Today we’re going to interview Emmy Yoshida, founder of tripsitta.com
How does Tripsitta differentiate itself from other childcare services, and what unique value does it offer?
Tripsitta is different from other babysitting and childcare services as it was specifically developed for families who love to travel! As a mother myself who loves exploring the world with my children, I know how important having a reliable service you can trust is while you’re on a trip. Away from home, you no longer have access to recommendations from people you know, or the time to develop a relationship with a local sitter. That’s why having a company with integrity who you know have the best interests of you and your children at heart is so important.
I want to make it possible for parents to always have help, wherever they are with their children, to take away the stress that travelling with children can bring, because let’s face it – often what we find fun and want to do on holiday is not what is fun or enjoyable for our children. Hiring a Tripsitter can alleviate those difficulties. While you’re exploring museums or sightseeing, your children can be having fun playing in the park or relaxing at the hotel. When your children are tired from the heat and swimming all day and just want to stay in their room with a movie and pizza, you can enjoy a relaxing dinner. It’s a win win, for both parents and children. Our nannies really know how to make the experience fun for kids – hiring a great babysitter should be a enjoyable treat for your children, as well as an opportunity for you to have a rest. It really makes me happy when I hear how much fun the children have had with their Tripsitta nanny, often asking when their Tripsitter will be coming back and talking about them well after the holiday is over.
As parents we have such busy and demanding lives and juggle so much – we go on holiday to relax, and travelling with children can be hard, my aim is to make travel as child friendly and fun as possible so parents can get the rest they deserve while they are on vacation.
Ultimately Tripsitta is about giving parents the choice, availability and access to quality childcare wherever they go with their children. Whether they need a babysitter so they can go out for a special dinner, or a full time holiday nanny during their trip, their options and the quality of their childcare should not be impacted just because they are travelling, if anything the standard should be higher than usual because the sitter needs to immediately bond with the children and family. As a parent I know that I always want the best for my children, and I definitely won’t settle for less just because we are on holiday!
Emmy, what moment in Italy sparked the idea for Tripsitta?
It all happened 8 years ago when I spent the summer in Tuscany and Florence with my son Enzo who was 5 years old at the time. It had been a memorable and amazing summer that led me to my decision to move to Italy later that year, I completely fell in love with Tuscany! However as a single mother, 6 weeks alone with my son without any help was challenging at times. There were some places I was keen to explore like the Uffizi gallery, which my son didn’t appreciate in the slightest – making the whole visit quite a stressful experience! Of course, it’s understandable that a 5 year old boy isn’t going to love queuing up and walking around an art gallery, but it did mean that I missed out on some of the things I would have enjoyed, and I had to adapt the trip accordingly. After more than a month of swimming pools and gelato, and carousels, and pasta factories and blowing bubbles and anything else I could think of to make the trip as fun as possible for my son, I decided that I wanted to have just one evening for myself, to sit and have an aperol spritz in the Piazza below our holiday apartment and relax. I tried to enquire about hiring a babysitter for the night. I found no services available – the apartment manager said she knew a girl, but without any information about her, knowledge of her childcare experience or certainty that she could even speak English and communicate with my son, it just wasn’t an option for me. I just couldn’t leave Enzo to be babysat by a complete stranger that I knew nothing about.
That experience led me to developing my business and since starting my agency in 2016, we have helped thousands of families in a similar position. Families need childcare help for all sorts of reasons while they are on vacation, some are travelling for an event like a wedding that their children can’t attend, some work remotely and just need a few hours a day to work, some just want to experience some things that they may never get the chance to again in their lifetime, like visiting a wonderful vineyard in Chianti. Or others like me just want to have an aperol spritz in peace! I hope we have helped to create many special memories and moments for both parents and children.
How did your personal experiences as a traveling parent shape the services and mission of Tripsitta?
I now have two children, a 13 year old boy and a 2 year old girl, so I’m experiencing the challenges a parent faces when travelling on both ends of the age spectrum. The things I’d forgotten about from when my son was little I’m re-experiencing all over again with my daughter! Like the dreaded long walk from landing in the airport, all the way to the baggage claim without your stroller – all the while balancing a heavy baby on your hip and multiple bags – and waiting in long queues.
