The holiday season is the last chance that you have to travel for the year. Along with your travel plans, if you own a home or have furry friends depending on you, plans include finding a home and/or pet sitter for the time that you’re away. While there are a ton of resources out there, if you don’t have a friend, family member, or neighbor that can do the job, it’s difficult to gauge who you can trust. We have the top pick for both categories that will take away all the guesswork.
1. Rover
While known for dog-sitting, Rover also offers care for your cat. Start by visiting the website or downloading the app, and entering your zip code. Then choose which service that you’d like:
After you’ve chosen your service and filled out the information about your pet, request a sitter that you’d like and start communication. While you’re away, you can receive updates instantly whether that’s by sending messages to your sitter or having them send you pictures of your pet throughout the day. You can see past reviews and sitters welcome detailed requests and as much information about your pet as you can provide. App available for iPhone and Android.
2. Trusted Housesitters
Like Rover, you can choose a sitter for your pet but it’s always going to be in your home. This way, the pet will feel secure in a familiar environment and you can rest easy knowing that your home is safe as well. Sitters are sorted into categories of pet experience for animals like cats and dogs, but also covers horses, fish, birds, and other exotic pets. Choose the category and then you can view all available sitters and their bios that include experience, what you can expect them to bring, and why they love house-sitting.
Trusted Housesitters specializes in providing services to and for people who travel, and the cool part is that with membership for owners and sitters at a yearly fee of $119, a sitter’s service is free – the arrangement is that they care for your home and your pet in exchange for a place to stay while they travel. A membership means unlimited services for a year and not having to negotiate rates. App available for iPhone with Android capability coming soon.
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3. Wag!
Wag has quickly become one of the most popular pet sitting services. Used most often for dog walking, you’re sure to have spotted a walker working for Wag! by their paw print uniform. Wag promises that you’ll have a walker or sitter in 30 minutes or less after requesting one, and your first walk is free. To book a walk, house sitting, or boarding, go onto the website or the app (boarding is through app only).
A regular walk is 30 minutes for $20 with an additional $5 per dog, and a deluxe walk is $30 for one hour. House sitting and boarding are both $39 a night, and your dog can either stay overnight with the dog walker, or the walker can stay overnight in your home. If you don’t need anyone to walk or sit your dog but just pick them up or drop them off to and from a location, it’s $15. Wag will also provide a free lock box for easier entry to your home. App is available on iOS and Android.
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4. Care
Care is a hub for a variety of different services. Not only do they cover pet care, but they offer human care in the form of nannying and babysitting, senior care, and housekeeping. Just enter all of the important information about your pet, when you would like the service, and the rate of pay for the service. Care will wrap up our listing and post it for you, and within 24 hours you’ll start receiving messages for pet sitters that are interested.
For housekeeping, select how many bedrooms and bathrooms you have, and if the caregiver needs to bring their own supplies and equipment. Then, the same thing goes for the listing. If you’d like to view background checks and references, upgrade to one of the three membership options. The whole process is very easy and creating a listing takes less than 20 minutes. App is available on iOS and Android.
5. PetSitter
Short, sweet, and straight to the point, PetSitter works just like Care where you enter your pet’s information, your location, a description of the service you’d like, and the rate of pay and the website creates your listing. A free account limits your calls and messages to your sitter, but if you’d like to reach them more frequently you can choose a monthly, quarterly or yearly membership.
An interesting feature of PetSitter is that you can view whether or not a sitter is working as an individual or if they’re being represented by a company, which is a comfort if you’re someone who likes lots of references and reviews before booking. PetSitter doesn’t book through an app, so check out their website to get started.
With these services, you can put the focus back on traveling and your plans for the holidays without having to worry about your belongings or furry family at home.
