Meowtel Review for Cat Sitters: Is Meowtel Worth It?

Meowtel is an app that connects cat parents with cat sitters who can stop by their homes to provide pet care while they’re away. Sometimes referred to as the “Uber of cat sitting,” the Meowtel app is exclusively designed for cat care, and it offers a convenient way to instantly book cat sitting gigs—great for anyone who needs gig work they can schedule around other commitments (e.g., busy parents or college students who want to fit paid work around classes).

As of April 2024, the company has been in business for over 8 years and facilitated over 95,000 cat sitting bookings. In keeping with their trust-oriented business model, the company is very selective about who can be a Meowtel cat sitter.

You not only have to be over 18 years of age (which rules this out as a side hustle for many teens), but they also make you jump through quite a lot of hoops. In fact, according to their website, under 10% of applicants are approved.

How does Meowtel work?

Here’s a rundown of how Meowtel works for sitters:

1. Apply to be a Meowtel sitter.
2. Get approved.
3. Get sit requests from cat parents.
4. Accept or deny booking requests.
5. Attend a meet and greet with the client (if requested).

Booking requests only last 24 hours. After that time, they expire. Not responding to requests will result in an account suspension.

As a cat sitter on Meowtel, you set your own rates for different types of drop-in visits, depending on their duration. Meowtel cat sits can last 20 minutes, 45 minutes, 60 minutes, or overnight.

Cat sitter responsibilities

Meowtel sitters are required to perform the following duties during each cat sitting visit:

• Feed the cat
• Water the cat
• Clean the litter box
• Play or cuddle with the cat
• Provide video and/or photo updates

Clients may ask you to provide extra services beyond basic cat sitting, such as caring for other pets, administering cat medication, or providing basic house sitting services like watering house plants or bringing in the mail. In these cases, it’s up to you and the pet parent to negotiate a fair arrangement where you’re comfortable with your tasks and compensated fairly.

Costs and fees

Meowtel doesn’t charge cat sitters any signup or membership fees, but they will take a 15%–30% cut of your earnings.

How much Meowtel will take from a booking depends on how much money you’ve made from a particular client since you first signed up for the app. Longer-standing relationships with higher earnings have lower commission fees.

Meowtel Commission Fees

Note: These fees apply to all states except California, where sitters are not charged any commission fees.

Fortunately, you get to keep 100% of your tips. Tips are not subject to the commission fees above.

Locations

Meowtel claims to operate in 48 states across the country. However, as of April 2024, they only have cat sitters in 43 states. Some of these states only have a handful of cat sitters.

To see what the competition is like in your area, check out Meowtel’s full list of operating states and cities.

Cat sitters set their own rates on Meowtel. To give you a basic idea of what you can expect to earn on Meowtel, sitters using the app report earning anywhere in the range of $18–$45 per hour. 1

However, cat sitters don’t usually get paid by the hour. Instead, you’ll set rates for drop-in visits of different durations and have a separate rate for overnight stays.

In general, your earnings as a pet sitter will vary. Similarly, on Meowtel, your exact income will depend on factors like the demand in your area and your experience level. You’ll also have the option to charge extra for national holidays, when your services will be in high demand.

How you’ll get paid

Meowtel pays sitters via Venmo or PayPal, so you’ll need to set up an account with one of these payment services in order to get paid.

According to the Meowtel website, you’ll get paid within 48 hours of service completion for reservations shorter than 7 days and weekly for reservations longer than that. However, online reports suggest that payments can take an extra couple of days to reach your account.

As such, this isn’t the fastest paying side hustle we’ve seen, but at least you don’t have to wait till the end of the month to get paid.

Cancellation pay

If a pet parent cancels a booking with you at the last minute, you’ll still receive compensation. You’ll receive payment within 2 days.

Meowtel is a legitimate app. However, while sitters are vetted via interviews and background checks, the same level of vetting is not given to clients. There’s no indication on Meowtel that clients undergo any background checks. It’s largely up to the sitter to assess whether or not a sitting arrangement is safe.

