DateableShould you name the venue on your Board listing?
Name it only if it helps applicants decide. The venue stays private until you accept a guest, but a known event or location can attract the right people.
Name the venue only if it helps applicants decide to apply. You can leave it blank: the venue name stays private until you accept someone, and city and day are always public. A known event or location tells applicants something concrete about what to expect. No venue name leaves room for flexibility, and keeps your routine private.
When a known venue helps you
A known event attracts applicants who want exactly that. If you are hosting an opening night at an art gallery, or a famous comedian's show, or a restaurant you both want to try, saying so gets you the right people. Applicants who are interested in that event will apply; those who are not will scroll past.
Naming a well-known restaurant or venue tells applicants something about the atmosphere and cost. A Michelin-star venue and a casual cafe tell different stories, and applicants will make their decision based on that information.
When to leave it blank
Keep your home and workplace out of any listing, even after acceptance. Do not name the suburb you live in or the business where you work. Keep your address, workplace and regular places private until you trust the person. That means leaving the venue blank until after you have accepted them and talked through the details.
If the venue is unimportant to the invite, leave it blank. You are offering an experience, a meeting or a date, and the person matters more than the place. Some applicants will worry about what 'no venue named' means. Clear communication stops that. In your description, say something like 'I will pick somewhere great' or 'We can choose together once we have matched'.
Leaving the venue blank also lets you adapt. Say you post an invite for a weekend dinner, but once someone accepts, you find out they are allergic to the restaurant you planned. You can pivot to somewhere else without updating your public listing.
What applicants see
When you post on the Board, the listing shows:
- What you offer (a dinner, a trip, an ongoing arrangement)
- When (the date, or that it is ongoing)
- Where (city and country always; venue name only if you put it there)
- What you are looking for
If you name the venue, it is public immediately, before you have accepted anyone. Anyone browsing the Board will see it. After you accept someone, the full conversation and location details are between you and them. The venue name stays hidden from everyone else.
The city and country always show publicly, so applicants know you are serious about the location. Naming a venue on top of that gives them extra information: it tells them what kind of experience, what the approximate cost might be, or how formal the event is. But it is optional, and leaving it blank is just as valid.
How to fill in the venue when you post
When you post an invitation on the Board, the form asks for the venue. You can:
- Leave it blank: only the city and country show publicly
- Name a public event: 'Botanical Gardens opening night' or 'Sundance Film Festival'
- Name a restaurant or business: 'Quay' or 'The Museum of Modern Art'
- Describe the place without naming it: 'a restaurant in the CBD' or 'a beachside bar'
You can tell different applicants different things. Once you accept someone, send them a message with the exact address and time. If you change your mind or want to move the date, you can change your plans with them, and the public listing stays the same.
Safety and privacy
Naming the venue on your listing is public information. Keep your own address, workplace and regular hangouts to yourself. Meet in a public place, tell a trusted person where you are going, and do not go to their place or have them come to yours on a first date. 1 2
You decide how much to reveal and when. A venue name can help applicants decide. A home address is a security risk. The middle ground, like naming a suburb or business type without the exact location, is yours to choose.
What to say if you leave it blank
If the venue is blank on your listing, tell applicants in your profile or in your first message after they apply. You might say something like: 'I want to choose a place we will both love, so I pick once we have matched' or 'I have a few places in mind; let me know what you are in the mood for and we can decide together'.
Applicants who are looking for spontaneity or who like being surprised will not mind. Applicants who want to know exactly where they are going before they agree will apply to a different listing. That is fine: they are not your people anyway.
A worked example
Say you want to post an invite to a wine tasting. The tasting is at a particular winery, but you have not met anyone from the Board yet. Your options:
I am hosting a wine tasting experience. City: Napa Valley. Venue: left blank in the listing; I will confirm details once we have matched.
Or, if the winery is famous enough that the name helps applicants decide:
I am hosting a private wine tasting at Opus One. City: Napa Valley. Applicants know the venue and its reputation before they apply.
The first approach keeps your plans private until you have accepted someone. The second tells applicants exactly what they are applying for. Both are fine. Choose based on whether the venue matters to your decision and theirs.
Sources
- New Zealand Police (2026). Safety advice.
- Sexual Assault Resource Centre, North Metropolitan Health Service (Government of Western Australia) (2021). Safe online dating.
