Holiday weeks are the busiest stretch of my year, every year. If you only travel a couple of times a year and one of those trips is at Thanksgiving or Christmas, this is the post for you.
I'll keep it practical. Here's how holiday bookings actually work in my schedule, when to grab the dates you need, and how I think about rates around major holidays.
The honest timeline
These are the windows I'd genuinely aim for if I were the client.
Thanksgiving — Aim to book by mid-September. The Wednesday-before through Sunday-after stretch is the most-requested four days of the entire year, and I usually have the bones of that week mapped out before October starts.
Christmas / New Year's — Aim to book by mid-October. The big rush is December 22nd through January 2nd. People who travel for both Christmas and New Year's tend to lock in early because the second half of the trip can't move.
Spring Break (Wake County schools) — Aim to book in January, especially if you have school-aged kids on the WCPSS calendar and you're traveling that specific week. There are only so many homes I can be in at once.
Summer (mid-June through mid-August) — A little more flexible, but the week of July 4th and the last two weeks of August are the tightest. Booking 6–8 weeks out is usually fine.
The general principle: the more rigid your travel dates, the earlier you should book.
What "fully booked" actually means
This is something I want to be clear about, because I think it's a fair question.
Live-in overnight pet sitting is not the same as drop-in visits. I can only physically be at one address overnight at a time. So when I say "I'm booked for Thanksgiving," I mean I'm already committed to staying at one client's home and I genuinely cannot also stay at yours.
That's why holidays book out so fast. It's not a marketing technique — it's just the math of one sitter and one bed.
For existing clients with flexible dates I can sometimes shuffle a single morning visit into the schedule, but a full overnight stay during a peak week is a one-household commitment.
How I think about holiday rates
A lot of pet sitters charge a "holiday surcharge" on certain dates, and I do too. I want to be transparent about why.
Holiday weeks are the only weeks where I can't take other work — there's no flexibility to book a second client around the holiday. So a holiday stay is essentially the entire week of income for one household, and the rate reflects that.
For Aunt Amy's Pets, the holiday-rate dates are typically:
- Thanksgiving Day and the day before/after
- December 24, 25, 26, 31, and January 1
- The Fourth of July
For an exact quote on a specific stay, the easiest path is to send me your dates and I'll send you the all-in number — base rate, any holiday days, and any travel surcharge if your address is outside my standard area. No mystery fees at the end.
What to do right now
If you've got a holiday trip on the calendar and you haven't talked to a sitter yet, the move is to send the dates today. Even if you're not 100% sure of return-flight times, send the window — I can hold a tentative slot while you finalize.
The shortest version of this whole post: book early, be specific about your dates, and ask for the all-in number up front. That's all it takes to make holiday pet care a non-event in your trip planning.