Is there a need for a professional babysitting service?

[Anonymous]

Parent here. I am highly considering starting a professional babysitting agency. All sitters would be career nannies, nurses, teachers, etc. Families could hop on our app, put in their day/time they need, and book a sitter. All sitters would have already been interviewed, background checked, and had their references verified so any available option would yield a professional competent pre-screened sitter.

Do you think there is a need for this? I know that you can book someone on care.com or sitter city, but we had overwhelming experiences with both. A ton of candidates but none seemingly qualified or ones with bad reviews from previous families. You have to pay extra on top of the membership to background check and then do references yourself. It's just a lot for a date night sitter or back up coverage.

[Anonymous]

The amount you’d have to pay to keep the people you foresee hiring available on short notice for short hours is more than any client would pay.

[Anonymous]

It already exists with the examples you provided. Let’s say you start up a business you will have the same positive and negative reviews.

[Anonymous]

No. I am not leaving a child under four with someone I found on an app (background checks are useless). And by the time the kid is four, I have a roster of daycare teachers, neighbors, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It already exists with the examples you provided. Let’s say you start up a business you will have the same positive and negative reviews.

Yeah I don't really see what this adds to care.com etc, beyond purportedly more screening, but if you think better screening means you won't have sitters with terrible reviews, you need to spend more time with the eternally dissatisfied parents of DCUM.

I've always been happy with the sitters we've gotten from care.com/urbansitter, so I'd see absolutely no need for such a service.

[Anonymous]

Existing services, referrals from friends and neighbors, and neighborhood and local college job boards more than cover needs for this

[Anonymous]

My friend from college started a service like this in Cincinnati and franchised it. I’m surprised there isn’t anything similar around DC. I used it quite a bit. It’s called babysitease.

https://www.babysitease.com/services

[Anonymous]

So. many. companies. already. exist.

Really they do. They have been around for years. You can certainly start another one.

Now one service that would be helpful is if you employed the babysitters, you scheduled them, you paid them, and the parent just pays you a set rate you decided instead of having to negotiate with a sitter directly.

Another would be providing sick or back up care. But again you would have to hire the sitters as your employees to guarantee their availability. It's likely a model that could work on a smaller scale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So. many. companies. already. exist.

Really they do. They have been around for years. You can certainly start another one.

Now one service that would be helpful is if you employed the babysitters, you scheduled them, you paid them, and the parent just pays you a set rate you decided instead of having to negotiate with a sitter directly.

Another would be providing sick or back up care. But again you would have to hire the sitters as your employees to guarantee their availability. It's likely a model that could work on a smaller scale.

You mean like this:

https://www.seekingsitters.com/services/WashingtonDC/WashingtonDCnanny.asp

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parent here. I am highly considering starting a professional babysitting agency. All sitters would be career nannies, nurses, teachers, etc. Families could hop on our app, put in their day/time they need, and book a sitter. All sitters would have already been interviewed, background checked, and had their references verified so any available option would yield a professional competent pre-screened sitter.

Do you think there is a need for this? I know that you can book someone on care.com or sitter city, but we had overwhelming experiences with both. A ton of candidates but none seemingly qualified or ones with bad reviews from previous families. You have to pay extra on top of the membership to background check and then do references yourself. It's just a lot for a date night sitter or back up coverage.

No. It won't work. You would have to pay $25 and up per hour to sitter. To do this you would need to charge $40 or more per hour (your profit) and very few parents would pay this much
You would also have a 3 to 4 hour minimum and an equal cancellation fee. My children are grown but I used neighborhood sitters or young people from church. This was 20 to 25 years ago and I paid $10-$12/hr. My daughter babysat in high school and college and was paid $20 an hour. Sorry to burst your bubble.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent here. I am highly considering starting a professional babysitting agency. All sitters would be career nannies, nurses, teachers, etc. Families could hop on our app, put in their day/time they need, and book a sitter. All sitters would have already been interviewed, background checked, and had their references verified so any available option would yield a professional competent pre-screened sitter.

Do you think there is a need for this? I know that you can book someone on care.com or sitter city, but we had overwhelming experiences with both. A ton of candidates but none seemingly qualified or ones with bad reviews from previous families. You have to pay extra on top of the membership to background check and then do references yourself. It's just a lot for a date night sitter or back up coverage.

No. It won't work. You would have to pay $25 and up per hour to sitter. To do this you would need to charge $40 or more per hour (your profit) and very few parents would pay this much
You would also have a 3 to 4 hour minimum and an equal cancellation fee. My children are grown but I used neighborhood sitters or young people from church. This was 20 to 25 years ago and I paid $10-$12/hr. My daughter babysat in high school and college and was paid $20 an hour. Sorry to burst your bubble.

