Thanksgiving is one of the busiest times of year for pet sitters. Many pet parents travel to spend Thanksgiving with family or use the holiday as an opportunity to vacation for pleasure. With pet sitting requests in high demand, space can be limited for pet sitting visits over Thanksgiving. If you are going away over Thanksgiving, have you booked your Thanksgiving pet sitting visits yet?
If you haven’t booked your pet sitter or you are new to working with a professional pet sitter, there are different options you can choose from when allowing your pets to stay in their own home and environment that they know and love. Choices can range from booking an overnight stay to booking once daily visits, multiple daily visits, or a combination of an overnight stay with pet sitting visits added in the day time.
Many pet sitters have more than one option for clients to choose from when booking overnight stays. At Rufus and Delilah, we offer 2 different options for overnight stays. The shortest overnight is a 12 hour overnight stay from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. We also offer a 14 hour overnight stay from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. The rate for our overnight stays start at $90 for the 12 hour overnight and there is a $5 additional pet fee for each pet after the first.
At Rufus and Delilah, we customize care based on each clients and pets needs. Some of the services included with our overnight stays are a short walk in the evening and morning for dogs, feeding your pets, giving your pets lots of love and attention, and basic home maintenance including bringing in mail and packages, taking out trash, and adjusting lights and window treatments as needed. We can also accommodate special requests. Some examples of special requests made in the past are giving medication, spending 10 minutes a day brushing a pet, dressing a dog, giving specific types of water, waking up at 4:30 a.m. to feed a dog, and/or preparing elaborate pet meals. To help provide peace of mind while you are away we can also email daily updates with pictures and details of how your pets are spending their time with the pet sitter.
If you are not looking for a pet sitter to stay overnight, an alternate option would be requesting shorter daily pet sitting visits. It is standard for pet sitters to offer visits in 30, 45, or 60 minute increments. At Rufus and Delilah, we have a minimum booking of once daily visits when caring for client’s cats and a minimum booking of three daily visits when caring for client’s dogs on days clients will be away a full 24 hours. Less visits may be booked for dogs on the day the client is leaving and on the day the client is returning based on the their travel times.
For more information on pet sitting visits at Rufus and Delilah and what’s included, check out this link. If you are unsure if pet sitting visits or overnights stays are the right fit for you and your pets, you may like our article on 6 Questions To Ask Yourself To Help Determine Whether Overnight Pet Sitting Or Multiple Daily Pet Sitting Visits Is The Right Fit For Your And Your Pets.
Other things to be aware of when booking pet sitting over Thanksgiving are holiday fees and policies that are specific to the holiday booking. For example, at Rufus and Delilah, before we accept any pet sitting reservations for Thanksgiving from new or existing clients, clients need to approve in writing our Thanksgiving holiday policies and fees.
Rufus and Delilah Holiday Policies For Thanksgiving Pet Sitting Visits:
- For the Thanksgiving holiday, there is a $10 holiday fee added to all visits for a three day period between the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the Sunday following Thanksgiving.
- Overnight bookings must be a minimum of three consecutive nights for the Thanksgiving holiday.
- For existing clients, we have a 3 visit minimum when booking the 30, 45, or 60 minute visits for the Thanksgiving holiday.
- For new clients, we have a 4 visit minimum when booking the 30, 45, or 60 minute visits for the Thanksgiving holiday .
- For existing clients, all pet sitting visits and overnights need to be paid for at the time of the booking to hold your reservation.
- For new clients, payment needs to be received at the consultation.
- Pet sitting reservations for Thanksgiving need to be canceled with 15 days notice or more from the start date of services in order to receive a credit.
- Pet sitting reservations for Thanksgiving canceled with 14 days notice or less from the start of services will not be refundable or transferable to future visits or stays.
With Thanksgiving approaching so quickly, at Rufus and Delilah, we currently only have one opening left for overnights but we still have several openings for our shorter daily pet sitting visits.
Have you booked your Thanksgiving pet sitting yet? What types of visits do you book for your pets?
To find out more about our dog walking and pet sitting services, watch this video.
