Guide · Pricing

How Much to Charge for Dog Boarding: A Real Rate Card From a 6-Year Boarder

By Dave Waggins, 6-year home boarder, founder of Houndtrust

Updated July 2026 · ~8 min read

Search “how much to charge for dog boarding” and every result answers the opposite question: how much boarding costsan owner. That’s no help when you’re the one setting the rate. My wife and I have boarded dogs out of our home in Salt Lake City for six years, and pricing is the thing new sitters get most wrong, almost always by charging too little. So here is the framework I actually use, from the operator’s side of the table.

Dollar figures below are illustrative and market-typical, not my own rates and not a promise of income. The only exceptions are Rover’s own reported market averages, cited as such. What works varies a lot by market and season. This is one operator’s approach, not business or financial advice.

Step 1: anchor a base night rate to your market

Your base rate is what you charge for one dog, one night, no extras. Don’t pull it out of thin air and don’t copy the cheapest sitter in town. Anchor it to what boarding actually goes for where you live. Rover publishes its own reported boarding averages, and they make a useful reference point: about $53.91 a night in Chicago and about $44.40 a night in Dallas as of July 2026. Your metro will land somewhere on its own scale.

Here’s the part most new sitters miss: those marketplace averages are what the sitter charges beforethe platform takes its cut. When you run your own book, you keep the whole rate. So you can price right at your local market average, or a touch above for the personal, small-scale care you offer, and still take home meaningfully more per night than the same rate earns on a marketplace. Anchoring low to “compete” on a platform you’re not even on is how sitters leave money on the table for years.

Step 2: build the premiums in

A base rate is the floor, not the whole card. The stays that cost you more time, risk, or scarce calendar space should cost the owner more too. The premiums I’d always build in:

Holidays. The convention is roughly 1.25 to 1.5 times your normal night rate on peak travel dates. Demand spikes, your time is scarcest, and owners are least price-sensitive exactly then. Set it in advance and put it in writing.
Puppies and special care. A puppy needing constant eyes, a senior on a medication schedule, or a dog that has to be boarded solo with no other dogs around is real extra work. A modest premium for it is fair, and most owners expect it.
Solo-dog exclusivity.If an owner wants their dog to be the only guest, you’re turning away every other booking for those dates. Price it like the exclusive it is, not like a normal stay.

And the discounts worth offering, because they earn you volume and loyalty:

Multi-dog, same family. A second dog from the same household is much less than double the work, so a per-additional-dog rate below your base (rather than full price each) is fair and wins you the whole family.
Long stays. A two-week booking is guaranteed occupancy with no turnover, so a small per-night discount past a certain length can be worth it, as long as the math still clears your floor.

Step 3: decide per-night vs 24-hour billing

This is a genuine operator decision, not a technicality, and it changes what you earn on odd-shaped stays. The two models:

Per night

You bill by calendar nights, the way owners think and the way marketplaces quote. It is the simplest to explain and the easiest for a client to predict. The downside: a drop-off at 8am and a pickup two nights later at 7pm is nearly three full days of care billed as two nights, and late pickups are effectively free.

24-hour blocks

You bill by full 24-hour blocks from drop-off, with a cutoff for the leftover hours (a long leftover rounds up to another day, a short one can bill as a half day). It is fairer to you on early drop-offs and late pickups, because you charge for the time you’re actually on the hook. The downside: it takes one sentence more to explain at booking.

My honest take: quote per night for simple, predictable stays, and reach for 24-hour blocks when drop-off and pickup times are all over the place, which for home boarding is often. There’s no universally right answer, which is exactly why Houndtrust supports both models and does the math for you either way, so you can pick per client instead of eating the difference.

A worked example (a market-typical $45 boarder)

Let’s put it together for a made-up boarder charging a market-typical $45 a nightbase. This isn’t my rate, it’s a round number to show the shape of a full card:

A normal 4-night stay, one dog

4 nights × $45 = $180. Simple, predictable, quoted per night.

