Price the whole visit—not only the minutes by the food bowl.
This planning tool starts with what your business needs to earn after in-home care, travel and access, overhead, supplies, fees, and realistic capacity.
Calculate what one visit needs to earn.
Use your own income goal, complete visit time, costs, and capacity. Added-care pricing is based on added minutes and costs—not an arbitrary per-cat percentage.
96 estimated visits per month · exact planning floor $48.20 · added-care floor $10.49 (about $11)
The planning formula
Monthly capacity uses the entire booking: feeding, litter care, play, medication or other agreed care, plus driving, parking, keys, building access, and the client update. A 30-minute visit with 20 minutes of travel and access consumes 50 minutes of service capacity.
Price per visit, then price added work
A base visit price can cover the normal service scope rather than charging mechanically per cat. When another cat or a care requirement adds meaningful work, estimate the added time and direct cost. The secondary result values those editable inputs using the same owner-pay and overhead requirement, fees, and reserve as the base visit.
Check the market after checking the business
This result is not a local average or a claim about what every client will pay. Compare it with genuinely similar visit duration, service area, reliability, credentials, and care scope. If the gap is large, verify the assumptions before changing route density, service design, positioning, or target market.
All defaults are hypothetical examples. They do not establish a recommended, promised, or guaranteed rate for any provider or location.
Build related prices from the same logic
Repeat the calculation when visit length, travel, medication, cleanup, or other care changes materially. For other service models, use the dog-walking rate calculator, the overnight house-sitting calculator, the independent Rover pricing guide, or PawMargin’s broader pet sitter pricing calculator.
Frequently asked questions
Should cat sitting be priced per cat or per visit?
A base visit can cover a clearly defined normal scope rather than charging mechanically per cat. When another cat or a care requirement adds meaningful time, cleanup, medication work, or supplies, price that added work from the extra minutes and direct cost.
Should travel and building access be included?
Yes. Driving, parking, keys, front-desk procedures, elevators, and client updates consume working capacity even though they are not minutes spent caring for a cat.
Is this a local average-rate calculator?
No. It estimates the planning floor your stated business model requires. Use genuinely comparable local services only as a positioning check after reviewing your own time, costs, capacity, and service scope.
How should medication or complex care be priced?
Estimate the added minutes and direct cost for the agreed task. The calculator values that added time using the same owner-pay, overhead, fee, and reserve assumptions as the base visit instead of applying a universal percentage.