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What are holiday rates and how do I manage them?

Holidays are a busy time for everyone, sitters and pet parents alike. That’s why you have the ability to raise your rates for services throughout the holiday season. 

Note: Holiday rates do not apply to recurring bookings.  Learn more about this feature here.

In this article, we’ll cover the following topics:

U.S. holiday dates

How holiday rates work

Strategies for setting holiday rates

U.S. holiday dates

If you have holiday rates enabled on your account, then those rates will be applied to bookings that take place during the following date ranges:

Holiday 2023 dates 2024 dates
Martin Luther King Day Jan 13 - 16

Jan 12 - 15

Presidents' Day Feb 17 - 20 Feb 16 - 19
Memorial Day May 26 - 29 May 24 - 27
4th of July June 30 - July 4 July 4 - 7
Labor Day Sep 1 - 4 Aug 30 - Sept 2
Thanksgiving Nov 23 - 26 Nov 28 - Dec 1
Christmas and New Year's Day Dec 22 - Jan 1 Dec 21 - Jan 1

 

How holiday rates work 

If a booking includes dates within a holiday period, your holiday rates will be applied to the first dog in the booking for the entire booking.

For example, the holiday period for Martin Luther King Day is January 13 - January 16. Let's say you receive a house sitting request from January 14 to January 18 for two dogs. Since the booking overlaps with this holiday period, the holiday rate would apply to the first dog for all four nights.

For more information about managing/enabling add-on rates, visit this article.

Tip: You can also set a custom price for specific clients during the holiday season by editing the booking request. For step-by-step instructions on how to do this, check out this article. 

Strategies for setting holiday rates

  • Check out the holiday pricing of other sitters in your area to help you determine what your holiday rate should be.

  • We’ve noticed that generally, sitters tend to set their holiday rates 10-20% above their standard rates.

  • Apply holiday rates when they make sense for your business. If you notice different trends or spikes in demand during other holidays that Rover hasn't listed above, you're welcome to apply holiday rates for those periods.

  • If you don't want to set a holiday rate, simply leave the rate blank and Rover will use your normal service rate for holiday bookings instead.