Platform model
- HandyCook is a marketplace that connects customers with independent cooks for in-home cooking services.
- HandyCook is not the employer of cooks and does not provide the cooking service directly.
- Customers and cooks are each responsible for complying with applicable food safety, consumer, tax, privacy, and other Australian legal obligations relevant to their use of the platform.
Customer booking rules
- Customers must select 1 to 3 favourite cuisines during registration and choose one of those cuisines for each booking.
- Bookings must include the full home address where the cooking will take place.
- Optional favourite dishes can be provided to help the matched cook understand the household’s preferences.
- Bookings are limited to 8 hours per session.
- For extra safety, customers must remain at home during the booked cooking hours and should not leave the cook alone in the home.
Cook responsibilities
- Cooks must provide accurate identity, contact, suburb, cuisine specialty, and payout information.
- A government-issued photo ID is required for verification and may be issued by Australia or another country.
- Cooks must keep service suburbs and cuisine specialties up to date so only suitable bookings are matched to them.
- A 5% platform fee is deducted from each paid booking before payout credit.
- Cooks are responsible for accepting only those bookings they can safely and reliably fulfil.
Matching and repeat bookings
- Bookings are matched based on suburb and cuisine compatibility.
- Customers may request a previous cook again through the portal. In that case, the booking is sent to that cook first.
- If a direct rebooking request is not accepted within the applicable request window, the booking is cancelled automatically and the customer may create a fresh booking.
Recurring bookings and payment
- Standard bookings start from $25 per hour.
- There is no conveyance fee for HandyCook bookings.
- Recurring bookings may be created for up to 30 days.
- When a recurring schedule is accepted, the full recurring amount is collected at checkout in one payment.
- Live payments are processed securely through Stripe, unless a local mock provider is used in development.
Cancellations, refunds, and support
- Refunds and retained charges depend on how close the cancellation is to the booking start time.
- Recurring cancellations are assessed per affected booking in the series according to the same timing rules.
- Support and legal contact: support@handycook.com.au.
- These terms are governed by the laws of New South Wales, Australia.