SitPup guide
Pet Sitting Booking Form: What Information Should You Ask Clients For?
A booking form that's missing the right field just moves your admin from before the request to after it. Here's what to ask for, and what's usually unnecessary.
4 min read
Related SitPup page: Pet Booking Widget
The fields that decide whether you say yes
If any of these is missing, you'll be sending a follow-up message before you can answer:
- The specific service, not a generic enquiry, since a visit and a week-long stay are different commitments
- Exact dates, and arrival or collection times for anything overnight
- The animal: species, breed, age and anything about feeding, medication or behaviour that affects your answer
- Where the care happens, at your place, theirs, or both
- A way to reach the client directly, not just a username
Fields worth adding if they apply to you
Not universal, but genuinely useful for specific setups:
- How the pet gets along with other animals, if you board more than one at a time
- An emergency contact, for anything longer than a day visit
- A note field for anything that doesn't fit the other questions
What you can usually leave out
Every extra required field is a chance for someone to abandon the form halfway through. Things like a full vaccination history or a written vet reference are usually better handled as a follow-up once you've already decided the dates work, not as a gate before someone can even ask.
SitPup's form ships with the fields above as toggles: turn on what you need, and skip the ones you don't, without building a custom form from scratch.
Key takeaways
- Service, dates, pet details and a direct contact are the fields you actually can't skip.
- Add animal-compatibility or emergency contact fields only if your setup needs them.
- Keep vaccination records and references as a follow-up, not a form requirement.
- A complete request means one message thread instead of four.
Build your form in minutes
Turn on the pet fields you need, publish, and see what a complete request actually looks like.