tenseats.io

What It Is

Tenseats is a U.S.-based local dining experience marketplace covering 32 U.S. cities. It focuses on offline events such as pop-up meals, private chef dinners, tastings, and cocktail nights. Rather than being a general event platform, it curates and distributes dining experiences that “locals know about but are hard to find through search.”

Core Features and Pricing

The platform emphasizes “Curated, not crowdsourced.” Events are posted by real chefs, bartenders, venues, or creators, with no bulk uploads, algorithmic filler, or sponsored placement boosts. Hosts keep 100% of the ticket price, and Tenseats takes no commission. Buyers pay a $1.99 platform fee per transaction, plus standard Stripe processing fees. If either the buyer or the host is an Insider member, the $1.99 fee is waived. Membership options include a $49 lifetime Early Bird plan, a $79 lifetime Founding Member plan, and a $99/year Insider plan.

Fulfillment, Payments, and Supply

This is a service-oriented commerce platform rather than a physical-goods ecommerce platform, with fulfillment taking place at offline dining events. Buyers select tickets and check out by card through Stripe, with instant confirmation. Hosts receive payments via Stripe Connect, and ticket revenue goes into their Stripe account. For refunds, the default policy allows refunds up to 72 hours before the event starts. If the host cancels, buyers receive an automatic full refund including the platform fee and Stripe fees. Venues can set rental fees, deposits, availability, rules, and supported event types.

Pros and Cons

Its strengths are a host-friendly fee structure, clear vertical positioning, and a good fit for small-scale, high-trust, strongly local dining events. Features such as city feeds, following hosts, and saving events also suit repeat-purchase scenarios. The limitations are that it currently serves only 32 U.S. cities, and the site still indicates waitlists, invitations, and a staged rollout, so platform traffic and supply density remain to be proven. Features such as multi-host revenue splitting and city guides are still on the roadmap.

Who It’s For and Access from China

Tenseats is best suited to U.S.-based chefs, bartenders, venues, food creators, and curators looking to sell private dining, pop-ups, tastings, and venue-collaboration events. For Chinese sellers, its practical value is limited unless they have local fulfillment resources in the U.S. Payments rely on Stripe, and the source text does not specify network accessibility from China, so this remains unknown for now. Comparable platforms include Eventbrite, Tock, Luma, and Resy.