Free booking system for pet sitters
No matter if you are cat sitting, dog sitting, or watching other pets - you need a booking system to stay on top of your game.

When to use a booking system as a pet sitter?
Regardless if you are starting, or if you already have an established business as an animal sitter: you just simply need a booking system. Sure you can text back and forth with customers, they can leave voicemails, or call you whenever. But in this day and age you might wanna offer customers a booking system that they can access 24/7. It’s not only a great way to professionalize your business but if you are competing with big platforms that make booking a breeze, it’s also considered a must.
Speaking of animals, it also frees you from being a sitting duck when it comes to you going about your day. A free system like Vev empowers you with smart tools that for example let you define your service area in driving minutes. This way you don’t have to disappoint customers if they live too far from where you are based. Vev also allows you to deal with payments yourself if customers prefer to pay in cash. In that case, you just use it as a way to keep track of your schedule.
Vev also has some smarts about getting you from point A to B. Travel time is accounted for, and you can set the duration of the various services that you offer.
The system also works the other way around. In that case, the animals come to you and people can select at what time they like to drop their beloved Canine or Feline off. The services can be offered one-to-one, or if you have space for multiple animals at the same time, you can also adjust that quite easily.
How to get more customers for my animal-sitting business?
According to the newspaper The Guardian, almost 9 million dogs have been acquired by households since the start of the pandemic in the US. And a whopping 5 million cats were welcomed into the lives of people from all over the country. Even if you don’t live in the US, it’s an unprecedented increase in the number of furry friends that took place around the globe.
Now that lockdowns are a thing of the past, offices are opening up slowly and people are adjusting to their new rhythm. Some have to be at the office 5 days a week, while others are granted a bit more flexibility.
Finding this group of pet owners is crucial for growing your business. Research shows that it was not just in cities or the suburbs that people welcomed their fluffsters into their homes.
Three sound ways of finding more customers are:
- Put up ads at dog parks and local pet stores. If not the most obvious one from this list, but it’s a proven way. Find places where pet owners come often, and create a little ad for your business. Make sure to include a QR code where people can book your services right away. If you make use of the free software from Vev, a QR code can be downloaded right away from your dashboard.
- Find local (Facebook) online groups. People prefer pet sitters that live in their own community. Spreading the word about your business through a local Facebook group, and apps like Nextdoor are great ways to get the word out. Introduce yourself and let your community know that you are available to help them out whenever. Since this dangles between an “ad” and a “community post”, try to make it less sales-y and focus more on your passion for, and expertise in, pet sitting.
- Ask current customers to refer somebody else. You can make this a running campaign or only do it 3-4 times a year to make it special. It’s key that you give a little reward to both parties. It could be a nice little treat for the animal you are already watching, and perhaps a (small) discount for the new animal you are welcoming to your business.
Can I work as a pet sitter without using platforms or marketplaces?
Yes! These big platforms and marketplaces are a great way to start if you don’t have any clients yet. Or if you’ve watched many animals from friends and family, but would like to gain more professional experience with customers you don’t have a personal relationship with.
When the time is right, it is advised to break free from these services though. And honestly, there are a couple of reasons why:
- Don’t be dependent on one platform. If the platform you are working with has an outage, goes out of business, or is the news because they did something bad. Just three hypothetical scenarios that affect you immediately. The point is, don’t be dependent on one platform, if nothing else make sure people can find you on two services.
- Platforms take a big cut. Granted, they provide a service and make the payment from both parties hassle-free. But once your business is established, you might wanna reconsider how “fair” these fees and charges are. If their cut is 30% of your earnings, just run the math on what’s costing you that per year. And now do it times five, to gain a bigger perspective on how much money they are taking from you over the course of five years.
- Establish relationships. If you are watching a cat or dog here and there as a one-off, it’s all fine. But when you come to people's homes every week you might wanna redefine the working relationship. Especially if you’ve been working with them for over 6 months. Break free from just being a platform worker, and establish a direct relationship with your customer. The biggest reason for them: it’ll also save them service fees that the big platforms charge them.
The free booking software from Vev allows you to run an animal sitting business yourself. It’s up and running in under a minute and you can share the booking link with current customers, and with new ones. You define your service area, and people will see instantly if they can book your services or not. The scheduling can be done 24/7 and adapts to your flexibility. So it’s up to you if you allow last-minute bookings, or if your schedule “closes” let’s say 24 hours in advance.
Run your business on auto-pilot With your new toolset
Sell
Marketing
Business
Auto pilot
Overview
No-shows
Customers
Add your service appointments and more
Decide yourself what you offer at your house. Add descriptions for your service appointments, add an image, and best of all set your own prices.
Your day at a glance
See exactly how much your house makes, what your customers schedule most and even learn how they made their appointment.
