Pet minding is the Australian word for paid pet care, and it covers three quite different arrangements: someone visiting your home once or twice a day, someone staying overnight in your home, or your pet going to the minder's own house. Pet sitting means much the same range in more standard English. House sitting is the one that is genuinely different, because a person lives in your home for the dates you are away, and in the non-monetary version no fee passes in either direction.
Two questions sort out all six words. Where does your pet sleep, and does money change hands? Once you can answer those, the label stops mattering and you can compare like with like.
The word tells you very little, and where your pet sleeps tells you almost everything
| Term | What it usually describes | Where your pet sleeps | Who pays whom |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pet minding | Paid care. Usually daily visits to your home, sometimes an overnight stay, sometimes your pet going to the minder's place | Your home or the minder's | You pay the minder |
| Pet sitting | The same range in more standard English, and the phrase the national paid platforms use | Your home or the sitter's | You pay the sitter |
| Dog minding, dog sitting | Pet minding narrowed to dogs, often sold alongside walking and day care | Your home or the minder's | You pay the minder |
| House sitting | A person stays in your home for agreed dates and cares for the pets and the property | Its own home, with someone living in | Nobody, in the non-monetary version |
| In-home pet sitting | The most ambiguous of the six. Can mean a carer comes to your home, or that your pet goes to theirs | Either, so ask which | You pay the sitter |
| Boarding, kennel, cattery, pet hotel | Your pet leaves home for staffed premises or the carer's house | Away from home | You pay a nightly rate |
In-home pet sitting is the row that catches people. Read literally it should mean care in your home, but plenty of Australian listings use it for care in the sitter's home. Ask whose front door the pet walks through.
Two questions settle most listings
Before you compare price, availability or reviews, ask whose house the pet will sleep in and whether anyone is there overnight. Those two facts are what you are actually buying.
Australia runs two markets under the same set of words
There is a paid market, where you engage someone and pay them, and a non-monetary exchange, where a sitter stays in your home and the accommodation is the whole of the trade. Both are described with the words above, which is why one question in a Perth or Adelaide community thread draws an answer of nothing at all and an answer of a nightly rate, each person right about the market they had in mind.
The vocabulary also decides what you are shown. On Australian search result pages read on 22 August 2026, house sitting returned the exchange platforms, while pet minding, pet sitting and in home pet sitting returned paid marketplaces and small local operators. Type the wrong phrase and you may conclude the thing you wanted does not exist. Our guide to whether house sitting is free in Australia sets out the exchange model, and what actually changes hands in an Australian house sit covers the money in both.
The same word carries very different prices, even between two paid platforms
| The service as the seller names it | Published guide price | Where your pet sleeps |
|---|---|---|
| House sitting, PetCloud | From $30 to $50 a night | Its own home |
| In-home house sitting, Mad Paws | $60 to $100 and above a night | Its own home |
| Pet hosting at the sitter's home, Mad Paws | $45 to $80 a night | The sitter's home |
| Boarding kennel, Mad Paws | $40 to $80 a night | Kennel |
| Drop-in visit, Mad Paws | $25 to $45 per 30 to 60 minute visit | Its own home, alone in between |
| Non-monetary house sit | No payment for the sit itself | Its own home, with someone living in it |
Two platforms sell the same product, an overnight stay in your house, and publish figures that do not overlap: $30 to $50 on the PetCloud services and prices page against $60 to $100 and above in the Mad Paws sitter and kennel guide, updated June 2026. Each is the seller's own guide, not a market average. Our breakdown of what pet care costs in Australia sets memberships against nightly rates and platform fees.
Boarding is a regulated word in parts of Australia, and pet minding is not
If your pet leaves home to stay at a facility or in a carer's house, that is boarding, and boarding is a licensed activity in some jurisdictions. In the ACT, registered pet businesses are licensed by the ACT Animal Welfare Authority under the Animal Welfare Act 1992, and a pet business includes a business that boards an animal, whether during the day or overnight. In Victoria, Whitehorse City Council in Melbourne's east states that all boarding establishments must register as a Domestic Animal Business with the council in the municipality where they operate, and that some small operators offer home boarding for up to two animals from the same household.
