Peerspace - Chapter 11 Case Summary

Peerspace filed for Chapter 11 under subchapter V on the day trial was set to begin in a negligence and premises liability suit brought by a guest who was rendered paraplegic in a fall at a space listed on its platform. The filing is intended to stay that litigation and, ideally, facilitate a consensual resolution; absent settlement, Peerspace expects to propose a plan of reorganization that resolves the claim. It has no secured debt, and its platform remains open as it continues to perform on approximately 12,500 accepted but unexecuted bookings totaling $11.6 million.

Business Description

Peerspace, Inc. ("Peerspace" or the "Debtor") operates an online marketplace for hourly venue rentals, connecting space owners who wish to earn additional income ("Hosts") with renters ("Guests") who may select from over 43,000 spaces for meetings, productions, and events. The platform receives over 1.5 million site visits per month, and Guests make over 300,000 bookings every year. Peerspace generates revenue through service fees that Hosts and Guests pay in exchange for use of its platform, customer support, and payment processing. In 2025, Peerspace had approximately $34.1 million in revenue and $34.8 million in operating expenses.

Peerspace has no physical offices and does not own, lease, or control the spaces listed for rent on its platform, and its employees work remotely from locations across the United States.

Peerspace has no physical offices and does not own, lease, or control the spaces listed for rent on its platform. Its 83 employees work remotely from locations across the United States.

Corporate History

Since launching in San Francisco in 2014, Peerspace has helped over 1.5 million Guests book venues across North America, Europe, and Australia. Kevin Yuann joined as Chief Executive Officer in May 2024, having spent the prior ten years as Chief Business Officer of NerdWallet.

Peerspace is the sole Chapter 11 debtor. It has four non-debtor international subsidiaries: Peerspace (Australia) PTY Ltd., Peerspace Canada Ltd., Peerspace (Netherlands) B.V., and Peerspace UK Ltd., which have separate accounts with Stripe.

Operations Overview

The Booking Model and Limited Collection Agent Structure

Hosts list event spaces on the Peerspace platform, where Guests book and pay for them (each, a "Customer Booking"). For each space rental, Peerspace collects the rental amount from the Guest, pays the Host for the use of its space, and retains a commission for itself. If an event is timely cancelled, Peerspace may refund some or all of the Guest's payment. Roughly half of Guest bookings are for business purposes, such as corporate events and photo and video shoots, and half are for personal use, such as birthday parties and other social events.

Under the Peerspace Services Agreement, last updated September 17, 2024, contracts for the use of Peerspace venues are made directly between the Host and Guest, and, under Section 1.4, Peerspace is appointed as a "Limited Collection Agent" solely for the purpose of collecting and distributing fees related to its bookings.

Booking Volume and the Open Booking Book

During the first six months of 2026, Peerspace averaged approximately 23,100 executed Customer Bookings per month, with an average booking value of $468 and an average aggregate monthly booking value of $10.8 million. Bookings are executed, meaning the event is held at the venue, an average of 20 days after they are accepted on the platform, and Hosts are paid through the platform within a few business days of the booking execution date.

As of August 31, 2026 (the "Petition Date"), Peerspace estimates that it has approximately 12,500 accepted but unexecuted Customer Bookings with 4,400 Hosts and 11,300 Guests, totaling $11.6 million, from which it anticipates earning approximately $3.2 million in revenue upon execution. The average amount of these bookings is $928, ranging from $50 to $18,000.
Approximately 6,700 of these Customer Bookings will be executed prior to September 30, 2026, and all but approximately 900 will be executed prior to December 31, 2026. The platform remains open and continues to accept new Customer Bookings after the Petition Date.

Cash Management

All payment transactions run through Peerspace's account with Stripe (the "Stripe Account"), which is fully integrated into the platform and has been Peerspace's exclusive payments system for 12 years. Peerspace maintains an average balance of approximately $5 million in the Stripe Account, which funds facilitate thousands of transactions with Hosts and Guests per day, and Stripe charges a percentage fee for each transaction processed. The remaining accounts are as follows:

At JPMorgan Chase Bank ("JPMCB"), Peerspace maintains an interest-earning operating account (the "JPMCB Operating Account") for overhead, payroll, accounts payable, and other routine expenses, which held approximately $3 million as of the Petition Date. JPMCB charges $1,500 per month for the account.
A second JPMCB account holds $450,000 as collateral for a Chase credit card (the "JPMCB Collateral Account"), from which JPMCB can draft if the card is not timely paid. As of the Petition Date, the card has been timely paid, and JPMCB does not charge for the account.
An account at Silicon Valley Bank (the "SVB Account") held approximately $270,000 as of the Petition Date. Peerspace has rarely used it since November 2025, when it began primarily using the JPMCB Operating Account; Silicon Valley Bank charges $240.00 per month.
An account with the payment processor PayPal (the "PayPal Account") held approximately $1,200 as of the Petition Date and funds business promotion. PayPal charges a percentage fee for each transaction processed through the account.

