I'm confused on the definition of "house sitting." So in this case, I have a client that wants overnights for a week, but also wants drop in visits during the day. Is that still considered part of "house sitting" or is it a drop-in visit? Is there a difference if they want me to spend almost all day with their pet?
Thanks for all of your help!
House sitting means 24-hour care for the client's pet(s) at their home. Technically there's no need for drop-in visits since your daily care would include walking and feeding the pet multiple times during the day. It is all described here:
https://support.rover.com/hc/en-us/ar...
The amount of time covered by the sitter’s rate depends on the service being offered:
Dog Boarding and House Sitting are both per night, up to 24 hours.
Dog Walking is per 30-minute walk.
Drop-In Visits are per 30-minute visit.
Doggy Day Care is per day, dropping off around 7-9am and picking up around 4-6pm.
Because house sitting means uprooting yourself and staying at someone else's home, plus taking care of the pet and the house, it should cost more.
For the record, there is no rate for staying "overnight" at a client's home.
There are numerous questions about this subject on the board. Here's a recent one:
Hi, Nicole.
This confuses many new sitters. I've posted this response before, but for your ease of access:
think you can offer whatever service you are comfortable offering to your client, as long as the expectations are clear on both ends.
You could, offer house-sitting as an overnight service. Especially for bookings of more than one night, I would ask the owner what, if any, additional work needs to be done to maintain the house during the stay. I always make sure to take out trash, wash any dishes I use, etc. But I also have clients that need my help watering the plants or cleaning out their pool skimmers. You can always decline to provide any service you think is too much.
Then, pets that don't need overnight care would be booked as drop-in visits. They would book a certain number of 30-minute stays per day. They might still need certain house-care items attended to for longer visits, so be sure to cover this during a meet and greet.
For me, I offer house-sitting to clients that need over-night care. However, I also offer that service to clients that want me to drop in/out occasionally throughout the day, as if I lived there (without staying the night). These visits aren't always a full 30 minutes, sometimes they're longer/shorter. The owner might want me to stop in for two quick meals in the AM/PM and then a longer 30 minute walk around midday. I always get information about the dogs' regular schedules and stick as closely to that as possible. This is often more cost efficient for clients that have very low-maintenance dogs but need to be out of town for a bit.
If an owner wants exactly X number of visits per day, each 30 minutes long, and at specific times, then I do drop-in care bookings. This allows me to guarantee full 30 minute visits at the requested times.
You can do what's most comfortable for you. Just try to get as much information from the client as possible so that there are no miscommunications about what is expected of you/them.
It all depends on the client's expectations, so be sure to discuss everything in detail at the M&G.
For the housesitting stays that I have done, I basically move into the client's home for the duration and only charge them my nightly housesitting fee. This is higher than my boarding fee because I'm uprooting myself from my house and routine. I stay at the house the entire time, leaving only occasionally to run errands or go to church (if agreed to ahead of time by the owner). Depending on the owner expectations, I don't leave the pets alone for more than about 2 hours. My routine while there includes feeding, walking, playing the animals as required, taking in the mail, turning lights on and off, other duties agreed on ahead of time, and generally maintaining the home as if it were mine. To me it's almost like a mini-vacation because I don't have many responsibilities other than caring for the dog(s).
Thanks for great input, everyone. As a new sitter, I am still refining definitions too. I've been charging for walks, drop-ins during the day IN ADDITION to my rate for staying overnight. As a newbie, I started low: $25 to stay overnight, plus $12 to $15 per walk (if it's more than down the street and back) or drop-in . I may have to re-think rate structure . . .