Mad Paws Cancellation Policy Explained — What Owners and Sitters Need to Know

Mad Paws doesn't have a single cancellation policy — each sitter on the platform selects their own tier (flexible, moderate, or strict), and your refund window depends entirely on which tier your sitter chose. That's the single most important thing to check on a sitter's profile before you confirm any booking, particularly for high-value overnight or long-stay arrangements.

Why Mad Paws uses per-sitter cancellation tiers

Mad Paws is a marketplace where independent sitters set their own rates, availability, and service terms. The cancellation tier system extends that flexibility to cancellation terms — sitters with predictable, regular bookings and low tolerance for last-minute gaps in their income choose strict tiers; sitters who want to appear flexible to attract first-time clients choose lenient tiers.

For owners, the practical consequence is that there's no single "Mad Paws cancellation policy" you can research once and apply to all bookings. The terms are per-sitter, and you need to check them before confirming.

The three cancellation tiers explained

Flexible

The flexible tier offers the most protection for owners. Under flexible, an owner can cancel and receive a full refund up to a minimum notice period before the service — typically 24–48 hours depending on the service type. Cancellations inside that notice window may receive a partial refund, with the sitter retaining a portion to compensate for the short notice.

Flexible is rare for good reason. Sitters who select it absorb significant last-minute income risk — if an owner cancels the morning of a 10-night sitting booking, a flexible-tier sitter has limited recourse. Most sitters who offer flexible terms either have very high booking volume (so individual cancellations don't materially affect their income) or are newer to the platform and using flexible terms to build their booking history.

Moderate

Moderate is the most common tier on Mad Paws. It applies a sliding scale based on when the cancellation occurs relative to the booking start date.

For day walking bookings, the full-refund window is typically shorter — cancelling a few days in advance usually qualifies for a full refund. For extended overnight or long-stay bookings, the full-refund window extends to roughly a week before the start date. Cancellations inside that window receive partial refunds, with the sitter retaining a larger portion the closer the cancellation is to the booking date.

If you're booking a moderate-tier sitter for a holiday period — Christmas, school holidays, Easter — set a calendar reminder for the full-refund deadline date as soon as you confirm. Plans change, and the difference between cancelling a week before and six days before the deadline can be the difference between a full refund and a 50% refund.

Strict

Strict tier minimises sitter income risk by setting a long advance notice window for full refunds. For overnight sitting and longer stays, full refunds are typically only available for cancellations made 14+ days in advance of the booking start. Cancellations after that window receive partial refunds on a declining scale, and cancellations within a few days of the booking may receive no refund at all.

Strict tiers are most common with experienced sitters who fill their calendars well in advance, operate during high-demand periods like Christmas and Easter, and have explicitly decided that income certainty outweighs booking volume flexibility. Sitters who are consistently booked months ahead have no practical need to attract last-minute owners with flexible terms.

For owners booking strict-tier sitters: the low refund risk is the cost of access to a sitter who's in demand. Read the conditions before you book and don't assume any refund window exists once you're inside it.

What's not refunded regardless of tier: the service fee

Mad Paws' platform service fee (approximately 5–8% of the booking plus GST) is generally non-refundable regardless of when you cancel and which tier applies. This is consistent across all three tiers and most cancellation circumstances.

For a short walk booking, the service fee is a few dollars — the non-refund is practically insignificant. For a high-value 14-night sitting arrangement, the service fee could be $50–$80 or more. If you're in a situation where you expect a full refund, knowing that the service fee component is retained by the platform is worth factoring in.

When the sitter cancels

Owner-initiated cancellations operate on the tier system above. Sitter-initiated cancellations are treated differently — and generally more favourably for the owner.

If a confirmed sitter cancels a booking they accepted:

• The owner receives a full refund of the booking amount.
• Mad Paws will attempt to help find an alternative sitter, though this isn't a guarantee and depends on availability, particularly during high-demand periods.
• The service fee may or may not be automatically refunded — owners who don't see it returned should contact support to confirm.

Mad Paws has structural disincentives for sitters who cancel. Repeat cancellations result in profile demotions in search results, review impacts, and in sustained cases, platform suspension. The system is designed to make sitter cancellations costly to the sitter's ongoing business on the platform.

In practice, sitter cancellations do occur. The most common pattern is during peak periods — Christmas, school holiday breaks, Easter weekend — when some sitters overcommit and then cancel lower-value or newer-client bookings in favour of established clients. Owners who've had this experience commonly note that the refund arrives promptly; the problem is the booking gap, not the refund itself. In peak periods, finding a last-minute replacement through any platform is harder.

Applying for a goodwill refund

If you cancel outside your tier's refund window due to genuine unforeseen circumstances — documented illness, family bereavement, natural disaster — Mad Paws has discretion to review your situation and offer a goodwill refund or credit.

These are assessed individually by Mad Paws support. There's no published eligibility standard or guaranteed outcome. Owners who've used this route commonly report that the process requires documentation (medical certificates, official documentation of the relevant circumstance) and takes time to resolve. Whether a goodwill outcome is offered depends on the specific circumstances, the quality of documentation, and the support agent's assessment.

If you're in a situation where you need to invoke this process: contact support promptly, document everything from the outset, and be clear about the specific circumstances. Don't assume that any genuinely unavoidable situation automatically qualifies for a refund — the discretionary nature of goodwill decisions means the same circumstance may result in different outcomes.

Checking a sitter's tier before you book

The tier a sitter has selected is visible on their profile page. It's not always the most prominent element — sitters' photos, ratings, and services are typically the visual focus. But the cancellation tier is there, and checking it takes about 30 seconds.

For single walk bookings where the value is low, the tier may not be material enough to affect your sitter choice. For overnight sitting, boarding, or multi-week arrangements — particularly during periods when alternative sitters are hard to find — the tier is one of the most important things on the profile.

Practical advice for high-value bookings:

1. Check the tier before shortlisting, not after selecting.
2. If the sitter is strict-tier, calculate the full-refund deadline date and set a reminder.
3. For peak-period bookings (Christmas, Easter, school holidays), consider whether booking a flexible or moderate-tier sitter who has slightly fewer bookings is worth trading some profile strength for cancellation protection.
4. Don't assume a long-term relationship with a sitter means they'll apply flexible terms informally — tiers are set on the platform and most sitters apply them consistently regardless of relationship history.

How TruePath handles cancellations differently

TruePath is our platform, and we'll state directly how our approach differs from Mad Paws' model.

TruePath uses a platform-wide cancellation policy rather than per-walker tiers. Every walker on TruePath operates under the same cancellation standard — owners know what to expect regardless of which walker they've booked, without needing to check individual profiles before confirming.

For day walks, TruePath's position is straightforward: if a walk doesn't happen as booked, the owner isn't charged. That covers both owner-cancellations within reasonable notice windows and walker-initiated no-shows. For overnight sitting, structured cancellation windows apply — similar in concept to a moderate-tier Mad Paws policy — but the terms are uniform across all walkers.

The practical difference: on TruePath, you read one cancellation policy once and it applies to every booking. On Mad Paws, you check each sitter's tier before each booking, because the terms vary. For regular, ongoing bookings with the same sitter, the Mad Paws approach may settle into a known expectation. For owners who book occasionally or across multiple sitters, the per-sitter variability adds friction.

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FAQs

Frequently asked questions

Is the Mad Paws service fee refunded when I cancel?

How do I find out which cancellation tier my sitter uses?

What if I need to cancel last-minute due to illness?

Can a sitter change their cancellation tier after I've booked?

Does TruePath have a single cancellation policy?

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