Terms and conditions for a mobile bar

A mobile bar lives or dies on things it does not control: whether the alcohol authorisation covers the event, whether there is real power in the corner of a field, and whether the minimum spend is met by midnight. I draft customer terms that deal with all three, and with the guest who has clearly had enough, for a fixed fee of £995, delivered in five working days.

Who this is for

Horsebox bars, converted trailers, prosecco and cocktail vans, and dry hire bar operators in England and Wales. Most of your bookings are consumers: couples, birthdays and private parties. Some are businesses: venues, festivals, corporate clients and production companies. Consumer law and business law pull in different directions, so one set of terms needs a section written for each.

What matters in mobile bar terms

Who holds the alcohol authorisation

The biggest risk in your business is arriving at an event where the authorisation to sell alcohol is not in place. Your terms should say plainly who applies for it, by when, and what the client must give you to make the application: the venue, the address, the hours, the expected numbers. They should also say what happens if authorisation is refused, granted with conditions that cut the bar hours, or withdrawn on the day. Usually the answer is that the booking fee remains payable, because the cause sits with the event rather than with you.

Dry hire, cash bar, tab or minimum spend

Those are four different contracts, and terms that do not say which one applies will be read against you. Define the model for each booking: what the hire fee buys, what the minimum spend covers, when a shortfall becomes payable and how it is calculated, when a tab closes and who is authorised to extend it. If the client supplies their own alcohol for you to serve, say so, price the corkage, set a delivery deadline, and make clear you are not answerable for the quality, quantity or chilling of stock you did not buy.

Card payments and the price on the drinks list

At a cash bar your paying customers are the guests, and they are consumers. The Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012 stop you adding a fee for paying by card, so any card cost has to sit inside the drinks price rather than appear at the till. The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 bans drip pricing, so the price shown to guests must include mandatory charges. Your terms should also deal with signal dropping in a field, whether you fall back to cash, and who carries chargebacks and unpaid tabs.

Site, access, power and standing time

Fridges, ice, glasswashers and lighting all need power, and a horsebox on soft ground needs a tow. Make the client responsible for firm and level access, a defined unloading distance, parking, a power supply of the right rating and fresh water, and price standing time when you arrive at the agreed hour and cannot set up. Say who pays for a generator when the venue's supply turns out to be a domestic socket. Glassware, taps and the bar itself get damaged by guests, so charge for loss and damage against a proportionate deposit and say how it is assessed.

Refusing service and guest behaviour

Serving alcohol means refusing it. Your terms should give you an unqualified right to refuse service to anyone who appears intoxicated or cannot prove their age, to ask for identification, and to close the bar early if the event becomes unsafe, all without a refund. Put responsibility for guest conduct on the client, and cover what happens if the venue or the police stop the bar. Liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence cannot be excluded under the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977, and terms that pretend otherwise do you no good in front of a venue.

Deposits, cancellation and postponement

Bookings are taken a long way out, and a wedding cancelled in the final week cannot be resold. A sliding scale of cancellation charges is defensible where it reflects what you actually lose in booked staff and bought stock; a flat charge that keeps everything looks like a disproportionate default charge under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Where the booking was agreed at the client's home, online or by phone, the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 give fourteen days to cancel. For corporate clients, the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 gives you interest and fixed compensation.

What it costs

Customer or supplier terms and conditions, £995. One set of terms, customer-facing or supplier-facing, drafted around your business. Five working days.

Review of your existing terms, £495. You already have terms and want to know how much of a problem they are. Returned marked up with my amendments and an explanation of the changes. Three working days.

Buying online forms the engagement on payment. The scope is what the terms and conditions drafting page describes, you accept the Terms of Service at checkout, and I email you within four working hours to get started. If you would rather ask something first, email me.

What you get

• A full set of terms drafted around your business, not a template with your name inserted
• A covering note in plain English explaining every commercial choice I made and why, so you can defend the terms in a negotiation without ringing me
• Liability, payment, termination and IP provisions set at a level that will survive a procurement review
• Consumer-facing wording drafted to be enforceable where you sell to consumers
• Guidance on how to incorporate the terms properly, which is where most businesses actually fail
• One round of amendments after you have read them

What is not included

• Negotiating your terms with individual customers
• Sector-specific regulatory compliance beyond the contract terms themselves
• Website privacy notice and cookie compliance, which I quote separately
• Terms governed by the law of another country

Questions I am often asked

Should I apply for the authorisation or should my client?

That depends on the venue and on how you prefer to work, and the terms should record the choice for each booking. Where you apply, make the client responsible for giving you accurate details in time. Where the venue's own licence covers the bar, ask for written confirmation of the permitted hours and any conditions before you commit staff and stock.

My client wants to supply their own alcohol and have me serve it. Anything to watch?

Price that as a service rather than a sale, state the corkage clearly and set a deadline for the stock to reach you. Make the client responsible for ordering enough and for taking away what is left. If you are pouring drink you did not buy, the terms should say you are not answerable for its condition or its temperature.

What if the event is postponed rather than cancelled?

Postponement needs its own clause, because clients assume the deposit simply moves to a new date. Set the notice you need, whether the deposit is held against the new date, what happens if you are already booked that day, and whether the prices for the new season apply. Without that, you are negotiating from scratch under pressure.

Related guidance and services

• Terms and conditions drafting, £995, the service this page describes
• Employment contracts and handbooks, £595
• Ask Caesar, £495 a month
• Terms and conditions for a wedding and events venue

This page is general guidance for businesses in England and Wales, not advice on your own circumstances. Last reviewed: September 2026. Email geoffrey@caesar.co.uk.