None of that reaches an arrangement where the carer comes to your home, because no boarding takes place. Requirements vary by state, territory and council, so treat this as general information and check with your own council or animal welfare authority.
The RSPCA sorts these arrangements without using any of the six words
Its guidance on caring for your dog, last updated 11 December 2023, and on taking your cat on holiday, last updated 14 June 2023, both set out the same three options: someone stays at your house or visits, your animal stays at a trusted person's home, or your animal goes to a boarding facility. The cat page describes a sitter staying at your house, or visiting at least once or twice a day, as ideal for cats who prefer minimal changes to their environment and routine. That is sorting by where the animal is and how often someone is present, which is the same test as the table above.
Which phrase to search, depending on what you actually want
- Someone living in your home for the dates you are away, no fee either way: search house sitting, with your suburb rather than just your city.
- Paid visits once or twice a day, your pet alone in between: search pet minding, drop in visits or pet sitting.
- Paid care with someone sleeping at your place: search overnight pet sitting or in-home pet sitting, then confirm whose home is meant.
- Your pet staying somewhere else: that is boarding, home boarding, a kennel or a cattery, and worth asking what licence or registration the operator holds.
Our comparison of house sitting against boarding, catteries and drop-in visits works through which suits which animal, including when a boarding facility is the better call.
Sitterly covers one row of that table, and only one
Sitterly is a non-monetary house sitting platform. A sitter stays in your home for the agreed dates and cares for your pets and the property, no money changes hands for the sit, and there is no per-booking commission either side. We do not offer drop-in visits, dog walking, day care or boarding at a sitter's home. If the arrangement you want moves your pet out of the house, a paid service is the right place to look.
Sitterly also does not vet, screen or approve members, does not supervise sits, and provides no insurance to either side. What it does provide is email verification, an optional police check started by the member and reviewed by us, a filter so you can narrow sitter profiles to those police checked, direct messaging, reviews once a booking is completed, suburb-level location privacy, and a report function.
“Sitterly supports the connection. Homeowners and sitters remain responsible for their own arrangements.”
- Sitterly, About page
Paid care is a purchase and an exchange is not
Consumer Protection WA's page on house, pet or baby sitting services, last updated 21 November 2024, states that under the Australian Consumer Law a business providing a house sitting, pet sitting, baby sitting or cleaning service must meet the consumer guarantees, which the ACCC lists as due care and skill, fitness for purpose and supply within a reasonable time. A non-monetary exchange is not a purchase, so those guarantees are not engaged by it. No fee, and no commercial recourse either. General information only, not legal advice.
Common questions about pet minding in Australia
- What is pet minding?
- Pet minding is the Australian vernacular for paid pet care. It usually means someone visiting your home once or twice a day to feed and check, but the same phrase covers overnight stays in your home and your pet staying at the minder's house. Ask where the pet sleeps before comparing prices.
- Is pet minding the same as pet sitting?
- In practice, yes. Two names for the same services, pet minding being the more Australian. Neither word tells you whose home the pet is in, whether anyone is there overnight, or what is included.
- What is the difference between pet minding and house sitting?
- Pet minding is paid, and the care may happen in your home or someone else's. House sitting means a person lives in your home for the agreed dates, and in the non-monetary version nobody pays anybody, the accommodation being the whole of the exchange.
- Does a pet minder stay overnight?
- Only if you agreed it, and it needs writing down as hours rather than as a word. Overnight can honestly describe someone who arrives at 10pm and leaves at 7am. Agree the hours, the longest stretch the animals will be alone, and the feeding times.
- How much does pet minding cost in Australia?
- There is no neutral rate card and the sellers' own guides disagree. Read on 22 August 2026, PetCloud published house sitting from $30 to $50 a night, while Mad Paws published in-home house sitting at $60 to $100 and above. Carers set their own rates, and location and season move them.
If what you want is someone living in your home while you are away, with the pets on their own routine and no fee either direction, browse sitters near you, read how a Sitterly sit works, then post your dates on the listings page.