There are so many simple things that could make travelling so much easier for parents, like letting them have their child’s push chair as soon as they have land for example – instead of 5 miles later at the baggage claim. Really that part of the journey is always exhausting and stressful and it really wouldn’t be that hard to make it easier for families!
When I travelled to Japan last year with my children, the airports there had luggage trolleys that doubled up as a baby stroller, they were amazing! I remember thinking to myself, why do they not have these in every airport?
Some of the journeys I’ve been through with my kids have been so hard, to get through them I’ve needed the willpower and mental strength of someone completing a marathon, I think myself and many other parents out there deserve some medals for getting through some of the trips we have done with our kids.
But it’s all part of the fun, those silly funny memories that we can all laugh about afterwards and it’s always worth it for those priceless moments that you will treasure forever with your children.
My many experiences of travelling with my children has made it my mission to give parents a rest, to help lighten their load, to give them a hand because God knows we all deserve some help sometimes, especially when we are on holiday and supposedly there to relax!
Moving to Florence is a dream for many. How did that leap of faith influence your entrepreneurial journey and the development of Tripsitta?
I have always been someone who highly values having a life filled with different experiences. Travel is one of the most mind expanding experiences available to us in my opinion, but a holiday is short lived and doesn’t teach you as much as moving to a new place does for an extended period of time. There is little out there that really pushes you out of your comfort zone more than packing everything up and moving to a different country and doing that alone as a single mother was one of the most challenging yet rewarding things that I have ever done.
My love for travel and exploring the world was something that I thought I would need to relinquish when I became a Single mother – it always seemed like an impossible dream to move abroad with a small child – I thought I would need to stay safely within the confines of my family and other safety nets until he had finished school at least, but that pull and desire to really live and experience the world and life never went away – it was always there, tapping me on my shoulder, reminding me that there was a part of myself that was being subdued.
I read magazines and watched tv programmes about emigrating to places like Australia, but I had always felt drawn to Italy, and after my summer there with my son I decided to take the leap and try. If it didn’t go to plan, then hopefully it would just be a good life lesson that I could learn from and a cultural experience for my son. The Brexit vote had also been taken the previous year in the UK, making me feel like my dream of emigrating was becoming less of a probability and would become more challenging if left any longer.
My dream of living in Florence was however always inextricably linked with my vision of starting my company, if the latter failed then it would have been impossible to stay in Italy, especially as I had a child to support. Getting a normal job whilst being an expat single mum would not have been feasible, so both my dreams of Italy and my company were realised together and achieved, whilst caring for my son and creating a life that I truly loved and felt happy with. Of course, staying in England would have been the safer option, but nowhere near as fulfilling. It’s been a journey filled with many ups and downs, but that experience has strengthened my character which has in turn shaped me as a person and a business woman. Having your own business does require strength and courage – being able to try something new, even when you don’t know what the outcome will be, and having faith that your vision will become a reality, to follow your heart – they are all qualities that I’ve developed due to my expat journey.
My experiences of living in a foreign country as an expat mum has also helped me to understand on a very deep intrinsic level the needs of a parent who would use Tripsitta and how we can best serve families.
Can you tell us more about the groundwork for the development of Tripsitta?
The company started as a holiday nanny agency in Florence in Italy – International Babysitters. The agency specialised in providing multilingual, fully vetted, professional nannies and babysitters for families while they travelled. It soon became very popular and I realised that there was a big demand for such a service.
Before long it became my goal to develop a website that would enable parents to have complete choice over their travel childcare, enabling them to book a sitter on-line quickly and easily, selecting their favourite nanny based on variables like their language, personality, and their profile. I gradually expanded the service to different locations in Italy, whilst simultaneously working on the new website.
We eventually started offering the service in Paris and cities in Spain like Barcelona and Madrid.
It took several attempts to create Tripsitta – the travel nanny platform that allows parents to book either a local babysitter in many European destinations or a holiday nanny and Tripsitta was launched in 2022, as the world and tourism recovered from the pandemic.
What have been the most rewarding moments in connecting families with caring childcare providers through Tripsitta? Can you share some success stories of childcare providers who have benefited from Tripsitta’s platform?
Reading the many reviews from families who have had a great experience booking a nanny with Tripsitta has been wonderful – we are regularly receiving fantastic reviews from happy parents and it is so nice to read their feedback.
