How to host on Offkai

Profile → add your preferred name (what attendees see at the door) and at least one payment method — Venmo, Zelle, PayPal, Wise, Cash, or Other (GCash, Revolut, PayPay, etc.).

You need at least one payment method saved before you can pick which methods an event accepts.

Not sure of a date yet? Poll your community before committing to an event. Create one at Host → Polls → New poll: title, description, optional cover image (same uploader as event covers, drag to reposition), timezone (candidate dates display in this timezone for every voter), optional close date, up to 20 candidate dates, and up to 5 optional questions (single-choice or multi-choice — e.g. venue or budget), each with up to 12 options.

A Public poll toggle lists it on Discover (it renders as a card badged "Poll" alongside events). Unlisted polls are reachable only by the share link, and viewers must sign in to see them — they're not browsable or readable anonymously.

Anyone with an Offkai account marks each candidate date Yes / Maybe / No, answers your questions, and can update their answers anytime while the poll is open. A voter can tick "Notify me if this becomes an event."

If timing is flexible, switch the poll to Schedule Heatmap instead: you pick candidate days plus a daily time window, and voters paint the 30-minute slots they can make. Results render as a density grid — click the busiest cell to convert with that exact day and time. Narrowing the time window later removes any painted votes that fall outside it.

Your poll's manage page shows live results — per-date Yes/Maybe tallies with a top pick, per-option counts — plus a voter list, so you can see who's voted (like an interested list; individual answers stay aggregated).

While the poll is open, you get at most one email digest a day summarizing responses — and only when there are new votes since the last one.

Close it manually anytime, or let it close automatically at the close date; it can be reopened. Closing freezes voting and makes results publicly visible on the poll page.

Convert to event from the manage page (or any date's "Convert with this date" link in the results) lands you on the normal create-event form, pre-filled with the winning date, title, description, timezone, and cover image. Publish as usual, or save as a draft — the notifications below wait until the draft is published.

Everyone who ticked "Notify me" gets an in-app notification and an email summarizing the new event (name, date & time, location, price) with an RSVP link, and is automatically added to the event as Interested — they'll show up in the event's interested list and get the usual interested-flow notifications from there.

After conversion, the poll's share link automatically forwards to the event page, so links you already shared keep working.

Polls are free and don't require Stripe. Full walkthrough (including what happens if you delete a converted event): Planning polls on Offkai.

Host → + Create. Key fields:

• Title, description, location, date/time — set a Start and End (15 minutes to 24 hours apart); enter an address or map coordinates and the form shows a live map preview. When you create an event, it only has to finish later than now — an event already underway is fine; editing later skips this check.
• Description supports markdown: **bold**, *italic*, - bullet, [link](url).
• Capacity — total seats, with optional per-tier caps.
• Price & currency — pick a currency, set a price, or mark Free. Add ticket tiers for named price levels (General, VIP, Early bird…), each with its own price, optional capacity, and an optional Hidden flag revealed by a promo code.
• Accepted payment methods — from your saved profile methods. Card (Stripe) appears once Stripe is connected on your Profile.
• Charge after the event — for flat-cost venues (a karaoke room, a rented space), tick this under How to pay; the price field becomes the total cost and attendees split it once attendance is known (see Billing after the event).
• Check-in mode — QR ticket, Roster, or No check-in (see Check-in).
• Visibility — list on Discover, show/hide the attendee list, or gate the event behind a password.

Save → you land on the event's hosting hub.

In the event form, add up to 8 questions attendees answer when they RSVP — cosplay character, oshi, dietary needs, merch size, and so on.

• Answer types: Short answer, Paragraph, Single choice, or Multi-choice (up to 10 options each). Mark any question Required and attendees can't complete their RSVP without answering it.
• Asked on every way of getting a spot — a normal RSVP (any payment method, including card), switching from Interested to a confirmed RSVP, joining the waitlist, or claiming a waitlist offer (only if skipped when joining). Fundraiser donations and additional-ticket purchases don't ask them, and fundraiser events don't offer this section.
• Answers save with the RSVP together with the questions as they were worded at the time — editing your questions later never changes what an earlier answer meant.
• Attendees can review and edit their answers from their ticket page (/my-rsvps); hosts can't edit an attendee's answers.
• You see answers in each guest's detail sheet on the Guests page, and the CSV export adds one column per question (multi-choice answers joined with “; ”).

Manage from your event page → Promo codes. A code can reveal hidden tiers/add-ons and/or apply a percent or fixed discount, with an optional redemption cap (one use per attendee).

Seats, add-on units, and redemptions are protected against double-booking — if two people go for the last one at the same moment, only one of them gets it, never both.

