Urbansitter Reviews 

I used the site twice. Both sitters were really unacceptable, immature and untrustworthy. There is no one to contact to voice complaints except an email address which responded to me once claiming they would forward my concerns to their team and I never heard back. Would never use this site.

I will never use this service again. I deactivated and cancelled my membership two months ago. I am still being charged. There is no one to contact. When you go on the site it directs you back. There's no one to contact even through email. I refuse to continue to pay for a service that I don't use or need.

First and last time I ever use this site. Sitter said e-payments don’t work, wants cash. Then shows up with zero interest in kids and I am basically looking after a third person while trying to meet a deadline. My kids don’t understand why she won’t talk to them, and don’t want to see her, which is hugely unusual with their regular sitter. They are sweet and well-behaved, and when I go out to pick up cash for her to leave early I find my 2 year-old playing outside by himself. She cancelled the job after I told her she could leave early so that we couldn’t rate her. Nothing on the site mirrored the reality. A scam right out of the books.

Never hire a sitter from this site unless you have access to a nannycam. The sitter our family hired worked part-time for two weeks, but, right before she quit without notice, she went through personal papers, drawers, cabinets and coerced our two-year-old granddaughter into tattling on her parent. She filed a false report based on what she reported finding in the home, reportedly with our baby granddaughter's help. This sitter did not divulge on UrbanSitter site that she also worked for the government, which might have prevented us and other potential clients from hiring her. She also quit Urban Sitter but they take no responsibility for the damage this incidenthas caused and is causing our family. Better vetting might have prevented this terrible nightmare. Parents beware.

Rating is purely based on almost zero selection available to actually babysit. Essentially none. There is no point to this site without customers. How does this company survive? I suppose it could just be my area which is Saint Louis. As of last look, there were exactly 4 total jobs available within 50 miles.

I recommend Care.com for greatest population. Sittercity works too though it has less people. Just have a profile on both.

Does anyone else find it odd that ALL the positive reviews of this company were written within the same 4 day time period? All were written between Nov 16 and Nov 20. Sounds like and inside review job to me. What are they hiding?

SITTERS RUN!!! You are better off using sittercity or care.com! This company sucks! I have nothing but positive reviews on my page! The one time I could not show up for a job this company decides to suspend my page and then cannot give me a time period for when my page will be active again! They don't explain anything also! They just send an automated message full of BS that they send everyone! I'm

Worst company EVER!!!!!:(
They took me off the site for being late to a parents house when I wasn't in control of situation! Really?! I let parent know that I was late & she wrote a horrible review. With that, I apparently "violated companies terms of service". It's like, are you kidding me? They state if life happens...well it did & I was taken off. That is NO way to treat sitters. Especially if you are an amazing sitter, teacher, tutor, care-taker!! I had a bad review from parent, which is unfair! What about the sitters side as I see this very disconcerting!!:( I have a side too, but was disregarded! That's awful! My profile was taken down & all families that loved me were notified! Really?! That's terrible

Nannies, beware! This company is parasitic for childcare providers.

Prior to my awareness of Urbansitter’s ethical shortcomings, I had successfully used the website as a sitter for many years and even worked events promoting the company (which I now regret). I first realized that Urbansitter was shifty when I worked as a nanny for a parent who gave me a paycheck that bounced, and the parent refused to send a replacement payment. Urbansitter reprimanded me for using their website "incorrectly" because I was getting paid every 2 weeks as a nanny with appropriate tax deductions. The parent who booked me through Urbansitter and failed to pay me, however, emerged unscathed to continue using the site "correctly" and commit wage theft against other childcare providers. Note: I sent the parent to collections to let the professionals deal with her.

Here’s what happened: I was booked as a nanny through Urbansitter, and all hours were logged through the site. In all of my use of the site and interactions with Urbansitter management and corporate staff, I was fully unaware that Urbansitter requires their childcare providers to collect payment at the end of every booking. After my wage theft and the endless chain of correspondences with Urbansitter Support staff that ensued, I finally learned that, "they [Urbansitter] are really only set up for daily use." So, if a childcare provider consecutively works Monday-Wednesday for a family, Urbansitter technically requires them to collect payment at the end of each booking on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

That sounds impractical for all parties in a nanny arrangement, but not underhanded. Here's what makes Urbansitter unethical: nannies are required by the IRS to have taxes taken out of their paycheck according to the household employee tax structure dubbed "The Nanny Tax." Employers MUST take taxes out of the paychecks of those who are regular employees in their homes; failure to properly have taxes withheld is a serious IRS offense for both parties. Collecting daily payment at the end of each booking for a nanny with all appropriate taxes and calculations is virtually impossible, and everyone knows that.

So, in order to use Urbansitter “correctly,” nannies must violate the IRS statues. Nannies on Urbansitter have no just options: they can either follow the law and be automatically guilty for their misuse of the site in the event of a dispute or they can knowingly violate tax statutes and remain in good standing with the site. For a company founded by moms, this is a case of neglect.

Nannies are the only party who suffers for following the law in Urbansitter’s business model. Urbansitter boastfully advertises that their childcare providers work as nannies and reaps all of the ensuing subscriptions. Urbansitter and parents benefit because parents of the site are able to find the nannies that Urbansitter advertises. All while the childcare providers who make the advertisements accurate and work as honest nannies are left blamed and shamed by Urbansitter when a dispute arises. Urbansitter still gets paid from the subscriptions and hands their nannies an exploding diaper to go clean up in the time out corner.

