Recurring care: how to book, change and manage repeating walks

First, the one thing to know

Everything money-related happens at one moment each week — Wednesday at noon, in your SITTER's local time, not yours:

Next week's visits are added, and your saved card is charged for them.
Your sitter is paid for the week that ended the previous Sunday, once every visit in it has been closed out.

The first week is the exception. Your sitter accepting doesn't charge it — it goes to payment like any other booking, and you have 72 hours to pay. Miss that and the whole repeating arrangement is cancelled before it ever starts.

Doing nothing is the normal path. The day before each charge we send a reminder that next week is about to book. It is not a confirmation request — ignore it and the week books itself. It's there so you can change something if you need to.

Clients: how to book a recurring visit

Open Search and pick Dog Walking or Drop-In, then set your location and start date as usual. Recurring isn't available for boarding or house sitting.

At Step 3, choose Every week. The panel underneath spells out what you're signing up for before you go any further.

Step 3 of the SitSignal search wizard with Just one, Multiple and Every week options; Every week is selected — Step 3 — pick Every week. Just one and Multiple are still there for one-off bookings.

At Step 6 you build a single week. Tap a weekday to add it, then set the start time and how long the visit runs. That one week is the template your sitter repeats — you're not picking dates for every week ahead.

Setting the time and duration for a repeating Monday, and the finished week showing Monday and Wednesday — Add a day, set its time and duration, repeat. The running total shows walks per week, not per booking.

Add more than one visit to the same day if you need it — up to four drop-ins a day.
Visits start at 30 minutes and change in 15-minute steps. A week can hold up to 14 visits, and two visits on the same weekday can't overlap.
Your sitter may have a separate, often lower recurring rate — the weekly price you see already uses it.
Extra pets are charged per 30 minutes of every visit, so a second dog raises the price of every walk, not the week once.

Finish the wizard and send the request. Your sitter accepts once, and that's the whole arrangement agreed.

The client bookings inbox showing a Repeats weekly booking priced per week — A repeating booking shows its pattern and a weekly price instead of a date range.

What if I don't pay for the first week?

Your sitter accepting is what puts the first week up for payment, not what charges it. You have 72 hours, with reminders at 48, 24, 6 and 1 hour to go. Miss the deadline and the booking is cancelled and the whole repeating arrangement ends before it starts — you'd need to send a fresh request.

I've added a second dog. What does that do to the weekly price?

The additional-pet fee is charged per 30 minutes of every visit, so a second pet raises the price of every walk in every week — not the week once. Animals other than dogs and cats add their own per-visit charge on top. There's no way to change which pets are on a running arrangement: you'd end it and book again with the pets you want.

Do holidays cost more?

No. A sitter's holiday rate only replaces their nightly rate on boarding and house sitting — walks and drop-ins are priced from the base rate whatever the date, so Christmas week costs what any other week costs. If your sitter isn't working a holiday they'll cancel those visits, and you get their value back.

Clients: how to edit this week or next week

Open the booking. This week and Next week show what is booked now. Plan upcoming weeks opens a month view where you can customize or skip several future weeks in one pass.

The client booking screen showing First week and The week after, each visit with a cancel control — Each week stands on its own — its dates, its price, and its own visits.

Drop a visit — tap it on the week card. No approval needed; it's your call.
Add a day — use Change next week or Add or drop a walk this week. A day outside your usual schedule needs your sitter's yes; until they answer it isn't charged and doesn't hold their time. If they haven't answered by the end of that day, it's dropped and you're not charged.

Tap Add or drop a walk this week to open the week editor. It tells you exactly how long the week stays free to change.

The Upcoming week editor showing the free-to-change deadline, the current days with remove controls, and an Add a day chip row — The banner names the exact cutoff — the Wednesday noon before that week begins.

Before that Wednesday, changes cost nothing either way. After the charge you can still change the week through Sunday: the difference is charged to your card, or comes back as SitSignal Credit that starts applying to future weekly charges automatically.

Make the same change three weeks running and it becomes your new normal schedule — automatically, in both directions. Add a Friday three weeks in a row and Friday joins the pattern; drop the same Monday three weeks in a row and Monday leaves it. The three weeks have to match each other exactly.

I'm going away — how do I skip a week?

Open Plan upcoming weeks, find the vacation week, and choose Skip week. Before Wednesday at noon the week before, it is removed without a charge and the regular schedule resumes afterward. You can restore it before that deadline. Once a week is booked, cancel its visits under your sitter's cancellation terms instead.

Can my sitter turn down a single week without ending the whole thing?

Not as one action. A sitter's only week-level tool is cancelling that week's visits one by one — you get their value back, they're paid for none of them, and the rest of the schedule carries on. The week editor is yours alone; a sitter can't rewrite a week. The only thing they approve or refuse is an extra day you've asked for outside the usual pattern.

