Frequently Asked Questions
Have a question you don’t see the answer to? Shoot us an email at [email protected] and we’ll be happy to help!
General
Leaf'Em is a two-sided marketplace that revolutionizes the way plant parents find reliable and dedicated plant sitters. Our platform connects plant enthusiasts with experienced caregivers who provide personalized attention and nurturing care to both your houseplants and outdoor plants. Whether you're going on vacation or simply need assistance in tending to your leafy companions, Leaf'Em is the go-to destination for finding trustworthy plant sitters who ensure your plants thrive in your absence.
Yes, users must be at least 18 years old.
We’d love that! Please reach out to [email protected] and we’ll help you get started!
You can switch between the plant parent and plant sitter dashboards using the toggle at the top of the home screen once you’re logged in.
If you’re already logged into the app, navigate to “My Account” using the far right icon on the bottom navigation bar. Then click into “Profile” and you’ll see “Password settings” in the middle. Expand that section and you can change your password. If you’re logged out, on the sign in screen you’ll see a “Forgot Password” link on the bottom right side. Click that, follow the instructions, and we’ll get you all fixed up!
Navigate to “My Account” using the far right icon on the bottom navigation bar. Then click into “Profile” and you’ll see your notification settings at the bottom. Expand the “Notification Preferences” section and you can toggle push or email notifications on or off for different categories.
Start by clicking on the message bubble icon in the bottom navigation. From there, select the edit button in the top right corner. This will allow you to select which messages you would like to either read, archive or delete. Once the message(s) are selected, click on the action you wish to perform at the bottom and confirm.
You cannot share phone numbers or email addresses, or use any kind of profanity or vile language. Any violation of this could result in immediate and permanent deactivation of your account. Please adhere to our Community Guidelines for further details.
- In the app: navigate to “My Account” using the far right icon on the bottom navigation bar. Then click into “About Leaf’Em” and you’ll see a feedback form.
- On our website: scroll all the way down to “Contact Us”. Fill out the form, and we’ll review it. If we have any questions, we may reach out. Otherwise we will take your feedback into account as we move forward in developing new features and making improvements to existing ones!
Yes, Leaf’Em reserves the right to deactivate any user account if we feel like our community guidelines have been violated. You can view our Community Guidelines here.
Service fees are what allows Leaf’Em to provide and continually update the platform and offer customer support along with the Leaf’Em Promise.
- As a plant parent, you’ll see a 10% fee (but no more than $50) added to each booking. This goes to support the operating costs of the app and the team providing support, and is refundable in some cases based on our cancellation policies.
- As a plant sitter, you’ll keep at least 80% of your earnings and Leaf’Em keeps 20% (this may vary based on various promotions or incentives).
These fees are designed to allow Leaf’Em to support plant parents and sitters with the knowledge, education, and support they need at every turn. Especially as we launch our beta, these fees will go towards creating new features and enhancing existing ones based on feedback we get from users. It will also allow us to build out our support team to be able to better support all users for more extended periods. And lastly, it will help us build and expand our knowledge and education resources for plant sitters.
Please let us know by contacting [email protected] the moment you feel uncomfortable. We do not tolerate abuse of any kind on this app and are determined to keep this a safe space for all users. Some examples of inappropriate conversations are:
- If foul or crude language is used at any time
- If any plant sitter or parent requests any personal information from you that isn’t relevant to your booking. While you can share any information that is pertinent to your plant sit that you feel comfortable with, you are never required to share any information about yourself to the other parties involved.
- If either party mentions to pay in person instead of through the app. Only appointments that are booked and completed though the app are supported and backed by the Leaf’Em Promise.
Shoot us an email to [email protected] - we’ll get back to you as soon as we can!
Plant Parents
First, download the app to your Android or iOS device and click the Register button. We’ll guide you through the process of signing up and setting up your parent profile.
Once your account is set up and you’re logged in, you can make all these changes in the “My Account” section. Navigate to “My Account” using the far right icon on the bottom navigation bar. Then select profile, addresses, payment methods, etc and you can make changes as needed.
You do not have to add plants to your profile to book an appointment but it sure helps out the sitter! They’ll be able to see the plants and care instructions you’ve put in your “My Plants” tab.
If you do want to add plants to your profile, follow these steps:
- Click on the small plant icon in the bottom navigation.
- From there, click on the “+” in the upper right corner.
- This will bring up the “Add New Plant” page. Add in a picture and all of the plant information and then click the red “Add Plant” button at the bottom.