Seeking sitters charges $25/hr in DC. They do have a 4 hour minimum.
I haven’t used them in DC, but I have used them other places for out of town weddings or other events, and they have been great. I agree with OP that care.com is a lot of legwork that I don’t want to do for a date night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent here. I am highly considering starting a professional babysitting agency. All sitters would be career nannies, nurses, teachers, etc. Families could hop on our app, put in their day/time they need, and book a sitter. All sitters would have already been interviewed, background checked, and had their references verified so any available option would yield a professional competent pre-screened sitter.

Do you think there is a need for this? I know that you can book someone on care.com or sitter city, but we had overwhelming experiences with both. A ton of candidates but none seemingly qualified or ones with bad reviews from previous families. You have to pay extra on top of the membership to background check and then do references yourself. It's just a lot for a date night sitter or back up coverage.

No. It won't work. You would have to pay $25 and up per hour to sitter. To do this you would need to charge $40 or more per hour (your profit) and very few parents would pay this much
You would also have a 3 to 4 hour minimum and an equal cancellation fee. My children are grown but I used neighborhood sitters or young people from church. This was 20 to 25 years ago and I paid $10-$12/hr. My daughter babysat in high school and college and was paid $20 an hour. Sorry to burst your bubble.

Seeking sitters charges $25/hr in DC. They do have a 4 hour minimum.
I haven’t used them in DC, but I have used them other places for out of town weddings or other events, and they have been great. I agree with OP that care.com is a lot of legwork that I don’t want to do for a date night.

How little do the seeking sitters employees get paid. If the company , for example, is keeping $10 and passing on $15 to the sitter, I find it hard to believe they’d be attracting top candidates. I would feel much better getting a direct recommendation from a friend or neighbor and paying the sitter $25 or $30 per hour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent here. I am highly considering starting a professional babysitting agency. All sitters would be career nannies, nurses, teachers, etc. Families could hop on our app, put in their day/time they need, and book a sitter. All sitters would have already been interviewed, background checked, and had their references verified so any available option would yield a professional competent pre-screened sitter.

Do you think there is a need for this? I know that you can book someone on care.com or sitter city, but we had overwhelming experiences with both. A ton of candidates but none seemingly qualified or ones with bad reviews from previous families. You have to pay extra on top of the membership to background check and then do references yourself. It's just a lot for a date night sitter or back up coverage.

No. It won't work. You would have to pay $25 and up per hour to sitter. To do this you would need to charge $40 or more per hour (your profit) and very few parents would pay this much
You would also have a 3 to 4 hour minimum and an equal cancellation fee. My children are grown but I used neighborhood sitters or young people from church. This was 20 to 25 years ago and I paid $10-$12/hr. My daughter babysat in high school and college and was paid $20 an hour. Sorry to burst your bubble.

Seeking sitters charges $25/hr in DC. They do have a 4 hour minimum.
I haven’t used them in DC, but I have used them other places for out of town weddings or other events, and they have been great. I agree with OP that care.com is a lot of legwork that I don’t want to do for a date night.

They take their cut out of that $25 and the sitter is probably paid $15/hr. This is what high school students get for babysitting!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent here. I am highly considering starting a professional babysitting agency. All sitters would be career nannies, nurses, teachers, etc. Families could hop on our app, put in their day/time they need, and book a sitter. All sitters would have already been interviewed, background checked, and had their references verified so any available option would yield a professional competent pre-screened sitter.

Do you think there is a need for this? I know that you can book someone on care.com or sitter city, but we had overwhelming experiences with both. A ton of candidates but none seemingly qualified or ones with bad reviews from previous families. You have to pay extra on top of the membership to background check and then do references yourself. It's just a lot for a date night sitter or back up coverage.

No. It won't work. You would have to pay $25 and up per hour to sitter. To do this you would need to charge $40 or more per hour (your profit) and very few parents would pay this much
You would also have a 3 to 4 hour minimum and an equal cancellation fee. My children are grown but I used neighborhood sitters or young people from church. This was 20 to 25 years ago and I paid $10-$12/hr. My daughter babysat in high school and college and was paid $20 an hour. Sorry to burst your bubble.

Seeking sitters charges $25/hr in DC. They do have a 4 hour minimum.
I haven’t used them in DC, but I have used them other places for out of town weddings or other events, and they have been great. I agree with OP that care.com is a lot of legwork that I don’t want to do for a date night.

They take their cut out of that $25 and the sitter is probably paid $15/hr. This is what high school students get for babysitting!

Yes. But they have to wait until their mom’s friend asks them to babysit.

[Anonymous]

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