If you’re planning a date night to celebrate Valentine’s Day, one of the essentials in preparing is booking a babysitter. But with the holiday falling on a Saturday night this year, it’s bound to be tougher than usual to nail down child care. Not to worry, because UrbanSitter has you covered.
UrbanSitter is an online and mobile service for parents and sitters to connect through people they know by harnessing the power of social media. Using graphs like Facebook and LinkedIn to help parents find sitters through friends means that trust is built in. Parents can see which sitters their friends have hired and liked. And, because time is a prized possession to most parents, they can efficiently book a sitter online in minutes.
I first wrote about UrbanSitter a couple of years ago, and you can read the post about our experience using the service. But here’s the rundown on how it works: UrbanSitter leverages members’ social graphs to surface babysitters to whom they have a real-world connection through people they trust, and then offers profile info and a video clip coupled with valuable marketplace data about each sitter’s performance (reviews from parents who’ve booked her/him, number of repeat families, how quickly they respond to booking requests, special skills, etc). UrbanSitter also facilitates the booking in real-time (ala OpenTable) and the payment (ala Uber). Parents can opt for subscriptions or a pay-as-you-go fee. There is also a subscription offering for sitters.
To learn more and sign up with UrbanSitter, visit the website.
Now go plan that date night!
Giveaway: TEN KidFriendly DC readers can win $50 in credit to use toward babysitting with UrbanSitter! Simply leave a comment below telling me your favorite date night restaurant in the area. To be eligible, you must be a new UrbanSitter customer (go here to sign up for a FREE account) and you must like KidFriendly DC on Facebook. Since you’ll want to get your Valentine’s Day sitter booked soon, this giveaway will only run until 3pm tomorrow, Tuesday, February 10 (but credit can be used through March 31, 2015). All winners will be notified shortly thereafter. Good luck!
Perry’s in the summertime – up on the roof! In the colder months we like Rasika for the warm comfort of Indian food.
Lame I know, but hubby and I have not had a real date, alone in the city since out daughter was born 3 years ago. I’d love to just go somewhere rustic and cozy or to Good Stuff Eatery and then for a stroll or ice skating.
We love anywhere that is NOT kid friendly for a date :). Woodmont Grill in Bethesda is fantastic.
Favorite date night dinner is the Columbia Firehouse in old Town Alexandria!
Kintaro – very cozy for Japanese food. In Georgetown.
We’re pretty new to D.C., but we’ve enjoyed sampling lots of the good food in the area so far. Our favorite date night since we moved here – Rose’s Luxury – it was luxuriously yummy!
There are so many to love! We tend towards the Virginia side of things, and love Elephant Jumps in the Merrifield area. Amazing Thai!
we’re pretty new to the area but love Cava Mezze! There are lots of great places to explore but so far they have all been with the 3yr old in tow!
Brasserie Beck!
I like going to Oyamel.
Our favorite is currently Hill Country BBQ Market.
Society Fair in Alexandria has good food and nice people.
Georgetown cupcake!! Who needs dinner?!
Ha ha, honestly anywhere! But I always love founding farmers 🙂
Rasika for sure! (Though we have more luck going on a lunch date while the kids are in school since we have yet to find a regular sitter … winning this would help!)