Meet and greets

After you accept a sitting request, a client may ask you to complete a complimentary 15–30 minute meet and greet, either in person or by video call. During the meet and greet, you’ll have the chance to meet the cat(s), take notes, ask questions, and request a copy of the client’s house key.

Meet and greets are important for your safety. Afterwards, you’ll have full freedom to reject a reservation request if you feel that the cats need more care than the client is requesting, you disagree with how the client cares for their cats, or their home feels unsafe or unclean.

Reporting pet parents

You can report a pet parent to Meowtel for a variety of reasons. Once you report them, Meowtel will investigate to decide whether to ban them from the platform.

Here’s an overview of offenses you’re encouraged to report:

• Excessive cat dander, hair, or dust
• Excessive bathroom accidents or cat vomit
• Repulsive odors
• Pest or parasite infestations
• Extreme indoor temperatures
• Point of entry obstructions
• Hoarding
• Aggressive cats
• Client intoxication
• Client showing signs of being “mentally unwell”
• Signs of animal cruelty or abuse
• Illegal substances or drug paraphernalia
• Additional, unexpected people in the home (e.g., roommates or guests)

Cat sitting insurance

Any sitting gigs where you’re getting paid $20 or more qualify for the Meowtel Promise, which is the app’s complimentary cat sitting insurance.

While there’s a lengthy list of exclusions, this insurance will cover any relevant costs you’re liable for if you cause property damage or injury to the cat you’re sitting. Just note that this insurance only kicks in after you’ve paid a $250 deductible.

Canceling bookings

Meowtel gives you the option to cancel cat sits for any reason. However, you’ll face penalties that will affect your sitter rating and your ability to get sits in the future.

Any time you cancel with under 1 week’s notice, a review with a low star rating will be automatically generated for your profile according to the following system:

• 3-star rating: Canceled 6–7 days before start date.
• 2-star rating: Canceled 3–5 days before start date.
• 1-star rating: Canceled under 48 hours before start date.

Signing up to become a cat sitter on Meowtel is relatively straightforward. Just follow these steps to apply:

1. Check for vacancies in your area: Meowtel sometimes stops accepting applications in a particular city, so the first thing you need to do is enter your zip code on the sitter signup page to confirm they’re currently hiring sitters in your area.
2. Create a Meowtel account: Click “Start My Submission” to create a sitter account using your email address or phone number.
3. Create your bio: Meowtel will ask you a few questions and then invite you to create a sitter bio, at which time you’ll set your rates, availability, and service area.
4. Provide references: You’ll be asked to provide at least two references as part of Meowtel’s signup process.
5. Complete an assessment: Meowtel specifies that all sitters must complete a “cat sitting case study,” which appears to be an assessment designed to test your cat care knowledge.
6. Undergo background screening: Meowtel will conduct a free background check on you to ensure you don’t have any disqualifying offenses on your record.
7. Attend a video interview: If you get this far without being disqualified, you’ll be invited to a 20-minute activation call, which is the final step of the application process.

As you can probably tell, Meowtel has pretty strict vetting standards. Be warned that only a small fraction of applicants actually get approved. Online reports suggest that it can take weeks to get approved since they need to check your references.

Where to download the Meowtel app

App Store Google Play

Real Meowtel cat sitters repeatedly mention that the best part of working with Meowtel is simply getting paid to play and care for cats. They also appreciate and respect the thorough vetting process, free cat insurance, and attentive user support.

Many negative Meowtel reviews are from applicants who got rejected and never actually worked as cat sitters for the company. Complaints from legitimate sitters tend to concern glitches with the app, high fees, and conflicts with pet owners.

What the competition is like

One way that Meowtel differs from all the other major pet care apps out there is that they’re careful to only onboard sitters when there’s sufficient demand. Even if you live in a big city with millions of people, you might not be able to apply because the app already has enough cat sitters to meet the needs of registered cat owners.