Pick Fundraiser instead of Standard event to collect donations toward a goal instead of selling seats — live progress bar, public donor wall, optional anonymous giving.

Requires Stripe connected and verified to publish (identity verification, and it's what enables anonymous donations) — you can save the fundraiser as a draft while verification finishes.

Each donation option (one row per cause or set amount) or add-on doubles as a fundraising bucket with its own goal and a short “what this funds” label — or turn on "Let donors choose how much to give" for a single name-your-amount option with no tiers. Hosts can also record an offline donation — their own contribution, or funds collected outside Offkai — from the event dashboard's Record a donation action; these count as verified right away and appear on the donor wall. Add up to 5 stretch goals per bucket — bigger targets stacked on the goal that show as milestone markers on the progress bar and can be revealed to donors one at a time.

Pick Group buy instead of Standard event to sell items instead of seats — merch, snacks, group orders, anything attendees pick and pay for rather than RSVP to. Each item has a name, price, optional photo, and an optional Stock cap, plus an optional max per order. The event's overall capacity field is relabeled Max orders for group buys — it caps total checkouts, not any one item. Attendees choose Shipping and/or Pickup at checkout — turn on at least one, and set a flat shipping fee if you charge for it — plus an optional tax rate on the order total.

Invite by email or @username from Host → your event → Co-hosts. Invites are two-step — the person must accept before they can act on the event. Two roles:

• Editor — full access, including cancelling a live event, except changing payout setup. (Deleting a still-in-draft event is organizer-only.)
• Scanner — door-only: look up the guest list and check people in.

Events — the organizer or an editor co-host manages this from the event's Manage section → Blocklist (works on drafts too). Block by @username or email; a blocked person can't see the event, RSVP, join the waitlist, or buy a ticket. Blocking auto-cancels their interested, waitlisted, or pending-offer spot — a paid or confirmed RSVP isn't touched, so cancel or refund it yourself from the guest list. Co-hosts can't be blocked. An email with no account yet starts matching as soon as that address signs up.

Arigathanks boards — the owner or a board moderator manages it from the board's settings or moderation page. Blocked people can't open or post on the board; their existing posts are hidden (you can unhide them later).

• Set RSVPs open at / close at to run a timed drop.
• Save as draft keeps an event private (no Discover listing, no public link) until you Publish.
• Duplicate (on the event page, or in the row on My Events) opens a new draft prefilled from an existing event — description, location, pricing, tiers, add-ons, payment methods, cover and settings all carry over; the date, RSVPs, promo codes, co-hosts and password gate don't. It works on past events too, so a monthly night is Duplicate → set the date → Publish.
• Copy share link on the event page gives you a link like offkai.app/event/your-event-title-ab12cd — no login needed to view, login needed to RSVP.

Your event page shows live status and revenue tiles, plus a Manage section for the guest list, walk-ins, and the payments queue. Every paid RSVP needs your approval before the ticket goes out — cash and digital screenshots both land on the Payments page; Card (Stripe) auto-verifies.

Message attendees anytime with Broadcast (pick confirmed / pending / interested / everyone), or draw random winners with Pick winners. Insights gives an at-a-glance read on RSVPs, revenue, and add-on sales.

Need to bill a vendor, collect a deposit, or hand someone a paper record? Host → Invoices (or Invoices on the event page, pre-filled with its name and currency) opens a lightweight generator — pick Invoice, Bill, or Receipt, fill in line items, tax, and payment terms, then print or save it as a PDF. Nothing is saved on our servers, so keep your own copy.

Picked per event, changeable later from the edit form:

• QR ticket — attendees get a QR in their confirmation email. Scan it with your phone's camera through the web scanner (Host → Scan QR codes at the door) — no app to install.
• Roster — tap names off a guest list at the door. The list loads once, but each check-in tap needs a connection (unlike QR mode, which queues scans offline).
• No check-in — attendees just show up; you see a headcount.

See Your tickets & QR code for what attendees see at the door.

When a capped event fills up, new sign-ups queue on the Waitlist. Send offers manually, or turn on Auto-promote to fill open seats as they free up. Under Auto-promote, set the Offer window (hours) — how long a promoted attendee has to claim and pay (1–168 hours, default 24) before the seat rolls to the next person.

Need to stop new RSVPs without cancelling? Turn on Pause RSVPs — the page stays up and existing seats are held, but the RSVP button is disabled until you resume.

See When you can't RSVP right away for the attendee's view of waitlists, presales, and full events.

Attendees get automatic emails at each step — confirmation code, RSVP/ticket confirmation with QR, payment reminders, waitlist offers, “spot opened” nudges, cancellation and refund notices, and more — triggered by the state change itself, not something you send. You trigger a couple yourself: Broadcast messages, and a notice when you change the check-in mode on an event that already has confirmed attendees.

