Advice needed from house/pet-sitters

[Dreamstalker]

So I'm pet/housesitting for the friend who was going to get an Apple laptop (now she has a more-powerful-than-she-needs Dell that she probably overpaid for but eh--it's her money).

She gets $75/hour for her concierge services (and gets a fairly fat monthly check from a client--the reason this is coming into play is that I had to deposit said check for her today) and I'm being paid $25/day for mostly dogsitting (I did the numbers today and realized that I should be getting at least double that). I know she's a family friend, but come on! Local kids here charge $25 just for one half-hour walk (using that logic, I should get $75/day for just the walks).

I've been doing some research, and the lowest doggie-daycare rate I can find around town is almost twice that for less "quality time"; the dogs are just put together in a large space with some toys and left to their own devices (with some amount of supervision to head off fights). Boarding at the vet's is around $125/day, again with less individual attention if the animal doesn't have a medical necessity. This pooch is in his own home; he gets walked, fed and played with when he wants and gets to sleep on the bed with me.

In light of this, I'm going to write up a firm rates table effective after New Years. I know that getting the difference paid retroactively is going to be impossible with her (and I'm not even going to try). Her view seems to be "well, it's $XXX that you wouldn't have otherwise" (so I should be happy with whatever I get).

Does anyone know what the typical going rate is for housesitting? (technically, housesitters here need to be insured which I'm not)

[strawbabies]

Are there professional housesitters where you live? I thought that was typically done by friends as a favor.

[Plaidman]

Wow. I'm not sure how to respond to this. Do you have a job that this is cutting into? Its a favor for a friend, free food, free room-board. It may not be your own home but still. Is the dog so hard, that you need to get paid more then that?

Its a favor for a friend, and your getting paid for that. I'd do that for my friends. I DID do that for my sister, and I never expected, nor demand payment for ether times.

[Dreamstalker]

Not around here that I know of. We did agree that she pays me (she knows that this is pretty much my only source of income for now), but the rate is what seems to be in question--originally it was more than what I'm actually getting.

Professional housesitters in this area need to be insured IIRC.

[Broomjockey]

Around here, you don't get paid for house sitting. You ask a friend to pop in on the place once or twice a day, and they get free reign of the fridge. If you require more than just ensuring the place is okay, such as dog sitting or watering plants or anything like that, then you offer $10/day for gas and inconvenience.

If you really want to push this, absolutely do not push the housesitting angle. That way lies major trouble if housesitters need to be insured. Play up the dog sitting. Come armed with a list of boarding rates, or walking rates. If you can show how much she should be paying, stress you're doing more than that rate would get her, and then offer something between your current and the "professional" rate, that should help.

[BrassCowboy]

Wow.

I once spent almost two months housesitting/dogsitting 2-3 dogs at time. I was neither insured nor did I have experience watching that many dogs at once. But, I got free room and board (I was like a glorified roommate) and it worked out fine. It was a perfect arrangement for both of us. I even bought the person gifts for letting me stay so long and for getting to take care of their awesome dogs.

I'd say if you have such a problem with this arrangement, maybe you should just call it off altogether.

[Dreamstalker]

I'm not charging for the actual housesitting portion (although I'm doing some tasks that I'm not obligated to, but she demanded I do anyway, such as wait for her "tech guy"--who has not contacted me like she said he would--to come and set up her new computer). I suspect that if the guy doesn't show up, I'm going to be yelled at.

[Plaidman]

I'm not charging for the actual housesitting portion (although I'm doing some tasks that I'm not obligated to, but she demanded I do anyway, such as wait for her "tech guy"--who has not contacted me like she said he would--to come and set up her new computer). I suspect that if the guy doesn't show up, I'm going to be yelled at.

XD In which point yell back. You did her a favor. Not your fault he didn't show.

Just because you working for /less/ then you should be, your still doing her a favor. There should be no disrespect on that part.

[draggar]

My wife charges $75 for a full day and she'll be at the house at least 3 times during that day (once for feeding and walking, once for a visit and playtime, and once for a final walk).

If it is a partial day, she charges $25 a visit.

This is also her normal rate if she is staying at the house for 1-2 dogs (she charges more for more dogs) but might give a discount for longer periods.

[BrassCowboy]

I'm not charging for the actual housesitting portion (although I'm doing some tasks that I'm not obligated to, but she demanded I do anyway, such as wait for her "tech guy"--who has not contacted me like she said he would--to come and set up her new computer). I suspect that if the guy doesn't show up, I'm going to be yelled at.

That is not acceptable. I don't care if she pays you $25 or $75. Yelling at you for things that are not your fault is not something that you should be tolerating.

[hinakiba777]

If someone asks me to check on their house and pets, I'll do it for free as long as all the supplies are available.

House-sitting, where I'm asked to remain in the home, I charge for. The rates are dependent on if I'm asked to sleep in the home or not. I usually charge about 20 dollars for a day, including pet care. But if they want me to spend the night it's about 50.

If I'm petting sitting at my house I don't charge. As I only take home pets that belong to close friends.

But yeah, if she yells at you, than you should yell right back. It's not your problem if her tech guy never arrives.

[jedimaster91]

I used to dog/house sit for my grandparents when they would go on bus trips. Nana paid me $20-$25 a night to basically watch TV with the dog (Mythbusters marathon FTW!). I also had free reign of the fridge, and they would either buy me microwave dinners to eat or leave extra money for me to run down to Burger King or something. It was a pretty sweet deal.

Of course, Nana knows I would do stuff for her free of charge because she's family and I love her, but she insists on paying for the littlest things. She can afford to and I've learned not to argue with her.

[Dreamstalker]

I just sent her an email about no-contact from the tech guy; she only ordered this rig about a week before she left, so I'm not particularly worried about it not arriving (OEM custom build, IME those take longer than 2 weeks) but want to cover my ass in the event she tries to say "you didn't answer your phone" (or the tech guy tells her he tried to contact me which would be a lie). It'll probably show up after she gets back. In any event, not my problem since I'm not doing any of the setup work.

Yeah, my rates for feeding/walking/playing with animals are fairly reasonable, I tend to charge more if I'm asked to stay overnight.

[NightWatch]

In my area, doggy daycare is like $15-$25 a day. And professional housesitters don't keep relatives for clients, because money becomes a point of contention.