How guaranteed tips work

A guaranteed tip is an amount you promise your sitter when you list your home. Home Tales collects it a week before the sit, holds it, and pays it to your sitter once the sit is complete. Your sitter knows the reward is real, and you know it's only paid when the job is done.

Setting a guaranteed tip

When you list your home, choose "Guaranteed tip" as the type of sit and add what you'd like to pay. Each line can be a single amount, or an amount per day, per week or per month, and Home Tales works out the total for your dates. You can add more than one line, such as a daily amount and a one-off sum towards travel. The total shows on your listing, so sitters see it before they apply. Not sure what to offer? See how much to tip a house sitter.

Step by step

1. You accept a sitter. You save a card with Stripe, our payments partner. Nothing is charged yet.
2. Your sitter confirms the sit. Before they can, they set up payouts with Stripe and add their tax details, so they're ready to be paid.
3. Seven days before the sit, your card is charged. Home Tales holds the money until the sit is complete. If you arrange a sit less than a week away, your card is charged when your sitter confirms.
4. The sit happens.
5. The sit is completed. Once it has ended you can confirm that everything went well. If you don't, it completes automatically 48 hours after the sit ends.
6. Your sitter is paid. Home Tales keeps 5% and pays the card processing costs, so on a £100 guaranteed tip your sitter receives £95.

If something goes wrong during the sit

You can report a problem from the sit's page while the sit is under way. That pauses the payment: the sit won't complete automatically, and your sitter is told that Home Tales will look into it before it does. We review what happened and can release the payment, or refund some or all of it to you.

If plans change

• Your sitter cancels: you get the whole guaranteed tip back. Refunds usually reach your account within 5 to 10 working days.
• You cancel more than seven days before the sit: you get the whole guaranteed tip back.
• You cancel within seven days of the start, or during the sit: half the guaranteed tip goes to your sitter, less our 5% fee, for keeping the dates free. The rest is refunded to you.

Once a sitter has agreed to your sit, any change to the guaranteed tip, or to the dates, needs their agreement.

If the payment doesn't go through

If your card can't be charged a week before the sit, we'll let you know, and you can pay from the sit's page before the sit starts.

Why guarantee a tip?

A guaranteed tip lets sitters plan around your dates with confidence, and it's held by Home Tales, so neither of you has to handle money directly. Payments between members should always go through Home Tales.