pawshake.comReviews of pawshake.com

Response from pawshake.comSep 23, 2026

Hi Ophelia, We want to clarify the facts regarding this situation, as the events described in your review do not accurately reflect what occurred here. To be clear: there was no confirmed booking and no paid service was ever scheduled or missed. The meeting in question was a Meet & Greet—a free, optional, and complimentary introductory chat arranged before any booking is confirmed or paid for. A Meet & Greet exists specifically so both the owner and the sitter can determine if they are a good match, and either party is completely free to walk away if the fit isn't right. Given that this was solely an introductory meeting, we have to ask: how were you or your pet depending on the sitter at this stage? No care was scheduled, no booking was active, and no payment had been made. As seen in the message thread, the sitter works a primary job and experienced unexpected overtime. As soon as she had access to her phone, she reached out to explain: "Sorry, can we meet 4:30–5pm? I was working overtime and couldn’t message sooner. It takes me 30 mins to come over." Although the scheduled day was outside her normal availability, she rearranged her personal schedule to try to accommodate you. When it became clear that her work delay caused disappointment, she politely declined to proceed, stating: "I’m sorry again for missing the meeting... Unfortunately, the unexpected overtime was beyond my control, and I contacted you as soon as I had access to my phone. I understand your disappointment, but given the situation, I think it’s best that we don’t proceed with the booking. I wish you all the best." A sitter needing to reschedule a free preliminary meeting due to work commitments is not a paid "no-show," nor is it grounds to penalize a sitter or remove them from our platform. Our sitters are human beings who offer their time for free Meet & Greets before taking on a commitment. Publicly criticizing a sitter and misrepresenting a missed introductory chat as a failed booking is misleading. While we take platform accountability and pet safety extremely seriously, we also stand by fair treatment for our sitters. We wish you and your pet all the best moving forward. Kind regards, Pawshake Customer Support Edit: Thanks for your updated review. As outlined in our email to you yesterday, threatening to dox our staff after the investigation outcome didn't go in your favour is not acceptable behaviour. Threatening to publicly target, name, or dox customer support staff because you disagree with a resolution is unlawful in the UK under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 and the Malicious Communications Act 1988. Unlawful threats and personal harassment toward support staff do not strengthen a complaint. Had a sitter failed to show up for a paid, confirmed booking where a pet's care was actively depending on them, that would be an entirely different story and strict action would be taken. However, this was an unpaid, preliminary Meet & Greet. The sitter was delayed by mandatory overtime at her primary employment and attempted to reschedule the free introductory meeting the moment she had access to her phone. Most pet owners understand that sitters often balance pet care around regular 9-to-5 jobs. We do not penalize sitters who work secondary jobs, nor do we punish individuals for unexpected work delays during unpaid introductory chats. Pawshake is built on a community of pet lovers and sitters, governed by clear community standards. These standards require mutual respect, basic empathy, and zero tolerance for doxxing or personal harassment. The sitter was genuinely apologetic and handled the rescheduling attempt politely. Continuous public shaming and threats toward both the sitter and our staff over an unpaid, rescheduled meeting fall far outside acceptable community behaviour. If this level of flexibility and basic courtesy toward sitters does not align with your expectations, Pawshake may not be the right platform for you.

Response from pawshake.comSep 9, 2026

Hi Sourav, We take allegations of policy violations very seriously, but we must clarify the facts regarding why your account and connected profile were suspended. Our Trust & Safety team received a report from a prospective client stating that during your Meet & Greet, you explicitly requested to take the booking outside of Pawshake to bypass service fees. The client provided video recording evidence confirming this discussion of offline payment. Because you had already received a prior formal warning on your account for fee-related policy violations, immediate suspension was required to protect our community. During our investigation, you claimed you declined the booking due to your two cats. However, these cats were not listed on your profile or disclosed to guests prior to the Meet & Greet. Furthermore, our investigation revealed multiple linked accounts operating from the same household across different addresses without full disclosure, including pet sitting being conducted at a location distinct from the address registered on your verified account. To protect pet owners, Pawshake strictly regulates multiple accounts within a single household, particularly where care is provided at undisclosed locations or where sitters operate overlapping businesses. When an account is suspended for serious policy breaches, associated accounts at the same physical location are placed under review as a precaution. When an account is suspended for trust and safety violations, active bookings are canceled to protect pet owners, and our team assists affected clients with alternative arrangements. Our team remained in direct email communication with you throughout the investigation to review your responses and assess the situation. We enforce these standards consistently to ensure a transparent, safe, and trustworthy community for all pet owners and sitters. Kind Regards Pawshake Support

