Five Reasons To Go On a Date Night Tonight
6:07 AM
There are times when a date night is in order. You remember
them, right? A kid-free evening, away from distractions at home, adult
conversation over a nice glass of wine, someone else doing all the cooking and
cleaning. But usually that means booking a sitter weeks in advance. But thanks to UrbanSitter, you can be spontaneous and actually have a date night the same night. Before you go on OpenTable to make a reservation at that hot new restaurant you’ve been dying to try, head over to urbansitter.com and book a
sitter. Thanks to UrbanSitter, booking a trusted sitter is pretty much as easy
as making dinner reservations.
So what is UrbanSitter? UrbanSitter is an online service for
parents and sitters to connect. Think SitterCity meets Facebook meets OpenTable. Here are my top five reasons you should book your
next sitter through UrbanSitter:
1. Friend-tested
sitters: I often hear from other parents that date nights happen
infrequently because they don’t trust anyone to watch their kids other than
family or friends. And there’s only so many times you can ask them to babysit
your little darlings before they start avoiding your calls. UrbanSitter gets
this. So after you create an account online, UrbanSitter will look for sitters
recommended and booked by friends and family using Facebook Connect.
I should also mention that I had an
opportunity to attend an UrbanSitter Speed-Sitting event (yes, you just read
that), where I had the opportunity to meet over a dozen potential sitters at a
neck-breaking 3 minutes each. These ladies were impressive – all local college
students with a ton of experience, and a ton of enthusiasm.
2. Search by
experience and rates: UrbanSitter allows you to browse profiles and narrow
search results based on hourly rate, language, experience based on kids age or
special needs, just to name a few. I’m a big fan of how most profiles include
the sitter’s average response time, background check, and number of repeat
families.
3. Book in
real-time: Similar to OpenTable, UrbanSitter lets you search sitters by
date and time. You’ll see in real-time which sitters availability is confirmed.
You also have the option of interviewing a sitter (phone, paid working, or
in-person).
4. Find,
book and pay online: UrbanSitter's website and iPhne App is incredibly
intuitive and pretty fun to use. I also liked all the follow-up emails: when
my job offer was accepted, explanation of paying by credit card, job reminder, confirmation
of hours worked and payment receipt. And then of course they get pretty smart
with their marketing as I also got a “how did it go” and “book so-and-so for
your next night out.”
5. It’s free:
unlike other childcare sites, UrbanSitter is free. The only charge (besides the
hourly rate to the sitter) is a $7.50 flat service charge if you pay with a
credit card. I think this is a reasonable fee so I can avoid having to run to the
ATM or write out a check (groan).
I love my kids and I love to cook (not always in that order).
But sometimes a night out is just what everyone needs. And it’s nice to know
finding a trusted, reliable sitter is only tap on my iPhone away.
Disclosures: Thanks to
UrbanSitter, Social Craft and Bread & Chocolate for hosting the
speed-sitting event, which I received free of charge. I have no material
connection to the brands, products or services mentioned. I was given an
UrbanSitter credit to be used on the site. As always, all opinions are my own.
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