Peerspace states that even a brief pause in the availability of the Stripe Account would risk sparking concerns among Hosts and Guests that it was not operating as normal and may not be able to manage current and future bookings.

Workforce

As of the Petition Date, Peerspace has 83 employees, all full-time, distributed among Analytics, Customer Experience, Engineering, General and Administrative, Marketing, Product, Supply Operations, and Trust and Safety. Of the 83, 74 are salaried and nine are paid hourly. Most employees are eligible for an annual performance bonus in March based on the prior calendar year's financial performance and the employee's tenure and role; one employee receives a quarterly bonus, typically paid within 30 days following quarter end.

Salaried employees are funded through payroll processor Sequoia One PEO ("Sequoia") a few business days prior to the end of the pay period, with payment appearing in employee accounts on the last day of the period. Hourly employees are paid biweekly, every other Friday, for the preceding two weeks running Monday through Sunday; the next scheduled hourly payroll is September 11, 2026, covering work from August 24 through September 6, 2026. Sequoia's administrative fee is approximately $500 per hourly payroll run and approximately $4,000 per salary payroll run.
Salaried employees receive unlimited paid time off and are not entitled to payment for it upon separation. Hourly employees accrue vacation on a tenure basis: 15 days under two years, 18 days at two to four years, 20 days at four to six years, and 22 days beyond six years, with a certain number of days carried over annually and accumulated days paid out upon termination or separation. Sick time for hourly employees accrues at one hour for every 26 hours worked, capped and carried over at 120 hours (15 days), and is not paid out on separation; employees in Washington are subject to a policy specific to Washington state law.
Benefits are maintained through Sequoia and include medical coverage through Anthem Blue Cross, Cigna HealthCare, Kaiser Permanente, and Hawaii Medical Service Association; dental and vision coverage administered by The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America and Guardian/VSP; pre-tax accounts administered by Navia Benefits Solutions, with employer HSA contributions of $225 per month for employee-only accounts, $425 for employee and spouse/dependent, $375 for employee and children, and $450 for family; and a 401(k) plan sponsored and administered by Sequoia through a Multiple Employer Plan, with automatic enrollment at 6% escalating 1% annually to a 10% cap and a discretionary employer match of 50% on contributions from 1% to 4% of eligible compensation, capped at a 2% employer contribution and funded per payroll period with an annual true-up.
Guardian administers basic life and accidental death and dismemberment insurance, short-term disability replacing up to 60% of salary to a maximum of $2,500 per week for 12 weeks, and long-term disability replacing up to 60% of salary to a maximum of $12,000 per month. Voluntary term life, accident, hospital, and critical illness insurance run through Guardian, legal protection and ID theft coverage through MetLife, Inc., and pet insurance through Wagmo, with premiums paid solely by participating employees through payroll deductions.
Leave benefits include up to five days of paid bereavement leave for the death of an immediate family member; job-protected leave for pregnant employees, with wages supplemented in conjunction with applicable state and short-term disability insurance to provide 100% wage replacement for a total of eight weeks; six weeks of baby bonding leave for birthing parents, with wages supplemented in conjunction with applicable state paid family leave programs to provide 100% wage replacement; and up to 14 weeks of baby bonding leave for non-birthing parents within the first year of placement, with wages supplemented for up to 14 weeks. A workers' compensation program maintained through Sequoia covers employees in each state in which Peerspace operates for claims arising from their employment and is paid through Sequoia via payroll.
Peerspace also engages third-party independent contractors in the ordinary course, including on its development team, paid monthly upon invoice and not eligible for employee benefits.

Insurance Programs

Peerspace maintains general liability insurance (the "General Liability Insurance"), errors and omissions/cybersecurity insurance (the "Cyber Insurance"), directors and officers insurance (the "D&O Insurance"), and employee health coverage through various carriers. It separately maintains two programs geared toward protecting Hosts from liability that are included in every Guest booking:

Host Insurance — Host general liability insurance, included within the General Liability Insurance, providing coverage for short-term space use and supplementing a Host's own general liability insurance against third-party lawsuits, such as those by Guests, alleging bodily injury or property damage suffered during an event booked on the platform.
Property Damage Guarantee — Allows eligible Hosts to submit a claim to be reimbursed for the cost of repairing or replacing property damaged during an event booked on the platform.

Premiums run through insurance broker HUB International New England, LLC. Cyber and D&O premiums are set at a fixed rate by each carrier, determined annually and paid at the inception of each policy pursuant to the applicable insurance financing agreement. General Liability Insurance averages approximately $65,000 per month, billed quarterly for a quarterly total of approximately $195,000, and the Property Damage Guarantee averages approximately $65,000 per month, billed monthly.

Prepetition Obligations

Peerspace has no secured debt. Its unsecured debt consists of a small amount of trade debt and several litigation claims that are all disputed, contingent, and unliquidated.

