What pet and home care costs, who is licensed, and which option fits
Most guides to pet care compare house-sitting platforms with each other. That is not the decision a homeowner is actually making. The real question is whether to use a free mutual-exchange sitter, pay a sitter to come to your home, book a licensed home boarder, or use kennels — and the price gap between those is far larger than the gap between any two platforms.
This site puts them side by side, town by town, with the numbers and the licence records attached.
Start with your town
Every location page carries its sample size and observation window. Where we do not hold enough listings to say something reliable, we do not publish a figure — there is no page rather than an estimated one.
- Dog boarding prices by town — per night
- Dog home boarding prices by town — per night
- Dog day care prices by town — per day
- Cat boarding prices by town — per night
- Cat sitting prices by town — per visit
- House sitting prices by town — per night
- Dog walking prices by town — per walk
Check who is licensed
Every business boarding cats or dogs for payment in England must hold a local authority licence and carries a council star rating. We republish those registers organised by town, alongside the local price data — so you can see what a licensed boarder costs in your area, not just that one exists.
- Derbyshire pet care report
- Essex pet care report
- Greater Manchester pet care report
- Kent pet care report
- Milton Keynes pet care report
- Northamptonshire pet care report
- Northumberland pet care report
- Suffolk pet care report
Common questions
- How much does it cost to have someone look after my dog while I am away?
- Rates vary widely by area. Look up your town for a local figure rather than relying on a national average.
- Do pet sitters need a licence in the UK?
- A sitter who cares for your pet in your own home does not need an animal activities licence. Anyone boarding animals at their own premises for payment — including home boarding and day care — must be licensed by their local authority under the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018, and is given a 1 to 5 star rating.
- What do the council star ratings mean?
- They combine a risk score with a compliance assessment made at inspection. Five stars means the operator exceeds statutory standards and has traded for over a year with a low risk score. A two or three star business is still fully compliant with the law. They are not customer reviews.
- Are your prices what people actually paid?
- No, and we will not claim otherwise. We publish listed asking rates aggregated from public listings. Nobody publishes transacted UK pet care prices. Asking rates are the best available guide to what you will be quoted, and they tend to sit slightly above final agreed prices.