This model has the downside of making it more difficult to get started on Meowtel if you apply at the wrong time. However, it has the advantage of preventing market saturation. If you’re lucky enough to get in, it’ll be easier to get booked on Meowtel than on apps that have no caps on the number of sitters.

User reviews:

“I got an email that there is not enough demand in my area so I will need to reapply in a year from now. […] I live in a big city and it seems there are only 7 sitters available in the area.” (Reddit, September 2023)

“Looks like only 4 active sitters in my area, which is considered one of the busy areas.” (Reddit, September 2023)

“Meowtel isn’t getting enough business to justify more than three sitters in my region of millions of people.” (Reddit, August 2023)

“Last year, I had a fair number of fall visits from people taking vacations in the ‘off season.’ I limit myself to 5 visits a day on the holidays but I do make bank at Thanksgiving and Christmas.” (Reddit, August 2023)

“In my area there are probably 8 to 10 sitters on meowtel. Maybe three of them have multiple reviews and the other 6 or 7 just have the generic one from Meowtel.” (Reddit, April 2023)

“From my experience most people go with new sitters each time. As far as I know there is no effort on the side of the app to refer clients back to the same person.” (Apple Store, November 2022)

What to expect from the vetting process

The biggest obstacle to making money on Meowtel is getting approved for the app. Where most people seem to fall short is during the reference check or quiz.

If you make it past those two hurdles, you’ll be invited to a 20-minute activation call. During this call, you can expect to be asked basic questions commonly asked during any regular job interview, namely about your cat sitting experience and how you’d handle various situations while cat sitting.

User reviews:

“The application and vetting process took about 2-3 weeks for me.” (Reddit, December 2023)

“I vaguely recall some questions about how you would deal with a difficult client. Hypotheticals. Specific situation with certain types of cats or your background. I think they make a big deal about not losing keys.” (Reddit, April 2023)

“They will ask about your experience with cats (def would like to know professional/volunteer work and not just ‘I’ve had cats my whole life’), if you can administer medication, availability, transportation, services (as in popin visits or overnight sitting). And then they will go over what they expect and how to set up your profile.” (Reddit, October 2022)

Complaints against sitters

Meowtel gives clients the option to report that they were dissatisfied with your services in exchange for a refund. Some sitters have reported having experiences where clients have abused this system to get free cat sitting.

It’s important to protect yourself by taking plenty of pictures and sending messages that can serve as time stamps for when you arrived and left the client’s home. Otherwise, you risk losing your pay if you have a particularly picky or unreasonable client.

User reviews:

“Meowtel told me they are not paying me a dime for this $300 job- 12 days of daily cat sits that I clearly did perform. They were unable to provide any evidence that I was not there. And they disabled my account- (I told them to remove me from their site if they were not going to pay me.)” (Reddit, July 2023)

“I have put some protections in place lol. I always send a note via the app when arriving and leaving, especially followed up with picture upon arrival. This way there is a kind of time stamp. I also take pics of food and cat each visit and save til the end of the assignment plus a couple days and then delete them all once I know there hasn’t been a complaint.” (Reddit, July 2023)

“I know at least 3 people from different cities who left because some clients complained because they want their money back. In other words refunded & free services.” (Reddit, June 2022)

Customer service

Meowtel seems to really stand out from the crown when it comes to their user support—perhaps because they maintain a relatively small community of sitters to look after. This will be a breath of fresh air for gig workers who are used to dealing with automated chatbots.

Most Meowtel reviews that discuss the app’s customer service have only good things to say. Highlights include quick and fair responses to problems and a human touch that makes both sitters and cat parents feel at ease.

