What do you pay someone to housesit?

[PoppyGirl]

We are going on vacation for 8 days. My neice has agreed to housesit for us. She will be taking care of our dog & cat (both quite low maintenance) and feeding our goat, calf and outdoor kitties (2 times each day). We have NO idea what to pay her....any ideas???

 

[ilovediznee]

Our former babysitter, now a sophomore in college, will be housesitting and taking care of our rabbit - also low maintenance. We are going during the holiday season but not gone over Christmas. She has watched our house several times. She enjoys just staying at our house by herself and not being at home with her parents and brothers. I have her make a list of food she wants and have it all loaded up for her in exchange for her watching the house and taking care of Miley. It works out great.

 

[monkeybug]

We just had someone stay at our house and watch our dogs and cats while we were in Disney for a week. We payed $200 and a box of Ghirardelli chocolate.
I figure it's cheaper than what we would pay to board the dogs, and they get to stay in their nice comfy home to boot.

 

[Donaldswife]

We are going on vacation for 8 days. My neice has agreed to housesit for us. She will be taking care of our dog & cat (both quite low maintenance) and feeding our goat, calf and outdoor kitties (2 times each day). We have NO idea what to pay her....any ideas???

Well, in my area you would pay about $45/day to board the cat and dog, and about $20/day for a pet sitter to stop by and feed your outdoor animals, so that would be $520 total for the 8 days. If it were me I would pay them about half that amount, since they are getting free room and board while they are there, so about $250.

That is just my opinion, so take that for what it is worth.

 

[happygirl]

When I used to housesit, I never got paid I just got stay at the house and use the house and food. That was there.

 

[declansdad]

We used to do this and the owners allowed us to use their vehicle, provided food and paid us $10 per day for very little work.

 

[NMAmy]

We pay our housesitter $25 per day to care for one dog plus an extra $25 on top of that for doing such a great job.

 

[PoppyGirl]

Thanks everyone. At least that gives me some idea of where to start!

 

[NHdisneylover]

Our former babysitter, now a sophomore in college, will be housesitting and taking care of our rabbit - also low maintenance. We are going during the holiday season but not gone over Christmas. She has watched our house several times. She enjoys just staying at our house by herself and not being at home with her parents and brothers. I have her make a list of food she wants and have it all loaded up for her in exchange for her watching the house and taking care of Miley. It works out great.

This is almost exactly what we did in the US. We even had just a rabbit for a pet also

 

[ZephyrHawk]

An appropriate gift/souvenier from the location of your travels...nicer gift the longer you're away. For instance, the man who watched our apartment and ferrets while we were in England/Scotland was paid in Scotch. I got a south seas pearl necklace for watching my friends cats for 3 weeks while she was in New Zealand. For recently watching our cat several days while we were away in Kentucky, my grandmother in law received a large box of bourbon balls. Make it personalized and fun.

 

[holycow]

This is from the house sitter side. I know you said your animals are low maintenance but some times things happen. I house sat for a friend.
2 cats 2 dogs no problem right???? WRONG! One of the cats wouldn't come to me and I could never find it! I don't think the thing ate for 2 days.

She only paid me 20$ (my DD) but to be honest it wasn't even worth it all of the anxiety I went through with that cat. I'll have to decline next time.

So I hope you make it worthwhile for your house sitter. You just never know if they will encounter problems or not,

(we had watched the cat before with no problems so this was very upsetting)

 

[MushyMushy]

For that many animals, I'd probably pay like $20 a day or even more.

 

[mjkacmom]

For all of those animals, $25 sounds like a really good deal for you.

 

[SDFgirl]

I had a housesitting gig once and was paid $40 a day. This included staying overnight.

They were filthy rich, though, so I think $25 - $30 is more reasonable.

 

[JessicaR]

House sitters get a fortune around here. I get a petsitter that comes three times a day and that costs $60 a day. I think if my neice or nephew did that for us I would pay them around $200 for the week.

 

[simba928]

I petsit for several families. The one had 3 very low maintenance dogs (basicallly feed them twice a day, walk them several times a day), but it was WAY out of my way to work (about 20 minutes the opposite direction if I didn't hit traffic so it took me 45 minutes to an hour to get to work every morning and even longer to get home due to traffic). I stayed at their house and they paid me $30 a day. They asked me to do it a second time, after they lost the older dog so they were down to 2, and paid the same. This summer I will be house/dogsitting for them for about $50 a day.

This past weekend I dogsit for a family with 2 dogs and a cat (though I didn't have to do anything with the cat) for one night. Very easy dogs, fed them twice, opened the back door for them to go outside every once in a while. I was there for maybe 15 hours and they paid me $50.

I always leave it up to them. Both families allow me full access to their homes (any food, computer, phone, etc.) I think it depends on the value it is to you and how good she will be. If you know she will go above and beyond (rather than just feed, water, and let them inside/outside), then pay a little more. If she will just be doing the basics, then pay a little less.

 

[JessicaR]

I petsit for several families. The one had 3 very low maintenance dogs (basicallly feed them twice a day, walk them several times a day), but it was WAY out of my way to work (about 20 minutes the opposite direction if I didn't hit traffic so it took me 45 minutes to an hour to get to work every morning and even longer to get home due to traffic). I stayed at their house and they paid me $30 a day. They asked me to do it a second time, after they lost the older dog so they were down to 2, and paid the same. This summer I will be house/dogsitting for them for about $50 a day.

This past weekend I dogsit for a family with 2 dogs and a cat (though I didn't have to do anything with the cat) for one night. Very easy dogs, fed them twice, opened the back door for them to go outside every once in a while. I was there for maybe 15 hours and they paid me $50.

I always leave it up to them. Both families allow me full access to their homes (any food, computer, phone, etc.) I think it depends on the value it is to you and how good she will be. If you know she will go above and beyond (rather than just feed, water, and let them inside/outside), then pay a little more. If she will just be doing the basics, then pay a little less.

Do you happen to live near me? Wishful thinking.

 

[simba928]

Do you happen to live near me? Wishful thinking.

Haha. Not so much, I'm in western PA

 

[PoppyGirl]

Ok...great thoughts everyone. The housesitter is my niece--she's 23 and her younger sister is going to come and stay here with her for the week. She's a teacher so she'll be off work for the summer (no issues with getting to work on time).

I think she'll be glad to get out of the house a little bit and I'll offer to her that she's welcome to invite a friend over too. She's extremely responsible.

She's a farm girl too so she's used to the animals.

I actually think that she would do it for free but I don't feel right about that and feel that we should pay her for her work/time/effort/being responsible for our pets.

The only thing I'm really concerned about is that the dog is very attached to me. We'll get a little feel for how she does without me next weekend since I'm going away for a couple of days, but sometimes she doesn't eat unless I'm here. My niece will be helping out with the kids next weekend when I'm gone so she will be able to see how the dog reacts to her.

Anyway...thanks for sharing your experiences.

 

[declansdad]

I think it really depends on whether the house sitter is a close friend or relative. In our situation, the couple was a family friend and we never expected anything. When we try to refuse the money, they insist.