Do you tip a pet sitter?

[WolfGirl]

You people made me paranoid ...we have a lovely sitter and we've never tipped her. She charges $20 a visit though, so she's being pretty well compensated. I tip just about everyone else but it never occurred to me to tip her. Now I'm thinking maybe we should...

[divingbiker]

You people made me paranoid ...we have a lovely sitter and we've never tipped her. She charges $20 a visit though, so she's being pretty well compensated. I tip just about everyone else but it never occurred to me to tip her. Now I'm thinking maybe we should...

I think you're fine. I pay $20 a visit, too, and I think the pet sitters much prefer a regular customer (and regular income) to an occasional tip.

[Norse]

We don't tip, but do give out X-mas bonuses in the form of cash or a Target gift card. Our dog walker is very appreciative of the bonus, our house/pet sitter believes we already pay her too much for "the privilege of staying in our lovely home" and is almost embarrassed about getting a bonus.

[pfunk12]

My girls cat sit for my neighbor/friend and she doesn't tip.

[badger]

come to think of it, I never got tipped for babysitting, either. Do people tip babysitters? if you tip pet sitters, why not someone who look after your human babies?

I think we've gone a bit overboard with tipping. Which, I suppose, isn't a bad thing.

[GLC1968]

I think it depends on the type of petsitter that you have.

In our case, we hired and pay the girl directly. She keeps all the money as if it were a babysitting situation. We pay her well (more than her other 'gigs' but still less than it would cost us to use a kennel) and we didn't tip extra. I assume that if we continue to use her and we go somewhere around the holidays, then a holiday 'bonus' would be in order.

When we lived in NC and we hired a service to pet sit (and we asked that pet sitter to do more than typical with medications and walking a dog-aggressive dog), we tipped. We figured that the regular fee paid both the sitter and the company she worked for...the tip was hers to keep.

[MomOnBike]

We use a commercial service, which has gone above and beyond for us. So yes, I tip them, even though the cat is very shy and the sitter never sees her. It is worth it to me to know that someone is coming over each day and looking after Carmen and noting if there are any problems with the house. In my mind, it is good to keep people you have to trust liking you.

[Dogmama]

I have an older cat & a 4 year old rambunctious German Shepherd & I use a commercial pet sitter for overnight visits plus day visits to let the dog out. She goes way above & beyond - cleans my house, sweeps up my patio, etc. So, yeah, I tip hugely - sometimes up to 50%. I don't think she actually makes much money after the agency gets their cut and she's newly married & struggling a bit financially.

It's worth it, to me, to have somebody uber-reliable so that I do not have to worry about the four-leggers. Sometimes pet sitting is almost as much as my hotel, but that's life.