How it works, with nothing left out.
Four steps, whether you are looking for someone to watch your children or you are the person who will be watching them. Below is exactly what happens at each one, including what happens to the money.
- 01
Find
You look through real people, not a queue of anonymous availability.
If you are a parent
- Search caregivers in and around your town. Filter by the ages of your children, the kind of care you need, the days you need it and an hourly rate you can afford.
- Every profile is written by the caregiver herself. The experience line — how many children she has raised, how many grandchildren she has, how long she has been babysitting — is made of numbers she typed. Mitlea never estimates them and never fills in a blank.
- A verification badge appears only where a person at Mitlea has seen the evidence and recorded it. No badge means we have not checked that thing yet, not that she failed it.
If you are a caregiver
- You build the profile once: a photograph, a headline, a few paragraphs about the children you have looked after, the services you offer and the ages you take.
- You set your own hourly rate and the shortest booking you will accept, and you mark the days and hours you are actually free.
- You are listed only after you publish. Until then nobody can see the page.
- 02
Connect
You talk to each other before anybody commits to anything.
If you are a parent
- Message her through Mitlea and ask what you would ask on the phone. What she does when a toddler will not sleep. Whether she drives. Whether she has looked after a child with a peanut allergy.
- Until a booking is confirmed, phone numbers, email addresses and payment handles are hidden from the message. It is not there to be awkward — it keeps the arrangement inside the system that holds the money and keeps the record. Once a booking is confirmed, you are shown each other's phone number.
- Nobody is assigned to you. You choose who you talk to and you can stop talking at any point.
If you are a caregiver
- You see who is asking and what they need before you decide anything. You can ask your own questions first.
- You are never obliged to reply, and you are never penalised for not taking a family on.
- 03
Book
A request is a request. It becomes a booking when the caregiver says yes.
If you are a parent
- Pick a date, a start and end time, the service, and which of your children will be there. You see the full price — her rate, the hours, and the Mitlea service fee — before you send anything.
- Sending it does not book her and does not charge you. She accepts or she declines, and either way you are told.
- The rate you are charged is read from her own profile at the moment you request, not from anything your browser sent. A price you were shown is a price that was calculated on our side.
If you are a caregiver
- A request arrives with the date, the hours, the family, the children's ages and what the family has told you about them.
- You accept it or you decline it. Declining takes one tap and needs no explanation. A request you never answer simply stays unanswered — it drops off your list once the time has passed, and it never becomes an obligation.
- Mitlea will not let two overlapping bookings be accepted, so you cannot be double-booked by accident.
- 04
Relax
Online payment is not switched on yet, so her acceptance is the commitment and you settle up directly.
If you are a parent
- When she accepts, the booking is on. Mitlea does not take a payment yet and charges no fee, so you and your caregiver agree between you how and when to pay.
- You both get each other's phone number on the booking, and everything you agreed stays on the record here.
- Afterwards you can leave a review. Only a family who booked and completed a session through Mitlea can write one, which is why there are fewer reviews here than on a site that lets anyone type.
If you are a caregiver
- You agree payment with the family directly. Mitlea takes nothing from it — there is no fee until card payments are switched on.
- Your rate, your hours and your decision on every request are unchanged by that.
- When online payment does arrive, the family pays when she books, Mitlea holds it until the session is done, and it reaches your bank without you chasing anyone.
Where the money goes
Mitlea charges families a 12% service fee on top of the caregiver’s hourly rate. The caregiver receives the rate she set, in full. The fee is the only money Mitlea keeps, and it is shown on every quote before you agree to it.
Not switched on yet
The order of events
- 1.You send a request. Nothing is charged.
- 2.She accepts. Now you pay, through Stripe Checkout.
- 3.Mitlea holds the full amount for the whole time between the payment and the end of the session.
- 4.The session is marked complete, and $88 of this example is transferred to her account.
A four-hour evening at $22/hr
- $22/hr × 4 hours
- $88
- Mitlea service fee (12%)
- $10.56
Goes to your caregiver, whole.
Added on top of her rate, not taken out of it.
If a session is cancelled
Plans change, and a caregiver who has kept a Saturday evening free has turned down other work to do it. The policy is the same for everyone and is applied by the same piece of code that issues the refund.
Not enforceable yet
24 hours or more before the start
More than 24 hours before the session, so you are refunded in full, including the service fee.
- You get back
- $98.56
- She keeps
- $0
Between 24 and 2 hours before
Inside 24 hours, your caregiver keeps half of the session cost. The rest, including the service fee, is refunded.
- You get back
- $54.56
- She keeps
- $44
Inside the last 2 hours
Inside 2 hours of the session, your caregiver keeps the full session cost. The Mitlea service fee is refunded.
- You get back
- $10.56
- She keeps
- $88
Figures shown for the $98.56 example above. If your caregiver is the one who cancels, you are refunded in full whenever it happens.
Questions people ask first
What if she declines my request?
Nothing is charged, and you can send a request to someone else straight away. A caregiver declines for ordinary reasons — a grandchild's birthday, a hospital appointment, a family she has already said yes to that evening.
What if nobody answers?
A request she does not answer stays open until the session time passes, so it is worth asking more than one caregiver. You are never charged for a request, and you can withdraw one at any time.
Can I book the same caregiver again?
Yes, and most families do. Your conversation with her stays in one thread, so a repeat booking picks up where the last one left off rather than starting from introductions.
Do I have to pay through Mitlea?
Not yet. Online payment is not switched on, so you and your caregiver settle up directly and Mitlea takes no fee. Keep the arranging and the messages here, so the record and the reporting route still exist.
Who decides that a session is complete?
Either of you marks it complete once it has ended. That is what opens the review, and what will release the caregiver's share when online payment is switched on.
Does Mitlea employ the caregivers?
No. Every caregiver on Mitlea is an independent person who sets her own rate, her own hours and her own rules about the work she takes. Mitlea introduces you and keeps the record of the booking.
Ready to meet someone?
Browsing is free, messaging is free, and you are not charged until a caregiver has said yes to the evening you asked about.