I KNOW this in none of my business but is this reasonable?

Oh.. Just saw your latest update.
That's quite a drip feed from your opener 🤨

Yes I would be fuming on my Son's behalf too OP.

They will need his services again in the not too distant future, so look forward to see how they respond to the new payment terms😈and I would also be asking for this upfront to cover costs.

Don't trust anyone who is so unashamedly tight and takes advantage.

I thought dog sitting was a bit like childminding in that once you are paying someone for it, legally you are supposed to be registered etc. Maybe not where you are, but I think in the UK that's the case.
If he was doing it for the money, then he really should have clarified how much up front. Could he also ask to be reimbursed for any 'extra' costs - eg extra food, poo bags, travel expenses??

I wonder if the OP will be back

either way… very weird!

You’re clearly way closer than that if you’ve just went on holiday with them. Your writing like you barely know them, they are some random couple, and you barely know the wife. A few dinners a year. Except you’ve just been on a two week holiday together.

Yeah very odd indeed. If I went on hols with my friends and my daughter looked after their pet, I’d expect nothing more than a little thank you gift. Not paid a going rate. Just very odd.

Exactly

weird the op didn’t mention that she was on holiday (for a fortnight!) with the couple in question 😆

That update blurs the lines a lot.
You actually all went on holiday together and your son looked after the dogs.
Perhaps they view you as one big family who holidays together and helps each other out, and the money was an additional token gesture rather than to be paid at market rate.

Op do you not like the woman? You wrote this quite oddly. Are you looking for a reason to have a go?

Ha yeah ok that’s a drip feed. So you were all on holiday together and your son cared for the dogs, and they gave him 100? I think that’s fine, they clearly didn’t see it as some form of formal dog sitting agreement.

I think it was on the scabby side, but I would shrug it off and just say no next time they ask.

I don’t think there is any such thing as a fee set by one party and unknown to the other until after the service has been rendered. You’re right that gift is the wrong word if ‘we will pay you’ was said but a fee would be agreed in advanced. It’s a bit of a mess but hopefully DS will be more aware in future.

It's not a gift! They said they'd pay him. It's a fee for services rendered. He should have agreed the fee in advance and won't make that mistake again but that doesn't make it a gift.

Definitely CFs

Sorry they behaved like this. Sounds like they're going to struggle to find anyone to look after their dogs again.

Piss takers. What awful people.

Always establish the fee upfront.

Have they known your son since he was a child and see it as him earning a bit of pocket money ‘which is nice for him’?

At approximately $5 a day per dog it’s absolutely insulting. However it’s a good lesson to him for the future and also as a young man in a corporate job it’s also an opportunity to speak up and say it’s a lot less than he was expecting.

What’s the worst that could happen- they don’t ask him again?!

so actually… very close if you went away for a fortnight with them

my guess is that they think of you as an extension of family and just thought your son would enjoy it

but clearly you don’t see it like this

I agree they've taken the Michael but as others have said it's a lesson learnt if no fees were discussed at all beforehand. I think he would be within his rights to raise it and say he was expecting more but understand why this would be an unpalatable conversation for him to have. They may be thinking 'DS likes the dogs and works from home anyway, it's no skin off his nose or in fact it will save him on utilities! Seems a good setup!'

I wonder whether there was a bit of a mismatch between how you all saw it. They thought you were doing them a favour as friends and just gave your son a bit of cash as a nice gesture (perfectly normal- I’ve had friends’ dogs to stay for free). You thought your son was providing a paid service and should get something like market rate.

The lesson is to be upfront about all this. No professional dog sitter would agree to a job without stating terms, which probably helped convince your friends that this was basically a favour.

Yes, this. I walked a friend’s dog daily for a year because his house was close to my workplace. Not a transactional situation.

Well, lesson learned - DS needs to be clear upfront about how much he's charging, but you've also learned that your family friends are CFs.

It will bite them in the bum though, because good dogsitters are hard to find and now your DS won't sit for them again. When you find a sitter that's reliable, you should treat them well so they have your dogs back again!!

As friends (and your son doesn't have to be registered or pay insurance) I would have thought £250 to be reasonable. I've given a friends son £80 for three nights staying at my house. But big big mistake not agreeing a price up front! Just decline in future.

Did they provide the food or did your DS have to buy it?