Pet Costs
Dog sitter cost calculator
Work out what a dog sitter costs for the trip you are actually taking. It prices both ways of buying one, the overnight stay in your house and the drop-in visit, adds the extra-pet fee, the holiday surcharge and the tip that quotes leave out, and gives you the total you will really pay for the week you are away.
Typical range $362 – $906
- Overnight stays (7 nights)$525
- Drop-in visits$0
- Extra pet fees$0
- Holiday or peak surcharge$0
- Tip$79
- Total$604
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$250 to $800 is a week with an overnight sitter, or a longer drop-in schedule. Confirm the extra-pet fee and any peak surcharge before you book.
What this assumes, and where it could be wrong
Every one of these is a place the number could be off. They are here because you should be able to check our working, not because we are hedging.
NO FEDERAL SOURCE PRICES A NIGHT OF SITTING, SO THE RATES ARE YOURS.
Dog sitting and dog boarding are different purchases, and the page does not mix them. Boarding sends the dog to a kennel and prices a bed. Sitting sends a person to your house and prices their time and their trips across town. The dog stays home, keeps its routine, and the house looks lived in, and those are the things you are paying the difference for.
The two ways of buying a sitter cross over at a surprising place. Drop-in visits are cheap per unit and you need several a day; an overnight is a single larger unit. Three drop-ins a day at our default rates comes to $66 against $75 for one overnight, which is close enough that past two or three visits a day the money stops choosing for you and the dog does: an overnight buys company through the night, and a drop-in schedule leaves the dog alone in between.
The extra-pet fee and the holiday surcharge are where a quote grows after you have said yes. A second animal adds a per-night fee, and peak weeks carry a premium, which is exactly when you need a sitter. Both are in the calculation rather than left as a surprise at the end of the trip, and both are worth asking about before you book.
Nights is the multiplier for both lines, which keeps them comparable. A seven-night trip carries about seven days of care, so drop-ins are priced across seven days here. If your travel days are half days, or if the sitter starts the evening you leave, adjust the nights rather than trusting the default.