Meetup Places - What is it? How do I use it?

Organizer Center › Planning Your First Meetup › Meetup Places - What is it? How do I use it?

We heard from many of you that it’s a struggle to find the right venue to hold your Meetup. "What venues are great for my moms/knitting/environmental awareness members who like to practice their stand-up comedy?" "Where have other Meetups held their activities?" "Does this town even have a coffee shop?"

So we created Meetup Places, a collection of searchable venues used, rated and reviewed by organizers and members powered by the Meetup Community!

With Meetup Places you’ll have the ability to search for a venue that’s been used by other organizers and access any ratings and reviews made on that venue by any Meetup Group, not just your own.

Meetup Places is powered by you! Organizers decide which venues to make searchable. Members rate and review the venues. Together, you’re creating a knowledge base of venues that makes finding a place to hold a Meetup a whole lot easier.

Click below to watch a demo of Meetup Places (video is 6 minutes long and will open in another window)

What’s Next?

Searching for a new place

How do I search for a Meetup Place?

To find a place, create a new Meetup. Click on the "Find a Meetup Place" tab. You’ll see a list of venues added to Meetup Places by other organizers near your zip code. To search for places in a different location, enter in a full address or a city, state or Zip code. You can also move the green marker on the map to your desired location to get new results.
As organizers share places, you'll have more to choose from.

Once I select a place, I'm all set, right?

Definitely check with the place to make sure they can accommodate your Meetup. Even if it's a place that doesn't take reservations, they still appreciate at least a few days notice so they are properly staffed. When you have an idea of a place to go, call and ask how many people they can handle, and set the event limit based on that. Remember, sometimes a place can close down for a private party, so call up and check.

What information is available on a Meetup Place?

The name, address, phone number, venue type, ratings and reviews. It's up to you to provide which features the place offers such as wi-fi, kid friendly, etc.

Why can't I search by keyword or category type or group size?

We never collected this information before but we are now. The more information you supply on a place, and the more you and your members fill out the venue portion of the post-event survey, the faster we can create these searches.

Why am I not finding any Meetup Places?

If you don't get back any results when doing a search, it's because an organizer has yet to add or share a place in your area. Unless you're the only Meetup Group in your area, you'll soon see results. Don't despair! You can still add additional venues to Meetup places yourself. And keep checking! Organizers can add and share venues all of the time.

Isn't there another place to access the venues in addition to the event create page?

Not yet. We wanted to focus on getting this up and running first where you most needed it - when creating a Meetup. Once you and other organizers have had a chance to make a bunch of venues public, we'll open this up.

Editing Venue Info

What if I have information on a venue that's not displayed?

If you want to provide more info on a venue, click on the "more info" link. That will take you to the venue's information page. Click on "edit" and add the information you'd like to share.

What if the info is wrong, or the place is closed?

If you notice that the place has incorrect information or it has moved or closed, you and other Organizers have the ability to let the Meetup Community know about it and edit the place. To edit the place, click on the name, which takes you to the venue details page. Click on the edit icon. Make your changes and submit.

What if someone updates a Meetup Place I'm using for an upcoming meeting?

No worries! We'll notify you any time a public place that you've scheduled a Meetup with has had the address updated. If you'd prefer not to receive notifications, you can change your settings by accessing "organizer settings and tools."

What if someone messes with the venue info?

If you notice that someone is maliciously tampering with the venue info, you can report it to Meetup Support (with link to contact form). Malicious tampering will not be tolerated and can result in your account being closed.

What if I found a duplicate Meetup Place?

With so many organizers sharing their places and adding new ones, duplicates are bound to happen. If you see a duplicate, view the details page and flag it as a duplicate. We'll double check and remove it.

Whoops! I accidentally made a private place public!

No worries! Go to the venue details page, click "edit" and flag it as "not open to the public." We'll double check and remove it.

Sharing Your Venues

There are over 100,000 venues in our database. Since these are venues organizers have entered, you know them best and we certainly don't want to share a private venue accidentally. So we'll take the cue from you: If it's public, share it! Once you share your venue, we'll make it searchable for any organizers in your area.

How do I share a place?

If you have saved venues, access them via the "Your Places" tab when creating a Meetup. For any venue that hasn't yet been marked public or private you'll see the words "Share this venue: Yes/No." If the venue is public, share it to Meetup Places. If not, mark it as private and it won’t be shared with anyone outside of your group.

What exactly am I sharing?

By sharing a venue, you're making the venue's name, address, phone number, features (wi-fi, kid-friendly, etc), ratings and reviews available to the Meetup Community. If any other Meetup Group has used and shared this venue, their ratings and reviews will be combined with yours and vice-versa. Note: reviews made by members in private groups are anonymous.

I have saved venues, are they all public now?

No. When you first come to the new "Your Places" section, you'll likely see two types of venues, 1) venues you previously marked as private (and will continue to be private), and 2) venues that we are waiting for your ok to share. You may notice a few public venues...these are a small set of venues that we double checked were public places (obvious ones, like restaurants or libraries) to get things started.

Why should I share a place that my Meetup uses with everybody else?

If you ever used a restaurant guide, you know how important it is to get a sense of the food, service, atmosphere, etc. before choosing to eat there. The same thing applies to Meetup Places. You want to know if you'll be welcomed, if there's enough room, or if it's too loud. The chances that you're the only Meetup Group in your area using the place are pretty slim. Other Meetup Groups out there have probably rated and written reviews of the place. The Meetup Community has written over 1 million venue ratings so far. By sharing the venue, you'll be participating in a community working together to find the best places to Meetup.

We're also asking you to take the time to provide additional data (wi-fi, kid-friendly, etc) on the venue details page and post-event survey. This will allow us to release advanced search options (ex: searching by venue features and venue type) that much faster.

The more venues that are shared, and the more data you can provide, the more options and valuable info you'll have when you search for a venue.

Privacy, Public Venues and Your Group Info

What's the difference between a public and private place?

A public place is open to the general public. If anyone can access it, it's public. A private location is a residence or a location that's restricted in some way, such as your office conference room, your gym or your college. Only public places should be shared with the Meetup Community. Unless you want to open up your house to Meetups!

My group is private. If I use a shared place, can people find me?

If your group is private but the venue you use is public, you can still share and use public venues. We'll only share the information that's publicly available about the venue. No one outside of your group will know where you're meeting because only your group members will have access to your calendar and information.

On the venue details page, only the members of your group will be able to see the names and photos of the members who left reviews. Your profile name, and your Meetup group's name will not be shown to non-members. Your reviews will be credited to "a Meetup member" and we won't show your photo.

Can I use a shared place but still only show my members where we're meeting?

Yes! When you're creating your event, click the box that says "Only my members can see where this Meetup is happening." Your group name will not be shown.

Ratings and Reviews

What can members of a Meetup Group do?

Members can rate and write reviews. As part of the post event survey, we're asking both Organizers and members to review the place along with rating it by size, noise level and cost per person. Remind your members to rate!

Can I get in trouble for writing a bad review?

No, you can’t get in trouble for writing a bad, honest review of a place. As long as your review is honest and doesn’t criticize the place using obscenities, it's helpful to know why it didn't work out for you.

What if I've hidden the groups I'm a part of? Will my group info show up on reviews?

No. If you've hidden your groups, we will not display what group you've written a review from. But, all written comments will be attributed to your name.

What’s Next?

Once we reach a point where enough data has been collected, we'll add on more advanced search features such as searching by category, name, type, noise level and venue size.

Have feedback? Questions? Post them on the boards.

Organizer Center › Planning Your First Meetup › Meetup Places - What is it? How do I use it?