No, Urbansitter never directly encouraged me to be a nanny. However, as a reasonable person using their website, they NEVER gave me the slightest inkling that “they are really only set up for daily use.” First, the site's tagline is "Find, Babysitters, NANNIES and Child Care." Scrolling through the main page, you read "Find your community's most trusted babysitters and NANNIES." Then they have an entire section as you scroll down which reads, "Need more than a date night sitter? We have NANNIES, too! Long term, short term. Part‑time, full‑time. Anytime." The word "nanny" appears at least 3 more times on the site, then you get to the bottom of the website which has a section that reads "Nannies" with a hyperlinked list of 10 major cities for which they are promoting their nannies. They also have a nanny search feature by college or university. Again, any reasonable childcare provider would never suspect that working as a nanny and getting paid “on the table” was a violation of Urbansitter’s Terms of Use.

Nannies deserve the opportunity to make an informed business decision regarding their use of Urbansitter. They should not be shocked to find themselves in my situation: using the site as encouraged to do so by Urbansitter yet still in violation of the site’s parameters. I felt so strongly about this that I corresponded with Urbansitter’s CEO, Lynn Perkins and requested that the company inform nannies that they can use Urbansitter to book their nanny hours, but the site is currently set up for daily babysitting bookings only. The response lackluster at best and included an “email update” about how nannies should know their tax options. No company is perfect, but Urbansitter’s handling of the situation was irresponsible, and I have seen no efforts to avoid future ploys for their nannies in the guaranteed event of a dispute.

So, nannies, beware. Urbansitter does not play fair and, to my knowledge, they have no plans to change their rules in the future.

I don't have family in the US and neither does my husband so Urbansitter has been a lifesaver for us! It's so easy to use and the sitters have all been excellent. I love Urbansitter!

Highly recommend you add this service to your parenting toolkit! Juggling our schedule with two working parents and three kids was really rough until we found UrbanSitter a year ago. Our area has amazing sitters ranging from nursing students to teachers to moms, and I use the reviews by other parents to vet the type of sitters that work best with my kids. My Facebook and LinkedIn contacts show up when we know a sitter in common which gives me extra reassurance. Plus it's easy for me to post a last minute job when we have that inevitable scheduling conflict.

every single sitter I hired through UrbanSitter simply blew me away - they were all educated, energetic , professional and eager to take care of my son and keep him happy while I was away. No one was ever late or had a less than perfect attitude . I was able to find a great sitter within just a couple of hours in an emergency situation once. I greatly value the service that UrbanSitter provides and gladly recommend it to all my friends

I've had such a positive experience using Urban Sitter. From a planned date night to a very last minute schedule change, one of these great girls has swooped in and saved the day. My kids have loved everyone we've had so far. Every sitter has been sweet, professional and great w my little ones. I can't recommend them enough!

Urbansitter has become my go to for booking babysitters and childcare. I have always been thrilled with the sitters I have booked from the site, and I appreciate the fact that I can select sitters whom my friends have used - it helps me feel much more comfortable. I also appreciate the ease of use - I can schedule a babysitter while I am participating in a conference call (not that I ever would of course!).

As a single parent, I have relied on Urbansitter since my 20 month old was born. Now that I am back at work, I use the service nearly every day. The online features are easy to navigate and my regular sitters appear on the main screen when I log in for easy access. I really like that there are multiple options for finding a sitter: I can book one of my regular sitters who shows availability on a given day, book a back-up sitter to ensure that I have coverage, or post a job and select a sitter from a group. With Urbansitter I have the peace of mind knowing that I can always find a sitter, even if it is last minute. I have also been pleased with the quality of the sitters that I have found on Urbansitter. While you definitely need to do your due diligence as a responsible parent, I have found the Urbansitters to be warm, engaging to my active toddler, and generally just nice people who really like kids. I am very satisfied and will continue to use Urbansitter.

urbansitter has been an amazing resource for my family and has consistently provided us with wonderful and capable babysitters to watch our 3 children. it's very user friendly and i love that i am able to read reviews and find out which of my friends have also used sitters. urbansitter takes the stress out of hiring a new sitter.

My husband and I needed a last minute sitter and I reached out to a few sitters on UrbanSitter. All the sitters I contacted responded back within minutes and we were able to book someone immediately, problem solved! Our UrbanSitter arrived on time and was great with our kids :)

I love UrbanSitter! It is such an incredibly easy to use online resource to find reliable, responsible, and fun babysitters through the use of social media. I love that I can see the sitters my friends have used and reviewed. We have had the most wonderful experiences with all the sitters we have used. We have been able to build the most amazing arsenal of sitters so we always have someone who can help us in a pinch. The best part is our children have loved each and every one of the sitters we have use and asked when another babysitter is coming over to play! UrbanSitter has changed our life!

Amazing and helpful service for parents! I'm so lucky to have found urban sitter!

I love Urbansitter. I had never left my child with anyone except my family so I was nervous at first but I have used Urbansitter 5 times now and really love it! It has allowed me to have a little more freedom in getting my errands done! It's so easy to use and you do the payment through the website so you don't have to worry about getting cash.