Bubble - Babysitters On Demand 4+

Great app! Great sitters!

I’ve used the app a few times to find a babysitter and have always had a great experience.

The app itself is easy to use. Choose the date and time of your required sit. Sitters apply for the job. You choose which sitter you like the sound of/hourly rate of. You get their phone no from an email confirmation so you can confirm things directly with the sitter. They turn up at required time and place. And they take over while you work/go out/whatever. At the end of the session you pay them through the app too, and it pays them to the penny for their time so no awkward scrabbling around trying to work out what you owe or looking for change 😉. Simple and effective.

The sitters tend to be fantastic. I say tend to be, as of 5 sitters I’ve booked, 1 did not turn up at all 🤬, 1 was an average personality and preferred talking to me than playing with my kid, and 3 we’re so tremendous I would move them in.

Great Concept but needs improving

The idea of Bubble is great, and I have babysat for some great families from it. However, I do feel it prioritises families over sitters for a few reasons and needs a few improvements .
Firstly, sitters can’t see their reviews which is frustrating as I would like to know how things went from the family’s end and to see if there’s anything I can improve on. Secondly, the app is not great, you can’t filter by time, and on the ‘regular jobs’ you have to click on each job to see the timings. Then when you come out of it, it takes you back to the top of the list again. Also, parents are allowed to modify the timings whenever they like, sometimes just before the sit, and can also cancel without any repercussions, whereas if a sitter cancels their profile gets deactivated. I understand the fee being taken from the sitter, however I would expect to be treated better as the worker if a percentage of my pay is being taken. The app can also be very glitchy, and sometimes I don’t see a message for days after it has been sent to me. I think parents should have a time limit on accepting a sit also, as sometimes they leave it days and then accept you at the last minute just before the sit. I think if these things got improved, it could be a great app, but it is definitely hard to get sits in the beginning and almost impossible to book an interview with their team!

Ripping off sitters - discrimination by favouring parents, AVOID unless you’re severely desperate

I have done 10 sits and had to pay them £30-40 worth of fees in a month! Compare this to what parents pay - just £10 /month to book as many sitters as they like. Which other app charges THIS much? And they claim to be the cheapest.. Of course they have to charge fees for their service, but there’s no reason why I would have to pay triple as much of what parents do. No wonder the app is created by parents, it’s favouring parents in every aspect! Very selfish. I contacted them about this suggesting to cap the fees for us sitters to make it fair to both sides, not just affordable for parents, however have received a very rude email from the founder of the app, zero understanding, only defending himself, making provocative statements, and writing things like “you’ll make more money than anywhere else. If there was a better app than us then you’d be using that instead”. I have NEVER earned as LITTLE as on this app. Then he said “we don’t charge sitters any money”! Ah yes? Who has then taken all my well deserved money from me? Charging me a percentage of my salary is not charging me any money? Absolutely horrid customer service, he demonstrated to me they don’t care about their sitters, they only want revenue. It’s such a shame as I believe this app would have amazing potential if they didn’t just think of their own benefit and treated sitters and parents equally.

Developer Response ,

Dear Kate. You're ignoring one important fact - and that is that parents also have to pay their sitters (in your case, hundreds of pounds in a few weeks lone.) bubble is a platform for parents and babysitters to connect with each other. Sitters select their own rates, and have total control and flexibility over the jobs they do and do not take.

We are very proud of helping thousands of sitters meet more families, earn more money and organise their babysitting in a more secure and transparent way. Like any business, we need to charge fees for our service so that we can operate our platform and continuously invest in it.

The fees we charge cover insurance, secure payment, customer service and of course generating parent demand for sitters on bubble. We’re glad to see that in a matter of weeks you managed to meet many new clients and secure much work through our platform.

Babysitters on bubble on average earn more than they do via any other similar service. Furthermore, because of how bubble has been designed to work for sitters, the most popular sitters on bubble have the highest hourly rates - we are a platform that helps sitters earn more and more money, not less. This is fact our team is extremely proud of.

Your accusations with regards to how we treat babysitters could not be further from the truth. We tried on several occasions, and spent much time trying to discuss this issue with you – however were met with aggressive and insulting language from the outset. We’ll have to agree to disagree on this, though will absolutely be taking the feedback on board, as we always do.

Since day one, we’ve built bubble with our amazing sitter community at the forefront of our minds, and we shall continue to do that. Best. Team bubble.