- If you ever want to edit or delete the plant, click into the plant and either use “Edit” at the top right or “Delete Plant” at the bottom.
- First, you’ll need to find a sitter. Click on the blue “Pending Appointment Requests” section, or click on the calendar icon in the bottom navigation from any screen. From there, you can click on the red “Find a Sitter” button, or the plus sign (+) in the top right corner.
- You can look through the sitters near you to find one that offers the service you’re looking for and then click “Send a Request” PRO TIP: Select your address/location from the list of saved addresses so your entry instructions populate - this will allow the sitter to see the entry instructions you’ve saved for that address.
- This will bring up the “Request Services” form. Here you can see the base option for plant watering, where you’ll want to select your number of plants. If you have outdoor beds and/or gardens you want taken care of, you’ll need to select this based on the approximate number of square feet you’ll need services for.
- At least one of the watering service options must be selected for the additional services to be available. For Potted, you can select either indoor or outdoor for additional services. For Beds and Garden, services are broken into beds or gardens. If no additional services populate when “+ Add Additional Services” is clicked, then the plant sitter does not have any options available in their profile. Once you’ve selected your watering and any additional services, hit “Continue”.
- From there, you can select any equipment that you have on hand for the sitter to use and click “Continue”.
- Next, select the date you need your service and a time range that would work best for your schedule. If no specific time is needed, select the day and then just leave the time set to the default (12:00AM to 11:00PM) and click continue. (Please note: 1. The earliest you can request an appointment is for the next day 2. All time requests are not guaranteed and are subject to approval by the sitter.)
- Now you’ll see the Summary page with a breakdown of your requested appointment. Once everything looks good, click the “Send your Request” button at the bottom. This sends the request to the sitter and allows you to chat with them if needed.
- The appointment date and time can be edited by the plant parent until it is accepted by the sitter.
- Once the sitter reviews and accepts the appointment, the plant parent will need to submit payment to complete the process. From the “My Appointments” tab, under “Requested”, you will see the appointment. Click on the red “View Details” button and scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “Proceed to Pay”. Select the card you wish to use and click “Make Payment” at the bottom.
- This confirms the appointment and now you can rest assured your plant babies will be all taken care of!
You can only chat with a sitter if you have an open, pending, or in progress appointment. Please remember to respect and adhere to our Community Guidelines and make sure your actions are in line with the Leaf’Em Promise.
- Have you already requested or booked an appointment?
- If you have already requested or booked an appointment, head to the “My Appointments” tab and find the appointment you wish to chat about. Once you have found the correct appointment, you can click the chat bubble icon in the bottom right corner of the appointment details box. Then you can chat away!
- Are you still looking for a sitter/ First time booking?
- Click on the blue “Pending Appointment Requests” section, or click on the calendar icon in the bottom navigation from any screen. From there, you can click on the red “Find a Sitter” button, or the plus sign (+) in the top right corner. That will populate the available options for sitters in your area below the map. Once you’ve found a sitter you think will meet your needs, click on the “Send a Request” button, and start the process!
We’re so glad you asked! This is a beta, and the pricing engine is complex. We tried to account for all scenarios, but there may be some cases where the engine doesn’t quite work how we expected. Plant sitters have the ability to edit the pricing at their discretion. Please go ahead and send the request, and then chat with the sitter to see if you can come up with a price that works for both of you. And please also email [email protected] to let us know about your issue. We want to get as much feedback as we can so we can continue to improve the pricing engine.
- Once an appointment is requested, as long as the sitter hasn’t yet accepted the appointment the plant parent can edit the appointment. Go to the “Requested” section of the “My Appointments” tab and click the three dots in the top right corner of the appointment you wish to edit.
- Once the sitter has accepted, you can’t edit the requested services. If you need to change the request and have not yet paid for the appointment, we recommend canceling the appointment and starting fresh.
- If you’ve already paid for the appointment and you need to add services, we recommend creating an additional booking for the extra services you need.
- If an appointment is already confirmed and paid for, the plant parent can reschedule by finding that appointment under the “Confirmed” section of the “My Appointments” tab and clicking the red “Reschedule” button at the bottom of the appointment you would like to reschedule.
- If you need to cancel the appointment, head to the “Confirmed” section of the “My Appointments” tab and click on the 3 dots in the upper right corner of the appointment you wish to cancel. You can cancel the appointment up until the check in has occurred from the sitter. Cancellations are subject to fees.
