Create an account, then search by service, location and dates. Open a sitter to check their rates, services, reviews and availability, and send a request with your dates and pet details. The booking is confirmed once the sitter accepts and you pay. Start from Search sitters or browse all services.
Help Centre
Answers for pet parents and pet sitters, from first request to final payout.
Getting started
Boarding, house sitting, doggy daycare, drop-in visits, walks and pet taxi. What you can book near you depends on which of those local sitters offer. Compare them on all services.
Search matches your location, service, dates and pet details against sitters who can take the booking.
For travel services such as walks and drop-in visits, sitters set how far they are willing to travel, so you only see sitters who can actually reach you.
You can browse without one, but a sitter cannot confidently accept a booking without knowing your pet. Add the type, breed or size, routine, temperament, and any medical or care notes before you send your first request.
Enough for the sitter to say yes or no without a round of questions:
- Dates and times, including drop-off and pick-up
- Feeding amounts and any medication
- Walk, toilet and sleep routine
- How your pet is with other animals, strangers and being left alone
- Anything that would change how care runs, such as a recent injury or a fear of thunderstorms
Leave out keys, door codes and your address. Those are shared after the booking is confirmed and paid.
Yes. First-time pet parents get $10 off their first booking, applied automatically at checkout with no code to enter. See $10 off your first booking.
Dogs and cats, and also small animals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians. It comes down to the individual sitter: every profile lists the pets they take, and you can filter search by pet type.
Usually, depending on who is free. Search your dates and message several sitters at once rather than waiting on one reply.
If nothing comes back, widening the search area or moving a drop-off by a few hours tends to open up more options than waiting does.
You cannot send a booking request or leave a tip until the address on your account is confirmed, because that is where booking confirmations and receipts go. Click the link in the email we sent when you signed up.
Did not get it? Check spam, then use the banner at the top of your dashboard to send it again.
Choosing a sitter
Read the whole profile, not just the rating: their experience, the services they offer, their home setup where it matters, the pets they are comfortable with, and their reviews. Then message them about your pet specifically and see how they answer.
If anything is still unclear, ask for a meet and greet or keep looking. A sitter who is right for your pet will make you feel informed before you pay, not after.
Every sitter completes identity verification through an independent verification provider before their profile can go live. Sitters on a paid Monthly or Yearly plan also complete a Canadian criminal record check through Certn.
Verification confirms who a sitter is. It does not tell you whether they are right for your pet, so read the profile and ask questions too. Full detail is on the verification page.
Reviews on a profile come from completed Hello Marshy bookings and, in some cases, from past clients the sitter invited to review them. Sitters cannot edit or delete a review once it is left.
Yes. Arrange it through Hello Marshy messages before you confirm. Once you have sent a request, either of you can propose the first one: press "Propose a Meet & Greet" in the conversation to suggest a date, time and place, and the other can adjust it. Meet and greets are worth the time for nervous pets, long stays, house sitting and any first booking with a new sitter.
Keep the conversation on Hello Marshy so the request history and care details stay in one place if you ever need support.
Yes. Plenty of sitters are experienced with senior pets, daily medication, anxiety, mobility support and strict routines. Look for that experience in their profile, then say exactly what your pet needs in your first message rather than after they accept.
Ask for a meet and greet. For a pet with real needs, a sitter seeing the routine once in person is worth more than any amount of written instruction.
Bookings and payments
When the sitter accepts and you have paid. Sending a request starts a conversation, it does not hold the dates.
Once a sitter accepts you have 24 hours to pay before the request expires. If you have a meet and greet booked, that window runs past the meeting instead, so you are never asked to pay before you have met.
The sitter rate, plus Marshy Cares if you add it. Hello Marshy charges pet parents no booking fee, no service fee and no card processing fee. The total at checkout is the total you pay.
Paying places a hold on your card rather than taking the money straight away. We take it before care starts, and on a booking made well in advance we take it sooner, because a card authorization cannot be held open indefinitely. You see the full amount before you confirm either way.
Pay through Hello Marshy, not directly to the sitter. A booking paid outside the platform has no record, no support and no Marshy Cares behind it.
Optional booking protection you can add at checkout. On eligible bookings it covers eligible costs after the first $100, up to $750 per booking, for up to 30 days after care. It is not insurance.
Tell us within 72 hours of the booking ending if you need to use it. Read what Marshy Cares covers before you add it.
Yes, from your dashboard or from the booking request panel in your conversation with the sitter. What happens to the money depends on when you cancel and on the cancellation policy shown on the sitter profile. If we have not taken the payment yet, the hold is released instead of charged.
For anything time-sensitive, contact support.
Open your conversation with the sitter and use Edit request on the booking request panel. While the request is pending you can change the service, dates, times, pets and Marshy Cares yourself, and the sitter sees the update in the chat.
Once the sitter has accepted, the request is locked: pay to confirm it as it stands, or decline it and send a new one.
Once the booking is confirmed, use Change booking on the booking request panel or on the booking in your dashboard (near the end of a stay, the button says "Need more time? Extend your stay"). Pick the new dates or times and you see the new price before you send. If it costs more, we hold the difference on your card; it is charged with the rest of your booking, or straight away if your booking has already been charged, and released if the sitter declines or does not answer in time. If it costs less, the difference comes back to you once your booking has been charged. Once care has started only the end can change. A booking cannot be made shorter here; for that, or anything else the booking tools will not cover, contact support.
