Dog and Pet Sitting Rates: What Sitters and Boarding Really Cost in 2026

Dog sitting rates run $20-$30 for a 30-minute drop-in visit, $16-$23 an hour, and $45-$75 for overnight in-home sitting, according to Care.com's 2026 pet sitting rate data. Boarding at a kennel or on a marketplace like Rover runs $25-$65 a night. Dog daycare averages about $40 a day. What you pay depends heavily on the service type, your city, and how many pets need care. This guide breaks down what sitters really charge in 2026, service by service.

Photo: Aysun Kahraman Öktem / Pexels

Dog sitting rates by service type

A short daytime visit costs far less than overnight care, and the gap is bigger than most first-time buyers expect. Care.com's 2026 rate guide breaks posted dog sitting rates into four tiers:

Service	Typical rate	Source
30-minute drop-in visit	$20-$30	Care.com
Hourly sitting	$16-$23/hour	Care.com
Overnight, in-home (sitter stays at your house)	$45-$75/night	Care.com
Weekly, in-home	$250-$375/week	Care.com

City size moves the number more than almost anything else. Care.com's posted rates across 13 major US cities range from $12.61 an hour in San Antonio to $20.27 an hour in Los Angeles. Most sitters also add $5-$10 per additional pet in the household.

Dog boarding cost per night

Boarding means your dog stays at a facility or the sitter's home rather than your own. Dogster's 2026 boarding price guide splits the market into three tiers:

Facility type	Cost per night	Notes
Standard kennel	$25-$50	Rises to $45-$85 in high-cost cities
In-home boarding (Rover marketplace)	$30-$65	Plus a 10-11% Rover service fee
Luxury resort	$45-$125+	Suites, pools, webcams, gourmet food

A week away costs different amounts depending on which option you pick. Seven nights of standard kennel boarding lands around $175-$350. Seven nights of in-home sitting through Care.com runs $250-$375 on the listed weekly rate. Seven nights on Rover, with its service fee included, lands close to $230-$500 depending on the sitter's nightly price.

Pet daycare cost per day

Daycare is a daytime-only service, typically used on workdays rather than during travel. Dogdrop's 2026 pricing guide puts the national average at about $40 a day, inside a broader range of $25-$65:

Session	Typical cost
Half-day	$20-$30
Full day	$25-$65 (avg. ~$40)
Monthly package (per-day rate)	$18-$40

Urban facilities charge the most: a full day in New York City averages $51, compared with $35 in a lower-cost market like Phoenix. If your dog goes several times a week, a monthly package is usually the better deal. It can drop the effective per-day price by roughly half in some markets.

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What moves the price up or down

Five factors explain most of the spread between the low and high end of every range above:

1. Location. Major metros run 20-30% above rural and small-town rates, consistently across sitting, boarding, and daycare.
2. Number of pets. Most sitters charge $5-$10 more per additional dog or cat in the same household.
3. Medical or behavioral needs. Medication administration, senior-dog care, or reactive-dog handling commonly add a flat fee per visit.
4. Holidays. Sitters and boarding facilities routinely add a holiday surcharge, often $10-$25 a night, around major travel dates.
5. Booking through a marketplace vs. independently. Rover and similar apps add a 10-11% service fee on top of the sitter's listed rate. Booking directly with a long-term independent sitter skips that fee, but it also skips the platform's insurance and support.

House sitting cost vs. boarding

House sitting means the sitter stays overnight in your home rather than taking your pet elsewhere. It costs about the same as in-home overnight sitting: $40-$75 a night on Rover, $45-$75 a night through Care.com's independent sitters. It also covers plant watering, mail collection, and a lived-in look for security, none of which a kennel or daycare offers.

Option	Cost per night	Best for
Standard kennel boarding	$25-$50	Short trips, budget priority
Rover in-home boarding (at sitter's house)	$30-$65 + 10-11% fee	Dogs that do better in a home setting
House sitting (sitter stays at your home)	$40-$75	Multi-pet homes, security, senior pets on a routine
Luxury resort boarding	$45-$125+	Owners who want amenities and want to skip a home visitor

How much should you charge for pet sitting?

If you're the one setting rates rather than paying them, start near the lower end of your local market and adjust once you have reviews. A reasonable starting point is $15-$20 for a 30-minute visit or $40-$50 for an overnight stay. Raise both as demand and reputation build. Care.com's pet-sitting rate calculator benchmarks pricing by city, service type, pet count, and add-ons like medication administration. That keeps a new sitter from guessing at a number that's too low to be worth their time or too high to book.

Cat sitting rates

Cat sitting is priced close to dog sitting for the same visit length, usually $12.82-$19.80 an hour across major US cities per Care.com's posted rates. Cats rarely need boarding or daycare, since most do better staying home with visits. A single daily drop-in visit for feeding, litter, and a health check is the standard service. Most cat sitters charge the same $5-$10 per-extra-pet fee that dog sitters use for multi-cat households.

Budgeting pet sitting into your yearly cost

Pet sitting and boarding is easy to leave out of a pet budget, since it only shows up around travel. A household that travels twice a year for a week each time can spend $350-$1,000 annually on care alone. That is a real line item alongside food, vet visits, and insurance. The pet cost calculator lets you add a sitting or boarding estimate to your breed's annual total. The breed directory shows how that number compares across dog and cat breeds of different sizes, since bigger dogs often cost more per night to board.

Get a real quote before you travel: contact two or three sitters or facilities, confirm what's included (walks, medication, updates), and ask about holiday surcharges before you book. Then log the number in your calculator total so travel weeks don't blow the year's budget.