Schedule again
In just a tap you your customers become regulars. Get the best date and time for the next appointment. No upcoming appointment? You and your customers are reminded to schedule again.
Sell smart
Add options, durations, variations, preparation time and cleanup time to help your customers schedule.
Schedule deadline
Choose till what time customers can schedule a service appointment.
Sell
Add your service appointments and more
Decide yourself what you offer at your house. Add descriptions for your service appointments, add an image, and best of all set your own prices.
Your day at a glance
See exactly how much your house makes, what your customers schedule most and even learn how they made their appointment.
Schedule again
In just a tap you your customers become regulars. Get the best date and time for the next appointment. No upcoming appointment? You and your customers are reminded to schedule again.
Sell smart
Add options, durations, variations, preparation time and cleanup time to help your customers schedule.
Schedule deadline
Choose till what time customers can schedule a service appointment.
Marketing
Your own link
Add your link to your website and socials. A link in bio could boost the appointments of your house up to 40%.
Your logo and colors
Makes your house stand out. Literrally everything will get your own style. Your page, dashboard, Wallet passes and every single e-mail.
Schedule with a QR-code
Include your QR code on flyers, business cards, stickers and other placements in their house to let your customers schedule service appointments by scanning it on their phone.
Business
Your overview of service appointments
See exactly who will get what service appointment, and at what time the appointment is due.
Your opening hours
You decide when their house is open (or closed) for appointments.
Choose a time and date
Let your customers choose what time works for them. You can decide how strict or flexible you want to be with your time.
Add your breaks
Plan when you want a fixed break. Looking for more flexibility? Turn on smart breaks.
Schedule 'Me time'
Got a personal appointment? With just a tap you can block time off. This way customers can't make an appointment.
Exceptions
Want to open up during public holidays? Or close for a vacation? Your decide when their house is open.
Schedule deadline
Choose till what time customers can schedule a service appointment.
Make your accountant smile
Export data of their house on a monthly basis. Including all the information of your appointments. Giving you the information you need.
Auto pilot
Communication made easy
Every appointment, cancelation, change and reminder is automatically sent to your customers. Emails are sent in your style so they look like their house.
Reminders
On the day of the appointment, your customer receives a reminder from you. It's send automatically and includes all the information of their service appointment.
Your month wrapped up
Every month starts with an overview of last months' sales, cancelations and revenue. This way you know exactly how their house is doing.
Your own link
Add your link to your website and socials. A link in bio could boost the appointments of your house up to 40%.
Overview
Your day at a glance
See exactly how much your house makes, what your customers schedule most and even learn how they made their appointment.
Your overview of service appointments
See exactly who will get what service appointment, and at what time the appointment is due.
Focus on your customers
Your daily overview of customers. Showing you exactly who's coming, and a way to let you schedule again.
Delivery view
See exactly where you need to be, in which order and at what time. Everything shown on a map to lay it out perfectly for you.
No-shows
Reminders
On the day of the appointment, your customer receives a reminder from you. It's send automatically and includes all the information of their service appointment.
Add to wallet
After customers schedule service appointments, they get a pass for their digital wallet. When added they get a notification on their phone at the right time. The pass contains all the details like; date, time, location, total cost, payment details and link.
Add to Calendar
Customers can add the appointment to their calendar. This way they receive a notification before their service appointment. The address, travel time and link to their confirmation page can be found in the event details.
Communication made easy
Every appointment, cancelation, change and reminder is automatically sent to your customers. Emails are sent in your style so they look like their house.
Customer details
For pet sitters it's super handy to have all the details of customers at their finger tips. Allowing you to send a text, call or email whenever you need.
Cancelation deadline
Decide until what time customers can cancel for free. Whenever a cancelation is made, customers receive a message including a link to schedule their next service appointment.
Change the time
Customers can change the time of their upcoming appointment as long as the cancelation deadline hasn't passed.
Customer history
See exactly what kind of service appointments your customer had last time.
Customers
Customer details
For pet sitters it's super handy to have all the details of customers at their finger tips. Allowing you to send a text, call or email whenever you need.
Advanced customer management
With Vev+ you see your customers in the best way. This lets you build relationships and get more appointments. You can search and find your most valuable customers.
Focus on your customers
Your daily overview of customers. Showing you exactly who's coming, and a way to let you schedule again.
Upcoming service appointments
Vev shows you the next time you will see your customer. If there's no upcoming service appointment, you can schedule again with one tap.
Schedule again
In just a tap you your customers become regulars. Get the best date and time for the next appointment. No upcoming appointment? You and your customers are reminded to schedule again.
Customer history
See exactly what kind of service appointments your customer had last time.
It's your data
It's your data. The customer information is yours. Vev doesn't sell, resell, target or advertise with this data.