A Place for Mom Review

What Is A Place for Mom?

A Place for Mom is the largest senior living and care referral service in the country and provides resources to help families make the best decisions about various kinds of senior living communities. Their advisers are local experts who listen to your preferences and budgetary requirements and match you with the best options.

We found that leading companies like A Place for Mom can empower family members to better understand their different options. It also saves a lot of time, as A Place for Mom advisers are specialists in this field. Enlisting their services can boost your knowledge base and confidence in decision-making.

Types of Care Offered

Whether your loved one requires help with everyday tasks, needs Alzheimer’s care, or has a chronic condition, A Place for Mom can help you find a variety of senior living options, including:

• Assisted living
• Memory care
• Independent living
• Nursing homes

If your aging parent wants to age in place, A Place for Mom will also support you with guidance on adult day care and home care. A Place for Mom offers tips, tools, and resources to help family caregivers navigate their senior care journey.

A Place for Mom Costs

As we mentioned, A Place for Mom is paid by the participating communities when your senior family member is placed in that community — or when you hire a home care provider that you found through their network. So, there is no fee for the consumer. This is unique, as services like Care.com charge a fee if you want to connect with caregivers or senior living communities.

Our Experience Using A Place for Mom

To get a better idea of how A Place for Mom works, I tested out their services for myself. For older adults who prefer using the phone, you can speak directly to a representative about your situation and what you’re looking for, whether it’s for yourself or a loved one.

If you prefer to look online, as we do, you’ll be surveyed with the questions below, which have multiple-choice answers and helpful notes on each page about why they’re asking each question. It took about three minutes or less to answer:

1. Who is in need of senior care?
2. What is your loved one’s age?
3. Where are you looking?
4. What is the maximum distance you are willing to travel from your preferred location?
5. Where is your loved one currently living?
6. How are they getting around?
7. Do they need assistance with any of the following?
8. Have they experienced any of these behaviors?
9. Is your loved one currently experiencing memory loss?
10. Based on your responses, the selected senior living option that best meets your loved one’s needs is…

Based on my answers, my senior parent needed an assisted living facility. So, the next question was about room preference.

A question about room preferences in the A Place for Mom survey

I was then asked the total cost of care I believe I can afford, if my loved one is a veteran or the spouse of a veteran, and my timeline (how quickly I need to find care).

Browsing through recommended assisted living communities from A Place for Mom

When I received options like the Grand Villa of Sarasota, I also got a pop-up from Angela, a virtual adviser. You can filter in many ways on the site: by location, review score, cost, payment method, room size, time (how soon you’ll need care), and more.

A Place for Mom also offers city-based lists of the best senior living options. I checked out the list of facilities in Sarasota. Below the many choices I received for assisted living facilities, I discovered helpful information about the average cost of these facilities in my location, how most people pay in my area, and Sarasota laws and regulations for assisted living. It had information and charts on amenities, select programs, and statistics. It was a wealth of information.

Once you fill in the form, you connect with a local adviser. They will want to know about your needs and lifestyle preferences to see which of their options to recommend for you. It’s great because they’re there to answer your questions and help you evaluate your options. It’s a relief to know they can even schedule tours at the facilities nearby. Once you zero in on the best senior living community, advisers can even help you with planning the move, too.

A Place for Mom vs. the Competition

Other players in the industry include Care.com and Caring.com. All three services have online platforms with search tools to connect users with facilities and care providers. A Place for Mom has the highest ratings of all three, with a 4.8 on Consumeraffairs.com and a 4.6 on Trustpilot.

Our team liked that A Place for Mom offers the largest network of participating communities and home care providers in the U.S. We had many choices and weren’t limited within the network.

A Place for Mom shines in their personalized assistance. Their senior living advisers have deep knowledge. They’re local, so they know about the amenities, costs, and availability in your preferred area. This is A Place for Mom’s main advantage over other referral companies.

Caring.com, for example, also specializes exclusively in senior care. The core of Caring.com, however, encompasses their directory and resources about both senior living communities and in-home care agencies. It also has user reviews and educational content. Visit our Caring.com review for more details.

Care.com is another helpful service. It’s broader and does not focus solely on seniors. This comprehensive site matches you with a wide range of caregivers that include those who offer senior care, pet sitting, tutoring, and child care. On Care.com, older adults can post a job listing for free or browse through caregiver profiles. But you will be charged to access advanced caregiver search filters, background checks, and other details. Read our Care.com review to learn more.

A Place for Mom Reviews

A common complaint on the Better Business Bureau website about A Place For Mom is that you may get a ton of senior communities contacting you after you use the service.

For example, one reviewer stated, “I filled in a form on the website for A Place for Mom… expecting to get a current list of facilities in my zip code emailed to me. Instead, I got 12 phone calls within the first 24 hours of my form submission and four marketing emails from subcontractors.”

This client felt pummeled with intrusive communications and just wanted a list of communities in their area.

Most negative reviews and complaints speak about excessive communications from prospects becoming disruptive. A Place for Mom will add your phone number and email address to their do-not-contact list should you request them to do so. However, many complained that the calls did not cease in a timely manner.

I myself used a competitor referral service to find assisted living for my 88-year-old mother in Florida and was also frustrated by the nonstop calls. So, this is a common drawback of using these referral services.

Most clients, however, are very happy with A Place For Mom, which is why they are an industry leader in their niche. The company receives many five star reviews on third party sites like Consumer Affairs and Trustpilot.

One positive review noted that A Place for Mom was reassuring and helpful in placing her mother in a home setting. Her loved one received all the attention she needed without being forgotten. The reviewer expressed her gratitude for A Place for Mom’s support and attention to her needs. She said that the company’s representatives really seemed to care and had amazing follow-up communications.

If problems occur, you can rely on A Place for Mom’s trusted advisers. But do your own due diligence about the individual senior communities to ensure your loved one has a healthy, safe, and enjoyable experience living in the community.

Our Methodology: How We Tested and Reviewed A Place for Mom

Our team spent hours testing out A Place for Mom to inform our review. We evaluated important factors like the cost of using the service, value, ease of use, reputation, and customer reviews. We also compared the service to competitors. Below is a closer look at how we evaluated the service:

• Cost: We evaluated any costs related to using A Place for Mom and how this compared to competitors.
• User experience and interface: We determined whether the website was easy to navigate, if it was easy to filter based on needs, how detailed community profiles were, if the company was easy to contact, and more.
• Customer reviews: We evaluated customer reviews on A Place for Mom’s website, along with customer review websites such as Trustpilot and the Better Business Bureau. We also considered the experience of some SeniorLiving.org team members who have personally used the service.

Our Final Thoughts on A Place for Mom

While some of the negative reviews of A Place for Mom give me pause, I feel this is a good referral service. The website was easy to navigate and their business model was good, but their ace in the hole is their advisers. Having access to human advisers who know the local market when making these important decisions is not only reassuring, it’s a game changer.

I also liked that A Place for Mom is the country’s largest senior care referral service. As a big enterprise (they have 1,777 employees1 and hundreds of advisers), A Place for Mom provides consumers more options when it comes to the best care for their loved ones.