Pets are an important part of the family to many in Singapore, mostly because they provide loyal companionship and joy to their owners. However, having a pet can sometimes be troublesome too, especially when you need to travel and there’s no one to tend to your pet.
This is where newly launched Petkeepa comes in.
As its name suggests, Petkeepa is made up of a community of pet lovers who are available to help take care of pets for pet owners when they are busy. Think of it as the Airbnb for pets: users can sign up as hosts so that owners who go out of town can find someone reliable to look after their pets. When users sign up, they can input their basic information such as the experience they have with hosting pets, what kind of pets they accept, along with the services they provide.
Here’s a look at Petkeepa:
From the looks of its website, there are currently about 10 hosts available across Singapore who are available to take care of your pets. Prices range from as low as S$5 per day to S$50 per day, and there are several other options you can select from too, such as for the host to walk your pet, or bathe them. Of course, these additional services will come with additional prices.
Will it work in Singapore?
While its US based counterpart DogVacay has seen much success — it exceeded 1 million nights booked on its platform last November — it is still early days for Petkeepa. It is not yet intuitive for pet owners to want to search for available hosts to look after their pets online. In most situations, pet owners are more likely to get the help of their friends and family, as opposed to leaving their pets to other pet owners for a fee.
Security is another issue that needs to be dealt with to ensure that pets are not harmed by pet-sitters. Also, there is the concern that pet owners may leave their pets with pet-sitters and not return to collect them. A thorough and complete check should be done on not just pet-sitters, but on other users who intend to leave their dogs or cats with pet-sitters.
That said, there are definitely pet owners who would be grateful for the chance to leave their pets in the hands of other pet owners when they are away, simply because they understand pets more, and know how to tend to pets.
The problem, for Petkeepa, is to find all these pet owners.
Verdict: 3/5
