One Thursday morning, my husband and I found ourselves gifted with a reservation to the hottest restaurant in town – not just any dining establishment but the number one restaurant in America at the time. We should have been high-fiving one another, but instead, we were on a desperate quest for a sitter; all our regulars were booked, and the clock was ticking! Luckily for us, I had discovered Urbansitter from a Facebook friend.
For those that don’t know, Urbansitter is the holy grail for moms and dads who yearn to hold on to their pre-kid social life. It’s an online network and booking system connecting sitters with parents. The beauty of the network is that it’s based on your Facebook social graph. Until my discovery of Urbansitter, my husband and I had only used a handful of sitters. If none of them were available, we were out of luck and had to stay home. The genius of Urbansitter for us is twofold: first, the ability to automatically vet sitters through your friends, and second, the option to post a last-minute job.
To elaborate on the first feature, I typically shy away from sites where the only option for account creation is through Facebook. Urbansitter is one of the exceptions, as it truly benefits me to sign in this way. After logging on, I can automatically see which of my friends have already used certain sitters and which of my acquaintances from different mom’s groups. It gives me great peace of mind knowing that a sitter comes recommended from a friend. If one of my regular sitters is booked, I can also check whether that sitter has any friends available. Beyond the social graph, I can search by criteria like infant CPR certification, which was especially important to me when my second son was a baby.
We have found some incredible sitters through Urbansitter. Surprisingly, some of our best sitters were found via a last-minute posting. Our first last-minute post generated an aspiring doctor who had just been accepted to Stanford Medical School and lived blocks away from our house. With our second-to-last-minute post, we ended up with a sitter who is the athletics director at one of the top girls’ schools in the city. Overall, we’ve been very happy with the quality of sitters we have found through Urbansitter. One thing to note is that sitters’ experience definitely varies by pay grade, but we’ve found some phenomenal sitters at date-night-friendly prices.
I recommend posting jobs to the entire network, even if it’s not a last-minute request. By posting the job to the entire Urbansitter network, you’re only receiving responses from available sitters, which saves time and really works. Each time I’ve posted a last-minute request, I have received over 10 responses within an hour. This avoids contacting multiple sitters and waiting for them to get back to you.
Another feature I love is the ability to pay sitters by credit card. If you’re anything like me, you never seem to have enough cash on hand. With the credit card feature, I’ve been able to skip last-minute trips to the ATM or wonder whether my tip calculation at the end of the night was correct.
Urbansitter offers two service levels – Pay as You Go and Premium. In the pay-as-you-go model, there is a $14.95 fee for each sitter introduction. However, you can book that sitter as many times as you like going forward without incurring any additional charges. The Premium membership allows for unlimited sitter introductions and online credit card payments. You can either pay a $99.95 yearly fee or, if you prefer a shorter commitment, the first month is $24.95 and each additional month is $9.95.
All in all, Urbansitter has come to our rescue on many an occasion and has brought back our social life! We tell all of our new parent friends to sign up.
Pros
- Sitters vetted through your friends
- Last minute availability
- Credit card payments
- Ability to search by specific criteria like CPR certification
- Amazing sitters!
Cons
- Sitter availability not always up to date
- Pay as You Go level does not offer credit card payment