Holiday pet sitting visits: how to plan and take bookings

Plan holiday pet sitting as a series of home visits, one slot per visit, and let owners book every visit day of their trip. Create a service for each visit type, a short cat visit, a longer dog visit, with the length and what's included, open slots only when you can reach each home in time, and open your holiday weeks early. A meet-and-greet before the first stay covers keys, routines and the animal's habits, so the holiday visits run without surprises.

On Book, create each visit type as a service with its own description and an optional price. Each slot sits within one day and has one place, so an owner books one visit per slot. Say clearly in the description that you visit, you don't stay overnight, if that's how you work.

A week's holiday means seven visits, or fourteen with morning and evening checks. The owner books each visit on your page, one after the other. If they'd rather call you, take the dates and book every visit yourself from your calendar: enter their email and they receive a confirmation for each one. The note field is where the owner writes the address, the animal's name and anything to know.

Check the full list of dates with the owner before they leave. A missing day is a serious problem for an animal alone at home, so read through the bookings together.

Your day is a route: visits in different homes, sometimes across town. Leave travel time between slots rather than opening them back to back. If you cover a wide area, open visits in one district in the morning and another in the afternoon, and say which areas you cover in the description.

Slots from different services aren't linked. If a cat visit and a dog visit are open at the same time, both can be booked. Either open visit types at different hours, or book the other slot yourself as soon as one is taken, so you're never expected in two homes at once.

Summer, year-end holidays and long weekends can fill quickly. Open those weeks early, so regular clients can book as soon as they plan their trip. A slot created once can be repeated on the weekdays you choose until an end date: open the morning and evening visits for the whole summer in a few minutes. Close the days you're away yourself by not creating slots on them.

Calendar sync with Google, iPhone or Mac shows your visits next to your personal agenda, so you see your route for the day at a glance.

Before the first stay, meet the owner and the animal at home. Walk through the routine: feeding amounts, medication given by the owner's instructions, hiding places, the vet's details, what to do if something goes wrong. Arrange how you'll get and return the keys. Create the meet-and-greet as its own service so new clients book it first, and mention it in your other descriptions. Keep a short written sheet of each animal's routine with the keys, so every detail is at hand during the visits.

Flights change and trips get cut short. When an owner moves their return date, cancel or add visits from your bookings list and confirm the change with them yourself, since Book doesn't email clients when a booking changes. When a visit is cancelled in time, the slot is offered again on your page.

You receive an email for each new booking with the note, so every visit comes with the details you need.

Book costs €5/month, everything included: unlimited bookings and services, no commission and no contract. It doesn't take payments; handle payment for the stay your usual way.