Cat sitter spending 10.mins per visit

[Catinaflatoday]

Installed a ring doorbell a month ago, which has just showed me that cat sitter spends 10 mins a visit not the 30 mins twice a day I thought I was paying for?

AIBU to think 10 min visit not enough twice a day ? 25 a day fee

wow, that is 4x as much as we get for £25! nothing wrong with that service, except if you are being told you are getting something else

If you pay for 30 mins you should get 30 mins. Whether 10 mins is enough is a different question. My cat sitter offers 15 minutes visits but I pay for 30 mins.

I pay £26 for 2 x 30 min visits.

Who on earth are the 38% of people who say YABU?

You are right. Nobody likes to be ripped off. But I'm struggling to think of how she'd fill the half hour. What if the cat was asleep?
Change the litter, feed and water. Yep, probably 10 mins all in. How far away does she live? Maybe she's factoring her travel time - and possibly parking costs - into the half hour.

That’s atrocious. My cat sitter does 2 x 30 min sessions with chat, play and cuddles, and sends me pics & videos. All my fosters have adored her.

It’s one thing if you’re just paying for someone to come in, put food down & change litter but if your sitter has said they’re doing more, you & your cat should be getting more.

Edited to say it does depend on whether a cat welcomes company or would rather the person did their job & left them in peace…

Cata both very friendly and love company

If you’re not happy with it, that’s your call to make.

I think £25 for two separate visits to your house is cheap.

Unless they are your next door neighbour, in which case two 10-min visits for £25 is just about right.

I think expecting to pay someone £12.50 for a 30-min visit to your house (not even including their journey time) is incredible.

What? How much would you expect to be paying? 25.00 per hour is a lot for unskilled work!

Why did you think you were paying for 30 mins…is there a contract or agreement to that effect or was it just an assumption on your part?

Is that how much people pay for a cat sitter?! My neighbour and I look after each other’s cats when we go away, no money involved.
Having said that, if you paid for 30 minutes then you should get 30 minutes.

Travel time needs to be accounted for and it's not like a cleaner with regular customers where you could have a route and times that work. It would be constantly changing.

Even accounting for travel time, you wouldn't be looking at much more than 25.00 per hour. And even if you were, then the sitter needs to say so upfront, not be sneaky about it.

I think £25 per day, having someone come in check your cat is ok, sort out the litter & feed it is reasonable. BUT it's not reasonable to tell you it's a 30 min visit if it isn't. (Unless she means 30mins over the 2 visits.

i pet sit (dogs in their homes mostly) but I was just asked it I'd do feeding /popping in for 3 cats. They live 9 miles away, as I said 3 cats & 3 litter trays. I visit per day for almost 3 weeks. I ended up saying no as I didn't feel I could charge enough to make it worth committing to. The Cattery she was looking at was £42 per cat per night, but wanted to pay £20 for someone to 'pop in'

Interested to know what others would be prepared to pay? Id be in no hurry if they were interested in playing/cuddling.

You should have a word then. To sort expectations

I pay £10 per visit I think, maybe £18 if it’s 2 visits per day but I’m a cheapskate and only pay for 1 (in my defence my cat is an antisocial bugger who ignores us the majority of the time anyway).

If she said she’d stay half an hour she should stay half an hour, so you’re not being unreasonable.

To be fair it probably often isn’t worth the hassle of driving somewhere, parking, spending half an hour petting cats, just for £12.50. Most of the people I have used have either mostly done it as they just love animals, and as a second job. But they are welcome to turn down visits which don’t work for them, I have had that in the past where my usual lady said it’s just not worth her time with the other visits she has that day.

@AmelieTaylor Totally missing the point of the thread but £42 PER CAT PER NIGHT?!?! I didn't realise Claridges did Cat boarding!!

Our cattery is £12.50 per cat per night, with a discount for the second cat sharing the same pen.

I'm doing a 20 minute visit each day for £10.
The cat hides at first and the feed and litter change takes 5 minutes.
I’d never stay less than the time and I stay in the room with the cat and coax it out for a cuddle (which it enjoys, once it’s out).

£25 an hour would only cover the two 30 minute visits, travel time could be quite variable unless you only covered your own village. There would also be busy holiday times and quiet times so you couldn't compare it to £12 an hour for a regular job. I agree that the cat sitter should set rates and visit times accordingly though.

I'm a cat sitter, so thought I'd put my thoughts in.

With your username I guess you booked through cat in a flat, which is the website I use too.

If your cat sitter is stating that they'll be doing 30 min visits then that's what they should do unless you've agreed otherwise. On rare occasions I've had to cut a visit short and I always let the client know, and if it's a 2 visit a day client, generally make up the time on my other visit.

I am so paranoid about not short changing my clients, that if they have a ring doorbell or camera or something I take a photo as soon as I arrive to make sure I remember the time and don't leave a few minutes early or anything.

To those talking about travel time etc, then no, that's not to be included as standard with cat in a flat, if that's included then it should be discussed as part of the booking. You can really only advertise and book within a certain radius of your address on the site, so it's expected that you are willing to travel to cover the radius you set.

OP - please either bring this up with your sitter, with cat in a flat, or simply find a new sitter. You're not getting the service you're paying for and it gives the rest of us a bad name.

Are you using Pawshake? I'm a sitter on there. The app defaults cat sitting to 30 minutes. Sometimes I stay longer, but there are some homes I go to where the cat very much does not want to play or cuddle! As far as I'm aware, the only way around this is to offer a discount as I don't think you can change the allocated time on there. Travel time and cost isn't factored in either. I also am required to message and send pics each time I visit, I know it doesn't sound like much but it adds up! If I've made sure they're safe, clean, fed and happy and it's done in under 30 minutes then that's that for me. I won't sit in another person's home clock watching in the interest of fulfilling the slot the app gives me.

In terms of how much you are paying I pay for a local company at £13 per half hour visit. For this I know that even if the person due to come is sick my cats will get fed and cuddles from someone even if it has to be a shorter than normal visit. My sitter has also dealt with fight injuries and are currently looking after an eye infection while I'm away. They also monitored a boiler leak and other domestic issues. Worth every penny.

To those talking about travel time etc, then no, that's not to be included as standard with cat in a flat, if that's included then it should be discussed as part of the booking.

I meant when you are working out a rate that makes the job worth doing. Not that you would charge for the travel time. Charging £12 an hour like you'd be paid in a regular job wouldn't work.

30 minutes sounds like a long time to me! Maybe because our cats go outside so we don’t have litter trays to change. I’ve just been in the kitchen to feed ours and it took me less than 5 minutes to put the food down, fill up the water bowls and call them in. Two minutes later the food has gone and they are off again!

@Catinaflatoday totally agree with you
Cat sitter should be staying for the 30 minutes
I have the same problem with mine although I don't pay half as much and actually she's been known to stay as little as one minute.
I have come to the conclusion that she just doesn't care anymore. Which makes me sad actually.
It's not a job you do for the money is it.
One of my cats would love her to stay and stroke him.

Does she say she will spend 30 mins with your cats or does she say she allows 30 mins per visit which includes her travel time?