Meow! How Can We Help?

We have a thorough vetting and approval process which typically takes 7-10 business days to complete. It's free to submit your Meowtel sitter listing and our process consists of 6 steps:

1. Create your Meowtel account
2. Showcase your cat experience and knowledge
3. Create your sitter listing and upload your profile photo
4. Set up your availability and coverage
5. We'll contact your references and conduct a background check paid for by Meowtel. Both of these must be successful for approval
6. Final Interview: Demonstrate you're ready to conduct reservations through a video interview with a Meowtel team member

The primary communication method for all sitter application updates is via email. Please ensure communications from Meowtel do not end up in your spam folder so that you do not miss any important notices.

To keep your Meowtel listing active and maximize your success as a sitter on Meowtel:

1. Log in to your account regularly. Your account will automatically deactivate after 90 days of inactivity.
2. Update your Availability Calendar regularly. We recommend at least once every 30 days to help you receive relevant requests. Each Service Zone will automatically be disabled if 90 days pass without an update.
3. Maintain Consecutive Availability. As a best practice, aim to offer consecutive days of availability as much as possible. This helps provide continuous care, which is highly valued by cat parents and may lead to more frequent bookings. Customers usually don't schedule visits that are spread out, such as on a Tuesday and then on a Friday.
4. Abide by all Terms of Service and uphold the Minimum Standards for Client Satisfaction and Sitter Performance

Please visit your Sitter Dashboard and select View Sitter Listing.

Go to Edit Sitter Listing in your Sitter Dashboard. Here are our best practices to make your sitter bio say meo-WOW to potential clients:

Do Talk About:

• Your experience being a cat owner
• Your experience as a cat sitter
• Your cat medication experience
• Your schedule constraints
• The areas you can cover
• Your COVID precautions & sanitation measures

Don't Discuss:

• Competitors' websites
• Boarding, kenneling, grooming, nail trimming, or any other service we do not offer
• Social media handles
• Promotion of other products or services you might sell
• Scheduled veterinary visits
• Dog walking or other services unrelated to cat sitting
• Your contact information like your e-mail address or phone number

While logged into your Meowtel account, you may update your home address on the My Information screen (which is on the Cat Parent side of your account). 

Important: If you are moving or wish to service a new area, or if you no longer wish to service your current area, please be sure to update your Service Zones.

Please visit your Sitter Dashboard > Sitter Photos and you will have the ability to edit your profile and gallery photos.

Note: Sitter photos should only be of you and your favorite cats. Photos that include friends or partners will be asked to be removed.

Meowtel cat sitters are able to create up to two different service zones and select which services and times of day they’d like to offer for each zone on weekdays and weekends.

For each zone, you may choose to offer any or all of the following: 

Services:

1. 20, 45 or 60-minute drop-in visits
2. Overnight stays at the client’s home

Times of Day:

1. Morning Visits: 6am - 12pm
2. Midday Visits: 11am - 4pm
3. Evening Visits: 4pm - 10pm
4. Anytime Visits: 6am - 10pm

You can access your Services Offered by logging into the sitter side of your Meowtel account and navigating to your Service Zones section. Under your zip code map, you will find your Services Offered. Here, you can set your preferred services (20 min, 45 min, 60 min, overnights) and times of day (anytime, morning, midday, evening) for weekdays and weekends. Once you’ve set your preferences, they will be automatically applied when you update your availability calendar.

You may update your qualifications and medication experience by visiting your Edit Sitter Listing page, which can be accessed from your Sitter Dashboard.

To set up your coupon codes, within your account, visit the Coupon Codes section of your Sitter Dashboard. You have the ability to create and fund custom discounts for each of these audiences:

• New clients
• Existing clients
• A specific client
• All clients

Each client coupon code can be set based on a percentage-off method, and the maximum discount that can be offered is 25%. Should you wish to offer a larger discount, you can always adjust your rates.

