Taking babysitter on vacation - what to pay for?

[sdlaura]

I'm trying to figure out how to work out taking our babysitter on vacation to Hawaii between Christmas and New Years next year, and I'm looking for advice on how to work the costs/whether to pay her in addition to paying for her travel and hotel. She's married and in her late 20s and she's a former preschool and infant daycare teacher.

My plan is to pay for her round-trip flight (using points) on dates of her choice (including if she wanted to go to another island before or after). I would also pay for 3 nights for her to stay at a fancy hotel (near the condo we'll be renting, so that we can use the hotel amenities - but the room would be just for her). We would have her help with the kids during those 3/4 days that she's at the hotel and the rest of the trip would be vacation for her. I haven't figured out how many hours to ask for yet.

We currently pay her $20 an hour for 3 kids, and our 4th kid should be 6 months old then - we'll probably give her a raise when she's watching all 4 kids. There probably wouldn't be too much time watching all 4 kids - when DH and I want time completely alone we would probably have the older kids go to the hotel kids club or have her watch the older kids at our condo while the little ones napped (DS2 is a good napper now and hopefully will still nap at that point). 

So, do we pay her in addition to the flight and hotel? At a normal or a reduced rate? Another option is that we could pay for her husband's round-trip flight in exchange for a certain number of babysitting hours...I'm having trouble figuring out what would be fair!

[hocus2]

How far away from Hawaii are you? Seems like a lot of travel for 3 days there for her.

Generally I'd expect you for her time actually baby sitting (so 6 or 8 hours) and then a flat per diem fee based on the days (so maybe $75 per day or higher depending on how much food costs there and how many meals she's getting on her own vs. with your family).

I wouldn't get into the husband question other than to say he's welcome to use the room.

Have you confirmed with the hotel that non-guests can use the pool area? I would assume she'd only be granted access for herself.

[sdlaura]

hocus2 we're in San Diego, so about a 5 hour flight. She would just help us for 3 days - she would likely go for a week or two as vacation for her. She seemed excited when I brought up the idea since she's never been to Hawaii (but does like to travel - spent a month in Europe a couple summers ago).

The room would be in my name (I'd just add her name on the reservation), so I'd be surprised if the pool access were an issue. Most hotels I've visited just have entry with a key card, and we'd be walking over from our condo. But I guess that is something to think about.

[hocus2]

Jan 7, 2020 14:55:51 GMT -5 sdlaura said:

hocus2 we're in San Diego, so about a 5 hour flight. She would just help us for 3 days - she would likely go for a week or two as vacation for her. She seemed excited when I brought up the idea since she's never been to Hawaii (but does like to travel - spent a month in Europe a couple summers ago).

The room would be in my name (I'd just add her name on the reservation), so I'd be surprised if the pool access were an issue. Most hotels I've visited just have entry with a key card, and we'd be walking over from our condo. But I guess that is something to think about.

  If it was wasn't school break for 50 million kids I wouldn't think much of it but hotels do sometimes get strict about usage of their areas when everything is so full. The pool might work but a kids club would certainly be something they'd expect the kids to be on the reservation for. 

[sdlaura]

hocus2 - good call for me to make sure that my older kids are on the reservation too.

[waverly]

I think you have to figure out kind of the hours and time of day first to see. I would also check into the kids club. If you have a babysitter though, do you really need a kids club? Or it something the older kids would enjoy?

We took my mom with us, and have 2 kids that are older. Ultimately we didn't get the kind of help that made it worth it. We did one 2 hour date night (we were tired), and one morning where we toured a coffee farm so lets say 9 am-2pm. If you are bringing a babysitter and spending points and money on hotel room, you might want more hours even if she is just helping you and DH rather than watching all the kids. You aren't working so you might not want 9 hours a day, but you will have 4 kids and some on the younger side where simply diapering, napping etc would be helpful. You might want to do a sample schedule like day 1 rest and recover at the pool/ beach- nanny helps with watching kids at the pool and naps (6 hours), day 2 date night (4 hours in the evening). That wouldn't fly with my DH because he likes to act like we don't have a schedule and everything is spontaneous, so I couldn't actually give this to everyone, but I could use it to talk to DH and babysitter that maybe we would ask for X amount hours a day this day in the daytime and this day in the evening. Then I would do a set rate per day. I've never taken a nanny on vacation so I don't really know how much you discount for the hotel part of it.

[sdlaura]

waverly, you're right - that would help to figure out exactly how many hours we want/what kind of help we need. My older kids do love kids clubs and there are some pretty cool activities offered there. I envision a good amount of the help we need involving babysitter hanging with just the baby while we take the older kids on things they can do, and maybe a couple date nights.

We tend to be pretty scheduled already. Usually on trips I have a loose schedule laid out for each day (like visit wherever in the morning, back to rental/hotel for naps, beach in afternoon, etc) so I would expect this trip to be the same.

[186momx]

Hawaii is about 4 hours form Portland and we took DD before she turned 2 and plan to go again sometime this year. Our schedule when DD was a toddler was outing first thing in the morning before it got hot. Back to our hotel where we all took siestas. DD napped and DH and I had some chill time, okay I napped and DH watched TV. Then we would go out and do something late afternoon and dinner out and be out later than normal bedtime.

I would reserve your sitter for a sunset dinner cruise for you and H and then maybe a couple mornings for the big kids and you to go off and do an adventure. Also if you are thinking a going to a luau I would totally use your sitter for the littles that night. DD loved the luau at 2 and she was free but she was so done by the time we got back super late on the luau bus full of very drunk adults.