Safety on Zoaki

What Zoaki does

• Every sitter has verified their ID. A listing cannot go live until its sitter has passed identity verification, so everyone you can book has proven who they are.
• Payment is held, not taken. Sending a request places a hold on your card. Nothing is charged unless the sitter accepts, and an unanswered request releases the hold on its own.
• Your address stays private.A sitter's exact address is only revealed once a booking is accepted.
• Reviews come from real stays only. Every review is tied to a booking that actually happened.
• Sitters answer safety questions. Before publishing, a sitter has to pass a short set of questions on handling emergencies, and give an emergency contact.

What Zoaki does not cover

Zoaki does not pay vet bills, and does not pay for damage to property. There is no insurance or reimbursement scheme behind a booking made here. If a pet is injured or ill during a stay, or something in a home is damaged, the cost falls to the people involved — the owner and the sitter — and not to Zoaki.

This is worth saying plainly because marketplaces of this kind often do offer such cover, and it would be easy to assume Zoaki does too. It does not.

What we recommend

• Owners: hold pet insurance. It is the only thing that actually covers a vet bill, and it covers your pet wherever it is.
• Sitters: consider liability cover, especially if you are taking animals into your own home. Your listing asks whether you have it, and owners can see the answer.
• Both: meet first. Arrange a meet-and-greet before the stay and agree what happens if the pet needs a vet — who decides, who pays, and who to call. Put it in the booking messages so you both have it in writing.
• Owners: leave your vet's detailsand an emergency contact on your pet's profile, and say what your pet needs.

If something goes wrong

Tell us. On the booking page, either side can report an incident for up to 14 days afterwards, with photos and any documents. A person reads every one.

Reporting does not start a claim and does not lead to a payment — there is nothing to claim against. What it does is put the incident on the record, let us look into it, and let us act on the account involved where that is warranted. If an animal needs a vet, take it to one first and report afterwards.

Emergencies

Zoaki does not operate an emergency line and cannot respond in real time. If a pet is in danger, contact a vet directly. Sitters are asked for an emergency contact during onboarding, and owners should leave their vet's details on the pet's profile before a stay begins.

Related

See the Terms for the full statement of what Zoaki is and is not responsible for, and the Privacy Policy for what we do with your data.