£20 a night?

15yo watching a cat & house sitting for 10 days is not appropriate. 15yo is away too young for that responsibility

Were you never 15? Of course they are going to be there all the time. With a bunch of friends too.

I would check your household insurance and see if you’re covered if there is no adult present and something happens. I can’t imagine the insurance company would be happy to pay out for damage if they find out there was a 15-year-old alone for 10 days.

Is his name Kevin? Are you going to Paris for Christmas?

I used to water the plants for my neighbours, maybe 3 doors down. I was a very responsible teenager.

I did have plenty of sex with my boyfriend there though I don't think they ever found out.

Your cat sitter is taking the piss, and I say that as a cat-sitter myself.

I charge £8 per visit for cats (20-30 minutes).
£50 per night for house-sitting.

@XelaM , I am with you , it seems that everyone on MN distrust teenagers and men I house and pet sit for friends , family and neighbours as a kid and loved it . It was a great way to earn extra money and get to play with / walk other peoples pets .
Some of the homes I just went to during the day but all of the ones with dogs I always stayed overnight ( cats can let themselves out dogs can not ) .
with the owners permission sometimes my DB or a friend would come over for a few hrs . we never had wild parties , drugs , sex , mad rampages and I only ever recall breaking two glasses ( different homes months apart ) which I offered to pay for but is was never taken up.
I built up a trusted 'clientele' and especially around the summer and bank holidays i could earn some very good money.

@Silverbook
As long as you are sure you can trust this 15 yr old and they know what to do and who to contact in a emergency i would say go for it and the fee you are paying is fine . Could you do a trial run before hand and leave them overnight for two nights before hand ?

My god people are so weird - and have they even read the OPs replies? The family offered and the teenager is keen, parents will be 5mins away - they all know and trust each other.
I think sometimes people are looking very, very hard to find fault with or be suspicious of plans/things/people.

@Silverbook I reckon £20 per night is perfect, £200 for a teenager for doing precious little other being responsible is a good deal.
Have a lovely time away

I think £15 is fine. I have a 14 year old relative who earned £15 a day last week and that was at sports school in the heat. She was over the moon with the £.

They might be responsible though but if some teens they know find out they have a house to themselves overnight they might gatecrash.

I think £15 a day is fine

This wasn't at all obvious from your OP. Normally if you pay a house-sitter you are paying them to move in and be responsible for keeping the house secure etc.

I think £20 sounds OK but £10 to just do the cat would be plenty, and a whole lot clearer and simpler for you than having them "move in" to an unspecified degree.

I know a teen who would jump at this chance and be very responsible. They have multiple younger siblings and share a room.

On the basis you'd be happy with them just popping in and they actively offering to stay, I think £20 would be nice, enough to incentivise keeping place clean and tidy and the extra will help the teen out.

Alternatively ask teen how much they want and negotiate to £20 if more, and accept lower offer.

The only person taking the piss is your cat sitter. Youve been ripped off!

The parents sound like right chancers tbh, suggesting he stays at your house so you can pay him more money when all you need is him to pop in and feed the cat. They saw you coming didn't they!

I don't think these replies are ridiculous tbh. OP has asked a question yes, and the majority of people are asking if it's really a good idea.

Surely if the family of this kid have offered his/her services then it's up to them to set the rate instead of having a polite dance around how much is acceptable? "Johnny would love to earn some extra cash this summer - he could stay at yours for, say, 15 quid a night to house sit and feed the cats. What do you think of that rate?" Or Johnny could say it himself!

Sorry but you're overpaying your cat feeder. The most any dog-sitter charged me for a 24 hour overnight stay was £40 (our usual one charged £25) and a dog is much more difficult to take care of than a cat. Feeding a cat should really not cost very much.

For those saying £20 a night i reasonable for babysitting, maybe back in 1990! You're looking at £80 now for an overnight stay off a sitter
It's a cat not a baby 🤣. My dog boarder is £20 for an overnight.

If you want an overnight house sitter, this is presumably to ward against burglars?

In which case 15 is far too young to be put in that position.

Get an alarm, put lights on timer, ask the 15 yo to leave the curtains in different positions each time they go in (twice a day) to feed and check on the cat.

Christ no. That's taking the piss frankly.

Just paid £84 for a cat sitter to pop in and feed mine for 3.5 days! Not staying over just doing 2 visits a day.

For those saying £20 a night i reasonable for babysitting, maybe back in 1990! You're looking at £80 now for an overnight stay off a sitter.

Why does the catsitter need to stay? If they live 5 minutes away just get them to drop in to feed and check on them twice a day for £20 . 15 is too young to do more.

I also think it is too young.

What is the child meant to do all day?
What does the child's family think?
How far is the child's family home?
Does the child have to shop for and cook food?

I can't think of a single person that I would want to house/cat sit.
I prefer to lock the house up safely and use boarding for animals.

My licenced and fully insured dog boarder only charges £10 a day and £20 for an overnight. So for a 15 yr old to feed my cats I'd be paying £10 a day max

I think the money is fine and if you know the parents and the teen and they are all happy with the arrangement then fair enough.
I judged the mum of dds boyfriend hard though for going off on a family holiday and leaving her son behind for 2 weeks on his own. Barely 16, doesn’t know the neighbors and no family nearby, I just thought it was really irresponsible but he was obviously okay!
Only you know the set up, if the family home is 5 minutes away they’ll be able to come and go as they please.
As a 16 year old my dad asked me to go and housesit for his 2 dogs for a week - I took my friend, he took us out to do a big food shop (no fruit or veg was purchased 😂) and then we had the most blissful week ever. No wild parties as we didn’t know anyone in the quiet local area, but we did wangle our way into the local pub a couple of times for a southern comfort and coke!

I reckon they’ve got 10 days of unrestricted, uninterrupted, noisy sex planned 😂

£25 a day sounds fine. You’ve looked at places like housesitters. And trustedhousesitters?