While this is not a service that is currently offered, we hope to offer it soon! In the meantime, you’ll have to set up an appointment for each date that you want services.
If you have already requested or booked an appointment and you would like to book that sitter again, head to the “My Appointments” tab and find the “Past” section at the top right. From there, find the appointment you wish to re-book and select the “Book Again” button at the bottom of the appointment and proceed with the booking process.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected] if you ever have any issues or concerns. We strive to keep all of our plant parents and sitters safe and comfortable. Please let us know if the Community Guidelines are violated, or if you’re uncomfortable in any way.
You also have an option to leave a review from the “Past” section of the “My Appointments” tab. Click on the “Review & Tip” button for the appointment you’re reviewing. From there, leave a 1-5 star rating and any public review you wish to leave and click Submit.
To dispute the payment for an appointment, find the appointment in question and click on the three dots in the top right corner and click dispute. From there fill out the dispute form including any pictures you have and click submit. Leaf’Em support will reach out to you regarding the dispute. Disputes must be initiated within 5 days of the appointment completion.
To dispute the payment for an appointment, find the appointment in question and click on the three dots in the top right corner and click dispute. From there fill out the dispute form including any pictures you have and click submit. Leaf’Em support will reach out to you regarding the dispute. Disputes must be initiated within 5 days of the appointment completion.
To leave a tip, find the appointment in the “Past” section. Click on the “Review & Tip” button. From there, click on “Leave a Tip” and select the amount or percentage and the card you would like to use and click Submit.
To leave a review, find the appointment in the “Past” section. Click on the “Review & Tip” button. From there, click on “Leave a Review” then leave a 1-5 star rating and any verbal review you wish to leave and click Submit.
If you are interested in scheduling a walkthrough, please start the appointment process and use the chat feature to schedule a time that works for you. This will not be a charged visit and therefore will not be covered under our insurance or the Leaf’Em Promise.
Leaf’Em is insured to cover General Liability claims. If a criminal action has occurred, please file a police report while also reaching out to Leaf’Em support. Leaf’Em also strongly recommends that all Plant Sitters carry their own liability insurance and/or bonds. This will ensure that all parties are covered in case an issue arises. In the event of an incident, we will work on a case by case basis to determine the best course of action for everyone involved.
Plant Sitters
- First download the app on your iOS or Android device.
- Then, you need to sign up and set up your parent profile.
- Once you’re logged in, you’ll toggle over to the “Plant Sitter” section from the top of the home / dashboard.
- We’ll walk you through a few more steps to set up your sitter account. A complete sitter account means you’ve added your profile information, set up your connected Stripe account, added your service areas, set the rates for your services, and finally paid for and completed a background check through Checkr.
- When your background check comes back, you’ll either be approved, we’ll ask you for more information, or you might be rejected based on the results.
- Once you’re approved and your account is set up, you’re ready to start accepting appointments!
In order to ensure our brand promise of trustworthy sitters, we need to vet you before we can confidently send you into plant parents’ homes. To do that, you have to go through a background check at your own expense. But, consider this an investment into your plant sitting business! Once you’re approved, you can start building your clientele and it should pay for itself in no time!
Usually it’s pretty quick, but if there’s an issue that needs to be investigated or discussed it could take up to 10-15 days from the time you complete the process through Checkr. You’ll be notified of the status at each step.
Once the app officially launches, plant parents in your area can start requesting appointments. We’ll be sure to let you know when that happens so you can be on the lookout for notifications!
First you’ll need to create an account. Once you’re logged in, it will ask you to complete information such as your photo, birthday, gender identity, address and service area as part of the onboarding process. Once that is complete, if you want to make changes, update your profile photo or add other service addresses, navigate to “My Account” using the far right icon on the bottom navigation bar. Then you can go through each section and make changes as needed.
When you’re going through the onboarding process, you’ll input your home address which will be your first service area. After that, you can go into your profile and add additional addresses as service areas you’d like to provide services for. When Plant Parents are looking for a sitter, if your service area is within a certain radius from their address, they’ll be able to see you.
Eventually, this will be customizable so you can determine how far you’d like to travel.
You’re not required to carry insurance, but it is recommended. Our insurance covers certain instances but you may not be protected. We recommend general liability insurance, and if you want to go above and beyond, you could get bonded. This isn’t required, but could be used as a good marketing tool for you! You can use resources like Insurance Bee, biBerk, Mourer Foster or contact your local insurance agent.
