About the company
Animalhotels is an “Airbnb for pets.” It connects pet owners with hotels and pet sitters. In just a few minutes, a user can pick a place, set the dates, and the app sends alerts to nearby sitters. Both sides match, just like on Tinder or Uber.
The number of users grew sixfold in the last year, reaching about 66,000. Animalhotels works with over 16,000 verified sitters. The company was founded in Poland, operates globally, and is now in over 150 countries.
The startup has also won industry awards, including Executive Summit, Startup Pitch Challenge, Network IQ Alliance, and Startups powered by Invest in Lodz.
The company invests strongly in marketing. It uses influencers to present the service to their audiences. This approach quickly builds brand awareness and attracts new users.
Listen to what Łukasz Klab, CEO of Animalhotels, has to say:
Visit Animalhotels on YouTube.
Challenges
Animalhotels worked with influencers in its marketing campaigns. Payments were handled through civil law agreements (service contracts or contracts for specific work, similar to U.S. freelance agreements).
Every contract brought an extra fixed cost per person, no matter how many posts the influencer produced. Plus, the accounting and marketing teams had to put in a lot of effort just to collect all the paperwork.
“We used service contracts. It was extremely hard. We had to ask accounting for a form, then wait for the influencer to fill it out. We often had a bottleneck at this point”, recalls Łukasz Klab, CEO of Animalhotels.
There were also problems with sending tax forms.
“Sometimes we didn’t know if the tax form even arrived. Documents came back because someone changed their address. As a company, we had to fix it all.”
Another challenge was uncertainty about delivery. The company often paid in advance, and the content arrived late, or not at all.
“We agreed on three reels but got only one. And it came months later.”
External accounting slowed things down even more. They had to check which type of contract was correct, which caused extra delays.
Animalhotels needed a simple and scalable solution to:
- Speed up payment processing.
- Lower costs.
- Connect payment to actual delivery.
- Remove accounting from one-off contracts.
Solution
Natalia, who handled formalities at Animalhotels, had the idea. She researched contract tools and found Useme.
“Natalia kept saying it was a lot of work. I said: let’s find a simple, scalable way. Someone recommended Useme, we checked it, and it worked right away – much better than other options”, says Łukasz Klab, CEO.
In two years, the company processed over 50 influencer contracts with Useme. The process went from a week to just minutes:
- The influencer uploads the video content.
- The company approves it and makes the payment.
- Useme issues the invoice on behalf of the influencer and sends them the payment.
“We didn’t have to send documents, wait for signatures, or report to the tax office. Everything happened instantly. Influencers were happy – even those who had never issued an invoice before.”
The biggest change was removing accounting from the process.
“Thanks to Useme, accounting was practically out of the payments. As CEO, I never had to contact support – it worked out of the box.”
Business results
With Useme, Animalhotels achieved:
- Payment time has been cut from a week to a few minutes.
- Over 50 contracts processed in 2 years without involving accounting.
- Cost savings – no fixed monthly accounting fees for each contract.
- Guaranteed delivery – payment only after content is provided.
- Automation – no tax paperwork, no reminders for influencers.
“It’s the certainty that the process will happen. Before, documents sometimes didn’t come back, and the contract expired. Now it’s impossible”, says Łukasz Klab.
The company also plans to use Useme for international payments.
“When we start campaigns abroad, Useme will help us with short, one-time contracts – no matter the contractor’s country.”
Summary
The Animalhotels case shows that even with a small number of contracts, manual processes can slow down a team and add unnecessary costs. Useme removed paperwork, sped up payments, and gave the company more control over project delivery.
Key takeaways
- Automation cut payment time from a week to a few minutes.
- No fixed accounting fees lowered campaign costs.
- Payment after delivery ensures the work gets done.
- A simple process helps even those without invoicing experience.
