Text Messaging for Pet Sitters: Visit Updates, Holiday Bookings, and What Never to Text

Part of the series Text messaging & 10DLC for service businesses

Pet sitting clients are, almost by definition, away. They’re traveling, they’re anxious about it, and the only thing that tells them home is fine is you. That makes texting the core of the service, not an add-on — and it makes the stakes of getting it wrong higher than in most businesses. This guide covers what to send, how to handle the sensitive stuff, how to use texting to fill your calendar for the holidays, and the rules that apply. It’s part of our series on text messaging for service businesses.

What to send on every visit

• Visit complete with a photo. Every visit, not just the first. A photo of the cat on the windowsill does more for a nervous client than any paragraph.
• A note that answers their actual worries. Ate breakfast? Litter scooped? Meds given? Plants watered? Write the note around what the client told you they care about.
• On the way — optional for sitting, since the client isn’t home, but useful for clients who like to know the visit is underway.
• Schedule confirmations. A text the day before the trip starts confirming the visit schedule catches mistakes (“wait, we fly back Sunday, not Saturday”) while they’re still fixable.

Medication and feeding confirmations

If a pet is on medication, the client should get a confirmation every time it’s given — in the visit note, in plain words: “Gave Luna her 1/2 tablet of thyroid med in a pill pocket at 7:40am — ate it right up.” It protects the pet, reassures the client, and gives you a written record if anything goes wrong. Make sure the instructions themselves live somewhere the sitter sees on every visit, not in a three-week-old text thread.

Twice-a-day visits: don’t drown the client

A client with morning and evening visits for ten days will get twenty visit texts. Most love it; some don’t. Ask at booking, and give clients a way to move updates to email or turn them down without losing the photos.

Never put these in a text

• Alarm codes, lockbox combinations, garage codes, or where the key is hidden. Store them in the client’s record where the assigned sitter sees them at the visit.
• Anything that tells the world the house is empty. Don’t send “the Garcias are in Hawaii until the 14th” to a backup sitter by text — use your schedule.
• Bad news without a phone call. A pet that’s sick, missing, or injured gets a call (and a text if you can’t reach them). Have the client’s emergency contact and vet on file before the trip, not after.

Filling holiday weeks with marketing texts

Pet sitting demand is wildly seasonal: Thanksgiving, the winter holidays, spring break, and summer weeks book out, and quiet weeks are quiet. A short text to past clients six to eight weeks before a holiday — “Booking Thanksgiving visits now, 5 spots left” — is often all it takes to fill the calendar. That’s a marketing text, so send it only to clients who opted in to promotions, during daytime hours, with your business name and opt-out line. The compliance guide covers what that opt-in needs to say.

Templates you can copy

• Visit complete: “[Business]: Today’s pet sitting visit is done ✅ Jordan finished up at 6:15pm. ‘Mochi ate all her dinner, meds given at 6:05, litter scooped, curled up on the couch when I left.’ [photo]”
• Trip confirmation: “[Business]: Confirming visits for Mochi Nov 22–30, 7am and 6pm daily. Anything changed with feeding or meds? Reply here and we’ll update her profile.”
• Holiday promo (opted-in clients only): “[Business]: Holiday visits for Dec 20–Jan 2 are booking now — 6 spots left. Reply BOOK and we’ll get you on the calendar. Reply STOP to opt out.”

How ReachOutReady handles texting for pet sitters

• Visit-complete texts go out automatically with your sitter’s note and a photo from the visit; clients can open every visit’s photos and notes in their portal later.
• Each pet’s feeding and medication instructions, vet details, and the client’s emergency contact show on the sitter’s visit screen — and access notes stay in the client record, not in texts.
• Twice-daily visits are scheduled as two real visits a day, and each client chooses text, email, both, or neither for visit updates.
• Sitters text clients through your business number from the sitter app, so every message is logged in your shared inbox.
• Marketing campaigns only reach clients who opted in to marketing, add your business name and opt-out line automatically, and can’t be sent after 9pm or before 8am.

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