Whose clock is Wednesday at noon on?

Your sitter's, always — the charge, the retries, the deadline, the payout and the day-before reminder are all judged against your sitter's local date and hour, not yours. The week itself always runs Monday to Sunday, so a daylight-saving change never moves a week boundary or a visit time.

My sitter raised their rate. Does my weekly charge change?

Yes, from the next week onward. Each week is priced fresh on the Wednesday it's charged, using your sitter's rates as they stand that morning, and you'll get a notification showing it as a price change plus a note in the booking chat. A rate your sitter set specifically for you still wins over their general recurring rate. The one thing that can't change under you is the cancellation notice window — that's fixed when the arrangement is created.

Cancelling a single visit — and when it costs you

Recurring care has its own cancellation policy, separate from the one covering boarding and house sitting. It's all-or-nothing on a single notice window, because one walk is a small charge and the sitter either got the slot back in time to fill it or didn't.

Flexible — 24 hours. Cancel a visit at least 24 hours before it starts and it costs you nothing.
Standard — 48 hours. At least 48 hours' notice and it costs you nothing. Inside the window, it stays charged. This is the default.

Your sitter's window is shown on the booking, and the app tells you which side of it you're on before you confirm — in plain words, including when cancelling means no money back. If the week hasn't been charged yet you're simply not charged; if it has, the value comes back as SitSignal Credit.

If your sitter cancels a visit, you get its value back regardless of timing and they're not paid for it. Neither of you can cancel a visit that has already started.

Is a walk I cancel late really still paid to my sitter?

If the week has already been charged, yes. The visit stays on the week marked non-refundable and your sitter keeps their cut of it — they held the slot and it was too late to fill. Two things are never charged: an extra day your sitter never approved, and any change to a week that hasn't been charged yet.

Can I swap one day for another for free?

Yes, at the same rate — as long as the day you're dropping is still outside your sitter's notice window. Inside it, the dropped day is still charged and the new day is charged on top, so a late swap costs a full extra visit.

Clients: your card on file and managing the weekly charge

A recurring arrangement charges itself, so it needs a card saved before you can create one. Go to Profile then Billing.

The client Billing tab showing Credits, Rewards and Recurring and the Payment method card — Profile then Billing. Everything about the weekly charge lives here.

Under Payment method, tap Manage payment method to add or replace your card.

The Payment method card showing a saved Visa and a Manage payment method button — Add a card here first — a repeating booking can't be created without one.

Then open Credits, Rewards and Recurring to manage the arrangements themselves.

The Recurring charges panel listing an active weekly arrangement, the card being charged, and the automatic credit toggle — Every active arrangement, its weekly amount, the card behind it, and the credit toggle.

Recurring charges lists each arrangement with its pattern and weekly amount.
Card charged — tap Change to pick a different card. There's one card behind all of this: changing it changes every future week of every repeating arrangement, and every other saved-card charge on your account.
Use credit automatically — on by default. Each week applies your SitSignal Credit first — it can cover the whole week — and bills whatever's left to your card. Your sitter is paid in full either way; SitSignal tops up whatever the credit covered. Any credit left rolls forward. Turn it off to save credit for something else.

Promo codes apply to the first week only. Later weeks are billed at the normal weekly price. The 4.5% client platform fee applies to each week; if a week is re-priced downward the fee is recalculated on the lower subtotal and the difference comes back with the credit.

My card was declined. What happens, and when do I run out of time?

We try three times — Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, each at noon in your sitter's local time — and each failure tells you how many tries are left. Adding or replacing your card retries immediately instead of waiting for the next day, and that manual retry doesn't use one of the three. Nothing is attempted on Saturday. At noon on the Sunday before that week starts, the repeating booking ends, the week is cancelled and comes off your sitter's calendar, and nothing is charged. Weeks you've already paid for are untouched.

How do I tip, and does a tip hold anything up?

Every completed week emails and texts you its own review-and-tip link. Tips are handled separately from the weekly payout and released to your sitter 72 hours after they're charged, so tipping never delays their week's pay. SitSignal Credit can't be used for a tip — tips go on your card.

Can I leave more than one review for the same sitter?

Yes — one per completed week, so a year of walks leaves a year of reviews instead of one being overwritten every week. From your second completed week onward your reviews carry a Repeat client tag on your sitter's profile.

Sitters: accepting, and when you get paid

A repeating request arrives like any other, marked Repeats weekly. Accepting is a standing commitment rather than a date range, so the confirmation spells out the pattern, what a full week is worth to you after the SitSignal fee, and what it does to your calendar — before you tap.

