Nannies make life easy on overseas holidays

Taking a family holiday with young children to the popular Asian holiday havens of Thailand, Bali and Vietnam can be a challenging experience, but a new nanny service established by two Israeli mums is designed to offer the perfect solution.

The nanny service, Nannimoon, is the brainchild of Inbar Wienberger Mor and Noa Coller Shaki, friends and mothers of young children who saw a gap in the holiday market through personal experience a few years ago.

Nannimoon was launched last year to connect local nannies with families holidaying from overseas, including Australians, Israelis and those from other Asian countries, to help provide a stress-free family travel experience.

While initially focusing on Thailand’s most popular holiday destinations including Phuket, Koh Samui and Chiang Mai, it has just opened in Bali and there are plans to expand into Vietnam in coming months.

Based in Tel Aviv, Inbar and Noa have been friends while working in different fields – Inbar in product and data analysis after studying economics and completing an MBA, and Noa as a project manager after studying mechanical engineering at university.

After COVID, their families spent several months holidaying in Thailand and found it hard to find a local nanny to help with their young children.

About two years ago, as a pilot to see if other visiting families faced the same childcare challenges, they launched a Facebook group aimed at connecting Thai nannies with families visiting from abroad on long holidays. The group quickly gained momentum, attracting more than 5000 bookings.

So following the group’s organic success, last year Inbar and Noa left their jobs to work full-time in Nannimoon, with Inbar as chief executive officer and Noa as chief operations officer.

“We wanted a platform that people trusted where it was easy to search and book a nanny at the click of a button,” explained Inbar by phone from Israel.

“All our nannies have been vetted and are trustworthy – families can book in the knowledge that the nannies are experienced, will be there for them and will not cancel at the last minute.

“And if there are any problems, help is available through the Nannimoon website 24/7.

“We offer a 72-hour trial period so that families can see how a nanny connects with their children. Anyone who is not happy can get a refund or choose a replacement nanny.”

For Inbar and Noa, Nannimoon is more than making travel enjoyable for families with babies and toddlers – it plays an important role in providing local nannies with meaningful employment.

“The nannies we use can earn good wages,” said Inbar. “The number of nannies on our books keeps growing; currently in Thailand we have almost 400 nannies.”

Since its launch, Nannimoon has catered for families from many parts of the world including Israel, Australia, Britain, Europe and Asia.

Noa said: “We have found that Israelis holidaying in Thailand like to move around, often spending about four days in Koh Samui, three days in Koh Phangan and five days in Phuket, while families from Australia or Britain are likely to stay in one destination for 10 days or two weeks.

“So families can move around with one nanny or chose a different nanny for each place.”

However, since the start of this year’s Iran war there have been many cancellations by Israeli families who had planned Thailand holidays.

“Many Israelis had planned trips in March and April, but unfortunately the skies were closed due to the war and there were a lot of cancellations,” said Inbar.

It has also been a difficult time for Inbar and Noa with their young families – Inbar has children aged 5 and 1 while Noa has kids aged 5, 3 and a newborn baby.

“In the early days of the war, when the sirens were going every 10 minutes, we had to run to the shelters, plus the children were staying home from school, so managing daily operations was incredibly challenging,” said Inbar.

“However, it pushed us to build a more robust platform, and we are proud to have significantly grown our bookings despite the situation.”

Nannimoon is now busy expanding its nanny service into Bali and Vietnam, with plans to target the Australian market directly and launch in new destinations such as the Mediterranean island of Ibiza and the central American nation of Costa Rica.

The cost of hiring a nanny is based on an eight-hour shift per day. Rates may vary depending on the location, the number of children being looked after and the nanny’s experience level.

For more information visit nannimoon.com