For feeding visits, a couple of days' notice is usually plenty. The calendar shows real availability, so if a day says it's available, it is.

For house sitting, school holidays and Christmas, book as far ahead as you can, because those dates fill up first.

Yes. Text us on 022 566 3711 with your dates, your suburb and a little about your pets, and we'll set the booking up for you and send you the details. We usually answer texts in a few hours.

Booking online is just as quick if you'd rather. You'll see real availability and the full price before you pay.

Please don't send door or alarm codes by text. There's a secure way to send those, explained under keys and door codes below.

Text or call us on 022 566 3711, send a message through the contact page, or email kelburncrittercare@gmail.com. We usually answer texts in a few hours. Messages and emails get an answer within one working day.

No, but we recommend one. Inside our standard area it costs $10.00, and it's free if you're booking three days or more. Outside the standard area it costs $15.00 to cover the travel instead. You'll see the exact figure before you commit to anything.

It takes about twenty minutes. We meet your pets, you show us the routine, and we sort out keys and how we'll get in. That part happens in person.

Yes, even once it has started. Each visit is refunded according to how much notice you give before it. If you cancel at least 4 days before a visit, you get a full refund for that visit. If you cancel between 24 hours and 4 days before a visit, you get 70% back for that visit. Visits less than 24 hours away are charged in full. Visits that have already happened aren't refunded. If your meet & greet hasn't happened yet, its fee is refunded in full.

Notice is counted to the start of each visit's time window. For a morning visit, that's 8am on the day of the visit.

Coming home early? Choose the last visit you need on your booking page, and the visits after it are refunded the same way. If we arrive and find you already home without having told us, that visit is charged.

To change your dates instead, use Request a change on the booking in your account. If we can move it, we will. There is no charge for that.

Usually 10 to 20 minutes, depending on your pets and what they need.

Food and fresh water take a few minutes. The rest of the visit is the litter tray or garden, any medication, a check around the house, and time spent with your pets.

Morning visits are between 8 and 10am, and evening visits are between 4 and 6pm. If you book one visit a day, you choose morning or evening when you book, and you can ask to switch later.

We arrive within the window rather than at an exact minute, because the order of our round changes from day to day. For house sitting, we arrive from 4pm on the first evening.

We call you first. If we can't reach you, we call your emergency contact, if you gave us one.

If it's urgent and nobody answers, we take your pet to the vet you've nominated and authorise treatment up to the limit you set when you booked. You choose that limit on the booking form, and we never go over it.

If the vet needs paying at the time, we pay up to $200.00 ourselves and pass the bill on to you at cost. If your limit is higher than that, your vet bills you directly for the rest, using the contact you give us when you book.

Either way, you'll hear from us that same day.

Usually, yes. A small team of feeders looks after every booking, and you can see who they are on our About page.

If someone else is covering your booking, you'll know who before they arrive. Because there's more than one of us, a visit doesn't get cancelled just because someone is unwell.

After every visit we email you to say it's done, with a photo when we take one, and write a note in your visit log saying what we did and how your pets were. You can read the log in your account at any time.

Visit photos are deleted 90 days after the visit, so save any you'd like to keep.

Only the feeders shown on our About page. Each has a profile you can open before you book, showing where they're based and how long they've been looking after animals.

Anyone who joins the team appears there before they do a visit. If you'd prefer a particular person, tell us, and if they're free, they'll be the one who comes.

Because the right price depends on where you live, how long the stay is and how many pets you have. It's $65–$90 a night, and the price we quote always sits inside that range.

You send us a request, we tell you the exact price, and there's nothing to pay until you've accepted it.

You pay by bank transfer. When you book, we email you an invoice with our account details and your booking reference, and they're on your booking page too.

Feeding visits are invoiced when you book. You can pay straight away, or any time during or after the visits, and if it's still to pay we send a reminder on the evening of the last one. Your booking is confirmed as soon as you make it.

For house sitting, you pay once we've sent you an exact price and you've accepted it.

Most public holidays cost the same as any other day. Visits and nights from 25 December to 26 December cost 50% more. Your booking total shows those days on their own line before you pay.

Feeding visits in Breaker Bay, Broadmeadows, Churton Park, Horokiwi, Houghton Bay, Karaka Bays, Makara, Maupuia, Ngaio, Owhiro Bay, Seatoun, Strathmore Park and Woodridge include a travel charge of $5.00 for each visit (twice a day if you book two visits a day), shown as its own line in your total before you pay. Everywhere else we book online costs the standard rate. House sitting is priced for each stay, and where you live is one of the things that price depends on.

Yes. Every account has a referral code. When someone books with us for the first time using your code, they get money off that first booking, and once it's paid you get credit towards your next one, which comes off automatically. It doesn't count for someone at your own address. The amounts are shown on your account page.

The credit is added once their first booking has been paid for, not when they sign up.

Most people hand over a key at the meet & greet. It's the simplest way, and it leaves nothing written down.

If it's easier to send a door or alarm code, you can add it when you book (it's an optional section on the address step), or later from your booking page. Please don't send codes by text or email, because those stay readable in two inboxes indefinitely.

Either way, it's encrypted as soon as it arrives. Only the owner, team members with admin access, and the feeder assigned to your booking can open it, and your feeder only from the day before your booking starts until the day after it ends. Every opening is recorded, and it's deleted automatically seven days after your booking ends. We can't show it back to you, even if you ask, which means a stolen login can't be used to collect it.

Not yet, and we'd rather tell you than let you assume otherwise.

Public liability cover is being arranged. Until this answer changes, it hasn't been.

No. None of our team holds a veterinary qualification, and we're not a registered animal welfare organisation.

We feed your pets, give medication as you've instructed, and call a vet when something seems wrong.

We keep only what we need to do the job: your contact details, your address, your pets' routines and your vet.

Access details, if you send any, are encrypted and deleted automatically seven days after your booking ends.

The privacy policy has the full detail, including how to ask for a copy of what we hold, or ask us to delete it.