For venues

Someone's called in sick. Again.

Zero Hours fills last-minute hospitality shifts with vetted local staff in hours, not days. Venues get covered. Workers get paid. Nobody has to ring round the group chat at 6pm.

Get early access ⚡ See how it works
Cover-crisis countdown
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We go live New Year's Eve. Sign your venue up now and post your first shift on day one.

How it works

One Friday night, sorted.

Scroll down and follow a single shift from "we're short" to "you're paid".

Friday · 4:12pm

The text every manager dreads.

Your bartender's "not feeling it". Eighty covers booked, a hen do at nine, and one pair of hands behind the bar. Normally this is where the panic starts.

The venue
hey so I don't think I can make tonight 🤒
sorry!!
…it's Friday.
4:15pm

Post the shift. Takes a minute.

Role, hours, pay. Wages are paid upfront to Zero Hours and held until the shift's done. The shift goes live straight away, and it never pays under the National Living Wage.

The venue
BartenderLive

Tonight · 6pm – 12am · Shoreditch

£18/hr × 6 hrs£108
Post shift
4:16pm

Somewhere nearby, a phone buzzes.

Meet Priya. Free tonight, knows her way round a cocktail menu, and saving for Lisbon. Being nosy pays: she sees the shift, the pay and the venue before she taps anything.

The worker
Zero Hours · now0.8 mi

🍸 Bartender tonight · £18/hr

6pm – 12am · £108 for the night · 12 mins away

Apply
4:31pm

The venue picks. No CVs, no interviews.

The manager sees who's applied, along with their reliability score and reviews. They tap accept and that's it. Priya confirms, verifies her ID once, and she's booked.

Both
Priya S.Accepted ✓

★ 4.9 · 23 shifts · 100% turned up

"Lovely, see you at 6 👋"

6:00pm – 12:00am

She checks in. The hen do is handled.

Check in on arrival and out at the end, all in the app. The manager can finally get on with the night instead of pulling pints themselves.

The shift
Checked in5:54pm
Checked out12:03am

6 hours · zero drama

Saturday · 9am

Paid. No chasing.

Once the shift's done, Priya gets the full advertised pay straight to her bank. Workers are never charged a penny. Lisbon's getting closer.

The worker
Payout sent
+£108.00

Full pay. No fees, no deductions from us.

⚡

Why venues use it

  • Post a shift in about a minute, from your phone.
  • ID-verified local staff, with ratings you can actually see.
  • You choose who works. No surprise agency temps.
  • No contracts, no retainers, no minimum spend.
Sign my venue up →
🛡️

And if it goes sideways?

  • Cancel and get the wages back, plus the 5% fee.
  • Slots you don't fill are refunded automatically.
  • Something off with a shift? Dispute it before anyone's paid.
  • A real team in the app's Messages if you need us.
Read the small print →
The money bit

Honest pricing. Shocking, we know.

Venues pay the wages plus a small fee: 5% of wages and £1 per worker. That's it. The wages are held safely and released once the shift's done. If a shift gets cancelled or isn't filled, the venue gets the unused wages back.

Workers pay nothing. Ever.

Shift wages (1 worker)£120.00
5% service fee£6.00
Per-worker fee£1.00
Venue pays£127.00
Worker receives£120.00
Compare that with agency mark-ups of 20–40%.

Questions? Fair.

When can I post my first shift?

We go live on 31 December 2026. Sign your venue up now, get verified, and you can post on day one.

How quickly can I get someone in?

Your shift is live the moment you post it, and nearby workers are notified straight away. Plenty of shifts get applicants within minutes.

Who are the workers?

Local hospitality people: bartenders, chefs, kitchen porters, waiting staff and event crew. Everyone verifies their ID, and you see ratings and reliability before you accept anyone.

When am I charged?

When you post. Your card is charged the wages plus the fee, and we hold the wages until the shift is done. If the payment doesn't go through, the shift doesn't go live.

What if I need to cancel?

You get the unused wages back, along with the 5% fee. We only keep the £1 per worker. Once a worker has finished a shift it can't be cancelled; you confirm or dispute it instead.

Where do you operate?

We're starting in London and expanding across the UK.

Short-staffed? Fill the rota.

Get in before launch. It takes less time than reading this page did.

Shifts go live in
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Sign my venue up ⚡ I'm after shifts