Response from pawshake.comSep 9, 2026

Hi Nikki/Jenny, We are very sorry to hear that you are unhappy, but we must address several significant inaccuracies in your review regarding how our platform operates, our terms of service, and how this situation was handled. Pawshake operates purely as an online marketplace connecting pet owners with independent pet sitters. Sitters are not employees, agents, or contractors of Pawshake; they run their own independent pet care businesses. We believe you may be operating under a false assumption, as our terms clearly state that Pawshake makes no representations or warranties regarding the individual quality or suitability of independent sitters. Pawshake verifies every sitter’s government identification, mobile phone number, and bank details during our manual onboarding process. However, as clearly detailed across our website, the selection and final vetting of a sitter remains the owner's responsibility. We instruct owners to use the mandatory Meet & Greet to assess suitability, verify experience, and request additional checks—such as a DBS check—for total peace of mind before booking. Our terms strictly forbid sitters from delegating bookings to unverified third parties, as well as demanding offline cash payments for extra dogs, cleaning, or platform fee reimbursements. We have asked you for the screenshots where the sitter did this, but have yet to receive it. Bookings must be made directly by the pet owner from their own account. Because this booking was made under a different user's profile (Alcina) and you initially contacted us from an unregistered email, our support team experienced unnecessary delays verifying who you were and locating the reservation. Many of the serious claims in this review—are being raised publicly for the very first time here rather than through our customer support channels. We have reached out to you repeatedly in good faith, navigating changing details regarding who actually owns the dogs, and have explicitly requested written evidence or documentation to substantiate these claims. We wait in good faith for any evidence to back up these assertions so we can properly investigate. Rather than providing the documentation requested by our support team, you chose to post a negative online review instead. We remain open to reviewing any receipts, messages, or written proof you can provide so we can take appropriate administrative action. Kind Regards Pawshake Support

Response from pawshake.comAug 27, 2026

Hi Samantha, We’re sorry to hear you were disappointed, although we’re having some difficulty locating your account in our database under the name provided. As a result, we’re unable to verify that this review relates to an actual Pawshake user. There also appears to be a fundamental misunderstanding about how Pawshake works. **Sitters do not pay for leads.** Pawshake charges a flat 19% contribution on services that are actually booked through the platform. There is no charge simply for receiving enquiries or having your profile listed as you imply. That 19% provides considerably more than simply an introduction to a customer. It covers advertising and promotion of your services and profile, hosting and management of your profile, access to customers looking for pet care, the booking and payment system, support when you need it and, most importantly, veterinary coverage for eligible incidents involving pets during Pawshake bookings. Without this coverage, you would need to arrange and pay for appropriate cover yourself in the event of an incident. You are also free to set your own prices on Pawshake. If you believe you are earning less than minimum wage, you can easily increase your prices to reflect the value of your time and experience. It is your profile to manage as you see fit. Ultimately, whether Pawshake is worthwhile for you depends on whether you value having us handle the legwork you would otherwise need to manage yourself, including finding customers, advertising, payment processing, administration and appropriate insurance or coverage. Kind regards, Pawshake Support

Response from pawshake.comAug 15, 2026

Hallo, vielen Dank für Ihr Feedback. Wir verstehen, dass Profilanforderungen manchmal als lästig empfunden werden können, insbesondere wenn man sein Profil möglichst schnell freischalten lassen möchte. Die Anforderung, Fotos von sich selbst im Umgang mit Tieren hochzuladen, ist jedoch eine Standardanforderung für alle Sitterprofile und ein wichtiger Bestandteil dabei, Tierhaltern eine fundierte Entscheidung zu ermöglichen. Ein Pawshake-Profil ist keine Galerie mit niedlichen Tierfotos oder privaten Bildern. Es ist Ihre Visitenkarte als Tiersitter. Tierhalter möchten sehen, wie Sie tatsächlich mit Tieren umgehen, sie betreuen und mit ihnen interagieren. Unsere langjährige Erfahrung zeigt, dass Profile, die dies nicht veranschaulichen, deutlich seltener gebucht werden, da Tierhalter nur schwer einschätzen können, wie viel praktische Erfahrung ein Sitter tatsächlich hat. In der Praxis lässt sich diese Anforderung meist mit einem Smartphone und wenigen Minuten Aufwand erfüllen. Deshalb betrachten wir sie nicht als besonders aufwendig oder unverhältnismäßig. Wer Tiersitting professionell anbietet, wird im Laufe seiner Tätigkeit mit deutlich anspruchsvolleren Aufgaben konfrontiert werden als dem Anfertigen einiger geeigneter Profilfotos. Vor diesem Hintergrund halten wir die Anforderung für angemessen und nachvollziehbar. Wir wünschen Ihnen alles Gute für Ihre weitere Tätigkeit als Tiersitter. Ihr Pawshake-Team

