Help

Booking a sitter

Finding someone

Search shows sitters near you. You can narrow by distance, hourly rate, the age group they're comfortable with, and whether they're usually free on a particular day and time of day. A sitter's profile shows their rate, experience, languages, qualifications and the reviews families have left.

Sending a request

Pick the date, the hours, and which of your children the booking is for. You can add a message, and you can offer a different hourly rate than the one the sitter lists — they can accept it, decline, or come back with a counter-offer you're free to take or leave.

A sitting can run past midnight. If the end time is earlier than the start time, Milo treats it as finishing the next morning, and you can set the end date yourself for anything longer. A single sitting can be at most 24 hours.

Posting an open request instead

If you don't have someone particular in mind, post the slot as an open request with the hourly range you're willing to pay. Sitters nearby whose rate falls inside that range are notified and can put themselves forward. You choose between them, and you can look at a sitter's full profile before you decide.

Once a booking is confirmed

Chat opens when the sitter accepts, not before — so nobody is messaging you about a booking that hasn't happened. At the same moment the sitter gets what they need to turn up prepared: your address, your notes, your emergency contacts, and details about the children the booking is for.

Before acceptance a sitter sees only the age range of the children, never their names, allergies or needs, and never your address.

On the day

The sitter confirms the start when they arrive. Milo checks they're actually at your home before letting them, so a check-in can't be tapped from the tram. During the sitting you can ask for a photo, which the sitter sends as a one-time view — you see it once and it isn't stored afterwards.

Both of you confirm when the sitting ends. If nobody does, Milo closes it out automatically a few hours later so it doesn't sit open forever.

Paying

Most sitters are paid through the app. You'll see three lines before you book: the sitter's fee, Milo's 5%, and the card processing charge.

You choose card or TWINT. A card is held when the sitter accepts and only charged once the sitting is finished, so you pay for the time actually worked — less if it ran short, and the extra separately if it ran long. TWINT can't be held, so it takes the full amount at once and anything you don't owe comes back as a refund.

Pay through Milo. It is what the cancellation terms, the refund process and our moderators all rest on — a payment we never saw is one we cannot refund, split or rule on if the evening goes wrong.

A sitter who hasn't finished setting up payouts can't be paid through the app yet. Their bookings will say so, and we ask them to finish. Until they do, there is nothing for you to pay here.

A booking that falls through early costs you nothing. Cancel within 24 hours of the start and the sitter keeps half their fee — they had probably turned down other work for that evening. If the sitter cancels, you pay nothing either way.

Afterwards

You and the sitter can review each other once the sitting is complete. Reviews are what the next family reads, so they matter more than they might seem.

Chats stay available for 30 days after the last booking you had together, then they're deleted. If you book the same sitter again in that time, the clock restarts. You can also delete a chat yourself once a booking has ended.

Safety

Verified sitters

Sitters can verify their identity with an official document. A verified badge on a profile means that check was completed. Qualifications — first aid, childcare training — can be backed by a certificate you can open and read yourself rather than taking on trust.

If something is wrong

You can report anyone from their profile or from a chat, and you can block them. Blocking is mutual and invisible: you stop appearing to each other entirely.

Reports go to a moderator, who reads the conversation the report came from and decides. An account can be suspended for 7 days, 30 days, or permanently. If someone is suspended, any upcoming bookings with them are cancelled and the other party is told straight away.

If a child is at risk, contact the emergency services on 117 first. Milo is not an emergency service and moderation is not immediate.

Still stuck?

Email us at help@app-milo.com. If you're writing about a specific booking, telling us the date and who it was with saves a round trip.