Add a second dog from the same family

Second dog at a reduced $25/night (not another full $45): + $100, for a $280 total. The family books both dogs with you instead of splitting them up.

Make it Thanksgiving week

Apply a 1.4x holiday premium to the base: $45 becomes $63 a night on the holiday dates. That same one-dog, 4-night stay is now $252, and nobody blinks, because everyone knows the holidays cost more.

Those are illustrative round numbers to show how a card stacks up, not a recommended rate for your market. Build your own from your local anchor, then let the tool total the premiums and discounts so a quote takes seconds instead of mental math at drop-off.

When to raise your rates

The short version: when you’re consistently full, when you’re turning bookings away, or when your costs have climbed and your rate hasn’t in a year. Raise on new clients immediately and give existing regulars a few weeks’ notice with a plain reason. Undercharging to keep everyone happy is the fastest road to resenting a job you used to love. Charge what the work is worth, and the right clients stay.

Pricing only matters once you have people to quote, so if you’re still building the roster, pair this with how to get your first 10 dog boarding clients. And if you want the whole business behind the numbers, from fees to keeping clients, my free Solo Boarder’s Playbook course walks it end to end.

Common questions

How much should I charge for dog boarding?

Start by anchoring to what boarding actually goes for in your market, then price at or above it, because unlike a marketplace sitter you keep the whole rate. Rover's own reported boarding averages give a useful reference point (around $53.91 a night in Chicago and $44.40 in Dallas as of July 2026), and your metro will differ. A common self-sourced base rate lands somewhere around $40 to $60 a night, then you add premiums for holidays, puppies, and special care. The number that matters is the one that is profitable for you at the occupancy you can actually handle, not the lowest one that fills the calendar.

Should I charge per night or per 24 hours?

Both are legitimate, and it is a real operator decision. Per-night is what owners expect and what marketplaces show, so it is the easiest to quote. Billing by 24-hour blocks is often fairer to you, because a Friday-evening drop-off to a Sunday-morning pickup is closer to two and a half days of care than two nights, and late pickups stop being free. A good rule: quote per night for simple, predictable stays, and switch to 24-hour blocks (with a cutoff for the leftover hours) when drop-off and pickup times are all over the place. Houndtrust supports either model so you are not forced into the one that loses you money.

How much should I add for holidays?

The common convention is a holiday premium of roughly 1.25 to 1.5 times your normal night rate on the peak dates, because demand spikes, your own time is scarcest, and owners are least price-sensitive exactly then. Decide which dates count (the big travel holidays), set the premium in advance, and put it in writing before the booking so nobody is surprised at pickup. Charging your normal rate on Christmas is leaving money on the table during the one week everyone needs you.

Should I charge more for a puppy or a dog that needs medication?

Yes, when the care genuinely costs you more time or risk. A puppy that needs midday potty breaks and constant eyes, a senior on a medication schedule, or a dog that needs to be boarded solo with no other dogs around all take real effort a standard stay does not. A modest premium for that is fair and honest, and most owners expect it. Price the work, not the dog, and say plainly what the premium is for.

How do I raise my rates without losing clients?

Raise them with notice and a clear reason, and raise on new clients first. Tell existing regulars a few weeks ahead ("my rate goes to $X on this date"), keep it matter-of-fact, and let your best clients keep their old rate for a while if you want a soft landing. New bookings simply come in at the new number. The clients who leave over a fair, well-communicated increase were usually your least profitable ones anyway. Undercharging to keep everyone is how good sitters burn out.

Price it once, quote it in seconds

Houndtrust runs your rate card for you: per-night or 24-hour blocks, extra-dog rates, and holiday premiums, totaled on the intake link so every quote is instant and consistent. No cut of your bookings. Free to start, no card.

Start free

Rover boarding averages are Rover’s own reported figures as of July 2026 and may change. Not affiliated with Rover. This is one operator’s approach, not business or financial advice.