We’ve learned a lot over the last year and are grateful to each and every one of you who have helped us create an amazing community of dog lovers. You’ve given us loads of feedback around how to improve both the DogBuddy community and dog sitting experience.
We’ve listened to you and have made lots of enhancements
In this blog post we will be covering the biggest changes we have made and how they will improve for you and your pooch.
Many of these changes were made possible when DogBuddy teamed up with Bibulu earlier in the year. Read more about that here.
What’s changed?
New website, DogBuddy.com: We’ve launched a new and improved version of our website combining the best of both dogbuddy.co.uk and bibulu.com. It includes loads of new features that make it easier to find, book and communicate with other users. The design has got a fresh coat of paint as well, and the site is now even more mobile-friendly, so you can make, approve and check your bookings on the go.
Right, how does this affect me?
Dog Owners
Simplified Messaging and Bookings
All items in the inbox are now specific threads that can start as a direct booking (when you’ve already entered payment details) or message enquiry (when you’ve only sent a message and are waiting for sitter’s availability). A direct booking can be accepted or declined as usual. In message enquiry the sitter can easily “pre-approve” you and the site notifies you to confirm & pay. All items in the inbox include the service requested, dates and all the doggie info.
This should make it easier to communicate with sitters as they can make decisions faster.
Book doggie day care directly
You can now book doggie day care as easily as you book dog boarding, even for non-consecutive dates. No more asking for several custom quotes.
Book Dog Walking easily
Now you can request dog walking services when sending a message enquiry. When you include your required dates and dog information, the Sitter can “pre-approve” with a total price so you can confirm & pay. Simple!
New “Other service”
We understand that much like their Owners, all dogs are different, so we introduced a new “Other service” feature for you to book anything that’s not covered by the standard Dog Walking, Doggie Day Care and Dog Boarding categories. This might include dog sitting in your own home, grooming, training or any other combination of services.
Dog Sitters
All services are now clearly advertised
This is your business, and we’ve given you the flexibility to offer 24hr dog boarding, doggie daycare, dog walking and “Other services”. Dog owners can now specify the precise service they’d like to book when they contact you through your listing.
The new “Other services” option allows Owners to request non-standard services like checkups, sitting at their home, grooming and more. If you receive an enquiry for “Other services”, you can indicate a tailored price before “pre-aproving them”.
Updated Cancellation Policies
We have gathered plenty of feedback from sitters and owners alike and have streamlined the cancellation policies to reflect the community needs.
New policies are as follows:
Flexible: Full refund up to a day before service starts (used to be 3 days notice and 50% refund after that)
Moderate: Full refund with 5 days notice , 50% refund thereafter (used to be 7 days notice)
Strict: 50% refund with 7 days notice, no refund thereafter (hasn’t changed)
In the case of Day Care, Walking and Other Services, the flexible cancellation policy always applies.
You can find out more about policies in this Help Centre Article
Owners can book Doggie Daycare directly
When owners request doggie daycare, they can now also select non-consecutive dates to make it easier for you. Like dog boarding, it’s also now possible to define pricing per additional dog for this service. The site will default it to 60% of your existing day care price, but you can change this whenever you’d like.
Dog walking and “Other services” are not directly bookable and always start with a message enquiry from the Owner including the required dates and dog information (you then pre-aprove them with a tailored price)
“Your Profile” is renamed to “Your Listing”
This makes more sense; you’re listing your doggie services on DogBuddy.
Simplified inbox
Every message enquiry is an opportunity for you to secure a booking. With that in mind, we’ve combined messages and booking enquiries into one. From now on, an Owner may contact you with an enquiry for a specific service and dates, allowing you to pre-approve if you’re happy to go ahead (and adjust the price if you need to). This gives you complete control without having several message threads.
You can still get direct bookings (when people have already paid and all you need to do is accept), but this is only possible for 24hr boarding and Day Care. Dog walking and Other services always start with a message enquiry that you can pre-approve.
Editing prices and adding supplements
Sometimes Owners will communicate specific doggie needs in the message enquiry, and depending on the request, you may want to offer a different price to the one advertised. Now you can edit the price before pre-approving the enquiry.
For bookings where new requirements are added once the booking is confirmed (e.g. the dog needs to stay one extra day), you can “Request a Supplement” through the booking thread, as long as the booking hasn’t ended.
Pick up and drop off times for 24h boarding service:
We have removed the ability for a dog owner to select people pick up and drop off times when requesting 24h dog boarding. We are working on making this process even better as we received numerous feedback about issues with the existing feature. Until now, the price was calculated pro-rated on the basic overnight rate, in increments of one third. Now when an owner books with you it is only in increments of 24h and you agree to pick up times through messages.
The easiest way to deal with price adjustments now is:
If you receive an enquiry and the estimated price we pre-calculated for you should be adjusted, then “edit” the price accordingly before pre-approving (and inform the owner in a message)
If you receive a direct booking or have a confirmed booking and an extra requirement comes up you can request a supplement through the platform (and inform the owner in a message as they have the ability to decline if not in agreement)
Say “hi” to Custom Bookings
This new function replaces the old “Custom Quote” feature, so you can create a reservation for an Owner directly from the “Contacts” tab in your dashboard. With the new inbox improvements, you shouldn’t need customs bookings for brand new clients. However, for existing relationships (when you get an informal phone call or SMS from an owner) you can easily “book them in” so they can confirm & pay. As always, this means you benefit from our insurance, getting reviews and easy payment management
Direct bookings expire after 24 hours if unanswered:
If you receive a Direct booking (where the Owner has already entered payment details and is waiting for a response), you need to accept or decline within 24 hours, or the booking will expire.
We made this decision based on feedback from Owners who were getting frustrated by delayed responses from sitters while their credit card was on hold, which prevented them from making another booking.
Automatic payments to sitters within 2 working days of booking completion:
You no longer need to click on “collect” in order to get paid. We process payments between 1 and 2 working days after a booking is successfully completed.
Note: If you had payments yet to be “collected”, these will be transferred to you within 1-2 working days automatically this week.
What’s coming next?
This is just the tip of the iceberg! We’ve put together a full set of FAQs on all these changes. Keep an eye out as loads of new features roll out over the next few weeks.
We would like to take this opportunity to give a big thanks to the whole DogBuddy team. They’ve been working like a dog over the last few months to deliver all these pawesome improvements.
And most importantly a huge thank you to our loyal Dog Owners and Sitters; we’re so happy to have walked this journey with you, creating an amazing community of dog lovers! Hope you are as excited as we are to see where the future takes us!
If there are any other features you would love to see, please let us know by contacting help [at] dogbuddy.com
Woofy regards,
Facundo & the DogBuddy Team
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