Back-Up Care

We’ve had ongoing issues with reliability. On multiple occasions, babysitters/nannies have canceled at the last minute, leaving our family scrambling to find alternative care. Last minute cancellations are extremely disruptive and, frankly, inconsiderate to the family. We rely on this service to manage work and daily responsibilities, and when care falls through unexpectedly, it creates significant stress and logistical challenges. In addition, there does not seem to be a consistent system in place to provide timely replacements when cancellations occur. Would strongly encourage this service to improve both caregiver reliability and the process for securing backup coverage in these situations.

This app is extremely disappointing and feels like a total letdown, especially for something that’s supposed to support working families. It lacks even the most basic features — you can’t sort daycare options by distance, and after booking, it doesn’t even show the names of the facilities. That’s unacceptable for parents trying to make informed decisions. Worse, the entire Bright Horizons experience feels misleading. The backup care program offered through employers sounds great on paper, but in reality, it’s nearly impossible to use. Either no options are available, or reservations mysteriously fall through. It gives the impression that the service is more about checking a box for corporate benefits than actually helping families. I expected better from a company trusted by major employers. The app needs serious improvement, and the overall system feels opaque and unreliable.

When Bright Horizon works and you find a nanny for the day it really is a life saver. If both spouses work and you have a nanny it can provide a very reasonable substitute if or when your regular care falls through.Easy/convenient booking via the appsWhere it falls down is when your booked nanny cancels day of, which has happened twice thus far over a 12M period.When that happens Bright Horizon’s operations just aren’t equipped to handle the situation.The various nanny services Bright Horizons acts as the middleman for tend not to open or respond before 9AM, after the typical workday starts for their clients. Bright Horizons is available basically 24/7 - but the customer service rep doesn’t really have the tools to solve the problem. This could be remediated if Bright Horizons had more direct nanny employees per city of operation, who they could tap into in these moments, but that isn’t the current reality.A customer service rep is meant to call/update you on progress, but that process also falls down and you’re rarely called to notify you that a nanny could not be found by or during your required care time. So in short, I would advise against relying on Bright Horizons as a consistent backup care option, and instead use it as back up to your back up.I have tried the care center option booking as back up, to the back up, to the back up, but have not been able to get in, the app instead confirmed us for Hoboken New Jersey (we live/work in Manhattan, all of which the app/Bright Horizons should know but the app does not restrict by distance when finding an option).