Changing the date, time, or venue of a live event emails everyone with a live RSVP — confirmed, pending payment, waitlisted, interested, and guests you added by hand — showing the old and new details, and posts an in-app notification. Title, description, and price edits only post the notification. The edit form asks first, and lets you post only the in-app notification instead of emailing.

Every attendee also gets a matching in-app notification — the bell icon and unread badge in the nav, with full history at /notifications. It's a reliable backup: if an email bounces, lands in spam, or they've unsubscribed from your broadcasts, the notification still lands.

Unsubscribe is per event and only applies to Broadcast messages — it doesn't stop tickets, receipts, payment reminders, or cancellation notices for that event, and it doesn't carry over to any other event they've RSVP'd to.

See Email notifications & unsubscribing for the attendee's view.

Cancel a single RSVP from the guest list, or the whole event from the event page — both email affected attendees. For Card (Stripe), refunds (full or partial, itemized by ticket/add-on) run through Offkai directly. Your event's cancellation policy (Flexible, Standard, Non-refundable, or Custom) sets whether attendees can self-serve a refund and by when.

Refunds return the ticket's face value only — Offkai's $0.35 platform fee and Stripe's processing fee are not refunded, matching Eventbrite/Ticketmaster norms.

See Cancel your RSVP & get a refund for the attendee's side of cancelling.

Adjust order (on the Payments or Guests page) edits a confirmed RSVP's add-ons or guest count without cancelling. If the change raises the total on a Stripe RSVP, the attendee gets a "Pay $X now" link for the difference — or tick "Don't email or charge" to make it a silent correction. Every change is logged on the attendee's order history.

For flat-cost venues — a karaoke room, a rented bar space — the per-person price depends on how many people show up. Tick Charge attendees after the event has concluded under How to pay when you create the event, and enter the total cost of the event instead of a ticket price (plus an optional minimum headcount for the estimate).

• Before the event attendees RSVP without paying. They pick how they'll pay later (card, PayPal, cash…) and the event page shows a live estimate — the total divided by everyone going.
• After the event open Payments → Finalize the split. Tick who actually attended (Roster and QR check-ins are pre-ticked; No check-in events pre-tick everyone), and the app divides the total by that headcount, rounded up to the nearest cent. Pick a due date (3, 7 or 14 days) and finalize. We'll also email you a reminder the morning after the event if you haven't finalized yet.
• Every billed attendee gets an email and a notification with their exact share and pays through the event's normal methods: card settles instantly, screenshot methods and cash land in your Payments queue as usual, and paid rows read "Paid — thanks for attending".
• Missed someone? "Bill at $12.50" adds them at the frozen share. Someone who didn't come? Waive bill. Until the first payment lands you can Undo the whole finalize and redo the checklist.

Ticket tiers, add-ons, promo codes and waitlists aren't available on these events (a full event simply closes). Attendees can't cancel a bill themselves — they contact you and you waive it. The rounding overage (a few cents at most) stays with you.

For Venmo, Zelle, PayPal, and other manual methods, attendees pay you directly — Offkai never touches that money. To make verification faster than digging through your own payment history, attendees upload a screenshot instead of you searching for a match; those (and all cash RSVPs) need your approval on the Payments page before the QR ticket goes out.

No subscriptions or setup costs — you only pay per paid Stripe ticket. Stripe's own processing fees apply on top (independent of Offkai; see stripe.com/pricing) — you choose per event to pass them through to attendees or absorb them. Both fee types are non-refundable once a ticket sells. You're responsible for any sales tax/VAT in your jurisdiction.

Full legal-shape detail (merchant of record, chargebacks, statement descriptor): How payments work on Offkai. What attendees see: Fees & your local currency.

A standalone kudos wall, independent of any event — Host → Arigathanks boards → New board. Anyone with the link can post a photo, GIF, or note; you control visibility (public or password-gated) and can hide individual posts.

Free for 10 posts; upgrade to 20 ($2.99) or unlimited ($4.99) as a one-time charge.

Pick a Desktop layout — Standard (banner and description scroll away with the wall) or Sidebar (they stay pinned beside it); phones and tablets always stack. Plus and Unlimited boards can also download a Keepsake PDF — a printable poster of the wall.

See Creating an Arigathanks Board for a deeper walkthrough.

Nothing forced — events stay on your dashboard with a checked-in/capacity snapshot. Payment screenshots auto-delete 30 days after the event for attendee privacy.

Fundraisers

Group buys

Promo codes & Insights

Fees & refunds

Formatting & boards

Adjusting orders

More