain registrar (wherever you bought your domain). Once those records are in place, the connection verifies automatically and your site goes live at your own web address. The Custom Domain page walks you through each step.

Built-in ticketing, reservations, and door check-in are part of the Hosted Website plan. Hosted venues can take reservations and RSVPs for events directly on their site. When a patron reserves, they get a confirmation email with their reservation details and a QR code. At the door, check-in is fast — open the event's check-in page on your phone, then either scan a patron's QR code from their confirmation email or search by name. A running headcount and progress bar shows how close you are to a full house. Directory Listing venues can post events too, for $15/month after a free trial. You get unlimited events with photos and details, plus a button that sends patrons to your existing ticketing or RSVP page, like Eventbrite or a Facebook event. Built-in reservations and check-in aren't part of the Listing plan, but you can upgrade to Hosted at any time.

Yes. Unpaid reservations are clearly flagged either way you check guests in. If you scan a patron's QR code and they haven't paid yet, an alert pops up with a "Mark paid & check in" button — tap it after collecting cash and they're paid and checked in in one step. If you're searching by name, each unpaid row has an "Unpaid" tag with a green "Mark paid" button — tap to mark paid, then tap the row to check them in.

Yes — Lounge Links automatically sends each ticket holder a reminder email the day before their event, in your venue's local time zone. No setup required on your end.

You'll get an email notification with the patron's name, how many tickets they're returning, and the event details. The reservation is marked cancelled in your dashboard automatically, freeing the spot for someone else.

Patrons can mark themselves going to your events with an optional short note — a lightweight way for them to coordinate plans with each other. Public attendees appear in a "Who's going" section below the event details on your event page, along with their profile pictures and notes. Private attendees count toward the total but stay anonymous to other patrons. The feature comes with events — available on Listing with events enabled or Hosted — and is on by default.

Yes to both. On each event's edit page in your dashboard, you'll see a moderation panel listing every attendee (including private and hidden ones) where you can hide or delete anything inappropriate. If multiple patrons report the same entry, it's automatically hidden until you review it. To turn the feature off entirely for your venue, head to Business Info and toggle "Patron engagement" off — the section disappears from your event pages.

Appearing in the Lounge Links directory — with an About section and patron favorites included — is free forever for every venue, no trial and no card required. Payment is only needed once you want to post events or get a full hosted website. Adding events to a Directory Listing costs $15/month (or $165/year) and unlocks unlimited event posting, patron event saves, "I'm going" attendance, and newsletter inclusion — starting with a 14-day free trial, no card required. The Hosted Website plan ($25/month or $275/year) includes everything in Listing with events, plus a complete hosted website, photo gallery, menu, event ticketing and check-ins, custom domain, and more — also starting with a 14-day free trial.

Getting listed in the directory is free forever and doesn't involve a trial at all. A trial only starts when you add something paid — either the events add-on to a Directory Listing, or the Hosted Website plan. Both start with a 14-day free trial and no payment card required, so you can try posting events or building out your site before paying anything. After 14 days, continuing requires a paid subscription.

Subscriptions are billed monthly or annually through Stripe and renew automatically. You can cancel anytime — cancellation stops future billing, and your plan stays active through the end of the period you've already paid for. If you cancel the events add-on or a Hosted subscription, your venue falls back to the free Directory Listing rather than disappearing — your directory page, About section, and favorites stay up. Payments are non-refundable, which is why the trial is there to evaluate first.