Hello there! It’s just hitting September but I feel that next year needs to be addressed already with things like our pricing & bookings.
Price increases for 2023
Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com
So yes I am having to raises our prices in 2023, this decision has not been made lightly as I am aware that hiring a cat sitter is on average a fairly expensive thing to do, however with the energy rates going up nearly 150% by 2023 and fuel already being pricey, I have no other option but to raise my fees and introduce increases to counter the rising cost of living.
I want to make it clear that from 1st January 2023, ANY client who is on a legacy rate will be brought up to the new pricing band. So if you are currently paying £10 per visit, you will be charged £12 per visit from 2023 regardless of how early you have booked. But if you are concerned about finances, please continue reading as I will be explaining a potential solution for you.
Below you will find a list of both our current fees followed underneath the new fees as of next year in bold.
Core Fees
Note: All fees apply to both the Worcester & Droitwich branches of Moggy Daycare.
2022: Standard Cat Sitting fee: £11 per visit for an average of 30min.
2023: Standard Cat Sitting fee as of 01/01/2023: £12 per visit for an average of 30min.
Supplementary Charges
2022: Additional cats over 3 in household: +£1.50 per extra cat
2022: Christmas Day, Boxing Day & New Years Eve surcharge: +£5 per visit (So £16 per visit with standard fee)
2022: Additional mileage surcharge: +£0.50 per extra mile outside our service zone
2022: Key Collection/Drop-off surcharge: £4 per collection/drop-off
2023: Additional cats over 3 in household: +£1.75 per extra cat
2023: Public Holidays: 1.5x Standard rate (£18 per visit)
2023: Christmas Day, Boxing Day & New Years Eve rate: 2x Standard rate (£24 per visit)
2023: Key Collection/Drop-Off surcharge: Same as 2022 (£4)
Note: School Holidays (Half-term breaks, Summer Holidays, etc) will not have an increased rate unless days happen to fall on Public Holiday days)
Important Note: I am dropping the Mileage surcharge as we will no longer be offering our services outside of the service zone indicated on the pricing page. Both myself and Tim are far too busy inside our own areas (plus Tim has a job and his own child to father!) to stretch outside the zone. So apologies to anyone outside hoping to use us!
Trial Rate: Pop-in visit
So for 2023 I am going to trial a new rate which will be called a “Pop-in” visit, this new rate will apply to Worcester only and will only be allowed to be used during the 2023 Summer Holidays. The details for this trial rate will be as follows:
Price: £9 per visit
Allocated time: Maximum 15min slot
Active during: 2023 Summer School Holiday only
Branch using trial rate: Worcester only
I have carefully priced this rate so that I (hopefully) don’t lose out but also making me a bit cheaper for people who have cats who spend most of their time outside/know their cat won’t require a 30+ min visit. I am aware that prices for everything are going up and although yes I do run a business that has to make a profit, I also want to try and help those who want to go away but are worried about their money at the same time.
As described above, the pop-in visit will be a short cat sit lasting a maximum of 15mins costing £9 per visit and will only be bookable during the 2023 summer holidays. I am hoping that it will mean I will be able to basically fit more of you in without stressing myself out too much. All the usual services will still be there (Litter tray cleaning, food, water, updates and photos) but it will mean that your cat(s) will have less time with me and their basic needs will be met instead. Of course I absolutely LOVE seeing your cats and I would prefer to stay the full length but I want to see if this rate will work more for you the client as well as me without my sanity being ruined!
Will the Pop-in rate be variable along with the standard charge?
Short answer, no.
What I mean by the above headed question is that say you have booked me for a 5-day booking and they are all booked at standard rate and I am there less than 15mins, your £12 rate will not drop to £9 for those visits. However what I will let people do is mix and match the rates during a booking. For example:
| Day | Rate |
| Monday | Pop-in Rate (am) |
| Tuesday | Standard Rate (am) |
| Wednesday | Standard Rate (am) |
| Thursday | Standard Rate (am) |
| Friday | Pop-in Rate (am) |
Total £ for booking with mixed rate exampled above: £54
Total £ for booking if at all Standard Rate: £60
Total £ for booking if at all Pop-in Rate: £45
As you can see above depending on how you use the pop-in rate you can save a bit of money on your bookings. Yes in some cases it might not be a lot but as a certain well-known supermarket says…every little helps!
As mentioned this rate is a trial which means that if I don’t think it is feasible to continue doing the rate I will remove it, honoring those who have booked at that rate already. But the hope is that I will be able to extend this rate into being able to be used during all peak times of the year and not just during the summer holidays.
If you have any questions at all regarding the trial pop-in rate, please do not hesitate to email me or pop me a WhatsApp message if you already have my number saved.
Booking for 2023
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Honestly I really cannot stress this enough…BOOK ME IN ADVANCE! Sorry to hurl it out in caps like that but genuinely to avoid disappointment especially for Summer 2023 you should already be thinking about placing bookings with me within 6-months of next Summer if you wish me to look after your cat(s). Even if it is a provisional booking with the mindset to trim it down once you’ve booked your holiday. I was having to disappoint people this year because they had left it far too late to place a booking. So please please do yourself a favour and get in touch with me asap and get your cats booked in!
Peak time bookings
I am going to go ahead and put this out right now and say that “Peak times” of the year such as School Holidays & Public Holidays will be reserved for currently registered clients unless I happen to have slots available nearer the time, which I will then announce on our Facebook & Instagram to open them up to new clients. I’m sorry to have to clamp down on this already but when you have 120+ registered clients already, I feel I should be fair and give them “first dibs” on slots during the busier periods of my year.
And that’s all I wanted to update you on I think! If anything else does crop up that I feel needs attention drawing to it I will pop it into a fresh blog post on the website. Otherwise if you have any questions at all regarding anything mentioned above, please feel free to send me an email at moggydaycare@gmail.com or message me on WhatsApp directly if you have me saved down.
Thank you so much for reading and continuing to support Moggy Daycare into 2023!
Meows and face rubs
Adam & the Team
