Private Client Booking Terms & Privacy Policy

Key terms

Please read these points before you pay.

• A 50% deposit confirms your booking and reserves your date.
• The remaining 50% is due seven days before the first service date. A booking made inside seven days is payable in full on confirmation.
• If you cancel 15 or more days before: your deposit is refunded less committed costs. We may retain 5% of the booking value for administration.
• If you cancel 8 to 14 days before: half your deposit is refunded, less committed costs.
• If you cancel 48 hours to 7 days before: your deposit is retained in full, together with committed costs.
• If you cancel less than 48 hours before: up to 100% of the booking value is payable.
• If we do not deliver: a full refund. Severe failure: a credit of 50% to 75%. Material failure: a credit of 10% to 25%. Minor shortfalls: we put it right and offer a goodwill gesture.
• Our liability is limited to the amount you paid for this booking, except for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, or a food-safety failure we are responsible for.

1. About myCHEF and these terms

myCHEF Dubai is the customer-facing brand of Numini FZC, registered at Business Centre, Sharjah Publishing City Free Zone, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.

We plan, coordinate and manage private chef and catering services performed by licensed culinary partners. myCHEF is your contracting party, the recipient of your payment and the party responsible for refunds in every case. Working with partners does not reduce our responsibility to you.

These terms are provided with your quotation and form part of it. The version applying to your booking is the one named on your quotation. Later changes to our published terms do not alter a booking already confirmed.

Nothing in these terms excludes any right you have under UAE law that cannot be excluded.

2. Your quotation and how a booking is confirmed

Your quotation sets out the date, venue, guest numbers, menu or specification, personnel, service hours, inclusions, exclusions and price. It is valid for 14 calendar days unless it states otherwise. A quotation does not reserve your date.

Your booking is confirmed when we receive the required payment. Payment of the deposit confirms your acceptance of the quotation and of these terms. We then issue a written booking confirmation.

If we receive payment but cannot confirm your booking, we return it in full.

3. Prices and payment

Prices are in UAE dirhams and are exclusive of VAT. VAT is added where it applies. We do not add booking fees, service charges or administration fees.

A deposit of 50% confirms your booking. The balance is due seven days before the first service date. A booking made inside seven days is payable in full on confirmation.

Payment is by bank transfer to the business account shown on our official invoice, or by a secure card link on request. The payment date is the date cleared funds reach us; card settlement can take up to seven days.

Where the balance is not received by its due date we may treat the booking as cancelled at that point, and the cancellation terms in section 4 apply.

Groceries and ingredients bought for you are charged at actual cost, with a receipt for every purchase and no markup by any party. Travel is charged as quoted and is paid in full to the person travelling.

Additional hours, additional personnel, menu upgrades, rentals and other variations are charged only where you have approved the cost in writing beforehand. Nothing is added afterwards that you did not approve.

Reduced guest numbers do not automatically reduce fixed staffing or equipment costs. We will explain any adjustment in writing.

4. If you cancel

Please cancel in writing to info@mychef.ae or the WhatsApp number used for your booking, with your name, quotation reference and date. The date we receive your cancellation determines what applies. Days are counted between calendar dates in Dubai time, UTC+4. Weekends and public holidays count. A delay in our acknowledgement does not change the date your cancellation was received.

• 15 days or more: your deposit is refunded less any committed costs. We may retain 5% of the booking value for administration, at our discretion.
• 8 to 14 days: half your deposit is refunded. We retain the other half together with any committed costs.
• 48 hours to 7 days: your deposit is retained in full, together with any committed costs.
• Less than 48 hours: up to 100% of the booking value is payable, to the extent reasonably required to cover committed expenditure, work already carried out, personnel and supplier obligations, and the loss arising.

Committed costs are amounts incurred specifically for your booking that cannot reasonably be cancelled, refunded, transferred or recovered. They include ingredients and specialist orders, equipment, furniture and linen hire, décor, entertainment, transport, venue costs, external suppliers, bespoke installations, and amounts we are contractually committed to pay our service partners for personnel reserved for your booking.

