Frequently asked questions

REC'D BY helps families find and manage trusted care through personal recommendations from friends, family, and their extended village. Find babysitters, pet sitters, and house sitters recommended by people you know, build your care team, organize household information, and coordinate care in one place. Think of it as part trusted recommendation resource, part care-team CRM, and part family care calendar.

No. REC'D BY isn't built around caregivers advertising themselves to an open marketplace. It starts with recommendations from real people and the connections between them. The goal isn't the largest possible list of people — it's a more meaningful place to start.

Not forever. REC'D BY currently focuses on babysitters, pet sitters, and house sitters, but the larger vision is to make it easier to find and manage more of the trusted people who help your household run. More household-care and service categories are planned.

My Sitters is your personal care roster — the babysitters, pet sitters, house sitters, family members, and other caregivers you already know and trust.

Recommended Sitters are caregivers shared by people in your village. Rather than finding a name in a public directory, you can understand how that person connects back to someone you know.

Found someone recommended by your village but aren't ready to reach out yet? Save them as a Potential Sitter so you can easily find them when you need care later.

Your free REC'D BY experience connects you to recommendations from your direct friends. Expanded membership features can take your village further, helping you discover recommended care through friends of friends and giving you additional tools for managing your household and care team.

Yes — and you have options. Offer the booking on a first-to-accept basis, collect interest from several caregivers and choose the person you want, or manually assign someone if you've already arranged the care outside REC'D BY. Either way, the booking can live on your REC'D BY calendar with the appropriate care details.

Yes. REC'D BY supports one-time, recurring, and multi-day bookings — from Friday date night to weekly childcare or an extended vacation.

No. A booking can use the location where care is actually happening — your home, Grandma's house, a vacation property, a hotel, or another location relevant to the booking.

REC'D BY is designed so care isn't tied exclusively to your home address. When your village connects you with recommended care in another area, you can use a different booking location — such as your hotel or vacation home — and keep the relevant booking information together.

Caregivers never need a parent account. REC'D BY provides a care-specific experience that lets sitters respond to requests, keep their availability current, stay on top of booking confirmations, and access the information they need. Sitter and care accounts are always free.

Absolutely. Grandparents, relatives, and other trusted people can be part of your care team and assigned to bookings so they have access to the same scheduling and relevant care information. If Grandma has the kids for the week while you're away, REC'D BY can help keep that care organized, too.

Direct friends can see your household name, household account members, and basic information you provide about your children and pets, such as names, ages, and gender. They cannot see sensitive household information such as your address, security information, private care instructions, or detailed household notes. Friends of friends can see only the parent/account-owner members of your household. See our Trust Center for more detail.

Personal recommendations are at the heart of REC'D BY, but a recommendation isn't a replacement for your family's own screening and hiring decisions. Background-check functionality is coming soon as part of REC'D BY's expanded membership experience. Visit our Trust Center for more about recommendations, verification, background checks, and family responsibility.

The core REC'D BY experience will always be free — including connecting with direct friends and seeing the babysitters, pet sitters, and house sitters they recommend. Messaging and booking those sitters is part of an optional household membership ($6.99/mo or $39.99/yr — save 50%), which also unlocks friends-of-friends recommendations, your extended Village, recurring scheduling, day-of care details, expanded household and care-team tools, and more — with background checks coming soon. Caregiver accounts are always free, and REC'D BY charges no per-booking fees — if you choose to pay a sitter by card through REC'D BY, only the card processor's fee applies.

Families who join REC'D BY now through January 1, 2027 receive their first year of expanded membership free. After that, membership is $6.99/mo or $39.99/yr — save 50% with annual billing.

Yes. Eligible care payments and tips can be processed through REC'D BY for applicable transaction and convenience fees. Prefer to pay directly? You can use supported external payment options without REC'D BY processing the transaction.