User reviews:

“Meowtel customer service is super easy to work with. they’re always extremely understanding of any sitter needs.” (Google Play, December 2023)

“They are always quick to contact you and solve your questions or issues.” (Google Play, May 2022)

“The customer support team is excellent, and extremely responsive.” (Google Play, June 2023)

“Meowtel was actually really helpful when I had to deal with a client who had unrealistic expectations. I was really impressed with the emails I got from customer service when I went crazy above and beyond to make her happy and document everything. They did a fair job of mediating and saw the effort I put in and how unreasonable she was being.” (Reddit, July 2023)

App interface

Some users complain that the Meowtel app can be slow or glitchy, particularly when it comes to the messaging and photo-sending functions. However, many bad reviews were posted in 2022, and it seems that the app has undergone a few updates since then to address some of these issues.

User reviews:

“The app is very no frills when compared to other pet sitting apps but offers a lot more to the sitters. I love that they suggest rates based on what people in your area will pay, I was under selling myself before I saw that!” (Google Play, April 2024)

“With the new update, the texting part constantly freezes when I’m in the middle of typing […] There also needs to be an option to place in multiple photos into one post. It’s a little tedious to use the app only to take pictures and having a push notification for every single before and after.” (Google Play, December 2022)

“Glitchy, slow app. I’m a cat sitter and I’ve sent multiple messages and it just sits on the loading screen forever so you just end up having to close the app and write your whole message over again and hope it sends this time. Sometimes you can’t even get into the app to message your clients back.” (Google Play, July 2022)

“The areas that the sitters service are sometimes not accurate – it seems the app just draws a circle around the sitter’s home address, which doesn’t always match up with the actual neighbourhoods they cover.” (Google Play, June 2022)

“The app is pretty great. It works best if you have a Wi-Fi connection as it can time out when you’re trying to send clients videos and photos.” (Google Play, June 2022)

All in all, Meowtel seems to be well worth it as a side hustle for cat lovers. It’s a decent app for making money, and probably takes the award for the best cat sitting app out there. Meowtel comes with extensive support and safety features you won’t find anywhere else. The catch is that very few cat sitters will actually be able to use it.

In terms of actually working for Meowtel, the biggest drawback is the 30% cut the company will take from your earnings when you’re starting out, which is a pretty steep fee for a pet sitting app. Nevertheless, seeing as how few cat sitters actually use the app, it might just be worth the cost to use this gig app, as you won’t have to worry about competing in a saturated market.

Pros and cons

Before you try applying for Meowtel, consider all the app’s biggest advantages and disadvantages for cat sitters.

How Meowtel compares to other pet sitting apps

For cat lovers who don’t want to deal with dogs, Meowtel offers the advantage of only advertising cat care gigs, which you won’t find with any of the other popular pet sitting apps.

With that said, there are certain drawbacks you can avoid by choosing a different app. For starters, it’s easier to beat the competition on Meowtel than on many other apps since they have so few sitters listed.

Meowtel’s biggest drawback compared to the competition is the intense vetting process. While most other pet care apps involve sitter screening, Meowtel is probably the hardest pet care app to get approved for since you also need to provide at least two references and attend a video interview.

Another big factor to consider is the cost of using the app. In contrast to Meowtel, the dog-walking and pet sitting app Wag! doesn’t have any commission fees, but they do charge a $25 signup fee. Rover is another app similar to Wag! However, Rover offers a worse deal for fees, as it charges a $35 signup fee and takes a 20% cut.

Alternatives to Meowtel

If you don’t make it through Meowtel’s strict vetting process or you want to explore your other options, a good place to start is by checking out the other top pet sitting apps currently on the market.

Alternatively, you can start your own cat sitting business and find clients using local advertising strategies. If you find yourself struggling to get the word out, there are other apps and platforms you can use to connect with pet parents, like TaskRabbit or Thumbtack.

Lastly, you can also become a house sitter to indirectly land cat sitting gigs. A huge percentage of the homeowners you’d find on house sitting sites are really looking to hire house sitters to look after their furry family members, including cats.