House/pet sitting

[MartinaC]

I was hoping I could find out what others are paying there House/Pet sitters while they are on vacation.
Here is our situation. We will be gone 9 days. They will be staying at our home and watching our 4 small dogs and I bird. Nothing special for any of the pets. I would love to stock our fridge but, she is a really picky eater so that is out of the question. I want to be fair to her because she is a family member and a student with lots of education costs. Any advise would really help.
thanks everyone

 

[NikiM20]

I normally pay $50 per day, plus groceries, plus a souvineer. Hope this helps

 

[disneyfreakk]

We pay $50/day for 3 dogs, fish and a turtle. Plus they try not to kill our plants.

 

[Gr8dan2]

We pay $60 per night for 4 dogs/2 cats, 1 dog requires a pill twice a day. Our petsitter lives in our house while we're gone and is great with our pets. She also brings in the mail for us.

 

[pam95]

We take our dog to a kennel that charges $24/day. We have someone come to our house every other day to care for our two cats for $20 per visit.

 

[Gigi22]

We pay per visit, $25 per visit and arrange a schedule that determines the number of visits in advance. The pet sitter turns on our lights and t.v., brings in the mail, checks around the house, waters our plants, feeds, grooms and plays with our two pets. We authorize the sitter to take our pets to our vet if they become ill during our absence.

 

[PBader]

I paid my neighbors daughter $350 for 22 nights for 1 cat. She was happy and I was glad to have someone stay at my house. After reading the previous posts maybe I should have paid her more

 

[SoonerSarah]

Wow, I can't believe how much others pay! But, perhaps some factors are location.

To board my dogs is now $15 per day, and we also have a Chinchilla that needs to be fed every few days as well.

When we have had house sitters, they have been college students who are home on their break and are usually very happy to have an entire house to themselves (while still making Mommy happy coming over for dinner). We were gone for 12 days one time and paid the boy $200. He was extremely thrilled with that money.

 

[Katy Belle]

We have not had anyone stay in our house, but I hire a pet nanny. She comes 3times a day, walks our dog twice a day, brings in the paper, etc. She charges $25 a day for 3 visits.

 

[MickeyHereWeCome!]

Our dog sitter will stay in our home for $30/night. We have 3 dogs, 3 cats, and guinea pigs.

I work for a pet sitting company, and the company would charge well over $20 per visit, so $30 for the whole day/night is a great steal for me!

 

[kid-at-heart]

Ouch, I guess I live in a good area. Going rate here for a pet sitter is $20 a day plus free food. The sitters tend to be college students who are grateful to be able to stay in a home and have a break from the dorms. I think they like best having free access to the frig which we make sure is well stocked for the sitter.

By the way, I was a pet sitter in Seattle during college and was not paid in money. The "pay" was free food and a quiet place to study.

 

[marie1203]

We pay $25 a day for someone to stay in our house. He can eat anything in the fridge he usually never does. He takes care of our 5 dogs and the cats. They don't need much other than to be feed and let out to our fence in yard.

 

[Disneydonnam]

We pay $500 for the week we are gone. The fridge and cabinets are stocked with food we know they like. We leave money for them for take out or delivery. We have three rescue dogs that we hate leaving but love the dog sitters.

 

[gparr]

We have 1 rescued black lab (who I will never board), a 120g fish tank and a 12k gallon koi pond.

I pay $25.00 a day to one of my trusted high school students who will live in the house while we are gone. What she doesn't know is that our neighbors watch her closely -- so far---so good!!!

 

[Cdn Gal]

We pay $15 a day to board, and $100 a week for somebody to stay at out house for 1 dog.

 

[Hankshouse]

We pay $50 per day for 3 basset hounds (high maintenance , two guinea pigs, one cat, two hamsters, 1 fish tank and two ducks. She stays here at the house and keeps everybody happy. Oh and although we don't stock the fridge (she hates to cook and prefers take-out...) we always bring back a souvenir!

 

[cbg1027]

I am a petsitter.

I usually charge $30 a day to stay at the house while my clients are gone. I don't ask them to get me any groceries, but they let me eat whatever is in the house. Some people stock the place up for me anyways.

For people who live really far away from my own house, I charge a bit more for the extra gas costs.

I haven't found anyone with what seems to be an absurd number of animals, so all my clients, regardless of how many pets they have, get charged the same rate of $30 if they live in town.

Of course, rates depend on the area you live in. Some places have a higher cost of living so I would try to figure that in to things. I live in an medium cost of living area. It's not super cheap, but it's not NYC, Miami, or Washington DC.

 

[MartinaC]

Wow, thank you everyone for all the great replies. I think I will go with $35 a day and make sure I bring back an awesome souvie for her. Also, someone mentioned that there sitter doesn't like to cook so they go out to eat. That gave me an idea. I think instead of stocking the fridge for her I will give her a gift card from Safeway and let her pick out what she wants.

 

[brooklyn615]

As an animal wrangler myself, 35/day to stay in your home is a fair price, and the giftcard is a great idea! It's an added bonus to get a souvie. :O)

 

[Kellydelly]

I think $35 a day is fair .