Sitter FAQs

A family who knows you may have added you as one of their sitters so they can keep track of their trusted caregivers and recommend you to others. Claiming the profile connects it to your account and lets you manage the information associated with it.

No. Sitter accounts are always free. You can claim or create your profile and use sitter features without purchasing a subscription.

Claiming your profile gives you control over your sitter information. You can complete and update your profile, manage your availability, see recommendations, communicate with families, and manage sitting requests and bookings through your account.

Absolutely. You don't have to wait for a family to add you. Create your sitter profile, add your information, and invite families you already sit for to join you on REC'D BY. Once you're connected, they can recommend you, schedule bookings, share care information, and use REC'D BY with you.

Yes. If you already have families you sit for, you can invite them to join you on REC'D BY. This is especially helpful if you're creating your sitter profile before one of your families has added you.

REC'D BY isn't designed as a completely public sitter directory. Sitter discovery is built around connections between families and their extended village. The exact information available to another user may depend on their relationship to you and the applicable privacy settings.

REC'D BY is designed to facilitate connections through its trusted community rather than expose sitter contact information publicly. You remain in control of whether you accept or decline a sitting request.

Yes. You can message families you sit for directly through REC'D BY, making it easier to keep questions and booking-related conversations together.

Absolutely not. A request is just that — a request. You decide whether a date, family, or sitting opportunity works for you.

Yes. You can keep your availability updated so families have a better idea of when you may be available before sending a request. You can also add unavailable dates such as vacations, holidays, school commitments, or other plans.

Yes. You can add your preferred pay rate to your sitter profile to help establish expectations with families.

Yes. Depending on the care you provide, your profile can indicate that you're available for childcare, pet sitting, house sitting, or a combination of them.

Yes. Your profile can include relevant certifications, credentials, and training so families can better understand your experience. REC'D BY does not independently guarantee a sitter's qualifications solely because information appears on a profile. Families remain responsible for determining whether a sitter is appropriate for their needs.

Families can provide the information you need for the sitting, including details about children and pets, routines, household instructions, parking information, emergency information, house rules, and other care notes. For confirmed bookings, detailed job information becomes available one hour before the booking begins, so it's there when you need it without remaining indefinitely accessible.

The care timeline organizes time-specific instructions for a booking into an easy-to-follow schedule. Depending on the family's instructions, your timeline might include nap and bedtimes, meals and snacks, medication times and dosages, when pets need to be fed or let outside, and other scheduled care tasks. For longer or overnight bookings, the timeline can help you keep track of what's happening throughout the booking — not just at the beginning.

You have two options. You can download an ICS file for a booking and add it to your personal calendar, or you can subscribe to your REC'D BY bookings calendar using a calendar URL so your REC'D BY schedule stays connected to the calendar you already use.

Every notification shows up in the app, and you choose whether to also receive them by text, email, or both in your notification preferences — with a separate setting for reminders, invites, confirmations, and messages.

Claim your profile so you can review and manage the information associated with it. If you believe a profile has been incorrectly associated with you or there's another issue you can't resolve through your account, contact REC'D BY for assistance.

Yes. If a family created the profile for you, you'll first need to claim the profile and verify it's you with a one-time code sent to the phone number or email on the profile. This helps ensure that only the person the profile actually belongs to can take control of or remove it. Once verified, you can remove your sitter profile according to REC'D BY's account and privacy options. Additional information about account deletion, retained information, and recommendations submitted by other users is available in the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

No. REC'D BY helps families and sitters connect and coordinate care. Sitters are not employees of REC'D BY, and REC'D BY does not employ, supervise, or direct the individuals who use the platform.

REC'D BY is built around personal recommendations, but a recommendation is not a guarantee. Families are responsible for deciding who is appropriate to care for their children, pets, homes, or other responsibilities. Sitters are also responsible for deciding which families and opportunities are right for them. Visit our Trust Center to learn more about how REC'D BY approaches trust, safety, recommendations, and user responsibilities.