Petsitting dilema.

[PigWittington]

My aunt asked my 18yo daughter to petsit for her during the summer holidays. Its a 7 night holiday and DD was to stay at her house minding her 2 dogs for £140.
Unfortunately one of the dogs passed away of old age a few weeks ago and my aunt has now messaged my daughter along the lines of 'I was paying you £140 to watch 2 dogs, now I only have 1, can I pay you half, £70'

I don't really know what to say to her. I understand she based the amount of what it would have cost to board 2 dogs at a kennel but DD is still doing all the same things, staying away from home for 7 nights. Feeding. Walking etc.
Plus DD needs to feed herself whilst there, will be away from her friend group etc.

I don't really know what to advise.

It is a rip off, even £140. I pay £28 for dog being at dog sitter whilst I am on holiday.

Tell the aunt that it’s around £50 a night for a dog sitter, regardless of how many dogs she has!

I'm a house and dog sitter and receive £25 per day which includes a food allowance. Currently I have a dog staying at my house for the weekend and will charge £135 for 4 nights - £30/night plus another £15 for having the dog for most of the day on Tuesday. £70 is definitely not enough for a week's dog sitting. I think you do need to say something but of course it depends on your relationship with the Aunt.

'Yes that's no problem. As you only want to pay me half the agreed rate, I can now only provide half the agreed time. Please let me know which 3 1/2 days you would like me to stay'.

Response should be :

I accepted the job on the basis I would be looking after 2 dogs for £140 for a week.

As you have changed the terms I am no longer able to accept the job.

If aunty has priced any other dogsitting/boarding options she knows darn well she wouldn't get anything for £10/night! Nor £20. Kennels we used recently were £35 for one dog, two from the same household, sharing a large kennel £50. The workload for your DD isn't half because there is only one dog.

Kennels must be in excess £200 / week per dog, house sitter even more. I know one person paid £900 for 2 dogs for 2 weeks.

£140 for 2 dogs is very cheap to live away from home, I would have offered the same amount and if child stipulated less I would have possibly graciously accepted. I think it is cheeky to only offer £70, they have no clue! Up to her but I’d suddenly decline the offer.

She replies oh sorry, I won't be able to come stay your house for a week for £70. Maybe try someone closer?

Your aunt has a bloody nerve. I pay my catsitter £35 a day for one cat. I’m happy to do this as she’s worth her weight in gold. I am completely at ease when away as I know somebody I trust is there all the time.

Ain't no one charging 10 quid a day for any type of animal care. 20 quid is still cheap. I'm paying 150 for 6 days next month.

Aunt needs to jog on. Just booked our dog in at boarding for 2 days for £80

I think I would suggest your daughter sends back a brief and polite "no thank you" and see what your aunt comes back with.

My Catsitter charges £16 for one visit of about half an hour. That’s for however many cats you have. She feeds and cleans bowls etc. will put the bins out on bin day. It was £112 for 7 days so I actually think £140 is taking the piss a little. I accept there will be a stocked fridge and use of facilities but dogs are more labour intensive and presumably need walking twice a day?

Gosh, what a meanie! We have a cat rather than a dog. Here a visit for feed/fuss/litter is £12 - £15, and I would want two a day, so minimum £24 x 7, without any walking of the cat! MIL or our neighbour usually take care of us if it's just a few nights away, so we are very lucky (and we do the same in return for both of their cats).

In March we were away just one night and our neighbour popped in the evening we went away, then again the next morning, and we were back at about 6pm. For his trouble he got a giant Easter egg and a decent bottle of wine. He was also obviously free to eat/drink anything he wanted if he hung around for a bit although we didn't specifically stock up for him - I know he used the coffee machine and sat out in the garden with a drink for a bit so the cat could have a wander out. But he's an adult man with a full-time job, just being neighbourly, and having minimum inconvenience rather than it being a business arrangement. The aunt's properly taking the P.

£70 a week for dog kennels? That’s £10 per day. Twenty years ago I was paying £30 a day. Very tight. The thing is if she says no it will cause a huge tension.

Tell the aunt that £10 a day is far less than she’d hoped for, having turned down other higher paying work to help her. Tell her on this occasion she will honour the commitment, but can’t do future sitting work at this rate as she’d really needs to earn and save.

Great suggestion

Even £140 for one week would be way too little.

Honour the commitment, why on earth should she do that? Unless she is a doormat.

If by "honour the commitment" you mean £140 I agree. If you're suggesting she accepts £70, it's a hard no.

Calculate the minimum wage by number of hours she will be there and tell her that's the charge 😆

@PigWittington she's being v unreasonable. I pay £70 per day for my 4 small dogs, and that's already cheap because they all share 1 kennel!

Just say £140 was already discounted due to being family, but any less than that just means it's not feasible/worthwhile.

Pets cost money, that's part of being a responsible owner.

We pay our house-sitter £50 per day. Dog gets 2 walks and company in the house

It is a clear repudiatory breach. Tell your aunt 'my dd agreed to perform this at a vastly reduced/non-market rate because she needed £140 to buy a ... (insert)'. £70 is not going to be enough to buy .... so now instead to make these £140 or more she will do a paper round/weeding the garden/insert what she will do in the same amount of time, so unfortunately she won't be able to dog-sit for you. Add 'not to worry, she will easily find a replacement job, so we are not angry at you'.

I charge £70 a night or £80 during peak times.
She's taking advantage.

A LOT more. She is absolutely taking the mick.