The short answer: pet care in Canada prices as a ladder. A 30-minute drop-in visit runs $20 to $35, a day of visits runs $40 to $60, an overnight in the client's home runs $50 to $90, and boarding a dog in your own home runs $35 to $65 per night. House sitting with pets sits right beside the overnight rate — the pets, not the plants, are what you're being paid for. Here's the full 2026 picture, and how to turn it into your rate.
Pet sitting & house sitting rates across Canada (2026)
Rates step up with how much of your day (and night) the job takes. Big cities — Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary — run 20 to 30 percent above the national range:
| Service | Typical range | Big-city range |
|---|---|---|
| 30-min drop-in visit | $20–$30 | $25–$35 |
| Cat sitting, per day (1 visit) | $22–$35 | $28–$45 |
| Overnight pet sit, client's home | $50–$75 | $60–$90 |
| House sitting with pets, per night | $50–$70 | $60–$85 |
| Boarding in your home, per night | $35–$55 | $45–$65 |
| Week-long pet sit (7 overnights) | $330–$490 | $400–$600 |
Ranges compiled July 2026 from published Canadian sources including Rover Canada's city price guides, Hepper's 2026 Canada price guide, and TrustedHousesitters' Canadian cost data. Platform listings show the price the client pays — if you're on Rover, roughly 20% of that never reaches you.
What should you charge?
Two picks and a slider — your range, your projected income.
That's the plan — Biller is how it actually lands in your account.
Go independent — keep the 20%Estimates from this guide's market ranges — your market decides the rest.
Booking $70 overnights? Keep the whole $70.
Biller gives you your own booking link, invoices, and payment tracking — clients pay by e-Transfer or card, no platform commission in the middle.
Start free — no credit cardThe service ladder — and what moves the price
Every quote in pet sitting is one of four rungs: drop-in visit < daily visit package < overnight in the client's home < boarding in yours (boarding sits below overnights on price per night, but above them on volume — you can host more than one dog). Know which rung a client is actually asking for before you name a number, then adjust:
- Cats vs dogs. Cats price lower per day because one visit usually covers them — no walks, no yard breaks. Don't discount the visit itself; discount the number of visits.
- Second pet: add $5–$10 per visit or per night. Two dogs is more work than one, but not double — this is the easiest upsell in the business.
- Puppies, seniors, and medication command a premium — $5 to $15 extra per visit or night. Injections, timed meds, and overnight puppy routines are specialist work; say so on the invoice.
- Holidays are your Superbowl. Christmas, New Year's, and summer long weekends book out first and command 25 to 50 percent more. If your holiday calendar fills months ahead at regular rates, you've underpriced it.
- House sitting without pets prices lower — often $30 to $50 a night for mail, plants, and presence. The moment a dog or cat is in the house, you're a pet sitter and the pet-sitting rate applies. The pets are what's being paid for.
- Platform or independent? Rover and similar platforms take roughly 20 percent of every booking. They're a fine place to find your first clients — and a bad place to keep your best ones. Once a client rebooks you by name, they're booking you, not the platform, and that's the moment to move them to your own booking link and keep the full rate.
Setting your own rate
The table tells you what's plausible. Your floor tells you what's survivable — and for sitters, the floor math most people get wrong is the overnight:
- Price the overnight for what it actually takes. An overnight is not one hour of work — it's roughly 12 hours on site, an evening routine, a morning routine, and the fact that you can't be anywhere else. At $50 a night you're earning less than $5 an hour of committed time. That's why big-city sitters hold the line at $70–$90, and you should anchor there too.
- Count travel between drop-ins. Four visits across town is six hours of your day for two billable hours. Cluster your route by neighbourhood, or price far-flung visits $5–$10 higher.
- Carry insurance and price it in. Pet-care liability runs roughly $30–$60 a month. It's the cheapest credibility you can buy — mention it when you quote, and charge like the professional it makes you.
- Take deposits on holiday bookings. 25 to 50 percent, non-refundable inside two weeks. You're selling dates you can never resell at the last minute.
- Write a cancellation policy once — full refund beyond 7 days, half inside, none inside 48 hours is a common, defensible structure — and put it on every booking so you never negotiate it live.
