Every member of our community goes through a detailed but simple 2-step application process. During the different stages of this process, we will ask you to share information with us about why you want to become a dog sitter, tell us about your experience with dogs, share your identity and address documentation with us, and most importantly, choose your dog sitting preferences so we can match you to dogs you will love! Our process is designed to be detailed but we guide you through each part and we are always here to help!

Yes, you need experience caring for dogs to join our dog sitter network. However, this could be experience as a dog parent/dog owner with your own dog(s) or experience as a dog sitter caring for other people’s dogs. We are looking for community members who understand what caring for a dog involves and are familiar with both the joys and responsibilities of dog care.

We ask each member of our network to upload proof of identity and valid address documentation as part of our onboarding process. This is a security measure and helps to make our service more secure and safe for the dogs in our care. These documents are private and confidential and are not shared with anyone. 

You’ll need to provide a valid ID document and proof of residence like a Certificate of Residence (if you live in Luxembourg), a recent utility bill (gas, electricity, water etc.) or another valid and recent government document with your name and address on it.

Absolutely. DogStays treats your privacy and data security with the utmost care. Your documents are used solely for vetting purposes and are never shared with anyone.

 If you experience any issues while submitting your documents, feel free to reach out to the DogStays team at contact@dogstays.lu, and we will guide you through the process.

After you share your booking preferences and documents with us, we give you access to your own DogStays account through which you can:

• Update your personal details (phone number, address etc) or the services you wish to offer 
• Share your availability with us
• View details regarding upcoming meetings and 
• Check details related to confirmed bookings 

Each member of our community has access to a calendar and you will have one in your DogStays account too. This calendar allows you to share your availability for bookings with us. You can log in to your DogStays profile and update your calendar anytime.

You are only required to mark the days you are NOT available, and DogStays will automatically exclude you from booking requests on those dates. So, if you’re going on vacation in November, simply mark those dates as unavailable. However, if you are only away for some hours in the day you can block only those hours and we will still check with you for bookings accordingly. We recommend marking multiple dates unavailable ONLY when you are away and cannot accept any bookings at all. 

Yes of course! You can adjust your calendar anytime. Just make sure to update your availability as soon as possible to avoid booking conflicts.

Here is the process we follow for bookings:

• When you are a good match for a booking we share details with you to check if you are interested in the booking
• If yes, we arrange a meeting for you to meet the dog parent and dog(s) 😊
• The location of the meeting is always the same as the location of the booking – your home or the dog parent’s home
• After the meeting you can let us know if you are comfortable with proceeding – they would do the same – they let us know
• We process the booking and send the dog parent a process email with confirmation documents and an invoice (this is for only part of the full cost)
• AFTER they confirm and pay this we confirm the booking to you and block your DogStays calendar for the booking dates
• After the booking is complete they would pay you the remaining amount (details can be found in the documents we send you when we confirm 🙂)
• The documents we share include: (a) confirmation document with complete booking information including the amount to be paid to you at the end of the booking (b) information on how to care for the dog and (c) some tips, suggestions and emergency info to help

Meeting the dog parent, and more importantly, the dog, is not only a good introduction to the dog you might care for but also a chance to observe the dog yourself and ask the dog parent any questions you have. This face-to-face interaction helps ensure that both you and the dog parent are comfortable before proceeding with the booking.

1. Before each meeting with the dog parent, we will send you some suggestions on what to discuss at the meeting. Some useful questions include:
   – How comfortable is the dog around strangers?
   – Does the dog have any medical needs or specific routines?
   – Are there any behaviours to be aware of?
   Questions like these will help you better understand the dog’s needs and what would be required from you during the booking.

Absolutely. You are free to decline a booking if you feel that the dog isn’t a good match after meeting with the dog and dog parent.

After each meeting you will receive an email asking if you are comfortable proceeding and in case not, what your reasons are for declining. You can just let us know what you prefer and we will manage the process with the dog parent.You are not obliged to proceed if you don’t feel the dog is a good match for you or if any other aspect of the booking is not comfortable. Remember: some details of the booking are flexible and dog parents are sometimes able to adapt so do let us know if you have a request instead of just declining.

1. We expect all community members to be completely sure before accepting any booking, especially since dog parents often book tickets or make other plans after getting confirmation. Accepting and then cancelling is unfair to the dog parent who is planning things. Cancellations are a big inconvenience, not just for dog parents but also for the team here at DogStays. However, in the case of an emergency we will of course do our best to help both you and the dog parent by trying to find an alternate solution perhaps with another member of our community.

Once you confirm that you are happy to proceed, we confirm this with the dog parent too and if they are comfortable proceeding we process the booking. As part of finalising the booking we ask dog parents to pay 20% of the total cost of the booking upfront to confirm it (the rest is paid to you directly at the end of the booking). Once the dog parent completes payment the booking is confirmed and you receive a formal confirmation via email along with all the information you will need for the booking plus some useful suggestions and emergency information that could help. This formal confirmation is necessary and the booking is only considered confirmed when we send you this email. Even if you and the dog parent agree to proceed with the booking, please make sure you receive this confirmation. It is necessary not only for the process but also for the insurance to be valid for the booking.

You can view detailed pricing information here on the website. These prices are the total prices we charge per day for each service. Remember that you receive 80% of the total cost of each booking and we keep the other 20%. This information is always shared with you for each confirmed booking so that you always know how much to expect at the end of the booking.

Our pricing for services is fixed across the community. This means that each member of our community is paid the same amount for any booking of the same service and these prices are not changed/set by you separately. This is to ensure that we recommend you for bookings for which you are truly the best option (best for the dog!) and this choice is not influenced by pricing. It also helps dog parents not accept/not accept you on the basis of cost alone.

We usually offer a 10% discount on the total cost of any booking (your part and our part both) which is longer than 10 days. If you don’t wish to offer this discount for a specific booking you need to let us know and we will inform the dog parent. Please note: we strongly recommend offering this discount and in case you decide not to offer it for a specific booking, the dog parent might decide not to proceed with you as the dog sitter for that booking. 

Yes that is correct! We want to make sure that the community members and families who work with us are always protected during bookings in case of an unexpected situation. This adds a layer of protection that safeguards you and even the dogs you care for and we offer this to you free of charge as a way of saying thank you for being part of our community. You can read more about this insurance here.

This is an amount separate from the booking cost and we charge dog parents this one time fee per booking as a platform charge. This is not deducted from the total cost of the booking and unlike the total cost of each booking, the number of days in a booking has no impact on this amount. It also does not change how much you receive for the booking.

If your booking is about to start and you don’t see the booking confirmation from us, please make sure you check your spam folder to make sure you haven’t missed the email. We also include this information in your DogStays account and you can see it by logging in and going to “Your Bookings”. If you still don’t see it please check with us via email or WhatsApp (+352-691399314) immediately. Extra tip: If you only need to know how much the dog parent needs to pay you, this can be found in the calendar event we automatically create for you for each confirmed booking. 

You are paid 80% of the total cost of any booking and at the end of the booking. The dog parent pays you this amount directly so you can decide how you prefer to receive it (online, in a wallet, by cash, to your bank etc.). When we confirm a booking we inform dog parents how much they need to pay you at the end so they can be prepared. Of course we are right here to help if needed at any time. 

Once a booking is complete you get paid according to the details in the booking confirmation and we also ask you to provide feedback with us for the dog and dog parent. This feedback is confidential and we do not share it with dog parents. It is only meant for us to improve your experience and ensure we only connect you with those dogs and dog parents that will bring a smile to your face 🙂