All bookings between customers should be organised and paid for via the Bubble app.

Doing so brings multiple benefits to both parents and sitters, and it protects our community and keeps it thriving. Taking your sits and relationships off platform risks the safety of our members and breaches our Terms of Service, which unfortunately will result in your accounts being suspended.

Every sitter on an in-home child booking holds public liability insurance up to £1million in case there are any accidental injury or property damages during a booking. This insurance is void if the booking is not organised and paid through the app.

On Bubble each booking is reviewed by both parties. The more bookings - and good reviews - a sitter has on their Bubble profile usually means the more requests they’re going to get from other families in future. So keeping sits on Bubble is great for business!

Parents with a good track record working with sitters also usually find it easier to attract new sitters if and when they need them. This is really helpful if you need to book someone last minute who hasn't met you yet.

Regular community reviews combined with our ongoing safety checks means that our platform is the safest way for both sitters and families to have sits. You'll have the most up-to-date confidence with each other on Bubble.

We've invested in a convenient in-app payment process with reminders and a team to support. So busy parents won't forget, and sitters don't need to chase payment. People don't need to share bank details or remember to get cash out. And if there is a payment dispute, the Bubble team is there to support.

Bubble's fantastic support team is on hand for all our customers before, during and after a booking. We see the most successful sits when everything from organising, communication to payment takes place on the platform. That's when everyone has a shared agreement of what is expected, even for ongoing family/sitter pairings.
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If the booking takes place on Bubble, the Safety Bubble tool is at hand for both sitters and parents with ways to get support. Our team usually gets back to you very quickly and work 8am - 9pm, UK time.

But we can only support you if the booking has been organised and takes place on Bubble. Read more here on why to keep communication on the platform.

When a booking is confirmed on Bubble you'll get reminders before the booking then reminders to pay and review, which are all done at the touch of a button. Because we know people are busy!

So that we can operate and continuously invest in the platform, a percentage of what the parent pays for their booking is payable to Bubble as a platform fee.

Specifically, platform fees go towards:

An introductory platform fee is charged on a sitter's first booking with a new family, and in follow up bookings they are much lower, between just 3.5 - 6% (depending on whether that sitter has achieved "Super Sitter" status or not).

Most confirmed bookings on the platform do go ahead, but where there are late notice parent cancellations, sitters benefit from either a mandatory cancellation payment (for sits cancelled within 6 hours of the start time), and are also are often sent goodwill payments by the parent via the to make up for loss of income.

Parents know that in the (even rarer) case where a sitter cancels unexpectedly they will be able to find another sitter very quickly. We make it very easy in the app to repost a booking, and our customer support team are here to support you find a replacement sitter.