The ultimate guide to setting your pet sitting and walking rates for 2023 (2023)

"How much should I charge for dog sitting, cat sitting, pet sitting, walking and pet sitting?"

This question is by far one of the most common we see from new pet grooming businesses – and with good reason. Setting a fair rate for your customers and yourself is essential to running a successful pet care business. You could have thousands of happy customers, but if you are unable to cover your expenses and make a profit, your business will struggle.

It's become even more important over the last 12 months to make sure you're charging the right amount. The global economy, inflation, the threat of recession, and various other factors have had a significant impact on zookeepers. The cost of providing pet sitting services in 2023 will be significantly less than previous years. Whether it's a tough job market, increased gas prices, or other reasons, you need to make sure the prices you charge for pet grooming services are increasing at the same rate as your expenses.

Price is still often a deciding factor when customers want to hire a pet sitter or dog walker. It's also probably one of the first things a potential customer notices when they visit your website. That's why you need an easy-to-understand, fair pricing structure.

Time To Pet has created severalfree calculatorsto help you calculate your rates based on where you live and the services you provide. Use this blog post and oursRechner-Toolsto find the plans that are right for you and your business!

Are you about to get started? We put one togetherin-depth guide with all the resources you need to start your walking or pet sitting business!

There are several important factors when deciding what to charge for pet care and pet care.

• What services will you offer?
• Where are you?
• What is your competition demanding?
• What are your expenses? This is critical in 2023
• How much do you want/need to earn to keep your employees and your company going?

services decide

Determining what services you will provide is a large and sometimes overlooked part of the planning process for your pet sitting business. There are many different strategies you can use here, but the most important thing is to consider the type of business you are starting. What types of animals will you take care of? Do you offer overnight stays at customers' homes?

Don't stretch too thin. You can always add more services later. It's better to master a smaller set of skills than trying to do too much. It is important to offer your customers the absolute best possible service. That's always the best wayStep out of the masses!

Keep it simple

We strongly recommend keeping the Services as simple as possible. It can be easy to go overboard and offer dozens of types of services like cat sitting, dog walking, pet sitting, evening sitting, early morning walks, etc.

In reality, most of these services are likely to be very similar and also share the same price point. Instead of offering tons of separate services, it's easier to just offer a handful of services based on the length of the event. There are just far too many inconsistencies when billing is per task rather than by time.

For example – you can have a 15 minute visit, a 30 minute visit and a 60 minute visit. Each visit can be the same for cats, dogs, walks, birds, morning, night, etc. Even if you do different things at each event, you still spend the same amount of your time. This makes the process much easier when customers request services - and easier for you too.

Keep your pricing consistent and straightforward. In many cases, there is no need to add an extra dollar for administering oral medications, changing the litter box, watering plants, or delivering the mail. These additional services may all fall within the scheduled visit time. If a pet needs extra attention (or the visit requires more time for additional services), the visit should be longer.

One of the first things most people do when looking for a new pet sitter or dog walker is to look at prices. Make sure your pricing is clear and easy to understand on your website. They become more reliable and customers know what to expect, resulting in fewer misunderstandings about fares.

location and competition

Where you live is a very important factor in deciding what to charge for your pet grooming services. With ourRechner-Toolyou can see what the average cost of services is in your area. You most likely don't want to be the cheapest service provider, but you do want to stay competitive.

Please investigate. Check out your competition and see what others are charging in similar sized cities across the country. Check out oursfree tariff calculatorto get help in pricing various services.

It's also a good idea to decide how you want to position yourself compared to your competitors. Will you be a luxury service? Do you have any special medical qualifications? Do you add value with a software like Time To Pet?

Having the Time To Pet app to share with your clients can be a huge plus for them. The ability to conveniently schedule and pay for the service makes their lives easier. Customers also love getting pet ID cards and seeing GPS tracking for dog walks. When you offer your customers value, you can and should charge more in return.

