Babysitter Scheduling Trends.
Updated: Apr 3
What's going on behind the scenes in the Babysitters Of Boulder master calendar? Here's a reveal of some solid trends worth knowing:
Busiest day for babysitting requests/day that sells out. Wednesdays!
Most popular evening sit time that gets claimed super fast. Friday nights, or weekday evenings between 6:00 and 11:00 pm. Team members are finished with their day jobs and can hop over for a fun evening of helping kids & parents, while still getting to bed early enough for tomorrow's workday.
Most popular sit length that gets rapidly claimed. 5 to 6 hours, such as 10:00 am to 4:00 pm or 6:00 to 11:00 pm. Also, the uber-long Saturday is popular. Example: a 10 to 12 hour sit on a Saturday while parents go skiing.
Least popular sit length/time. 3 hour sits that cut across the day don't work well, for example 11 am to 2 pm. This reservation blocks the babysitter from stacking other morning or midday work, such as requests for 8 to 2 pm or 12 to 6 pm. A fair amount of babysitters wait to claim the 3 hour requests because a request to fill out a bit more of their day may come up.
The exception is when the 3 hour sit is early enough or late enough to give the babysitter time to accept other work and stack jobs. Example: 7 am to 10 am or 6 pm to 9 pm. Either one of these times give the babysitter time to stack other morning work or afternoon work.
Best lead time to put in a babysitting request. 7 days in advance.
Worst lead time to put in a babysitting request. 2-ish days before the babysitter is needed. Example: Wednesday afternoon request for Friday morning help. You might be surprised to know that we actually have higher fill rate for day-of requests than for the "almost two days in advance" requests.
Most popular weekend day. Saturdays, especially if the request is made with at least a few days notice. People love picking up Saturday sits, however by Thursday evening they will start making other plans if your job isn't up on the board to be claimed.
Weekend day when babysitters are least likely to be around/reachable. Sundays. A lot of people hold this day as a family day, a no-cell-phone day, or a day when they prep for their week. Our babysitters are highly organized, reliable and detail-oriented and they apply that to their own lives too.
Book early. Book often! Rest assured that we know life with kids has unexpected twists and planning early isn't always possible. We are always sourcing and onboarding great babysitters with varied schedules to suit our clients' needs.
Sincerely,
Genna Hackley
Founder & Owner, Babysitters Of Boulder