Marketplace where cat owners book vetted cat sitters/boarding hosts with profiles, availability, messaging, and payments

COMPLETE

4–6 weeks

$10,000

7 features

2 milestones

1 role

Project Overview

Problem Statement

Cat owners need trusted, cat-experienced sitters/hosts with clear availability, safe handoff, and secure payment

Ideal Customer Profile

Cat sitters/boarding hosts who want to earn income

App Audience

Public-facing marketplace app

Project Type

Brand new build (greenfield)

N/A

Integrations

Stripe (payments); Persona / Stripe Identity / Checkr (identity/KYC/background checks); Google Maps (maps/geo); Twilio + SendGrid (messaging/email); Amazon S3 (storage); PostHog / Google Analytics (analytics)

Tech Stack Preferences

No preference (engineer can choose)

Deployment Preferences

Render

Design Status

Off-the-shelf UI system / template (no custom designs yet)

Features

Authentication + user roles

User accounts for cat owners, sitters/hosts, and admins with role-based access.

Sign up / login
Implement email/password or passwordless auth and session management.
Role model + permissions
Create roles (owner, sitter/host, admin) and enforce access control across pages/APIs.
Profile basics
Basic user profile fields and onboarding flows per role.

Sitter/host listings + profiles

Sitter/host can create a public listing with cat-care details and photos; owners can view listing profile pages.

Listing creation/editing
Form for sitter/host details (bio, services, pricing, location, house rules, cat experience).
Photo upload
Upload and store listing images in S3.
Public listing page
SEO-friendly listing/profile page with availability preview and CTA to request booking.

Availability calendar

Sitter/host sets availability; owners can search/filter by available dates.

Availability management UI
Calendar UI for sitters/hosts to mark available/unavailable dates and rules.
Availability data model
Store availability and compute bookable date ranges.
Availability-aware search
Ensure search results respect requested dates.

Search + discovery

Cat owners can search for sitters/hosts by location and dates and view results.

Location input + geocoding
Use Google Maps API for address/area search and store lat/long for listings.
Search results UI
List/map view with basic filters (price, distance) and pagination.
Listing detail routing
From results to listing page; track analytics events.

Booking flow + payments

Owners request/book sitters/hosts; platform handles checkout and payouts via Stripe.

Booking request + confirmation
Booking objects with statuses (requested/accepted/declined/cancelled/completed).
Stripe checkout + fees
Collect payment from owner; store platform fee; handle refunds/cancellations policy for MVP.
Stripe Connect payouts
Enable sitter/host payouts via Stripe Connect onboarding.

Messaging + notifications

In-app messaging between owner and sitter/host with email/SMS notifications.

Conversation model + UI
Create conversation threads tied to bookings and a basic inbox UI.
Email notifications
Send transactional emails via SendGrid (booking request, acceptance, receipt).
SMS notifications (optional MVP)
Send key updates via Twilio (new request, accepted).

Admin vetting + disputes (MVP)

Admin dashboard to review sitters/hosts, manage verifications, and handle basic disputes/refunds.

Admin dashboard skeleton
Secure admin area with basic navigation and metrics placeholders.
Vetting workflow
Review sitter/host applications, track verification status, and approve/deny.
Dispute/refund tools
View booking details and trigger refunds/cancellation actions (via Stripe where applicable).

Milestones

Milestone 1

Milestone 1 - Core marketplace foundation

Set up project, auth/roles, sitter listing creation, and basic availability/search foundation deployed to Render.

$4,000

Assigned Features

Authentication + user roles
Sitter/host listings + profiles
Availability calendar
Search + discovery

Milestone 2

Milestone 2 - Booking, messaging, and admin MVP

Implement booking workflow with Stripe payments/payouts, in-app messaging + notifications, and minimal admin tooling for vetting/disputes.

$6,000

Assigned Features

Booking flow + payments
Messaging + notifications
Admin vetting + disputes (MVP)

Skills Needed

Full-Stack Engineer

Build the marketplace web app end-to-end (UI, API, database), integrate payments/messaging/maps, and ship MVP on Render.

Web developmentAPI developmentDatabase designStripe APIGoogle Maps APIRender deployment