Then position inside the range: insured, experienced with meds, sending photo updates on schedule, with a professional booking-and-invoice flow — that sitter credibly charges in the top third of every row above.
Are you undercharging?
Five quick questions. Be honest — nobody's watching.
Are you booked solid more than two weeks out?
A full calendar is the market telling you your price is too low.
Have you raised your rates in the last 12 months?
Costs went up this year. If your rate didn't, you took a pay cut.
When you quote a price, does anyone ever say no?
If nobody ever pushes back, you're leaving room on the table.
Do you charge for travel time — or build it into your price?
Unpaid driving between sits quietly eats your real hourly rate.
Do you drop your price whenever someone asks for a deal?
Discounting on request trains clients to always ask.
Priced about right
You're showing the classic signs of healthy pricing — price pushback now and then, regular raises, travel accounted for. Your next win isn't the rate, it's the time you lose to admin between sits.
You're leaving money on the table
A couple of undercharging signals showed up. The fix is usually one honest raise for new clients — $5 more per sit on a full week is thousands a year you're currently donating.
You're seriously undercharging
Almost every signal fired. Booked solid, never raising, never hearing no — that's not luck, that's a price well below what your market would pay. Raise your rate for every new client starting this week; your regulars can follow later.
Going independent from the platforms? Here's your storefront.
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Not ready? Try the free invoice generatorWhen GST/HST starts to apply
Pet sitting and house sitting are taxable services in Canada, but you don't charge GST/HST until your revenue crosses $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters — the CRA's small-supplier threshold. It's closer than it sounds: a full calendar of big-city overnights plus a daily round of drop-ins crosses it within the year, and holiday premiums accelerate it. Once you're over, you register, add tax to every invoice, and remit it. The full rules are in our plain-English GST/HST guide.
The threshold sneaks up on sitters because bookings arrive as a stream of e-Transfers nobody adds up until tax time. Track every payment as it lands and you'll see the line coming a quarter away.
Common questions
How much should I charge for a 30-minute drop-in pet visit?
Most Canadian sitters charge $20 to $30 per 30-minute drop-in in 2026, and $25 to $35 in Toronto and Vancouver. That covers feeding, litter or a quick yard break, fresh water, and a photo update. If a client wants two visits a day, price each visit — don't fold the second one in for free.
How much should I charge for cat sitting per day?
Cat sitting is usually sold as one drop-in per day at $22 to $35, or $28 to $45 in big cities — cats don't need walks, so a single solid visit covers most of them. Two-visit days (medication, kittens, anxious cats) should simply be two visits at your normal rate.
What should I charge for an overnight pet sit?
Overnights in the client's home run $50 to $75 per night across Canada, and $60 to $90 in Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary. You're on site roughly 12 hours plus the morning and evening routines — price it as the premium service it is, not as one long drop-in.
How much does house sitting with pets pay per night?
House sitting with pets is essentially an overnight pet sit with mail, plants, and security folded in — $50 to $70 per night typically, $60 to $85 in major cities. House sitting without pets prices noticeably lower; the pets are what clients are really paying for.
How much should I charge for a week of pet sitting?
Seven overnights at $50 to $75 lands a week-long sit at roughly $330 to $490, or $400 to $600 in big cities. A small multi-night discount (5 to 10 percent) is fine for week-plus bookings; deeper discounts just give away your busiest inventory.
Should I charge more for boarding in my home or sitting in theirs?
Sitting in the client's home charges more. Boarding in your own home runs $35 to $55 per night because you're sleeping in your own bed and can host more than one dog; an overnight in their home takes over your whole evening and morning, so it commands $50 to $90. Offer both and let the ladder do the selling.
Do I need to charge GST/HST on pet sitting?
Not until your business revenue passes $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters — the CRA small-supplier threshold. A busy sitter stacking big-city overnights with daytime drop-ins can cross it within a year, so track your running total from the first booking.
Most sitters walk too — if midday walks are part of your week, our dog walking rates guide covers what to charge for them, and the dog walking invoice guide shows how to bill it all cleanly.
Rates are market ranges compiled from public Canadian sources in July 2026 and will vary by market and job. This is general information, not pricing or tax advice — for GST/HST specifics, check the CRA or talk to an accountant.