The balance of the prepetition obligations disclosed at filing are ordinary-course operating accruals:

Employee compensation — On August 26, 2026, Peerspace funded all salary wages covering the August 16 through August 31, 2026 pay period, and it believes all prepetition salary wages have been paid. On August 28, 2026, it paid hourly employees for work performed from August 10 through August 23, 2026; approximately $13,518 in unpaid prepetition hourly wages accrued between that date and the Petition Date. Hourly employees had accrued an aggregate of approximately $19,674 in vacation time, with an estimated $1,505 in employee taxes owed upon payout. Independent contractors have been paid current through the Petition Date, and Peerspace does not seek authority to pay them any prepetition amounts.
Benefits — Approximately $2,368.47 for the Medical Plan, $185.90 for the Dental Plan, $34.14 for the Vision Plan, $201.93 to Sequoia for employee HSA accounts, $14.87 to Guardian for the Life and Disability Insurance Programs, and $228.81 to Sequoia on account of the 401(k) Plan. Amounts deducted from employees' prepetition compensation that Sequoia may still hold, unremitted to taxing authorities or benefits providers, constitute monies held in trust and are not property of the estate.
Reimbursable expenses — Approximately $187.81 identified as outstanding, with the total not expected to exceed $10,000 in the aggregate once reimbursement requests are submitted.
Insurance — Approximately $257,102 either due as of the Petition Date or coming due in the 30 days immediately postpetition.
Taxes and assessments — Approximately $52,470 in the aggregate due and owing to various taxing authorities, some of which comes due within 30 days of the Petition Date, with approximately $42,570 of that total sought on an interim basis. The aggregate comprises approximately $48,970 in sales and use taxes, of which approximately $39,070 becomes due and payable in the interim period, and $3,500 in business privilege fees coming due in the interim period; business income taxes and other taxes and fees are listed as de minimis. Peerspace believes it is current on income taxes and seeks authority to pay up to $10,000 should any outstanding prepetition balance be discovered in the interim period.

Events Leading to Bankruptcy

On July 24, 2024, a Peerspace Guest at a residence in Chicago suffered a tragic accident: Ezequiel Reynaga, then 31 years old, lost his footing at the top of a staircase and fell to the floor below, suffering serious injuries that rendered him paraplegic. On September 16, 2024, Mr. Reynaga filed suit in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, against Peerspace and the owners and operators of the space where he was injured, alleging negligence and premises liability (the "Reynaga Litigation").

All of the Reynaga Litigation defendants other than Peerspace have settled with Mr. Reynaga. Peerspace and Mr. Reynaga have engaged in good-faith settlement discussions but have thus far been unsuccessful. With trial set to begin on August 31, 2026, Peerspace filed this case to stay the litigation and, ideally, facilitate a consensual resolution. Absent settlement, Peerspace expects to propose a plan of reorganization that resolves Mr. Reynaga's claim.

Chapter 11 Filing

On the Petition Date, Peerspace filed a voluntary petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California, commencing a case under subchapter V, and is operating its business and managing its assets as a debtor in possession pursuant to section 1184 of the Bankruptcy Code. Keller Benvenutti Kim LLP is proposed counsel to the Debtor.

First Day Relief

Cash Management — Authority to continue using the existing cash management system and bank accounts, to pay related claims and fees, and for the banks to honor certain prepetition transfers.
Customer Bookings — Authority to continue performing under the Customer Bookings in the ordinary course, for banks and payment processors to honor Peerspace's payment directions on Customer Bookings, and to serve the notice of the Chapter 11 case on customers through proposed customer noticing procedures. Given the volume of customers relative to the Debtor's other noticing parties, for which it has listed approximately 200 addresses, customer addresses were not included on the mailing matrix filed with the voluntary petition, and Peerspace maintains a privacy policy governing its use of customer information. Peerspace states that if it were not permitted to make customer payments once bookings are executed, Hosts and Guests would likely seek turnover of their funds from the court.
Employee Wages and Benefits — Authority to pay prepetition compensation, prepetition benefits, payroll tax obligations, and unreimbursed expenses, and to continue the employee benefit programs in the ordinary course, with prepetition wages, vacation payouts, and prepetition benefit amounts each sought up to the priority amount for employee wages under sections 507(a)(4) and 507(a)(5) of the Bankruptcy Code, per employee.
Insurance — Authority to maintain the insurance programs, pay the approximately $257,102 of insurance obligations plus an additional amount up to $20,000 for obligations identified during the interim period, and modify the automatic stay under section 362 to permit employees to proceed with workers' compensation claims.
Taxes — Authority to pay the taxes and assessments, with additional interim cushions of up to $15,000 for unidentified sales and use taxes, $10,000 for income taxes, and $10,000 for business privilege fees.
Extension of Time to File Schedules — A 16-day extension of the initial 14-day period to file the schedules of assets and liabilities, statement of financial affairs, and list of equity security holders, through September 29, 2026, without prejudice to requesting additional time for cause. Peerspace has chosen not to retain a financial advisor or claims and noticing agent, and attributes the need for the extension to the resulting demands on management and staff alongside their usual non-bankruptcy responsibilities.