DogVacay is an online community for home dog boarding and other pet services. We connect Hosts (people who are looking to dog sit) with Guests (people looking to have their dogs taken care of while they are away). We provide secure payment solutions, 24/7 customer support and comprehensive insurance coverage all services booked through our site.

As a Host, the process to sign up is simple (and free!):

• You create a free profile with information about your services, your place and your experience caring for dogs. You set your own rates, control your schedule, and decide which dogs to accept.
• We spend money marketing to customers (pet parents, whom we refer to as "Guests") so they can find your profile.
• Customers schedule and book online, reserving their spot with a major credit card.
• We take a 15% service fee from the total amount you charge and send you the balance of the payment one business day after your dog boarding is complete.

Our service fee is 15% of the total amount you charge. We think it's a great deal for all of the marketing and services we provide! As a Host in the DogVacay community, we offer pawtastic customer support for you and your clients, and a seamless online experience that provides a safe process to get to know them. Additionally, all Guest dogs and your resident dogs are covered by insurance in case of any veterinary emergency related to a Guest dog's stay. Most importantly, we're here when you need us most — we offer you and your Guests 24/7 emergency support.

We offer two tiers of coverage: Basic Protection and Premium Insurance

Our Basic Protection is complimentary and included with each reservation booked through DogVacay. It covers Guest dogs and the your resident dogs in case of an unlikely veterinary emergency (excluding pre-existing conditions) during a Vacay. We work closely with any preferred veterinary hospital to ensure your Guest dog or resident dog is taken care of. We also have a partnership with VCA-Antech (the largest veterinary group in the country) to handle veterinary cases, if you prefer to visit a VCA hospital. Basic Protection offers up to $2,000 of emergency veterinary care for both the Guest dogs and Host dogs (that is a direct result of contact with a Guest dog), less a $200 deductible. This coverage excludes pre-existing conditions.

For ultimate peace of mind, we offer a Premium Insurance plan that provides professional grade protection. We have partnered with Kennel Pro, the national leader in insurance in the pet sitting industry, to offer you a comprehensive insurance policy that provides you with $4,000,000 of liability protection and covers the dogs in your care up to $25,000 in emergency care at no upfront cost. This policy sells for $500/year outside of DogVacay, but we have negotiated a special rate for our Hosts. Instead of requiring payment for this policy upfront, we deduct it from your first booking. Please click here to learn more on how you can obtain this amazing coverage.

Whether the situation is urgent or non-urgent, it is imperative that you contact DogVacay as soon as possible. The DogVacay Concierge team offers 24/7 emergency support, so please call us at (855) 364-8222 to alert us of the situation and to receive support. If for any reason you are unable to connect with us, contact the dog's owner(s) to alert them of the situation. The owner will be able to provide you with their vet's information or the name of a preferred hospital in the area. If you are also unable to reach the owner(s), act quickly and visit your nearest veterinary hospital. For more information on how to handle medical or emergency cases, please click here.

Whether a pup gets a minor or serious injury while in your care, we always recommend that you use good judgment by consulting or visiting your nearest veterinary hospital. If a dog requires treatment, please give us a call at (855) 364-8222 to alert us. We offer 24/7 emergency support and will provide you with advice and steps on how to proceed. Once treatment for the Guest dog or resident pet has been completed, you will need to provide payment for the cost of treatment, but remember to keep a copy of the invoice so that you can submit it to us for immediate reimbursement via email at help@dogvacay.com or by fax to (310) 496-2745.

If you are absolutely unable to cover the cost for treatment, please notify us of this when you contact us at (855) 364-8222. We will provide an alternative solution to ensure the medical costs are paid for.

If you visit a VCA hospital, they will directly bill DogVacay for any medical costs, because of our partnership with them. To see if there are any nearby VCA hospitals in your area, please click here. Please remember to use good judgment in case of serious medical emergencies — you'll want to visit the nearest veterinary hospital (VCA hospital or not) to ensure immediate treatment.

We send payment automatically by PayPal one business day after boarding is complete. PayPal is free and the best way to receive money. Because our Guests pay in advance, we are holding the payment for you in escrow so that you're guaranteed to get paid on time.

If you don't have a PayPal account, you can easily get one for free here. If you would rather not use PayPal and prefer an old-fashioned check, please note that we charge a $5 check fee and it can take 5 — 7 business days after boarding has been completed to receive your payment. Trust us — PayPal is the way to go and you can transfer funds directly to your bank account!

No, all payments must go through DogVacay.com. As a Host in the DogVacay community, you agree that all transactions (including repeat bookings) with your DogVacay Guests go through us. Our insurance policy only covers transactions that go through our online reservation system. Most other sites charge a listing fee up-front. Not us — we only make money when you do! Failure to go through DogVacay.com will result in immediate termination from the site.

