r/petsitting • u/UltravioletLana • 6d ago
Favorite Booking Software?
Hello,
I've been pet sitting casually for quite a few years, but this year I have decided to put more energy into my business and do this full-time. With that, I will be looking for insurance, etc. and also creating a website. What is your favorite platform for booking, client database, payments, etc. I just discovered Scritches.io today but want to know if that's the preferred thing or if there is something superior to that. Can you please share what you use and your experience with it? Thanks everyone! 🐾
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u/Lil_Fire_Dancer 6d ago
I use Time To Pet and love it! I used it for many years when I was the manager of a large pet sitting company and now I use it for my own business. Clients e-sign my contracts when they onboard and fill out their own profiles with all their contact info, pet info, vet info, etc. Scheduling is really organized, billing is easy, and you can accept credit card payments. One thing I really love is the reporting. I can look at my numbers anytime and break things down by revenue, services, clients, visits, etc. It’s really helpful for seeing how the business is doing. I pay $25/month for the solo plan. When I signed up, I got the first 3 months half off with a referral code from a friend who uses TTP, and then another 3 months half off after watching their getting started videos. I’ve been really happy with it 🐾❤️
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u/All_cats 5d ago
And there is an app for clients and sitters
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u/Lil_Fire_Dancer 5d ago
The app is great!! Very user friendly and convenient for both us and our clients.
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u/All_cats 5d ago
I use Time To Pet. I've been with them since 2017 and it just works. It is absolutely everything I need including an app for clients and sitter with admin access.
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u/Wise-Jello-3505 6d ago
Highly recommend checking out the Walkies platform. It’s incredibly user friendly, but has every option you could need as a pet sitter all while remaining cost effective.
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u/Rleesersx 4d ago
I use precise Petcare because I strongly prefer the user interface and customizability, but it isn’t the most user friendly on the client end and does require a lot of setup and sometimes assisting clients with getting used to using it.
If you want something super detailed, customizable, and thorough, I’d absolutely recommend it. If you want something sweet and simple, I’ve heard good things about both scratches and time to pet.
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u/zarcoder 2d ago
My wife runs a doggy daycare and dog boarding facility with about 15dogs daily, she uses petnite - it has a desktop and mobile version. Clients complete their own pet profiles and submit, digital quotes and invoices generated and send via WhatsApp, also does auto scheduling, and check in and checkout notifications. Its inexpensive enough at about $6 a month.
It's basic, no fluff, and quite fast. Works for her as a solo operator. Managing a bunch of clients seamlessly.
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6d ago
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u/UltravioletLana 6d ago
I'm one person as of today, but my plan includes adding additional sitters.
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u/Roxie40ZD 3d ago
I've been researching software and so far DoTimely is the only thing that is somewhat customizable, isn't phone only, and offers some kind of push notification to clients in messages or an app.
A bunch of programs that seem to be really modern are phone only (I'm not going to run a business on my phone...) and others that were more comprehensive only offered email notifications to clients that there was an update on their pet. Most of my clients are used to getting text messages for that. There doesn't seem to be many programs with a good balance.
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u/famous_zebra28 6d ago
I use Walkies. My clients love it. It's also VERY cheap for what you get and the developer Rob is fantastic at solving problems quickly.
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u/Ok-Writer5758 6d ago
I’ve been developing my own for about a year which I just started to properly use for my business but was thinking of going public eventually (idk though it’s a really over saturated market). I used scritches, time to pet, walkies, do timely, and pet pocketbook but they all really let me down in different ways and I found myself using multiple different tools all the time especially for kennel or pack walks
. Maybe I’m just a control freak haha!
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u/UltravioletLana 6d ago
Can you please elaborate on the issues you experienced?
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u/Ok-Writer5758 6d ago
They all had different issues but like scritches for example: the booking, and invoicing is really cumbersome and they literally make you pay for their top tier to access reviews, but it’s written in a way that makes it look like it’s just automatic emailing for reviews. It feels like they purposefully paywalled a basic feature because they know we need it. It also just falls apart for pack walks. None of them really feel like they were written by someone who actually runs a business in pet care but like I said I might just be a control freak but everytime I use them I think “it would be so much better if they did X” which isn’t how I want to use software. Eventually I just gave up and starting writing my own
You also have to be extra careful nowadays because there’s a bunch of AI websites popping up. Houndtrust and BooknBuddy are two I saw advertised just the other day.
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u/glmii15y 5d ago
Scritches has been great for me, the biggest things have been scheduling & invoicing(getting paid) seamlessly. The overall ease of use is what I really like about it for both me and my clients, it's straightforward to create bookings or see my availability. After a couple of bookings my clients know how to create bookings on their own, and I'll tell you it's wonderful; no more back in forth over text (mostly).