Adding Holiday Fees is a Standard Practice for Pet Care Pros
No one wants to work on a holiday. Holidays are made for relaxing with your friends and family but as a pet sitter or dog walker - working on holidays is a part of the job. When your clients are traveling (which happens a lot on holidays) - they are looking for someone to take care of their pets and that is when you tag in.
Just because working on a holiday is a part of the job - it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be compensated for it. That is where holiday fees come in. A holiday fee is a very reasonable (and common) part of the pet sitting and dog walking industry. You also shouldn’t feel guilty about charging a holiday fee. If you do - think of it this way. How much extra would someone have to pay your client to get them to work on a holiday? I can almost guarantee the answer isn’t $0.
So what holidays should you charge for? Well that really depends on your business but you can start with the federal holidays for your country. In the United States - we have ten federal holidays. They are New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, George Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.
After deciding on the holidays you will charge for, you can decide how you will charge and how much. There are two very common ways to charge a holiday fee. You can either charge “per day” or “per visit”. Per day charges tend to be a little more and per visit tend to be less but if your client has several visits on July 4th - you will charge them for each one.
How much you charge for your holiday fee is also entirely up to you. It’s a personal decision and you need to decide how much your time is worth on a holiday. If you don’t mind working holidays - then you can definitely charge less. If you really want to make sure working on a holiday is worth your time - you will want to charge more. What’s the most common? We tend to see a holidays fees ranging from $5 to $10 per visit.
Enforcing your holiday fee is extremely easy as well. In Time To Pet - you can set your holiday fees and we will automatically add the fee whenever a visit is scheduled on one of your pre-defined holidays! For more information about setting your holiday fees, make sure to check out our Complete Guide to Setting Holiday Fees for Pet Sitters and Dog Walkers and our Holiday Fee Calculator Tool.