We do not require or encourage Guests to provide cash tips to Hosts. However, we do not have a policy against accepting tips. Please remember that you may not accept a cash payment for a reservation under any circumstance. This will void all insurance policies and result in immediate termination from our site.

Simply visit our Become a Host page to learn more about the benefits of being a Host in our community and the different services that you can offer. Once you're ready to get started, you can sign up for free. And, don't forget to follow all steps to ensure that you have a great profile!

As you go through the sign-up process you'll be guided through each section. These include selecting your rates, writing a great profile description and uploading at least five fantastic photos. You should be able to complete your profile in just a few minutes. For steps on how to complete your profile, click here. If you need tips, feel free to give our Host Community Team a call at (855) DOG-VACAY.

As you go through the initial Host sign-up process, be sure to fill out each and every section. Add plenty of great photos of your home/yard, as well as photos of you with pups! For your description, discuss what makes you an awesome person to care for their furkids. This includes, but is not limited to, your experience, what a typical day with you would entail, your own pup(s), etc. Remember that the overall quality of your profile will have the biggest impact on a Guest's decision to contact you. To view a step-by-step guide to creating your profile, please visit our helpful blog post.

Once our Host Community team has approved your profile, you can view our list of available badges and credentials and learn how to obtain them by checking out our helpful blog. These not only add credibility to your profile on DogVacay, but they also help you rank higher in search results!

Absolutely! As you fill out your profile, include information about what sets you apart as a pawtastic dog sitter. When setting your rates, simply fill out the "Sitter" rate and this will alert pet parents looking for care within their own home that you provide dog-sitting services.

Once you've created your Host profile and completed all the necessary requirements, please allow 1 — 2 business days for our Host Community team to review and approve your profile. Once your profile is approved you will receive a welcome email from us and your listing will be live and visible in search results in your area.

If your profile is missing any requirements, we will contact you via phone or email within 1 — 2 business days of profile creation to provide you with details as to the requirements you are missing. If you're not sure of how to complete these requirements, please contact us at (855) 364-8222. We're here to help!

You can visit your Dashboard anytime you are logged in to your DogVacay account. Your Dashboard is the central hub of your DogVacay account where you will see tabs that will direct you to where you can send and receive messages, accept Reservations/send Custom Quotes, make changes to your profile, manage your Calendar, and update other account information.

Once you have been approved, we highly recommend familiarizing yourself with the Dashboard and all account features so you can feel comfortable with navigating our site and taking advantage of all available features!

You can edit your listing at any time, whether or not your profile has been approved. Nothing you entered during the registration process is set in stone, so feel free to update it as much as you'd like! To make edits to your profile...

• Log in to your DogVacay account
• Click on on the "Edit Profile" tab from the "Dashboard" page
• On the left, you can select and visit various sections of your profile that you can edit
• After each update in each section, click on the orange "Save & Continue" button to save your updates

Any changes will be immediately saved and will be live on your profile/listing. Please keep in mind that our Host Community team reviews updated profiles daily — this helps us to maintain the standards of our "pawesome" community!

Our online video training and quiz is a fun and beneficial way to learn about important Hosting tips and best practices! Most people complete it in less than 10 minutes, and doing so will instantly earn you the "Web Training Complete" badge on your profile, as well as rank you higher in search. You can watch the training video and take the quiz here.

Badges and credentials not only add credibility to your DogVacay profile, but also rank higher in search results and get your more customers. Here is a list of badges/credentials that are currently available:

• Premium Insurance Badge — get it here!
• Web Training Badge — get it here!
• Pack Leader Badge — get it here!
• Phone Interview Badge — email us here to schedule an interview!
• References Checked Badge — email us here with the names & email addresses of 3 people whose dogs you've cared for in the past.
• Facebook Connected Badge — click on the blue "Connect with Facebook" button at the top of the page!

For a detailed breakdown of each one, and instructions on how to acquire them, check out our helpful blog post.

It is important to reply to each and every message in a timely manner, even if you are unavailable for the time period requested. Your response score, comprised of the percentage of messages you have responded to and the average length of time it takes to respond to a message, is displayed on your profile. Guests are contacting you because they love what they see on your page, and are eager for a timely response!

iPhone Users: To view and answer messages on the go, you can download our free iPhone app from the App Store. Currently, this app is only available to Hosts to assist with managing messages, Meet-n-Greets and reservations. We suggest you enable push notifications so that you are up-to-date with all requests from potential Guests! In the near future, the app will be updated to include pawtastic functionality for Guests, too!

