<p>A friend of a friend just asked me to house sit for 10 days and I was wondering what the going rate is? She has two dogs, a rambunctious chocolate lab who tears up furniture, and an older German Shepherd/Chow mix who only likes her owner. Both are rescues. The older dog takes several medications for a leg problem, and I will be cooking chicken every night for both pups. In addition to the dogs, I’ll be expected to feed the fish, collect mail, water plants, etc. She wants me to stay most of the day and overnight. I have extensive dog experience and even work for a petsitting company (they don’t do overnight stays so no price comparison) so I’m qualified, I just don’t know how much to ask. Normally I would charge $20 a day for regular petsitting, but I’ve never done an overnight/house sitting type deal. I saw some people charging $50 a day, but that seemed kind of steep. Suggestions?</p>
<p>Your time is valuable and she really wants you there pretty much 24/7 (as a replacement for herself). I would expect to pay $25/day/dog if I had this situation at the OTHER person’s house–I would think $100/day would be reasonable, honestly.</p>
<p>Agree your time is valuable. I think a $50 per night is low, but if that is a sum you’ve seen and would be comfortable charging, you are giving your friend a great bargain! I agree that $100 per day sounds like a more reasonable sum for your hard work and her ability travel without worrying about her beloved dogs. You are a good friend!</p>
<p>At least $50 a day if you are expected to stay most of the day and overnight. Since the dogs seem to have a lot of needs, I think closer to $100 is reasonable. If she boarded them, it seems for two dogs she’d probably be paying at least $70 a day, so $100 for what you’d be doing seems reasonable.</p>
<p>DD just house sat for a family with two dogs. They asked that she stay there. She was paid $250 for the week. Oh…and they gave her a little bonus on top of that when they returned.</p>
<p>If the dogs were to be kenneled where I live, it would be $50-75/day PER big dog. More if medications are to be given. And you would be doing additional duties of house sitting. I’d say minimum $100-150/day…</p>
<p>I think a lot depends on where you live. Gosmom obviously lives in a part of the country that has a higher cost of living than I do. I pay $18 to board a medium size dog. Large dogs run about $22 a night. In your situation around here, $30 -50 a night.</p>
<p>I pay $50 a night for my dog to stay with another family in their home when we take trips, but I’ve paid $75 when someone has stayed in my home to house-sit and care for one dog.
The medications won’t be much trouble, nor will the mail or the plants. But you’ll need to exercise the Lab, which will help with his behavior. Be sure to talk to the owner about where she walks him, and for how many miles a day. I would imagine he’ll need 2- 3 miles to keep him from bouncing off the walls. $75-$100 seems reasonable. ( I live in SoCal, so cost of living is high.)</p>
<p>My S is house/cat sitting this summer. He is making $50/day (in Texas). </p>
<p>We are paying $70 for overnight now. Our last pet sitter really under-charged and it was $35 a day/night. It really adds up on a week trip or so, but it’s worth it to us since our dog requires a number of medications and one of the cats is on insulin shots. We have 3 cats and a large dog. Low maintenance in general except for the medications.</p>
<p>Wow, where do ya’ll live? $100 per day is unheard of, even for the expensive, “luxury,” boarding kennels. I think I’m comfortable charging $30 a day. I can get a lot of studying done while I’m there, and it’s a nice house, so no one is exactly pulling my arm to stay there. I’ll charge more if she doesn’t plan to stock her fridge, but otherwise, I think I’d be perfectly happy with $30. That’s $300 for the trip, I can’t even fathom charging her $1000 for the trip. </p>
<p>Boarding pets can be expensive, as well as house sitting!
But if you’re comfortable with $30, then you both will be happy…</p>
<p>The people who do our house sitting are adults who do this as a business. If you are a student and are happy with $30, then great! We live in Tennessee and $70-100 is the going rate for overnight pet sitters. </p>
<p>A friend of mine used to do house and pet sitting. Her going rate was $30 per day.</p>
<p>Boarding rates are about $25/day at the kennel I use for a large dog. That is the basic rate plus a couple of play/walk sessions per day (each dog has an indoor heated area plus a shaded gravel run). There is a kennel that is about twice that, but I saw no evidence that it actually provides a better experience, so we don’t use them. </p>
<p>Last I talked to someone I know who did this, they got $75/day for staying at the house and caring for the pet.</p>
<p>I paid $100/day in the DC suburbs for someone to stay in our house, watching 2 easy dogs w/ a fenced in back yard. There was a good bit of interest, so I think I could have paid less but I wanted to attract some of the responsible, former Girl Scout college grads/students we know. And the kennel we use is more than $100/day for 2 dags, once you add in extra walks,etc., Also, our flight times would have required either 1 or 2 extra nights in the kennel, which adds to the kennel cost a good bit. Having an in-home dog sitter was great, BTW. I will never board the dogs again, if I can help it.</p>
<p>Are u brave enough to have an AirB&B customer seeking accomodations to house sit/dog walk for free?</p>
<p>Well, she ended up offering to pay $50 per day which I’m more than okay with ;)</p>