Poke around online for just a few minutes, and it won’t be long before you’re reading story after story of nannies who have been taken advantage of when traveling with their employers. Set yourself apart from these nightmare scenarios by being proactive and professional with your nanny so that your nanny and family can have a positive travel experience together. 

PRO TIP: If you haven’t hired a nanny yet and are in the process of hiring a nanny, look for nannies that list’ travel ready’ in their resumes and add that you’d like a ‘travel ready’ nanny to your job description. 

Setting Up Your Family for Successful Travel With Your Nanny

Inviting your nanny on a family trip is an offer for them to work — and often to work overtime — in a desirable destination. If your nanny accepts your invitation and travels with you, remember they are traveling with their employer for a work trip. Bringing your nanny on vacation is not an opportunity for them to relax, recharge, and unwind — even if they get a little time to themselves while traveling with you.

Creating a proactive and comprehensive travel plan and even a mini-contract with your nanny ahead of time makes a difference. Doing so can eliminate miscommunication of expectations and ensure that your vacation is everything you imagine it to be. 

Covering Travel Expenses for Your Nanny

There are only a couple of things that you don’t need to pay for when your nanny travels with you. These include personal souvenirs and activities the nanny chooses to do in their free time. 

All other trip-related expenses that a nanny incurs while on your trip should be fully covered. Even groceries they need to buy or meals they eat apart from the family are costs they wouldn’t normally incur during a regular work week when they could eat at their own home. 

As the employer, you should plan on covering the following expenses for your nanny:

• All airfare, car rentals, and gasoline

• All lodging and meals

• All family activities that you expect your nanny to participate in

• All kid-related expenses (for activities, food, incidentals) your nanny may need to pay when you aren’t around

Your family may opt to give your nanny a family credit card for your trip, or you can ask that they give you receipts for their purchases and reimburse them. If you plan to place an Instacart delivery or send your nanny to the store to pick up food for the family, include what they would like to eat in your order.

Providing Private Time and Space for Your Nanny

Because your vacation is your nanny’s work trip, it’s important to remember that they’ll need a break from your family and kids. Some nannies will not even consider traveling with a family without private accommodations. 

If you expect your nanny to care for your children overnight, require them to stay in the same room as your child, or will have a monitor in their room for the child, this is overnight work, and you should compensate your nanny accordingly. Nannies should be given breaks between shifts and provided reasonable downtime to themselves. They also need to understand your expectations for when the children go to sleep and are in bed — should they stay up, or go to sleep too?

As GTM Payroll points out, “By law, your nanny needs to get at least five consecutive hours of uninterrupted sleep and a total of eight hours of rest time or else the entire night becomes paid hours. You may be better off providing your nanny their own room.” 

Track Travel Time and Compensate Your Nanny Fairly  

“If you can’t afford to pay your nanny properly to travel with you, simply don’t take them,” says Nanny Counsel, and we second this advice. As you can already see, travel expenses for another individual can add up quickly, even before you factor in the hourly costs of employing your nanny for travel. To compensate your nanny fairly for a family vacation, you’ll need to track and determine the following: 

Travel Time To and From Your Destination

You must pay your nanny for all travel time required to get to and from the destination and have the mode of travel (e.g., airfare) covered. Even if your nanny is not responsible for your children during this time, you must compensate them. Additionally, offering your nanny a paid day off when you return from your trip is very considerate and gives them time to settle back in at home and recoup from their work.

Hours On and Off the Clock

Your nanny should be clearly informed about when you will expect them to be on the clock and when they will be off the clock during your vacation. When your nanny is off, they should not feel pressured to spend time with your family, and you should respect their downtime just as during a typical workweek. Additionally, the Association of Premier Nanny Agencies highlights that if the number of hours you expect your nanny to work exceeds 40 hours a week, they need to receive overtime pay at 1.5 x their regular rate. 

Travel Pay (on top of guaranteed hours)

Because traveling takes nannies away from their usual environment and routine, they can also ask for, or you can offer additional travel pay, often around $150-$250 per day. Some nannies charge their overnight rate for each night they are traveling with the family instead of travel pay since an overnight rate might be comparable to that range.

A Stipend for Personal Expenses

While this is entirely optional, you can consider giving your nanny a stipend to cover those personal expenses mentioned earlier — activities, souvenirs, etc. 

You’ve got enough on your plate in your day-to-day life — let us make your life easier by handling your unique household staffing needs.

If you are a family looking to hire a nanny, household employee or other home service, submit an application with My Household Managed.

If you are a professional nanny, house manager, or other household employee looking for a job, apply at My Household Managed.

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