It is important to note that if you choose to offer discounts, they are 100% funded by you. In other words, each discount will impact your earnings. If your normal rate on a reservation is $100 and you offer a 4% discount to new clients, your earnings will now be based off of ($100 x Your Commission Tier %) - $4 = your new earnings. If we assume a Tier 1 commission percentage, this would be ($100 x 70%) - $4 = $66.

For sitters in California, the discount will be applied to the display rate shown on your sitter listing. 

Here are some popular use case examples for the Coupon Code feature:

Attract New Clients

You can set up a coupon code just for new clients and then share it on social media or in your "About Me" section of your sitter listing. The settings you can use are as follows:

• Percentage Off: You determine this value
• Description: "I look forward to working with you as a new client!"
• Auto-Apply At Checkout: Set by the sitter
• How Many Times Can A Same Client Use This Code: 1
• Minimum Booking Days Required: Put a value only if you want this to apply to a new client who books at least __ number of days with you
• Minimum Number of Bookings Required: 0
• Valid From: Today's date to 12/31/24
• Who Can Use This Coupon? New Clients

Reward Your Favorite Clients

Do you love working with a specific client of yours? Giving them a unique code is a great way to show that you appreciate their business. The settings you can use are as follows:

• Percentage Off: You determine this value
• Description: "Thank you for being a valued client!"
• Auto-Apply At Checkout: Set by the sitter
• How Many Times Can A Same Client Use This Code: You determine this value
• Minimum Booking Days Required: Put a value only if you want this to apply to a favorite client who books at least __ number of days with you
• Minimum Number of Bookings Required: 1
• Valid From: Today's date to 12/31/24
• Who Can Use This Coupon? Specific Clients

Yes. You have two options to accomplish this:

1. If you'll be away on vacation (or otherwise unavailable) and don't wish to receive requests or messages from clients during that time, please click on Edit Sitter Listing from your Sitter Dashboard. Turn on Vacation Mode at the bottom of the page, and click on Save Changes. When Vacation Mode is activated, you will not be visible in Search results until you return. Your availability calendar won’t be visible, and customers will not be able to book you or send you messages. (Therefore, please be sure to activate Vacation Mode after your in-progress reservations have been completed, so that clients will be able to message you in the meantime.)
2. If you plan to be gone for more than six weeks, we recommend reaching out to us via email at [email protected]. We'll be happy to temporarily deactivate your listing.

Previously, sitters set a 1-15 mile service radius that expanded around their primary zip code. We heard lots of feedback that this wasn't conducive to your business for many reasons: waterways, crossing bridges and paying tolls, public transit limitations, traffic, and problematic driving routes!

In order to give you much more flexibility and a whole lot more control over your cat sitting business, Service Zones allow you to drill-down to the zip code level when setting where you want to visit clients.

Additionally, it empowers you to get paid fairly for the time commitments you make. Driving 15 miles for a 20min kitty visit ends up being about a 90min commitment with transit times. You deserve to be compensated for this additional time, which is why we built service types, rates, and other pricing settings to live within each Service Zone.

This change also yields more relevant search results for customers, increasing the likelihood that their reservation request will not need to be declined, woohoo!

How do I set up a Service Zone?

For a visual walk-through of how to set up your Service Zone in the app, check out this video.

1. Click "Home" in your sitter dashboard menu (all Service Zones defaulted to the name Home in the transition, but you can rename this to anything you wish!)

2. Click "Zip Codes Covered" and use the map to select the zip codes that you would like to cat sit in.

3. On the app, the grey zip codes are potential zip codes to service, once you select a zip code, it turns blue and will also appear in a list below your map.

You may select as many zip codes as you would like to service and at least 1 is always required. You may adjust your Service Zone whenever needed. Clients can find you in your new service zone by searching their zip code on the Meowtel website or mobile app. 

What else is in the Service Zone feature?

Once you set up your Service Zone map, you can also edit your other settings within this feature. By clicking:

- Availability

- Zip Codes Covered

- Rates

- Service Settings

Why are there two Service Zones?

