Etiquette & Safety
Version 1.0 · Last updated: 20 October 2026
A plan on inklan is a small act of trust. The host trusts that the people who asked to join will come. The people who join trust that the host will be there, that the plan will be what it said, and that nobody at the table will make them regret coming. This policy is about keeping that trust — first the everyday manners of hosting and joining, then how to stay safe with people you have only just met. It is part of our Terms & Conditions; what is outright forbidden is in the Community Guidelines.
1. Asking to join
Sending a join request, accepting an invitation or buying a ticket is not a "maybe". It takes a place that someone else cannot have, and the host is now counting on you. Ask to join when you intend to come.
If that changes, leave the plan or trip in the app the moment you know. Your place goes back to the group, the host is told, and nobody waits for you. For a paid plan or trip, leaving 48 hours or more before the start refunds you in full; leaving later means the host keeps the payment, because by then they have usually committed to the venue on your behalf (Terms, section 10.3). If it was the host who changed the essentials — date, time, place — write to support@inklan.com before the start and you are refunded in full.
Not turning up at all, without leaving, is the one thing that damages inklan most: a host who has waited for a phantom, a group that held a chair for nobody. inklan records who joined and who was checked in. A pattern of no-shows or last-minute exits leads to limits on joining plans and, if it continues, to suspension (Community Guidelines, section 9).
2. On the day
Read the plan page again before you set out. It tells you where exactly to meet, what to bring, what it costs and who you pay, how hard it is, and whether the venue has a condition such as a minimum age or a dress code. If something is unclear, ask in the plan's chat; that is what it is for.
Be on time. Hosts usually wait for latecomers, which means everyone waits. If you are running late, say so in the chat rather than leaving people guessing.
Where the description says people pay for themselves at the venue, arrive able to cover your own meal, drinks or ticket and to split fairly when the bill comes. The host is not your banker. Tell the host in advance what they need to know to include you: an allergy for a dinner, your level for a climb, an accessibility need for anything.
Then be there — not on your phone, not only with the person you came with. Someone who came alone took a bigger risk than you did; a hello goes a long way. Ask before photographing people, and before posting a photo of them anywhere. Leave the venue, the trail and the neighbours as you found them.
3. Hosting a plan
Show up, first. Be at the meeting point on time, tell people in the description how they will recognise you or the group, and stay until the plan ends or hand over clearly to a co-host. A plan with no host present is not a plan.
Write the description as if you were the one deciding whether to come. Where, when, roughly when it ends, what it costs and who receives the money, what to bring, how demanding it is, any age or other condition, whether the venue is accessible. Set a capacity you can actually host. Set a minimum age when the plan calls for one; inklan checks it against birth dates so you do not have to.
Answer people. Join requests and questions in the chat are people deciding what to do with their evening or their weekend. Accept, decline or answer promptly.
If you must cancel, cancel early and in the app. Everyone is told at once and anyone who paid is refunded automatically. Cancelling often, cancelling silently, or deleting a plan and re-creating it to shed attendees is treated the same way as a no-show. If you have to move the date, time or place of a paid plan, say so in the chat as soon as you can; anyone who no longer wants to come is refunded in full.
Check tickets in at the door, and remove someone from a plan only for a genuine reason. Removing a paying attendee refunds them in full, so it is not a tool for managing numbers.
Keep money simple. If your plan costs money, price it in inklan (Terms, section 10.7). If people pay the venue for what they use instead, your description says so. Never ask attendees to send money to you in advance, and if a shared cost does come up, be transparent about it and give receipts when asked.
Drinks. Respect the local drinking age, never aim a plan at people below it, never pressure anyone to drink, and make sure nobody is left alone in a bad state at the end of the night.
Look after the room. If someone is harassing or unsettling others at your plan, it falls to you first: ask them to stop, remove them from the plan if you must, and report it to us afterwards.
4. Trips
Everything above applies to a trip, with more at stake because people have booked time off and paid for travel.
Settle the money before anyone leaves home: what the trip price covers, which costs are shared — fuel, a rented flat, a group dinner — and how they are split. Put it in the description or in the checklist so nobody discovers it at the petrol station. A co-host who accepts the invitation takes on the host's duties above; accept it only if you mean it.
Changing the itinerary changes everyone's trip. Raise it in the trip's chat before changing the plan, and do not leave people behind because the group moved on. Bring what the checklist says; your companions did not sign up to carry, lend or pay for you. Ask before you post photos of your companions in the trip journal.
5. Communities and chats
When you join a community, read its rules and say hello. Keep a community's chat about that community, and keep city chats — which everyone in that city can read — useful and civil. If you asked to join a plan and no longer want to, say so or leave it rather than going quiet. Disagreement is fine; contempt is not. Sensitive subjects keep until you know that the people around you want to discuss them.
Keep the conversation on inklan until you know someone. It is safer, and it can be reported.
6. If this is ignored
A first lapse usually earns a word from the host, or from us. Repeated no-shows and late cancellations, hosts who do not turn up, and anything the Community Guidelines prohibit can lead to limits on your account, removal from plans, trips or communities, or suspension, as section 9 of the Community Guidelines describes. Hosts can remove someone from their plan or trip; community administrators can remove someone from their community.
7. Meeting people you do not know yet
inklan does not run background checks, does not verify identities and is not at the plan (Terms, section 6). The people you meet are as unknown to us as they are to you, so a few habits are worth keeping, especially for a first plan with a new host.
Look at the profile before you go: how long they have been on inklan, what they have hosted, whether the photos look like one real person. Prefer a first plan in a public place with other people around — a café, a park, a venue with staff — over a first plan at someone's home or in their car. Tell a friend where you are going, with whom and when you expect to be back; you can share the plan's page with them. Arrange your own way there and back so that leaving is always your choice.
Check the details yourself. Look up the venue. For an event listed in Explore that comes from another site, check the seller's page, because inklan does not verify those listings. If the assistant drafted an itinerary, confirm opening hours and prices before you rely on them.
Nobody on inklan needs you to send them money. Not to hold a place, not for a deposit, not for an emergency. A request to send money outside inklan — however plausible, however urgent — is the clearest sign of a scam there is: refuse it and report it. The same goes for a push to move the conversation to another app before you have met.
Your home address, workplace, daily routine, travel dates and documents belong in none of your profile, a public chat or a first conversation.
Once you are there: trust your instincts, and leave if something feels wrong — you owe nobody an explanation. Keep your drink and your belongings in sight, and know your own limit; nobody gets to push you past it. Keep your phone charged and know where you are. Do not go off alone with someone you have just met unless you have decided to, clear-headed, and someone knows. Outdoors, match the activity to your ability, carry water and the right clothing, and turn back when the weather or the group makes it unsafe; a host's confidence is not a safety guarantee.
Afterwards, do not accept a lift from someone who has been drinking, and do not drive if you have. If someone behaved badly, report them in the app or at support@inklan.com, and block them if you want no more contact; reports are confidential. Persistent messages, guilt, urgency or pressure to meet again privately are warning signs, not compliments.
If anyone is in danger, call the emergency number before anything else: 112 in Spain and everywhere in the EU, 999 or 112 in the United Kingdom.
8. Away from home
Know the local law — for alcohol, drugs, photography and, if it affects you, LGBTQ+ rights. What is ordinary at home may be an offence elsewhere, and a trip page cannot tell you. Keep copies of your documents and insurance details somewhere your companions cannot reach without you, keep your own money apart from the group's shared costs, and do not lend more than you can afford to lose.
A trip organised by a member is a private arrangement between the people on it. It comes with none of the protection of a package holiday unless the host is a licensed operator and says so.