How PetHour works

🐾 For pet owners — find, book, relax

1. Search. Browse verified sitters near you by service, date, price and home environment on the Explore page — no account needed to look around.
2. Book. Pick a sitter, choose services and dates, optionally add up to 3 backup sitters, and check out. Your card is only held, not charged, until the sitter confirms.
3. Track. Walks are GPS-tracked live; sitters capture photos and voice notes, and AI turns them into a polished visit report delivered to you automatically.
4. Review. Reviews unlock only after a real, paid, completed booking — that's why PetHour ratings can be trusted.

🛟 The Care Team — never left without a sitter

Every booking can carry up to 3 backup sitters ($4.00 per accepted slot, per booked night). If your main sitter declines, doesn't reply, or cancels a confirmed booking, your backups are already standing by — one tap (or automatic promotion) and your dates and pets move to a sitter who already agreed to be available. Backups earn $2.50 just for standing by, so they actually accept.

What happens to the price if a backup takes over?

Every sitter sets their own rates — per pet size, puppy or reactive-dog surcharges, multi-pet discounts and holiday rates. When a backup steps in, they work at their own rates, locked in at checkout: you see each backup's exact "if called in" total (for your actual pets and dates) before you place the order, and neither sitter can change those numbers afterwards.

• We refund your original sitter's price (service + 10% fee) — automatically, no action needed.
• We charge the backup's locked-in price instead — the same itemized math (sizes, surcharges, discounts, holidays) you saw at checkout.
• Only the difference actually moves on your card: a small extra charge if the backup costs more, an automatic refund if they cost less, nothing at all if the totals match.

The full breakdown — original price, new price and the difference — appears in your confirmation notification and on the booking's Payments tab, and is itemized on the downloadable receipt.

⚡ Last Minute requests — urgent care, fast

Need someone today? Tap the ⚡ Last Minute button, describe the job, and PetHour dispatches it to available sitters nearby by push and SMS. Replies appear live; you pick your favourite within 5 minutes (or the first responder is auto-confirmed). A small dispatch fee (~$2.99) covers the notification infrastructure and is charged whether or not you get replies — that keeps the feature honest.

💳 Payments & fees — transparent, always

Sitters set their price and keep 100% of it. You pay the sitter's rate plus a flat, always-visible 10% service fee — that's PetHour's entire cut on a booking. No hidden commissions baked into rates.

Cancel more than 48h before the service: full refund including the fee. All payments are processed by Stripe — card numbers never touch PetHour's servers.

💰 Your wallet — earnings and gift credit

Every PetHour account has a wallet — an auditable, append-only ledger. Money you earn as a sitter can be withdrawn to your bank or debit card (every payout is human-reviewed for safety). Money you receive as gift credit is spendable on bookings but can never be cashed out. Your Finances page shows both, transaction by transaction, with tax-ready exports.

🎁 Referrals — invite people, earn credit

Once you've completed your first booking you get a referral link. When someone who joined through it completes their first paid booking, credit lands in your balance automatically — $5 if they book, $10 if they sit, both if they do both, plus a $3 tier-2 bonus if someone they invite becomes a working sitter. Credits are worth $1 each, never expire, and can't be cashed out.

There are exactly two rules, and it's fairer to state them up front than to let you find them by hitting them:

• Bookings between you and someone you referred don't earn credit. The reward is for bringing a new person to PetHour, so it only releases on a booking with someone outside your referral pair — inviting your partner and then booking each other earns nothing. Nothing is lost: the referral stays open, and the moment they book or sit for anyone else the credit is released as normal.
• Credits don't stack with other offers. While a promotional subscription price is running — a launch offer, for example — that month is already discounted, so credits can't be applied on top of it. They keep their full value for bookings the whole time, and become usable on subscription months again once the promotion ends.

💼 For sitters — keep what you earn

PetHour never takes a commission from your rate. Instead of losing ~20% of every booking (the industry norm), you pay a flat subscription from $29.00/month — and your first month is only charged when you accept your first job. Setting up your profile, services and availability is completely free.

• Explorer (free) — list your services, take one booking at a time.
• Pro ($29.00) — unlimited bookings, CRM, AI visit reports, calendar sync.
• Growth ($59.00) — priority placement, email marketing, market insights.
• Elite ($99.00) — top placement, team accounts, custom services, your own branded site, API.

Earn extra by joining the backup network ($2.50 per standby, full rate when triggered) and replying to Last Minute dispatches.

🛡 Trust & safety — verified, tracked, accountable

• Identity verification is mandatory for every member — owners and sitters — via Stripe Identity, at no charge.
• Phone verification backs every account with a real number.
• GPS-verified services — a walk can't be marked complete without a valid GPS trace.
• Escrow-gated reviews — only real, paid, completed bookings can be reviewed. Reliability scores can't be gamed for free.
• Optional badges — background check ($32.00) and Pet CPR certification help sitters stand out.
• Human-reviewed payouts — every withdrawal is checked before money moves.

❓ Frequently asked questions