You’ll be able to set your own prices for different services, and you’ll take home at least 80% of your booking fees. Some sitters may have qualified for higher take home rates when they signed up. Still unsure? Send us an email to [email protected] and we’ll be happy to help.
Your payments will be direct deposited into the bank account you used to set up your Stripe account.
You’ll get paid through Stripe 7 days after each appointment is completed. This assumes there were no issues or disputes with the appointment.
- First, start off by making sure you are on the plant sitter side of the app and then click the “My Account” icon in the bottom right corner.
- From there you are going to click on the “Set My Rate” section. This will bring up a screen that has (6) categories listed: Indoor Potted, Outdoor Potted, Outdoor Beds, Outdoor Garden, Indoor Watering and Outdoor Watering. Each one of these sections has services listed on them.
- To add a service you’d like to offer, simply click the box next to the service and put a green check mark. Underneath the service box will be a service rate which you can then update. Leaf’Em has set pricing minimums to these services that we do not let sitters go below, but you can adjust the pricing for each service as you see fit.
- If you have any pending requests, they will appear on your plant sitter dashboard at the top in a blue box. If you click on this box, it will take you to the requested appointments. (You can also click on the calendar icon in the bottom toolbar to bring you to the My appointments section. )
- From there you have (4) appointment types: In Progress, Requested, Confirmed and Past.
- To accept an appointment, find it under the “Requested” section of the “My Appointments” tab, review the terms, and click “Accept”. You can also reject the appointment by clicking “Reject”.
- To make changes to the pricing of an appointment request, you must first accept the appointment from the “Requested” section of the “My Appointments” tab.
- Once accepted, click on the “View Details” box. This brings up the appointment overview which has a red edit icon to the right of the appointment summary.
- Click the edit icon and then click on the section of the appointment you would like to update.
- Once all of the pricing has been updated to your liking, click save changes at the bottom.
- NOTE: Updated pricing must be approved by the parent before the process can continue.
No worries at all! If you are looking to cancel, simply find the appointment in question and click the three dots in the upper right corner of the appointment and click cancel. This can be done in any stage but if it occurs within a designated time frame close to the appointment, you could be charged a fee.
If you are looking to reschedule, this action must be done on the plant parent side. Chat with them and decide on a new date, and then have the plant parent update the request.
We understand that life happens, if you have to miss an appointment for reasons outside of your control, please let the parent know first. Then reach out to [email protected] and we will advise on each case individually.
If you miss an appointment, there are possible fees that could be associated with the missed appointment. If you can work with the plant parent and reschedule, there will be no cancellation fees.
There is a two step process to complete an appointment.
- First, you will need to “Check In” once you get to the appointment location. This can be done by finding the appointment in the “In Progress” section of the “My Appointments” tab, clicking on the “Appointment Details” button, and clicking “Check In” at the bottom of the page.
- Once the appointment is completed, the plant sitter will need to perform a checkout from the appointment screen. This is found in the same place as the “Check In” button was located. Once the checkout process is completed, the appointment will move from “In Progress” to “Past”
Once an appointment has been completed or canceled, they will appear in the “Past” section of the “My Appointments” tab. Find the appointment for which you would like to leave a review, and click the leave a review button at the bottom of that appointment. From there you can select between 1-5 stars and also leave a written review if you’d like. Then just hit submit and you’re all done! These reviews will be visible to the public, and must adhere to our Community Guidelines.
If there is an emergency during an appointment, please reach out to 911 or your local non-emergency line, depending on the situation. After the proper authorities are contacted, please reach out to [email protected] and bring us up to speed on what happened. We care about the safety of our plant parents and plant sitters and will work with you to ensure that everyone is safe and happy.
If you are interested in scheduling a walkthrough, please start the appointment process and use the chat feature to schedule a time that works for you. This will not be a charged visit and therefore will not be covered under our insurance or the Leaf’Em Promise.
Leaf’Em is insured to cover General Liability claims. If a criminal action has occurred, please file a police report while also reaching out to [email protected].
Leaf’Em strongly recommends that all plant sitters carry general liability insurance and are bonded. This will ensure that all parties are covered in case an issue arises. We recommend general liability insurance, and if you want to go above and beyond, you could get bonded. This isn’t required, but could be used as a good marketing tool for you! You can use resources like Insurance Bee, biBerk, Mourer Foster or contact your local insurance agent.
We don't at the moment but this is on the roadmap! So for now, we're really going to rely on plant parents to be clear with the sitters on how they want their plans taken care of.