From the nannies perspectives, we feel very blessed to have such a wonderful team, even though we are growing, we do know the nannies and regularly interact with them all on a daily basis. We hear about the families they have worked for, the places they have travelled to, the events they have worked at. It’s great because the Tripsitta families who book with us are so International and from all over the world, they are interesting people and so the work opportunities and locations are also interesting.
It is very rewarding for the Tripsitta nannies as they are able to find great work opportunities combining two of their great loves – travel and caring for children and their passion for what they do in turn creates a great experience for the children and the entire family and makes for a memorable and amazing trip for everyone.
How does Tripsitta ensure the quality and trustworthiness of the babysitters and other childcare providers on your platform?
We have an excellent recruitment team, headed by our recruitment manager, Laura Belenguer. Laura’s experience as a nanny, degree in education and time spent in recruitment combined with her experience as an expat living in London (from Spain,) make her the ideal person for identifying quality nannies.
All of our recruitment team have either worked in childcare or have their own children and we only hire nannies that we would choose to look after our own children or family. That is the main criteria and question we always ask ourselves with each new nanny who applies – would I be happy to leave my own child with this babysitter?
The nannies also all need a minimum of three years of childcare experience, are fully vetted, and we also assess them for their professionalism and personality as reliability is so important too!
Our entire team at Tripsitta are from many cultures, countries and backgrounds and we have also all lived and worked abroad and experienced being an expat too, which helps us to understand the families who use our service and the nannies.
What advice would you give to parents who are contemplating booking childcare services while traveling?
Book your childcare in advance whenever possible – this gives you more time to choose your nanny and will help you to feel more relaxed. Our platform is completely transparent so you can read reviews from previous families and references on each nanny’s profile, as well as viewing their description, photo and welcome video – which does give you a good overview of their experience, personality and skills. We have done all of the hard work so it’s a much easier process for you!
Our bookings team can also organise interviews or video calls with your preferred nanny if required, so you can have a chat to them before booking.
After making a booking you will have access to your Tripsitter’s contact details, so you can have a chat before you meet, take the opportunity to tell them about your children so they can be as prepared as possible. Communication with the person who you have hired as your Tripsitter is definitely key and will help to put your mind at ease.
With Tripsitta you’ve focused on European destinations, are their plans to expand to other parts of the world?
Eventually, yes, but for now Europe is our main focus – it is exciting as we steadily grow into new destinations that families travel to! I prefer to grow slowly and to build relationships with the childcare providers in each destination. Despite being a childcare platform we like to deliver as personal a service as possible to every family who books with us, as each family is so unique and so is every child!
Can you tell us which destinations in Europe you currently cover?
Families can currently organise babysitting by the hour in the following locations:
London, Dublin, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Malaga, Marbella, Ibiza, Seville, Menorca, Florence, Rome, Milan, Como, Amalfi Coast, Naples, Sorrento, Tuscany, Siena, Chianti, Venice.
We are also developing Tripsitta teams in the following destinations:
Mykonos, Nairobi, Crans Montana, Cannes, Nice, Provence, Bari, Lecce, Cinque Terre, La Spezia and Genova.
For families wishing to book a full time holiday nanny to travel with them they are unlimited in where they can have a Tripsitter accompany them, as long as they can provide them a private room and cover their travel costs.
What Is Next For Tripsitta?
Last year I launched a new initiative called CoWork-It Mamma, a co-working club for parents to come with small children, so they can work together, network, form good friendships and a support group within their own community, whilst having the added benefit of flexible childcare for their children. The children had lots of fun together, doing creative activities whilst their mummies worked! The project was started after my own first-hand experience of trying to work from home whilst caring for a baby – almost an impossible task. This is a project that I would love to develop in the future as I feel it is much needed, especially with so many parents now working remotely, who want to maximise their time with their children when they are little, and are not quite ready for putting them into full time childcare.
We are also currently working on creating some wonderful excursions and experiences for children in many of our destinations in Europe – so while mum and dad visit the museum or go shopping, the kids can do a fun art class and picnic, or something else that they will enjoy.
What Is Next For You?
I am happy living in the city that I love – Florence, with my two children and our dog, and continue to seek new opportunities to grow and expand and also – travel, as much as possible!
