Housesitters -- do you play them?

[JLDMED]

For those of you who use housesitters while you're gone, do you pay them, or just fill the house with food and let them enjoy time away from their home? If you do pay them...what is the going rate?

 

We have a large house, but have gardeners to take care of the lawn -- and only one dog to care for.

 

Suggestions?

[tawcat]

she doesn't require much. she does her own thing and just really enjoys being away from her roommate for a week or so. we always leave a few dollars, i guess for a 7 day cruise we leave $100-$150 and for the 11 dayers we leave her about $300. she always tells us we are too generous!

[aloanldy]

We have a person come into our house and stay and babysit our dog and/house. Mostly the dog of course. We usually leave him $50 to buy food or junk food and for a 7 or so night we pay him anywhere between $300 and $500 depending on how long we are gone for.

 

It's worth it, we don't have to worry about the dog getting sick in a kennel and someone is in our house every day so it reduces the risk of being robbed.

[Pipers mom]

The situation at our house is looking after 2 dogs, 2 cats and a bird.

 

We have our housekeeper stay and she brings her dog and bird. We've been giving her $50 a day - but I feel that's a bit much. None-the-less, she knows the house and the animals... and the fee is worth it because I have peace of mind.

[Papillon's 2]

The going rate in our area is $35.00 a day. That includes care of two dogs.

Linda

[bububr]

We usually give $20.00 a day plus we take them ( husband and wife ) out to a nice dinner when we get back.

 

We have 3 basset hounds, two cats, a parrot, goldfish and finches....no human kids.

 

Our house sitters are actually the neighbors, and we also reciprocate when they are away.

 

Sleeping over for the entire time is not one of our requirements, but sometimes they do if they need alone time, or they just might want to get out of the house so they bring their dog with them and they stay a day or two. We live on a really good street where many of the neighbors have keys to everyone elses home.

 

All we ask is that they don't have parties when we are gone. Other than that the fridge, liquor cabinet, etc are open to their use. They can even borrow my truck if they need it.

 

We are fortunate

 

Hope that helps,

 

Dave:eek:

[JimnKaren]

We will have a doctoral candidate (poor college student) stay with our dog. She brings in the mail, shovels and stuff like that. Her rate is $25/day. We always bring a little something back from where we visited. She thinks it is almost like being there herself.

 

Jim

[slotaddict]

Lucky for me I do not have to pay. Years ago my daughter brought home a dog against our wishes. Of course we fell in love with the dog, she moved out,we kept the dog and she comes and stays with the dog when we go away. Leave the fridge full and away we go.:D

[morriscats]

My still at home son is more than happy to have us go on vacation so he can have the house to himself. I think if he were not here it would be hard to leave my dog and cat. As it is, when the cat sees the suitcases come out he goes into psycho mode and tries to get inside them. The whole time we are gone he meows all night long. He just hates to see us go.

[JLDMED]

I didn't even notice (till now) that I wrote PLAY instead of PAY in my title line! Maybe that's why I've had so many views!!!

Thanks all, for your input.

[southhavenjen]

Our housesitter charges $20 per day. We have two cats and a dog, and we expect that she stay here (sleep overnight, etc.). She is just out of college - I personally think that rate is cheap! I asked her what kinds of foods she likes and try to stock the house with these so she has plenty to eat.

[Murphy]

We try to get MIL to come for a visit. If that works, we don't pay her, just make sure the fridge is full and leave her coupons for some of the local restaurants.

 

If I have to get one of the local kids to stay, the going rate is $25 per day.

[critterchick]

We pay our housesitter $50/night to take care of our 2 dogs, 6 cats & aquarium. It's a bargain - it would cost more than that just to board the dogs, and the trauma is far less. We find housesitters at our vet's office, and have had great luck with them. They are great with the animals, obviously know what to do in an emergency and we don't have to worry too much about the animals taking revenge for being abandoned (all 6 cats have claws:eek: ).

[chasetf]

We donot get a housesitter.... Rather we had a neighbor kid who would come up and feed the cats / guinea pig / bird once a day (our dogs have long ago passed on and were not replaced). We paid them $5 a day plus would bring back a gift from the cruise.