Pet Sitting Booking Software That Keeps Your Business Organized

Pet sitting is sold three ways, and the booking system has to handle all of them. A drop-in visit is a fixed price for a fixed length. A dog walk or a day of care is priced by the hour. An overnight stay, in your home or theirs, is priced by the night. In BookingMachine each of those is its own service with its own duration and price, so a sixty minute walk and a three night stay can sit on the same booking form.

Price variables take care of the extras. A second pet, a puppy or a senior dog, a bank holiday, a late pick-up or a longer drive can each add to the price, and a weekday or off-peak visit can take something off. The owner picks the options and sees the total change in front of them, which is the end of quoting by text message.

Most of a pet sitter's income is the regular client: the same dog, the same days, every week. A good pet sitter booking system lets that be booked once as a recurring booking rather than re-entered every Monday. BookingMachine supports recurring bookings, so the Tuesday and Thursday walk becomes a standing arrangement that appears in your diary without anyone doing anything.

Recurring work also makes your capacity visible. Because the standing walks are already in the diary, a new owner looking for a midday slot only sees the times that are actually free, and the slot they book is removed for everyone else. Standing clients can carry a recurring discount through the pricing rules, which is a simple way to reward loyalty without a separate price list.

Before you walk into someone's house to feed a cat you need the practical details: the pet's name and breed, medication, where the key is, the vet, who to call. The booking form can ask for the fields you choose, so the information arrives with the booking rather than in a flurry of messages the night before. Every booking comes to your dashboard and your inbox with those answers attached.

Each owner also has a customer record in your dashboard, which keeps their bookings, notes and pet details together. When the same owner books again you can see the history, and you can tag regulars, new clients and the ones who have gone quiet. For a sitter running on memory and a notebook, having the pets and owners in one place is most of the point.

Yes, you can take a deposit. For each service you decide whether the owner pays a deposit, pays in full, or pays after the visit, and the card payment is taken when they book and goes to your own Stripe account. Online payments are on the paid plans and need an approved payments application, which we review before switching them on. A deposit on holiday stays in particular stops the last minute cancellation that leaves a week empty.

Double bookings are handled by the diary. Each service has a duration, each booking blocks that time, and a slot that is taken is not offered again. If you work with a second sitter, add them as a team member so the diary covers both of you. You set your hours, including the days you do not work, and owners only see what is genuinely available.

Owners searching for pet sitting software with an app usually want one thing: to book and pay from their phone without a fuss. They do not want to download anything. With BookingMachine they open your booking link or your website in their phone's browser, pick the service and dates, see the price, pay and get a confirmation by email. There is no account to create and nothing to install.

On your side, the dashboard runs in a browser on your phone or laptop, so you can check the diary between visits. The free plan has no card and covers your services and prices, the booking link, the form on your website, your free website and review requests after a completed visit. Deposits and online payments are on the paid plans.