The useful answer is a price for your dates, pets and level of care. As examples checked on 25 October 2026, selected Pawshake Melbourne house sitting listings advertised from $35, $40 and $50 a night. That is evidence of individual advertised prices, not a national average or an all-inclusive quote. Paid care, boarding and a house sitting exchange charge on different bases, so compare the whole trip rather than one headline rate.
Published prices you can use as starting points
| Option | Published example | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| Paid sitter in your home | Selected Pawshake Melbourne listings from $35, $40 and $50 a night | Advertised starting prices without dates selected. Confirm pets, fees and coverage |
| Paid in-home house sitting | Mad Paws' guide gives $60 to $100 a night | One marketplace's guidance, not an independently measured Australian average |
| Traditional boarding kennel | The same Mad Paws guide gives $40 to $80 a night | A guide to that service category. Ask a named facility for a quote |
| Drop-in visit | The same Mad Paws guide gives $25 to $45 for 30 to 60 minutes | A visit, not overnight care |
| Sitterly exchange | No payment for the sit, and homeowner listings are free | Accommodation is exchanged for agreed care. Pet expenses remain yours |
Sources: Pawshake Melbourne house sitting listings, Mad Paws' sitter and kennel guide and how Sitterly works.
Prices and availability change. These examples are labelled by source, location and charging unit. They should help you frame a budget, not imply that any named provider is available for your holiday.
Work out the chargeable period first
Write down when you leave home and when you expect to return. Then ask the provider which nights, days or visits those times create. A nine-day trip might involve eight nights, but a daily boarding service may calculate its invoice differently. Late collection, an early arrival or a public holiday can change the total.
For illustration only, eight nights at an agreed $50 nightly rate would be $400 before anything additional. Eight chargeable days at $35 would be $280. That arithmetic does not make those two arrangements equivalent: they may differ in location, human presence, number of pets and the start or finish time.
Ask what the headline price includes
Request one written total for all your pets and dates. Check these items before comparing quotes:
- Extra pets, public holidays and minimum stays.
- Walks, visits, medication tasks or other care you need.
- Booking or membership fees.
- Food, litter, transport and supplies.
- Arrival, departure and cancellation terms.
Mad Paws' terms define a booking fee payable by the pet owner, in addition to the sitter's service fee. Pawshake's Australian terms allow a member service fee that is presented during booking. Do not assume an advertised nightly rate is the final checkout total, or add an unverified fixed percentage yourself.
Is an exchange really a zero-cost option?
It removes the payment for the sit, not every cost of having pets. Budget for the food, medication and other supplies you would normally provide, any agreed expenses, and a backup if the arrangement falls through. Your home must also be a reasonable place for the sitter to live.
An exchange can be worth considering for a longer trip or several animals, provided you find someone suited to the actual workload. It should not be used to avoid paying for professional care that your pet needs. Our guide to whether you pay a house sitter explains how the exchange works.
Your home and contents policy is the cost nobody quotes you
Consumer Protection WA, in guidance last updated on 15 October 2026, states that a business providing a house sitting, pet sitting, baby sitting or cleaning service must meet the service guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law, and warns that many insurance policies exclude deliberate damage and theft caused by people lawfully invited onto your property, sitters among them. That is general information rather than advice about your policy. Read your product disclosure statement and ring your insurer before you book. Two questions worth adding to that call, which the regulator's page does not itself raise, are what your policy says about unoccupancy and about people staying in the home who are not named on it. What rights a live-in sitter acquires under state residential tenancy law falls outside what this article covers, and belongs with your state or territory consumer affairs or fair trading office.
Paying is the right answer for some pets, and this is when
An exchange is not simply the cheap version of everything. Paid care is usually the better call for a trip of two or three nights, because two nights of accommodation is thin compensation for relocating, while a paid sitter will take the booking for a fee. It is also the better call where the animal needs clinical handling, a post-surgical dog on stairs or a diabetic cat on timed insulin, or where a reactive dog needs a professional rather than a house guest. Your own vet is the one to say what an animal on medication or recovering from surgery needs while you are away, and that answer should pick the arrangement rather than the price. Sitterly earns nothing per booking, so there is no commercial reason here to talk anyone out of a cattery.
For that comparison in full, see our breakdown of house sitting against boarding, and for the sitter's side of the exchange, what a sitter actually saves. Whichever way you go, RSPCA Australia's advice on planning for your pets before you travel is a sound checklist on microchip details, spare food and leaving vet records with whoever is caring for them.
Compare value against the care you need
Put each quote beside a short care specification: where the pet stays, who cares for it, when someone is present and what happens in an emergency. An inexpensive visit is poor value if your pet needs more coverage, and an expensive overnight booking may still leave an unsuitable daytime gap.
Common questions about Australian pet care costs
- How much does a pet sitter cost in Australia?
- There is no official average. As examples checked on 25 October 2026, selected Pawshake Melbourne house sitting listings advertised from $35, $40 and $50 a night, and Mad Paws' own guide put in-home house sitting at $60 to $100 a night. Booking fees usually sit on top, so get a written quote for your own dates and pets.
- Is dog boarding cheaper than a sitter staying at home?
- There is no reliable published comparison. No Australian statistical authority collects boarding prices, and the guides that circulate mix hourly, daily and nightly figures that do not reconcile. Compare two real quotes instead of two averages.
- Do you pay a house sitter in Australia?
- On the non-monetary exchange model, no. The sitter is paid in accommodation, and the homeowner still covers pet food, medication, utilities and vet costs. On the paid model the sitter charges a nightly rate and the platform adds a fee.
- Is there a Christmas surcharge on pet care?
- Paid services often advertise peak rates and minimum stays over the school holidays, but no surcharge percentage could be traced to a primary Australian source, so ask for the peak rate in writing rather than budgeting from a published figure.
Price your own trip
Choose a suitable arrangement within your budget, then confirm it. If an accommodation exchange looks right, list your home with your dates and all your pets. If you need visits, boarding or specialist care, find a provider offering that service and use their written quote for your final budget.