We take reasonable steps to reduce cancellation costs, we do not charge twice for the same cost, and anything we recover, avoid or have refunded is taken into account. We will give you a written statement of how any retained amount was calculated.

This policy concerns cancellation before service starts. It does not provide an automatic refund for completed services or a no-show without a cancellation message. Your rights relating to service failures remain unaffected.

For cancellation of an entire multi-day programme before it begins, the first scheduled service date is used. Partial cancellation and changes after a programme starts follow the allocation and conditions in your accepted programme schedule.

5. Receiving your refund

We initiate eligible refunds within 10 business days of receiving your cancellation and any payment details needed, returned to the original payer by the original route where practical. We will not replace a refund with a credit unless you agree.

Your bank may require additional settlement time.

6. Moving your date

Where you would rather postpone than cancel, we will make reasonable efforts to move your booking, and amounts paid are applied to the new date rather than treated as a cancellation.

One postponement is included and the new date must fall within twelve months. Any cost already incurred that cannot be recovered, and any increase arising from the new date, remains payable.

A request to postpone made less than seven days before the service date is treated as a cancellation, because personnel and ingredients are already committed. Where no new date is agreed within thirty days, the booking is treated as cancelled by reference to the notice originally given.

7. Genuine emergencies

Serious illness, bereavement and other exceptional circumstances outside your control do happen. In those cases we may, at our discretion, hold some or all of the amount we would otherwise retain, above our unavoidable costs, as a credit toward a future booking, valid twelve months.

Granting a credit is a goodwill decision and does not affect our right to recover costs already incurred.

8. Menus, numbers and dietary requirements

Unless your quotation says otherwise, please confirm the final menu, guest count and dietary requirements seven calendar days before the first service. For later bookings these are agreed before confirmation.

Please tell us about allergies, intolerances and religious or dietary requirements when requesting your quotation. We will confirm what can be accommodated.

Shared kitchens and supplier handling can create cross-contact risks. We do not promise an entirely allergen-free environment without a specifically verified arrangement, and any material limitation is explained before you commit.

Significant ingredient substitutions are discussed with you and must respect the agreed dietary requirements.

9. Your venue and our service

Please arrange lawful access and tell us about security procedures, loading, parking, kitchen facilities and anything else affecting delivery. Responsibility for venue permissions and permits is allocated in your quotation.

Our team enters only the areas needed for the service or that you authorise. Keys and access credentials are used only for the agreed work and are returned or disabled when no longer needed.

Your quotation states the service hours included. Extensions require agreement on availability, duration and price. Cleanup covers the catering areas specified.

Our people may pause or stop work where they reasonably believe continuing is unsafe.

For delivered food and leftovers, please follow the storage and handling instructions provided.

10. Bar and alcohol

Your quotation states whether drinks, bartender service, glassware, ice, mixers and garnishes are included. A bartender booking does not automatically include alcohol or unlimited drinks.

Alcohol is supplied, served and invoiced only by the party holding the relevant licence. myCHEF does not supply or invoice alcohol unless your quotation expressly says so and the appropriate licence is in place.

Client-supplied alcohol is accepted only where the venue, the service arrangements and the law permit. Alcohol is not served to anyone under the legal age, and our people may decline to serve where they reasonably consider it unsafe or unlawful.

11. Your privacy and confidentiality

Your home, your event, your guests and your relationship with myCHEF are private. Our team and partners must not disclose your identity, address, event details, guest information, household circumstances or the fact that you have used us. This includes private conversations, references, social posts, check-ins, geotags and location sharing, and it continues after your booking ends.

Limited information is shared with assigned personnel who need it to deliver your service, and remains subject to these obligations. Allergy and dietary information is health information, and information about children is treated with particular care.

12. Photography, filming and recordings

Our default is no photography, no filming and no audio recording.