Response from pawshake.comAug 12, 2026

Hi Hannah, Thank you for your update. We appreciate that you have now provided further context about how you say the alleged surveillance affected you. However, this is the first time Pawshake is hearing of that connection. This is the first time you have told us that you considered the cameras to be the root of your mental health crisis. That matters because we investigated the circumstances using the information available to us at the time. In your message at the time to Pawshake, you explained: “My friends came to support me… Karen organised for her friends to collect Kiki. Karen was asked if she would like us to stay until the friends arrived and she said it was best if we didn’t.” You then said: “my ultimate goal was to make sure Kiki had the correct care and that I could deal with my own crisis.” You subsequently mentioned that the house had security cameras throughout the property, that you were unaware of them, and that this was “very distressing and uncomfortable”. But at no point did you tell us that discovering the cameras had caused or triggered the mental health crisis that resulted in the booking ending. Nor did you provide the details you are now presenting publicly: that a camera was allegedly in the bathroom, that it recorded audio and video, or that the alleged surveillance caused a trauma response. Those are significant details, and they are being presented as central to the circumstances for the first time now. Had you reported undisclosed surveillance equipment to us at the time, particularly in an area where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy, we would have treated it as a serious safety concern and investigated it. Pawshake does not permit surveillance in areas where users have a reasonable expectation of privacy. We did follow up with the owner regarding what happened. Our decision considered information from both parties, including your own explanation given at the time, and the fact that the booked service ended only a few hours after it began, requiring the owner to make urgent alternative arrangements for their puppy. You may have subsequently been asked to leave, or told it was best not to remain until the owner's friends arrived. That does not change the circumstances that preceded that request or the fact that the agreed service had already broken down. Describing this simply as “doing exactly what the owners asked” therefore omits important context. We also reject the suggestion that Pawshake simply “sided entirely with the host”. We considered the information provided by both parties and followed up on the circumstances. You were given an opportunity to explain what happened, and you did so. Your contemporaneous account necessarily formed part of our assessment. We understand that you now believe the cameras were the underlying cause of your crisis. However, you did not tell us Pawshake at the time. Pawshake cannot reasonably be expected to make a decision based on a causal connection that was never communicated to us and is only being made explicit after the fact. If undisclosed surveillance was the fundamental safety issue, the appropriate course would have been to report that concern to Pawshake immediately and provide the relevant details so it could be investigated. Instead, the booking ended, the surveillance concern was only raised afterwards, and the significant additional context now being presented publicly was not provided to us when we made our decision. We appreciate that you found the experience distressing. Nevertheless, we stand by our original response and the action taken based on the information available to us at the time. You are entitled to describe your experience publicly; equally, readers should have the benefit of the contemporaneous information Pawshake actually received when the decision was made. Kind regards, Pawshake Support

Response from pawshake.comAug 12, 2026

Hi Richard, Thank you for taking the time to share your experience. We're sorry to hear that you've been disappointed by the outcome of several Meet & Greets. We appreciate how frustrating it can be when you're trying to organise care for your pets and a booking does not proceed as expected. It may help to clarify that a Meet & Greet is intended to be a no-obligation meeting for both owners and sitters. We strongly encourage these meetings because they allow both parties to assess whether the arrangement is the right fit before committing to a booking. If either party has concerns about any aspect of the proposed service, they are free to decide not to proceed. Pawshake sitters are independent pet care providers who use our platform to manage and promote their own services. They are not Pawshake employees, and the decision whether to accept or decline a booking ultimately rests with the sitter. While we understand that it can be disappointing when a sitter initially appears positive about a booking and later decides not to proceed, we would encourage you to ask prospective sitters for honest feedback when this occurs. As you mention that this has happened more than once, their feedback may help identify any factors influencing their decision, whether that relates to the pets' care requirements, behavioural considerations, the location, travel time, scheduling commitments, or other aspects of the booking. Understanding those reasons may help you address any concerns early and improve your chances of finding a sitter whose experience, availability and preferences are better aligned with your needs. We wish you all the best in finding the right sitter for your pets and appreciate your feedback regarding the process. Kind regards, Pawshake Support Updated response: We do understand the distinction you are making in your update. Your concern is not that sitters are permitted to decline after a Meet & Greet; it is that, having indicated during the meeting that they were happy to proceed, they subsequently changed their mind. However, there is an important point here. You say that this has happened with several sitters and that, in at least one case, you specifically asked the sitter more than once to tell you during the Meet & Greet if they had any reservations, and they nevertheless chose to decline later. A Meet & Greet is intended to give both parties an opportunity to make an assessment in person. While you may invite a sitter to be completely candid about any concerns, you cannot require them to reach a decision immediately or to feel comfortable expressing every reservation face-to-face. A sitter may only reflect on the arrangement afterwards and decide that it is not right for them. Where this has happened repeatedly, it may therefore be worth considering not only whether sitters are being sufficiently upfront, but also whether the Meet & Greet is creating an environment in which prospective sitters feel comfortable expressing reservations honestly at the time. We cannot know why an individual sitter chose not to proceed unless they tell you, and it would be inappropriate for us to speculate or attribute their decision to the condition of your home. What we can say is that Pawshake provides the platform and process for owners and independent sitters to find a suitable match; we cannot guarantee that a sitter will ultimately decide to accept a booking, even after a seemingly positive Meet & Greet. We appreciate that losing time when arranging pet care is frustrating, but the alternative would be to have a sitter proceed with a booking despite having reservations and potentially cancelling mid-way through, due to issues they did not feel comfortable raising with you in person. We believe it is ultimately better for a sitter to decline before the booking begins than to accept and subsequently discover that the arrangement is not suitable.