While You’re Away will provide home or house sitting and pet sitting services from competent, reliable and totally trustworthy animal lovers to live in and care for your home and pets.
Our house sitting and pet sitting prices are extremely competitive. The cost is normally £32 per day inclusive of food plus a travelling charge of 30p per mile for two round trips – one for the pre-visit (see below) and the other for the actual assignment. However, we pride ourselves that we can usually find a sitter within 20 miles of your home so the cost of this element is small. (There may be a small extra charge if our sitters are required to care for more than 3 or 4 animals)
Although we prefer as much notice as you can give us, we can normally find someone for you at very short notice. For everyone's comfort the ideal time is 4 to 6 weeks before your departure.
We provide pet sitting for almost all animals – dogs, cats, horses, parrots, domestic and wild birds, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, fish, reptiles and even a small number of farm animals. One of our regular clients has Alpacas and another Llamas amongst other pets. Sometimes the animals need medication and most of our sitters are experienced in administering this, even giving insulin injections for diabetic animals.
Included in our service is the house sitting and pet sitting pre-visit. This is a meeting, ideally about two weeks before the assignment, at your home when you, your pets and the sitter can be mutually happy with the arrangements. The sitter will bring with them an extensive checklist to record your pets’ exact needs and how to look after your home in your absence. There is no cost for this pre-visit other than the small travelling charge. In the unlikely event of the client, the sitter or the pets being incompatible, we will endeavour to find an alternative sitter for you.
The sitters bring their own food and bed linen so you don’t have any preparation. They look after your home and pets to your instructions, including dog-walking and grooming as appropriate, mowing simple lawns, watering plants, an airport chauffeur service if necessary and you come back to happy animals and your home as you left it.
We have a group Public Liability policy covering sitters for up to £1,000,000 against their negligence. However, clients should have home and contents insurance in force. It is often the case that insurance companies will reduce their premium if you are able to show them that the home is never left unattended.