You now have the option to set up two separate Service Zones! The second Service Zone will work just like the first one. You'll be able to customize your second Service Zone just with its own zip codes, visit types and durations, rates, and calendar availability. Each Service Zone will be set up separately and zip codes cannot overlap, so if you have selected a particular zip code for your first Service Zone, you won't be able to choose that one again for your second Service Zone. The second Service Zone is completely optional, though, so if you decide that you'd rather not set it up right now, that is perfectly fine. 

The second Service Zone will come in handy for sitters who would like to sit close to home on some days and closer to a work or school location on other days when they will be spending more time there. It will also be very useful for sitters who live near bridges or toll roads and would like to have higher rates for those areas where traveling back and forth is more expensive or time consuming. 

Setting up a second Service Zone will be especially helpful for those sitters who have a second home where they live for part of the year in another city or state, or if they travel back and forth between two specific locations quite often to spend time at a vacation home, family member's home, etc. It will no longer be necessary to have a separate sitter listing in order to serve clients in that second location! 

However, there are a few extra steps to setting up a second Service Zone in a second city:

- Set up your first Service Zone

- Change the zip code in your account to the second city you want to include

- Set up your second Service Zone

- Change the zip code in your account back to your main home address

To maintain an active listing in the Meowtel marketplace all sitters are required to uphold minimum standards for client satisfaction and sitter performance. Failure to maintain any of these standards will be considered a breach of the Meowtel Terms of Service and may result in account deactivation. 

All sitters agree to:

1. Maintain an accurate, up to date calendar of their availability. 
2. Accept or decline all reservation requests before they expire. Requests expire 24 hours after being placed by a client.
3. Perform all services promised to Meowtel clients during every visit:
4. Litter box cleaning
5. Feeding
6. Water refresh
7. Sending the client an update with at least 1 written update and 1 photo/video
8. Socializing/Playtime
9. Cleaning and tidying any cat related messes, such as tracked litter, spilled food or water, hairballs, etc.
10. Stay for the full duration of each visit as reserved.
11. Keep all communication with Meowtel clients within the Meowtel chat.
12. Respond to communications from other users and Meowtel staff promptly via the same communication channel by which the message was received i.e. responding to client messages in the Meowtel chat, and Meowtel staff emails via email.
13. Maintain accurate descriptions of their skills and experience as well as services offered in their listing.
14. Represent Meowtel policies accurately and honestly to clients. When unsure of a policy, direct clients to contact Meowtel customer service for clarification.

The vetting process involves several steps. First, only candidates in eligible zip codes can start the process. You can check if we're accepting listing submissions in your area by entering your zip code in the Become a Sitter page. Next, the evaluation includes skills fit, assessing communication, cat behavior knowledge, adaptability, empathy, and problem-solving skills. Then, a quality fit assessment reviews the listing title, bio, Q&A responses, photos, and account info. The process also includes selecting availability and a service area. A security check follows, involving reference and background checks. Finally, there's a culture fit step with a live interview.

This process usually takes 1 to 2 weeks but can be completed in under 3 days for the most responsive candidates.

We look for sitters with a genuine love for cats, experience in pet care and medication administration, and excellent customer service skills. Additionally, two verified references, a clean background check, and a live interview are required before being activated in the marketplace.

Yes, you can update your profile information at any time by visiting the Sitter Mode within your account. Make sure to keep your profile current with any changes in your availability, rates, or services offered.

You can check the status of your submission by logging into your Meowtel account and visiting the Become a Sitter section on our website. If you have any questions, please email us at [email protected].

To apply to be a cat sitter, you must be located in an eligible zip code. You need to demonstrate effective communication, knowledge of cat behavior, adaptability, empathy, and problem-solving skills. Additionally, you'll need to create a quality listing that includes a title, bio, responses to Q&A, photos, and account information. You must also choose your availability and service area, and pass a reference and background check. Finally, you'll need to complete a live interview before your listing is activated.

To enhance your chances of getting bookings, be responsive to inquiries, maintain a high-quality profile, keep your availability open, set competitive rates, cover a 10 to 15-mile service area, and aim to receive positive reviews from clients. These steps will make your profile more attractive to potential clients.