Why Holiday Rates Make Sense
On major holidays, demand for dog walking goes up — clients are traveling, hosting, or simply busier than usual — while your personal availability often goes down. Charging more on these days isn't an upcharge for the sake of it; it reflects that you're choosing to work on a day most people expect off.
This is standard across pet care: boarding facilities, sitters, groomers, and veterinary emergency services all charge more around major holidays. Clients who use any of these services already understand the convention, which makes it an easy one to introduce.
Which Holidays Warrant a Surcharge
Not every holiday needs a surcharge — focus on the days where demand is highest and your own time off matters most:
| Holiday | Typical Approach |
|---|---|
| Thanksgiving | Major surcharge — high demand, most walkers want the day off |
| Christmas Eve / Christmas Day | Major surcharge — often the highest-demand days of the year |
| New Year's Eve / New Year's Day | Major surcharge |
| July 4th | Moderate to major surcharge — high demand, fireworks-related anxiety visits common |
| Memorial Day, Labor Day | Optional smaller surcharge or none — lower demand than winter holidays |
| Easter, Thanksgiving weekend (not the day itself) | Often standard rates — only the holiday itself typically gets a bump |
Start with the top three or four holidays if you're introducing surcharges for the first time — adding a long list all at once can feel like a bigger change than it needs to be.
How Much to Add
Two common structures, both widely used:
- Flat surcharge per visit — add a fixed amount (commonly $5-15) on top of your normal rate, regardless of the visit length
- Percentage increase — apply a 25-50% increase to your normal rate for that visit, often reserved for the highest-demand days
Keep the math simple for clients. "Holiday visits are an extra $10" is easier for clients to anticipate and budget for than a percentage that changes depending on which service they booked. Simplicity reduces questions.
If you're unsure where your base rate should sit before adding holiday pricing on top, the DogWalkr Rate Calculator can help you work out a baseline rate from your income goals.
Announcing Holiday Rates to Clients
The biggest factor in whether holiday rates land well isn't the amount — it's the timing and clarity of the announcement.
Sending this in early-to-mid November for winter holidays gives clients time to plan their bookings — and gives you time to fill your schedule (or intentionally leave gaps) before the holidays arrive.
Don't add a holiday surcharge after the fact. A surprise line item on an invoice — even a reasonable one — reads very differently than the same charge announced weeks in advance. Always communicate holiday pricing before the booking is confirmed.
Setting Your Holiday Availability
You don't have to work every holiday, and you don't have to work all of them the same way. Some walkers:
- Work the highest-paying holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas) and block off lower-demand ones
- Offer holiday visits only to existing recurring clients, not new bookings
- Take the actual holiday off but offer surcharge pricing for the days immediately before/after
Whatever you choose, communicate it alongside your rate announcement — "I'll be available on X but not Y" is just as useful to clients as the pricing itself, since it lets them plan around your schedule.
How DogWalkr Handles Holiday Pricing
Manually adjusting prices for a handful of dates, then remembering to switch them back, is easy to get wrong — especially across multiple recurring clients.
With DogWalkr, you can communicate holiday rate changes and availability to your full client list from one dashboard, so the announcement goes out consistently and nothing falls through the cracks when the holiday rush hits.
Ready to run bookings after your rate card is clear? Start your free 14-day trial.