A request expires if the sitter does not respond within 24 hours, and an accepted request expires if it is not paid within 24 hours. A meet and greet keeps either open until 24 hours after the meeting, unless the request was paid for upfront. Nothing is charged in either case.
Send a new request, or message a few sitters at once so you are not waiting on one reply. Sitters with current availability tend to answer fastest.
Yes, for walks, drop-in visits and daycare. Choose a repeating schedule when you send the request, such as a walk every weekday, and the sitter accepts the whole pattern rather than a set of dates.
Each visit is paid 48 hours before it happens, not all up front. Manage the schedule from Recurring care in your dashboard, where you can pause it, resume it or cancel it.
Away for a set stretch instead? A one-time booking can cover every day between two dates: one visit a day at the same time, one price, paid once.
Nothing is lost. If the payment fails when we take it, the booking goes back to awaiting payment: we email you, and Accept & Pay reappears on the booking in your conversation with a fresh 24-hour window.
If the card itself was the problem, add a new one under Payment methods in your dashboard first, then pay again.
Under Payment methods in your dashboard. You can add a card, remove one, and choose the default used for bookings. Cards are stored by Stripe, our payment provider, so Hello Marshy never sees the full number.
During and after care
Write them for someone meeting your pet for the first time. Cover:
- Feeding: what, how much, when and where
- Medication: dose, timing and how your pet takes it
- Walks, toilet breaks and sleeping setup
- Allergies, and your vet name and phone number
- House rules, such as which rooms are off limits
The pet care guides have a printable checklist for each service.
Agree what you want before care starts: photos, a note after each visit, or a message at the end of the day. Most sitters are happy to match whatever you ask for if they know in advance.
Keep updates in Hello Marshy messages so support can see the history if something goes wrong.
If a pet or a person is in immediate danger, call your vet or local emergency services first. Tell your sitter, then tell us.
Urgent support: 438-792-5448 or contact@hellomarshy.com.
Your sitter does, once the booking has ended. If they don't, it completes on its own 12 hours after the service end time. We email you to ask for a review, and the sitter's earnings are released 3 days after completion.
After a booking completes we email you a review link, and it is also waiting in your dashboard. Say what actually happened: how they communicated, whether they were on time, and how your pet was when you got back.
Yes, once the booking has completed. Leave a tip appears on the completed booking in your conversation and on your bookings page, for up to 30 days after the booking ends. The minimum is $2 and there is no fee on top.
The whole tip goes to the sitter through their normal payout. It is never expected, and a review helps them just as much.
About Hello Marshy
A Canadian pet care marketplace. Pet parents find and book verified local sitters for boarding, house sitting, daycare, drop-in visits, walks and pet taxi, and sitters run their own business on it with their own rates and their own calendar.
Sitters set their prices. We add no booking fee, no service fee and no card processing fee for pet parents.
The Greater Toronto Area, with more of Canada to follow. If we have not reached your city yet, join the waitlist and we will tell you when we do.
Mainly in how sitters are paid. Rover takes a cut of every booking. On Hello Marshy a sitter chooses: a paid membership and keep 100% of the booking, or a free plan with a service fee only on bookings that actually happen.
For pet parents the difference is the total. You pay the sitter rate, with no booking fee, service fee or processing fee added on either plan, and Marshy Cares is optional and priced separately at checkout. We also cover more than dogs and cats.
There is a fuller comparison on the Hello Marshy vs Rover post.
Not yet. Hello Marshy runs in your browser on a phone as well as a desktop, and iOS and Android apps are on the way.
In the meantime, turn on email or text notifications in your dashboard so a booking message does not sit unread.
Yes. Share your link from Refer a friend in your dashboard. A friend who signs up with it gets $10 off their first booking, and you get a $10 booking credit once they complete it. Both of you need to be in the same country.
Credits are applied automatically the next time you pay for a booking, with no code to enter.
Your account
Choose which emails and texts you get under Notification settings in your dashboard. A few messages about your bookings and account security are always sent, because missing one could cost you a booking.
Keep your email and phone current so a sitter reply does not sit unread. An accepted request expires if it is not paid within 24 hours.
So we can reach you about your bookings. You verify a mobile number with a code before you send your first request or pay, which also helps us keep out people who sign up to scam others.
Your number is for Hello Marshy only. We never show it to sitters, pet parents or any other member, so keep talking through Hello Marshy messages.
Once your number is verified, we text you about messages and your bookings, unless you have already changed your text settings. Turn text alerts off or back on any time under Notification settings.
Even with text alerts off, our team may text you about something urgent. That means only:
- A booking in progress or about to start, when someone can't be reached, a pet needs urgent care, or there is a cancellation or no-show close to the start
- Your account's safety, such as someone else trying to use it
These texts start with "Hello Marshy (urgent):" and are never marketing, reminders, message alerts or payment nudges. Replying STOP stops all texts from us.
Use a mobile number that is yours. Internet numbers, such as Google Voice or TextNow, and landlines are not accepted.
Yes. Cancel any active requests and confirmed bookings first, then choose Delete my account in My account, or contact us from the email on your account. How deleting your account works.
Use the contact form or email contact@hellomarshy.com. Include your account email and the booking, and you will get a faster answer.
For an urgent safety issue during care, call 438-792-5448.
Still stuck?
We answer account, booking and payment questions directly. For a safety emergency during care, call us.