Going out of town? Have commitments that will prevent you from watching pups for a period of time? You have the option to either mark individual days as "Unavailable" on your DogVacay Calendar, or you can completely hide yourself from search results (both can be found in the "Calendar" tab of your DogVacay Dashboard). Be sure to keep your availability as up-to-date as possible, so Guests can get an accurate idea of when you are (or aren't) available to watch their fur-kids.

Sharing photo updates is a great way to show pet parents what a great time their fur-kids are having, and also put their minds at ease. As a DogVacay host it is mandatory to send photo updates.

Sending photo updates is easy — we will send you email reminders periodically throughout the Vacay. * Simply respond to this automated email with a note and photos attached, and they will automatically be forwarded to the pet parent. You are welcome to send photos directly to the owner, but in that case, we ask that you "cc" photos@dogvacay.com so we can admire all the cute puppy photos!

*Please remember that in order to keep the Guest's parents at ease, we require that our Hosts send at least one photo/movie update per day.

We greatly value our Hosts, and are here to support and assist you in any way possible. Your relationship with DogVacay is a partnership; we just don't say it — we mean it! Whether you need simple advice or guidance through an urgent matter or emergency situation, we are here to support you in any way possible. You can either email help@dogvacay.com or call us at (855) DOG-VACAY (364-8222). Our phone lines are open 24/7 (including holidays).

A General Inquiry is a great way for Guests to ask you questions prior to booking a reservation. Once you receive a General Inquiry, you can respond to it from your Dashboard. This is also a good time to suggest a Meet-n-Greet to see if the pup is a good fit for you and your home. Customers send you a General Inquiry by clicking on the "Ask Host a Question" Link from your profile.

A Meet-n-Greet request allows pet parents to meet a potential Host and to see if there is a good fit. Guests will propose 1-2 potential dates for the Meet-n-Greet. You have the option to accept a date or suggest a new date if neither of the proposed dates works with your schedule. If you do not feel comfortable inviting the Guest to your home, you can suggest meeting at a nearby park, coffee shop, or other public location that allows dogs. If you are unavailable to fulfill the Meet-n-Greet, be sure to decline it as soon as possible so the Guest has time to search for another Host.

When you receive a Reservation Request, the Guest has already entered their credit card information, which means they're ready to book their dog's Vacay with you! Once you accept the reservation, their credit/debit card will be charged. You also have the option to decline the request, request more information or send the Guest a Custom Quote in place of the reservation. If you haven't had prior contact with the Guest, this is a good time to suggest a Meet-n-Greet prior to accepting the Reservation Request.

If you would like to offer the Guest a special rate different from what is listed on your profile, or charge for a different service (e.g., walking, pet-sitting in the customer's home), a Custom Quote is a great way to send the Guest an invoice which replaces the Reservation Request. With our handy Custom Quote feature, you can choose the dates and a total price for the Guest to accept. The Guest then logs in to their account and accepts the Custom Quote with a credit or debit card. You will receive a booking confirmation once it has been accepted

Please do not reserve a spot in your home until you receive a receipt from DogVacay indicating that reservation has been paid in full.

DogVacay offers our Pack Leaders fantastic business cards and flyers which you can distribute at local pet stores, veterinary hospitals, dog parks or to your friends and family! We offer the following packages:

• 250 business cards and 100 flyers: $39.95
• 500 business cards and 100 flyers: $49.95

With these business cards and flyers, you'll be equipped with some great marketing tools to market yourself in your community. Your business cards and flyers will have your custom coupon code and every time a first-time DogVacay Guest books with your code, they get $10 off AND you get paid $10, whether or not they book with you or another Host!

Once you're ready to order, please give us a call at (855) 364-8222.

Other great tools that you can use to assist in marketing your services for free include posting information about your business to Facebook, Twitter, Yelp or Google Places! For more information on using social media to market your DogVacay services, be sure to checkout our blog.

It is every Host's responsibility to pay applicable taxes, however, DogVacay does not withhold any taxes.

In the United States:

• Hosts who are paid via PayPal and earn less than $20,000 or do fewer than 200 transactions in a Calendar year WILL NOT receive a 1099.
• Hosts who are paid via PayPal and earn more than $20,000 and do more than 200 transactions in a Calendar year WILL receive a 1099-K directly from PayPal.
• Hosts who are paid by check and earn over $600 WILL receive a 1099 directly from DogVacay.

In Canada:

• Hosts will not receive any tax forms regardless of payout method.

We do not recommend sharing of contact information until after a Meet-n-Greet or Reservation is accepted. This is to protect your privacy and to maintain the security of your personal information. Once you accept a Meet-n-Greet or Reservation, or a Guest accepts your Custom Quote, your contact information will automatically be shared with them.

