Care.com Overview in 2022: How Does It Work?

Care.com is a website that gives quite a lot of companies, together with babysitting, senior care, pet care and extra. 

You should use Care.com for each discovering and providing companies. However is it the fitting platform for you?

On this Care.com evaluation, we’ll share how the positioning works, its charges, options and what present customers need to say about their expertise with the service.

Abstract

Care.com is an organization that gives quite a lot of care companies equivalent to youngster care, senior care, pet care, tutoring and housekeeping. The corporate works to match households with skilled and background checked native caregivers. 

Professionals

• In depth bios and background checks on caregivers
• Consumer-friendly web site
• Upgraded membership obtainable
• Energetic dates listed to point out energetic caregivers

Cons

• Poor customer support rankings
• No refunds on Premium memberships
• Restricted customer support choices

What’s Care.com?

Care.com is an organization that connects caregivers of all types with individuals needing care. The corporate serves tens of millions of shoppers in over 17 international locations all over the world. 

You’ll find several types of caregiver assistance on the positioning, together with:

• Babysitters
• Senior care
• Pet care
• Housekeeping
• Daycare 
• Tutoring

Caregivers can create a profile on Care.com that outlines their abilities, expertise and the value that they cost for his or her companies.

Then, individuals who want to rent a caregiver can search these profiles to discover a supplier. 

The web site coordinates connections between households and caregivers whereas working to make sure security for all members. 

Care.com connects caregivers who present numerous companies with individuals who want care. The location works otherwise for patrons and contractors. 

Care.com for Households

If you wish to rent somebody that can assist you with caring for a kid, grownup, pet otherwise you want one other sort of service, you begin by filling the prompts explaining what you want.

You will want to enter your e-mail tackle to get entry to an inventory of caregivers. 

Caregiver profiles share details about the caregiver equivalent to:

• Title, age and metropolis
• Whether or not they have transportation
• Smoker/non-smoker
• What first assist or CPR coaching they’ve

You may also be taught in the event that they’re comfy with pets and skim their bio to seek out out extra details about them.

Be aware that Care.com has each Fundamental and Premium accounts for households. 

In case you select a Fundamental account, you possibly can:

• Put up jobs
• Search and consider profiles
• See who utilized on your jobs
• Ship automated “No thanks” messages to these you don’t wish to rent

In case you register for a Premium account, you possibly can:

• Contact caregivers straight
• Request outcomes for all background checks
• View and customized reply to purposes 

When you rent a caregiver, tutor or housekeeper, you’re instantly charged for the reserving. If the caregiver doesn’t present up or has to cancel, you’ll obtain a refund. 

Within the occasion it’s important to cancel the reserving, you received’t be charged in case you cancel a minimum of 24 hours earlier than the reserving time and date.

Nevertheless, in case you cost inside 24 hours of the reserving time and date, you’ll have to pay a cancellation charge.

Care.com for Caregivers

If you wish to be a caregiver on Care.com, you merely have to arrange an account and create a profile. 

As with households, caregivers can select a Fundamental account or a Premium account. 

With Fundamental accounts, you possibly can carry out duties equivalent to:

• Making a profile
• Responding to Premium members’ messages
• Looking for and making use of to jobs
• Getting paid securely
• Customizing your profile

In case you go for a Premium account as a caregiver, you additionally get the next options:

• Rank greater in search outcomes
• Get a Premium badge in your bio web page
• Precedence job alerts
• Waived CareCheck charge
• See who’s seen your profile

And different options. Whereas it doesn’t seem many caregivers go for the Premium membership, it could possibly be a great way to market your self and get extra jobs.

As talked about above, Care.com has Fundamental and Premium memberships for each households and for caregivers. 

Household Memberships

Household memberships have a Fundamental membership and a Premium membership.

The memberships supplied embrace:

• Fundamental membership: No cost
• Premium membership: $39 monthly, $78 for 3 months or $156 for 12 months

You’ll save considerably in case you purchase in bulk. As a Premium member of the family, you’ll get the flexibility to privately message caregivers. 

You’ll additionally get entry to all background checks. There are different advantages to changing into a Premium member of the family as effectively. See the Care.com web site for particulars.

Caregiver Memberships

Caregivers and others who wish to construct a profile on Care.com in an effort to discover a approach to make cash whereas serving to others have two choices.

The membership selections embrace:

• Fundamental membership: No cost
• Premium membership: $20 monthly

A Premium membership will get you ranked greater within the listings when individuals are trying to find caregivers. 

You’ll additionally get precedence job alerts and be capable of see who’s viewing your profile. 

Key Options

Care.com does its greatest to include many essential options into its web site. Listed here are among the key options of the corporate.

Huge Number of Providers

Care.com was created solely to give attention to serving to mother and father discover caregivers for his or her kids. They shortly added elder care to their checklist of companies after they launched. 

At present, Care.com presents these companies and extra, together with housekeeping, pet care, tutoring and extra. 