This covers site visits, preparation, food, table settings, service and cleanup, including when no guests are present, and it applies to management, chefs, service staff, drivers and partners using personal or professional devices. Food photographs and empty-room photographs are not exempt.

Recording requires your specific prior written approval identifying what may be recorded, by whom and for what purpose. Permission to record is not permission to publish. Publication requires separate written approval of the exact content, caption, identifying details and channels.

Silence, a previous booking, a public social post or acceptance of these terms is not media permission. Declining does not affect your service or your price. You may withdraw permission at any time and we will stop new uses and remove material from channels we control.

13. If something goes wrong

We are responsible to you for the service, whoever performs it. Please tell your coordinator during the service where you can, so we have the chance to put it right while it still matters.

• Not delivered (nobody attended, or so little was delivered that the service did not take place): a full refund of the amounts paid for it, together with reasonable direct losses you can evidence.
• Severe failure (service abandoned partway; a food-safety incident that stopped service; more than half the agreed menu not delivered; fewer than half the agreed personnel): a credit or refund of 50% to 75% of the booking value.
• Material failure (personnel significantly below the agreed number; a named chef replaced without approval; significant menu substitutions without approval; arrival more than an hour late; agreed standards not met): a credit or refund of 10% to 25% of the booking value.
• Minor shortfall (delivered as agreed with small issues such as slight lateness, an approved substitution, or presentation and tidying): we put it right, and offer a goodwill gesture or a discount on a future booking.

Written complaints may be sent to info@mychef.ae. We acknowledge within two business days and aim to give an initial outcome or progress update within 10 business days. Prompt reporting helps us investigate and does not affect your statutory rights.

We assess what happened against your quotation and the agreed specification. Where the service was delivered as agreed we may not be able to offer a refund, but your feedback is recorded and it affects who we send to you and who we continue to work with.

Damage claims must be supported by a reasonable explanation and evidence of responsibility and cost. You are not responsible for pre-existing damage or damage caused by our personnel or partners.

14. If we cancel, and circumstances beyond control

We would only cancel where we genuinely cannot deliver safely or lawfully. Where we cancel for any reason other than your breach, we refund everything you have paid in full, and we will try to offer an alternative first.

Where a named person becomes unavailable we provide a replacement of equal or better standard at no extra cost. That is not a cancellation.

Where neither of us can proceed because of something genuinely beyond reasonable control, no cancellation charge applies either way, we will first try to reschedule, and amounts that cannot be recovered are dealt with fairly between us. Ordinary scheduling difficulty or a cost increase is not treated as force majeure, and this does not apply where the event arises from a party’s own breach.

15. Your information

We use your information to handle your enquiry, deliver your booking, manage payment, resolve concerns and meet our legal obligations. Marketing requires a separate choice. We do not sell your information.

You may ask us what we hold, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it, subject to records we are required to keep. Further detail is in our Privacy Policy.

16. Liability

We are responsible for delivering your booking with reasonable skill and care, and for the acts and omissions of the partners and people we appoint in performing it.

We are not responsible for loss resulting from inaccurate information provided to us, from access or facilities being unavailable, from your own or your guests’ acts, or from anything beyond reasonable control.

Except where the law does not allow it to be limited, our total liability for a booking is limited to the amount you paid for that booking. This limit does not apply to death or personal injury caused by negligence, to fraud, or to a food-safety failure for which we are responsible. We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss.

We maintain insurance appropriate to our activities and require our partners to do the same for the work they perform.

17. The chefs you meet

Our chefs are under written obligations not to accept direct bookings from clients they meet through us. If you would like the same person again, ask us and we will arrange it.

18. General

Your quotation, these terms and any variations agreed in writing form the booking record. Changes take effect when confirmed in writing. The version named on your quotation applies to your booking.

If any part of these terms cannot be enforced, the rest continues to apply.

Please raise any concern with us first. We would always rather resolve it directly and quickly.

These terms are governed by the laws of the United Arab Emirates, and disputes are submitted to the competent courts of Dubai, subject to mandatory consumer protections.

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