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There are more and more sites popping up every week offering free or very cheap home dog boarding. There has been some negative press for some of these sites so we wanted to discuss some of the reasons why using these services is a bad idea.
1. No Insurance
Most of the websites offering free or cheap dog sitters don’t check that all of the boarders have insurance, so if the worst happens, then the sitters won’t be covered.
What it your dog was involved in an accident and the vets couldn’t get hold of you? Some vets will look to the pet sitter to pay the bills directly, so if they have no insurance they may not be able or be willing to pay.
How would you feel if your dog couldn’t be treated because the dog boarder had no insurance in place to cover the bills?
All of our home dog boarders are fully insured so that they are covered just in case the worst happens.
2. No Incentive To Look After Your Dogs Well
As there is no fee or just a nominal involved, there is no real incentive for the ‘hobby pet sitters’ to look after your dog to the same standard as you would yourself.
We charge a fee that equals the high level of care that we provide.
As the old saying goes ‘You get what you pay for.’
We are professional home dog boarders, not amateur pet sitters which means that we set very high standards for ourselves and will look after your dogs as if they were our own.
3. No Reputation To Uphold
Amateur dog sitters have absolutely no reputation to uphold as they don’t rely on the dog boarding to make a living.
They won’t be that bothered if they get any bad reviews as it doesn’t make a difference to them how many new bookings they get.
We make a living from pet sitting and home dog boarding so we have to uphold our exemplary reputation if we wish to stay successful.
4. No Accountability
Most amateur home dog boarders won’t have a website where you can leave reviews so even if you did have a bad experience with them, you wouldn’t really be able to let others know about this.
They probably won’t have a facebook page, so you won’t be able to see any Facebook reviews or leave your own if you have a bad experience.
We have a very popular website where you can read reviews from our clients and leave your own reviews. All reviews are published and there is no censoring so you can see all of our reviews, warts and all!
We also have a popular Facebook page which anyone can view, which has further reviews from our clients.
We are very confident of the level of service that we provide so we are happy for everyone to have full access to all of our reviews.
5. No Contract
Following on from the last point regarding no accountability, most free or cheap pet sitters won’t even have a contract for you to sign before you leave your dog with them.
This means that you will have no real comeback if anything does go wrong as it would be very hard to find the pet sitter liable when you haven’t signed a contract of services.
6. Let You Down At The Last Minute
If no money is exchanging hands, how do you know that the free dog sitter won’t cancel on you at the last minute?
Imagine having to struggle to find another dog boarder just a couple of days before you are due to go away?
You will have to rush to find someone which means you could end up choosing the wrong pet sitter again, or you may even end up having to cancel your holiday because you can’t find someone else to care for your dog.
A lot of our last minute bookings are from people who have been let down at the very last minute by friends, family or other pet sitters.
We take a 20% deposit to fully secure dog boarding bookings and we have never cancelled a booking or let anyone down in our 4 years of trading.
7. Your Dog May Be Left For Hours On End
As amateur home dog boarders aren’t making any money from looking after dogs, they will most probably have a full time job, which means that your dogs could be left for hours on end whilst they are at work!
The amateur boarders might feel this is acceptable as you aren’t paying them anything at all or are just paying them a nominal amount.
All of our home dog boarders are either retired, or they work from home, so your dogs will never be left for more than a couple of hours at a time.
So please think very carefully about choosing a holiday home for your precious pooches when you next go away.
It makes sense to choose a reputable, professional pet sitting company to care for your dogs rather than choosing a free or bargain amateur pet sitter!
Adam & Laura
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