Booking software for babysitters and nannies in Canada
Give the families you sit for one link instead of a group chat. They choose the evening and how many hours, tell you about each child, and you see a clear diary with the address and the bedtime notes in it. Slotora checks a childcare page before it can take bookings, and the first 14 days cost nothing.
Start your 14-day trialHow a family books you
By the hour, priced by the hour
Set your hourly rate, a minimum and a maximum. The parent picks how many hours they need and sees the total before they confirm.
Siblings without the maths
Add a charge for each extra child, per hour, and one booking covers the whole family's evening.
Each child's card
Name, birth year, allergies, their doctor and the people allowed to pick them up — filled in once by the parent and there on every booking after.
The family's address on the booking
A service at the family's home asks for the address when they book, so it is in your diary rather than in last month's messages.
You approve every booking
Put your page on request and each booking waits for your yes; it is held for 48 hours while you decide. Or offer a service to families you already know and nobody else.
Drop-off and pick-up, recorded
For care at your place, tap when a child arrives and when they leave, and note who collected them from the people the parent named.
Before your page takes a single booking
Childcare pages are held to a stricter rule than any other trade on Slotora.
01
You declare what your work requires
At sign-up, a childcare business confirms that it holds the permissions and checks its work needs. Which ones depends on your province and on how you work; we do not decide that for you.
02
You verify who you are
Your identity is checked through Stripe Identity, with a government ID and a selfie, before families can book you online.
03
Slotora looks at the page
A person at Slotora reviews a new childcare page before online booking opens. Until then the page shows your details but no times.
04
Anyone can raise a concern
Every childcare page has a way to report a concern, and the report comes to Slotora rather than to the business it is about.
If you care for children in your own home in Ontario
Ontario sets limits for unlicensed home child care, which is what a sitter looking after other families' children in her own home is doing. The province's page says an unlicensed provider may care for up to five children under 13, no more than three of them under two, and must count her own children under four in that number.
It also requires you to tell parents in writing that you are unlicensed, in the province's own words: “This child care program is not licensed by the Government of Ontario.” A copy of that notice is kept for two years. Slotora does not write or store that notice for you; put it in your welcome email or in a form the parent signs.
Sitting in the family's own home, or working as their nanny, is a different arrangement, and other provinces have their own rules. If a family employs you directly as their nanny, payroll and deductions are between you and them — Slotora has no payroll.
What Slotora will not do for a sitter
- It does not find you families
- This is not a marketplace. Slotora runs bookings for the families you already have and the ones you send your link to.
- It does not run background checks
- We verify your identity; we do not obtain a police or vulnerable sector check for you, and parents should ask you for one as they normally would.
- Parents are not texted
- Parents are reminded by email, because Slotora cannot text Canadian phones yet, and the drop-off and pick-up taps send the parent nothing at all.
- Families' details are stored in London
- Children's cards and booking details are kept in a database in London, England.
- Québec
- Sitters and families in Québec cannot use it until the French version is ready.
The subscription
A sitter working alone is one bookable person. After the 14-day trial it is billed monthly in Canadian dollars and can be cancelled from the plan page.
| One sitter | C$19 a month |
|---|---|
| A nanny share with a second carer | C$19 + C$10 a month |
| Yearly, one sitter | C$190 a year |
Prices in Canadian dollars. No GST/HST is added at present. Families pay you directly; nothing is deducted by Slotora.
Questions from sitters and nannies
Can parents pay me by e-transfer instead of card?
Yes. Card payment is optional; you can take bookings without collecting any money online and be paid however you normally are.
Can I stop strangers booking me?
Yes. Offer your services to existing clients only, or keep your page on request so you approve each booking yourself.
What does a parent fill in about their child?
Name and birth year, allergies, the doctor's name and number, who may collect them, and a free note — plus any questions you add to your own booking form.
Why can't families book me straight after I sign up?
Because a childcare page waits for your identity check and Slotora's review before it shows any times. It is slower on purpose.
Is there a commission on my hours?
No. The subscription is the only thing Slotora charges.
Source
The provincial rule quoted above, from the Government of Ontario.
- Government of Ontario — number of children allowed in home and unlicensed child care — https://www.ontario.ca/page/home-child-care-and-unlicensed-child-care-how-many-children-are-allowed · read
Send your link to one family first
Set your rate and your hours, wait for the check, then ask a family you trust to book their next evening through it.