Going rate for catsitting

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We use Fetchfor the added security of knowing my car will be cared for if the regular sitter is sick, in the event of bad weather, etc. - and they are a professional organization with investment in customer service. We had a wonderful dittercand it was worth the peace of mind. But yes - $22.

But that is an actual company, not a teenage kid.

$20.00 is very overpriced for a neighborhood kid. And honestly, having both teens and elementary kids, a neighborhood elementary kid or middle schooler will do a much more attentive job that a high schooler, particularly one who sees her value as $60.00-80.00/hour.

This. I don't mind hiring kids as long as they are responsible, but you are accepting that they are generally not providing the same level of service as a professional petsitting service. Hence, the pay should be less. It's not like the full $22 in this case is going to the sitter, there is overhead/admin costs built in.

[Anonymous]

My 13 year old daughter cat sits for our neighbor. She doesn't have a "rate" but the neighbor pays her $20/day. That said, my daughter spends a lot of time at their house letting the cats in and out several times each day, feeding them, playing with them, and spending time in the house with them. I guess it depends how much time the sitter spends with them each day. If a teenager was just coming over and feeding them, spending like 10-15 minutes a day on the job, I wouldn't pay $20/hr.

[Anonymous]

We pay our professional sitter 18 for a 30 min visit. After making the switch to a professional, it was clear our cat was much calmer when we returned home. And it was clear from the cat sitter's intake paperwork, she was much more attuned to the possible issues that could arise and she was prepared to handle them. I wouldn't pay a teenage the same as a professional, because I wouldn't trust the teenager to handle the worst case scenario well.