The sitter bookings list showing a repeating booking, and the accept sheet spelling out the pattern, weekly earnings and the weekly cycle — Repeating bookings show their pattern and weekly earnings. Accepting spells out the whole arrangement first.

Once accepted, the booking shows each week on its own card. Tap any visit to cancel just that one.

The sitter booking screen after accepting, showing the first week with each visit and a cancel control — Every week gets its own card with its pre-fee value.

You're paid week by week, not once at the end — each week pays out on the Wednesday after it finishes, once every visit in it has been closed out. An unfinished walk or an un-checked-out drop-in holds that whole week's pay until you close it.
Funds typically reach your bank 1–2 business days after a payout is released.
Commission is the same as any other booking: 12%, or 9% for Partnered Sitters.

Need to cancel one visit? Tap it on the week card. Your client gets its value back, you're not paid for it, and the rest of the schedule carries on untouched.

My week finished on Sunday — why hasn't it paid out?

A week only pays when it's closed out, which means every visit in it has reached a final state and at least one was actually completed. An open walk or a drop-in you never checked out of holds that whole week's money. Once the week is closed, payout is the Wednesday after it ends at noon your time, and the sweep re-runs every hour until it goes through — a missed run doesn't cost you a week.

Can I change my recurring rate or my notice window on a running arrangement?

Your rate, yes — every week is priced fresh on the Wednesday it's charged, so a new rate applies from the next week and your client is told the price changed. Your cancellation notice window, no — it's fixed onto each arrangement when it's created, so changing your profile setting only affects new ones.

Sitters: managing your recurring care settings

Two settings control repeating work, and they live in different places.

Your recurring rate — Profile then Pricing. Dog Walking and Drop-Ins each have a Recurring price next to the normal one. Repeat work is predictable work; pricing it lower than your one-off rate is up to you. Leave it matching your base rate and nothing changes.

Your cancellation notice — Profile then Availability then Service settings then Repeating care.

The sitter Repeating care setting with Flexible 24 hours and Standard 48 hours options, Standard selected and marked Recommended — Profile then Availability then Service settings. Standard is the default and the recommended choice.

Flexible — 24 hours. A client can drop a single visit up to 24 hours before it starts and pay nothing for it.
Standard — 48 hours. The same, with a full working day's notice. Recommended, and what applies if you never choose.

Either way, a visit dropped inside your window is still charged and still paid to you — you held the slot and it was too late to fill. This policy is separate from the Flexible / Moderate / Strict policy that covers your boarding and house sitting.

The sitter Repeating schedule card explaining calendar holds, the weekly charge and payout, and the cancellation window — The booking itself restates the rules, with your own notice window filled in.

Is my repeating slot protected months ahead?

No. Clients can draft or skip months ahead, but drafts do not reserve your time. A week becomes a calendar commitment when it finalizes and charges at noon on the Wednesday before it starts. If it clashes then, it is skipped free and you're both told. Boarding and house sitting remain a separate lane.

What can I actually do to a week?

Cancel individual visits, and answer a request for an extra day outside the usual pattern. You can't rewrite a week, move a time, or decline one week — the week editor belongs to the client. Ending the arrangement is available to either of you at any time.

Ending a repeating arrangement

Either side can end it at any time, from the booking. Nothing is charged to end it and no notice is required.

The client Your regular walks card showing the weekly price, the pattern, and End repeating care — Your regular walks — the arrangement itself, with End repeating care at the bottom.

Ending stops new weeks from being booked. A week already charged still goes ahead as planned — the sitter does that work and is paid for it.

A repeating booking can also end on its own: if a weekly charge can't be taken after three tries, or if the first week is never paid for.

Every material event is written into the booking's chat as a note — week booked, extra day requested or answered, late cancellation, week skipped, payout sent, schedule promoted, arrangement ended. If you ever want to know what happened and when, that thread is the record.

If I end the arrangement mid-week, what happens to the week I've already paid for?

It stands. Your sitter does that week and is paid for it — payouts for finished weeks run whether the arrangement is still going or not. What you lose straight away is the week editor: after ending, you can't add or rearrange days. You can still cancel individual visits, and whether you get anything back for them is still your sitter's notice window.

What if my sitter is already booked one week?

That week is skipped and you're both notified, and nothing is charged for it. One clash and the arrangement carries on. Two weeks clashing in a row and it's paused — you'll need to sort the schedule out with your sitter and book again.

Can I have more than one repeating arrangement?

Yes. Each is its own agreement with its own schedule and its own weekly charge. They all bill to the same card on your account.

Do rewards still work?

Yes — every completed week earns rewards on its own, rather than waiting for an arrangement that never ends.

Can I set this up on the web?

Yes — you can create a repeating booking and cancel individual visits at sitsignal.com. Adding a day to a single week is currently done in the app.