Absolutely! You have complete control over the dogs you accept. You can state specific preferences on your listing (for example, "I only take small dogs"), or decide on a case-by-case basis. We strongly recommend setting up a Meet-n-Greet prior to Hosting in order to get acquainted with your future furry Guests.

If you're unavailable to watch dogs on certain days, don't forget that you can block off dates on your Calendar.

Providing an amazing home boarding experience is of the utmost importance. In an effort to create a better experience for pet parents, we limit the maximum number of pets on Vacay three at a time. We understand that some Hosts may feel comfortable accepting more than three dogs per day, but we have our customers and their fur-kids in mind — we want to ensure that each and every dog receives personalized care and the individualized attention that they deserve while on their Vacay.

If time permits, we highly recommend setting up a Meet-n-Greet prior to accepting a reservation. This is to ensure that the Guest dog is the right fit for you, your home, your family and any resident pets (including cats!). A Guest can request a Meet-n-Greet directly from your DogVacay profile page. Once you accept, your contact information will be disclosed to them. If time does not permit a Meet-n-Greet, a phone conversation with the Guest is strongly recommended. This will allow you to ask the Guest about their dog's personality, temperament, daily routine and any other pertinent information that will help you make a decision on whether or not you'd like to host a Vacay for their pup. Even if the guest does directly request a Meet-n-Greet, you can suggest one via the DogVacay messaging system.

For important tips on how to properly introduce dogs during a Meet-n-Greet, check out some great tips on our blog or our brief video.

After you accept a reservation, we'll share your contact information with the pet parent so you can get in touch to arrange the details of drop-off, pick-up, etc. Remind your Guest to bring enough dog food, any medication their dog may be on, the dog's leash and bed, etc. — in order to ensure that their fur kid has a comfortable Vacay. For tips on how to host an amazing DogVacay, visit our blog.

Our Guests make travel plans around your commitment to watch their dogs, so we take cancellations very seriously. If you need to cancel, please do so with as much notice as possible by calling Concierge at (855) 364-8222 or emailing concierge@dogvacay.com. When calling, please have the Guest's name and/or Reservation Number handy. We'll work with the Guest to find them another Host as soon as possible.

If a Guest needs to cancel a reservation for any reason, please contact us as soon as possible, so we can provide them with a refund in a timely manner. This also allows us to uphold our cancellation policy (if it applies).

If an existing reservation needs to be modified, please contact us so we can make the appropriate changes. All reservation date changes and partial refunds must be handled by DogVacay customer service. To add dates to an existing reservation you can also send an additional Custom Quote. Check out this blog post for step-by-step instructions on sending Custom Quotes.

• Flexible: Guests receive a full refund if they cancel at least 3 days prior to the Vacay, and 50% after. This is DogVacay's default and preferred policy.
• Moderate: Guests receive a full refund if they cancel at least 7 days prior to the Vacay, and 50% after.
• Strict: No refunds.

Our Concierge Team handles all cancellations and refunds — so, don't forget to contact us at (855) 364-8222 or via email at concierge@dogvacay.com.

Of course! We understand that not all of our Hosts are available to watch pups 365 days a year. For that reason, we give you complete control over your profile's visibility in search results. To utilize this feature...

• Log in to your DogVacay account
• Click on the "Calendar" tab from your Dashboard page
• Toggle the "Visible In Search/Hidden From Search" bar

If you prefer, you can also mark the dates you're not available in your Calendar, simply click on the dates that you will be unavailable. This way, your profile will continue to be shown in search results. Keep in mind that Guests will be unable to send a Meet-n-Greet Request or a Reservation Request for those dates which are noted as "Unavailable" on your Calendar.

Your ranking in search results is based on the badges and credentials you have acquired, the quality of your listing (lots of great photos and a solid description!), your responsiveness score, the number of customer reviews (from confirmed bookings) and your proximity to a Guest's location.

We regularly update our ranking algorithm in order to provide our Guests with a seamless search experience and to provide them with options which are most relevant to their needs. Guests also have the option to filter Hosts by price, date availability, presence of dogs in the home, property type, outdoor area and special skills. For this reason, be sure to keep your listing as up-to-date as possible!

Every municipality across the country has different rules governing local businesses and operational licenses. It is important that you research local and state laws to determine whether or not you would need a business license, kennel permit or other administrative permit. By accepting our Terms of Service and posting a Host profile, you acknowledge that you are following local rules and regulations.

We'd be sorry to see you go but won't give you any trouble. Just call our Concierge at (855) 364-8222 or email us at concierge@dogvacay.com with "Cancel Account" in the subject line. We'd really appreciate if you'd include a reason.

Please bark at us via email at concierge@dogvacay.com or give us a call at (855) DOG-VACAY. We're always here to help!