FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Pet and Home Management includes a range of professional services to assist our clients with the regular care and routine for their pets and home when they are away or their schedules are too busy. You can view our list of services here. If you have a request for something that is not listed here, please feel welcome to contact us about it, as we are happy to try and accomodate alternative services regarding your pets or home. We have also provided asssitance with vet visits, local pet transport, supervising dogs at wedding ceremonies and photoshoots.
We are intentionally, a very small team. This means we have limited availability. We do not function the way most agency based pet sitting business’s work. We value our long lasting, and personal client relationships. This is why we close our bookings to new clients from time to time, so we can give our full attention and availability to our existing clients.
Yes, we love updates too! We enjoy sharing our experience and observations with you, and it’s helpful for us to have contact with you while you are away and receive any feedback as we go. Of course, we are also mindful not to over do it. If you are on a work trip or may have limited signal, you can let us know to keep the updates by request only.
We try to book our clients with the same Team member, as we want to maintain an established relationship between you and our Team that you connect with the most. However if they are unavailable, we can allocate someone else on the team as an alternative. A tip to secure someone you really want, is to book far in advance or if possible, find out when they are available and book your time away according to their availabilty.
You can send us an email or a message via our Contact Form with a short cover letter to tell us a bit about yourself and why you want to join our team and we will add you to our Team waiting list. We are an intentionally small team and we are not often open to hiring new members. We will contact you if you are a good fit for a gap in our Team or if someone in our existing Team leaves.
The C+B Team is a carefully chosen, small group of like-minded, remote-working, experienced, animal lovers. We all share the same values and respect for our clients and their homes. We try to match our Team to our clients as best we can, based on your needs and the experience level and abilities of each Team member.
General indoor plant and garden care (regular watering) is included in all our services. If you have more than average requirements, this may be included as an additional rate to our pet care rates. More than average requirements might include rare or large indoor plant collections, greenhouse supervision or a vegetable garden/newly landscaped garden that needs daily care.
My house alarm and surveillance system is connected to my phone, how does that affect your services?
We are familiar with house alarm apps. such as O’larm and can be added as a guest by you for the duration of our stay. Our Client Form asks you to specify where your cameras are. We welcome the added security of alarm systems and surveillace cameras, but please be aware that this can also affect our privacy. It can be very uncomfortable to feel watched and monitored all the time, and we may ask for any indoor cameras and nanny cam’s to be turned off for our privacy.
We will always bring our own groceries, and do not expect you to provide anything. Like any guest in your home, we do make use of basic items such as tea, coffee, milk, butter, olive oil, spices, etc. If there are fresh or open items that will expire while you are away, we will make use of these items; pop them in the freezer or throw them away if they are off. We do not open closed items, or use anything from your freezer. If anything unopened is used, we will replace it.
Our Team have all been informed and agreed to our home management standards and policies. We will always clean up after pets, take out bins and change/strip bed linen before you get back. We do not allow mulitple visitors/socialising to limit any risks involved. However we do allow partners or one friend, with your knowledge, as this makes the experience more comfortable and safe for our Team. If you are not comfortable with any partners visiting or staying over, you can let us know.
Our Client Form will ask you to specify how many hours your pets can be alone for at a time. We take this very seriously and will keep to the hours provided. If you have routines and activities for your pets when you go out, we will always follow these too (providing dogs with enrichment games/bones to keep them busy, etc). If you need someone to be with your pets all day, this needs to be specifically requested and will be charged our Added Stay-Over rate.
Yes, if your dogs know each other well and they are used to staying at each other’s homes, we are happy to look after dogs from two house holds together. This will fall under our Added Dog/s Stay-Over rate to accommodate multiple dogs.
If you have a total of 3 or more pets in your multi-pet home, you will be charged our Added Dog/s or Cat/s Rate per day. If you have less than 3 pets but a mix of dogs and cats, you will be charged our Standard Dog/s rate (the higher rate) and any other pets will be included under that rate. Please contact us for a copy of our Rates Card for more details.
We currently do not offer boarding in our own homes. If this is what you are looking for, send us a message and we can send you some suitable referrals.
We only provide private or paired dog walking services (we do not do pack walks). This means, we only offer walks on an Ad-Hoc basis. If you are having a busy week and your dog needs one-on-one attention on walks, please get in touch with us.
Our Team have all been informed and agreed to our emergency protocall. Depending on the emergency, we will contact you or your ICE person, to discuss your choice of action. In some cases, (if no one is contactable) especially when it comes to life or death for your pet, we will immediately seek veterinary care with your selected vet provided on the Client Form and then be in touch as soon as we know your pet is in the care of a veterinary professional. The same goes for any house hold emergencies. If we cannot contact you or your emergency contact, and your geyser has burst, we will contact your service providers (plumber) from the Client Form.
For Stay-Over bookings: Cancellations with 7 days notice can be fully refunded or kept on credit for your next booking. Cancellations made less than 7 days prior, will be charged a cancellation fee (50% of full booking/full deposit amount). For Visit/s and Dog/s Walks: Cancellations with 48 hours notice can be rescheduled or kept on credit for your next booking. Cancellations made less than 48 hours prior, will be charged a cancellation fee (full amount). If you are unsatisfied with your service, for justified reasons, we can offer a 50% discount and won’t invoice you for the final amount of the booking. T’s and C’s apply.
We quote per night staying over and a return day rate depending on how long you need us to stay on the last day. If we can leave first thing, you will not be charged. If we can leave by 12pm, we charge for a half day. If we can only leave after 12pm, we charge a full day. Meal times and walks will be included on a full return day.
Yes, we do. If we are not taking new clients, we can add you to our waiting list and you will be contacted when we are open again.
We take a 50% deposit to confirm and secure our bookings. If for some unforseen reason, the person you have booked with becomes unavailable we will make sure to replace them with someone else on the team and will not leave you without someone to take your booking.
You can send us a Whatsapp, an email or message via our Contact Form and we will get back to you about availability. You will be sent a 50% deposit invoice to secure your booking. You have 7 days to pay your deposit, otherwise you will lose your booking. The week before your booking, we will be in touch with you to arrange a meet up and introduction to your pets and home, and collect your keys. You will also be asked to sign our Client Agreement and fill out our Client Form with all the details we may need. You will be sent your final invoice at the end of your booking.
You can send us a Whatsapp, an email or a message via our Contact form, to request a copy of our Rates Card. We will send this to you as a PDF file.
We work in and around the Cape Town City Bowl, Atlantic Seaboard and the Southern Suburbs. We do not currently make exceptions for this, as working in other areas affects our other commitments, and traffic can become an issue we would rather avoid.