See the Care.com web site for extra info on the entire companies they provide. 

Complete Bios

Every caregiver biography shares essential details about the caregiver you’re contemplating hiring. 

You’ll be capable of see a brief bio, their certifications (equivalent to CPR), hours obtainable, the place they dwell, their expertise and extra.

In case you’re a Premium member of the family, you’ll be capable of get background verify info and different tidbits. 

Security Options

Care.com places a number of essential security options in place, each for caregivers and for households. 

First, all caregivers are topic to a CareCheck. That is Care.com’s primary safety verify. 

The CareCheck consists of:

• Social Safety quantity hint
• Nationwide Intercourse Offender public web site search
• Multi-jurisdictional prison database search
• Federal and county prison information search

As a member of the family, you too can buy extra safety checks like a motorcar information verify and an Investigative Prison Plus verify.

The location doesn’t have fairly the identical security stopgaps for preserving caregivers secure, but it surely does share complete info on how one can keep secure as a caregiver.

Instructional Weblog

Care.com additionally has a weblog that shares a bunch of informative articles for each relations and caregivers. 

The weblog accommodates articles on subjects equivalent to: 

• Parenting
• Balancing work and parenthood
• The way to run a enterprise as a caregiver
• Household-friendly corporations
• Worker advantages

And extra. Free instructional instruments are all the time a plus while you’re working with an organization. 

Price Calculators

Care.com encompasses a fee calculator. It might provide help to resolve what it is best to pay your sitter based mostly on what others in your space are paying. 

You merely enter info into the calculator, together with your zip code and the variety of years of expertise you’d like your caregiver to have.

You’ll additionally embrace the variety of kids the sitter can be watching, in addition to what number of hours per week they’ll work. 

Utilizing the calculator may give you a greater concept of what it is best to pay as a household needing a caregiver.

It might additionally provide help to decide your charges in case you signal as much as be a caregiver on the positioning. 

Buyer Opinions

Earlier than you join Care.com, it could possibly be useful to listen to what different customers need to say in regards to the platform.

The Higher Enterprise Bureau (BBB) charges Care.com a “B,” and customers gave the corporate a 1.03 out of 5 star ranking. Care.com isn’t accredited with the BBB.

There have been over 700 closed complaints within the final three years. The vast majority of the complaints pertained to poor customer support points. 

Listed here are a pair evaluations about Care.com:

“​​Discovered an important nanny for my 4 yr previous and 1 yr previous throughout this COVID-19 insanity. She’s been a god-sent to our household. On-line expertise interviewing a number of different candidates was easy and straightforward as effectively.” – Melissa Walsh Hohenberger

“The web site is VERY onerous to navigate. No private assist. Contacted through e-mail twice and by no means acquired again to me. No telephone quantity leads you to an individual. No clarification to easy methods to submit your companies.” – Barbara Jackson Darnell

Alternate options To Care.com 

If the unhealthy evaluations are main you away from Care.com, you may wish to think about considered one of these alternate options.

UrbanSitter

UrbanSitter works equally to Care.com. You’ll find babysitters, elder care sitters, tutors, family assist and extra on UrbanSitter. 

Costs and options for UrbanSitter are similar to Care.com, though UrbanSitter is barely cheaper. 

The one distinction it’s possible you’ll discover between the 2 is that UrbanSitter has greater evaluations. Whereas nonetheless not nice, they’re rated 2.9 out of 5 stars with Trustpilot. 

The corporate does have an “F” ranking with the Higher Enterprise Bureau. Nevertheless, there are solely 11 complaints on the positioning. 

GreatAuPair 

GreatAuPair is one other website that works equally to Care.com. They provide companies for elder care, babysitting, tutoring, pet care and extra.

Their costs are barely greater than Care.com, however they do provide reductions while you purchase in bulk. 

The corporate is listed on Trustpilot and has a ranking of three.3 out of 5. They’ve an A+ ranking with the Higher Enterprise Bureau. 

Sitter Metropolis

Like UrbanSitter and GreatAuPair, Sittercity presents related companies to Care.com. They supply babysitting, senior care, pet care, tutoring and extra.

Pricing for Sittercity is cheaper than the opposite choices talked about right here. Sittercity is listed on Trustpilot however doesn’t have any evaluations as of this writing. 

The corporate is rated “A+” on the Higher Enterprise Bureau web site and has slightly below 50 closed complaints within the final three years. 

FAQ

In case you are nonetheless on the fence about Care.com, these ceaselessly requested questions may be capable of assist.

Abstract

Care.com may be a good way to seek out companies for your loved ones, like babysitters, senior care, tutoring, housekeeping and extra. 

The excellent profiles are useful, and every profile tells when a caregiver was final energetic on the positioning in order that households can select caregivers who’re presently trying to find work. 

Care.com may provide a good way so that you can make more money on the aspect in case you’re thinking about working as a caregiver. 

Simply do not forget that, as with every web site, it is best to be sure to know what you’re signing up for and comply with the security suggestions.