To determine your prices based on standard prices in your area, check what your competitors are charging. This can be in your city or in places similar to where you live and work. Also remember that the kid on the street is not your direct competition. They deliver a professional service so you will always be more expensive than them.

Average time to stroke:

We used our free rate calculator tools to find the nationwide average rates for dog walkers, dog sitters, cat sitters, and pet sitting services across the country. Overnight pet sitting rates vary widely by location.

• Dog Walk - 30 minutes: $25.55
• Walking the Dog - 60 minutes: $40.97
• Dog Sitting - 30 minutes: $33.33
• Dog Sitting - 60 minutes: $45.93
• Cat Sitting - 30 minutes: $27.47
• Cat Sitting - 60 minutes: $42.94
• Pet Sitting - 30 minutes: $32.25
• Pet Sitting - 60 minutes: $42.08

Cost

The cost of running a pet grooming business has changed dramatically in the last 12 months. It's gotten harder (and more expensive) to hire and retain great pet care professionals. Inflation has also dramatically impacted the cost of a pet care business' gas, insurance and other general expenses. It's important to ensure that the prices you charge for pet grooming services will cover your expenses and leave some extra profit. Please see below for more information.

If you have other employees or workers besides yourself, you must account for their salary. Factor in labor, insurance, gas, marketing, materials, and other miscellaneous expenses. Your bottom line isn't what you make of each event, it's your revenue minus your expenses. Make sure your tariffs cover your business expenses and leave something for profit.

Also, remember that while a visit may be brief, you must allow for travel time and resources that will take you away from other customers.

Set your prices

A really easy way to set rates is to set how much money you want to make per hour (let's say $40/hour). Then work backwards on how much you need to charge for events.

For example, if you have a 30 minute event, the cost isn't just $20. You also need to factor in travel time and overhead. If your typical travel time is 15 minutes and your overhead per event is $3, the actual cost for that 30 minute event should be $33. This is $30 for 45 minutes of your time (30 minutes visiting, 15 minutes driving) and $3 for overheads.

When you set your prices, it's most likely a combination of what you want to earn per hour and the typical prices for your area. You cannot differentiate yourself from the market, but you also need to be sure that you are being rewarded appropriately.

Frequency discounts and special prices

Frequency discounts are a great way to "keep" your best customers as repeat customers while ensuring you have plenty of work to do. We recommend frequency discounts as it encourages customer usage and loyalty.

A new concept that has gained a lot of popularity in 2022 is the "subscription" idea. Instead of charging per event, charge $400 per month, which entitles a client to walk one dog per weekday. Of course, in some months (like February) there is less migration and in other months (like January) there is more. However, your income (and your clients' expenses) are very predictable.

Additional pets.

More pets can often require more time and work. You may simply want to base your costs on the basis of the time you spend, but the extra pet fee is a very common (and accepted) fee in the pet care industry.

Public holidays.

It's common for pet grooming companies to charge extra for holidays. Think about it like this. How much would your client expect for work on Christmas? Make sure you value your vacation time appropriately.

To help you determine vacation fees for your business, we've created oneVacation Fee Calculator Toolwhich contains national averages for flat fees and percentage fees for the most common US holidays. We also have a detailedGuide to setting holiday fees for pet sitters and dog walkers. We also have a great postHoliday for pets! You shouldn't be charging extra for all of this, but it's always nice to celebrate something.

It's okay to say no

No matter how fair your price is, there will always be potential customers trying to haggle over the price. There will likely also be people outside of your desired service area who would like to become customers. This is where you need to decide whether acquiring a particular customer is in your best interest. If they're not willing to pay full price for your services, or if they live an hour away from your other clients, you need to decide if it's worth taking them on. It can be difficult to turn down orders, especially when you're starting out and looking to grow, but it's okay to say no. You run the show and have to decide what's best for your business.

Setup aMeet and Greetis the best way to really determine if a client is a good match for them. There are alsoQuestions to ask potential new customersbefore you even have the meet and greet.

Use ourPet Grooming Rate Calculatorupdated for 2023 to find out what you should be charging for pet sitting and dog walking.