The questions people ask before they hand over a house key.
Fifty-two of them, answered with a real number wherever a number exists: rates, notice periods, response windows, and what happens if we lose your key. Bay House Concierge is a new, one-person company in St. Petersburg, Florida, so a few of these are about what we can prove today rather than what we have done for years. We would rather answer that plainly than dodge it.
If your question is not here, call Pauliane Stenberg at 727-642-6982 or write to pauli@bayhouseconcierge.com. She answers both herself.
Last reviewed 28 August 2026 · All rates current as of that date · Rates are held twelve months from your start date
How do I begin, and what does it cost me to find out?
How do I start with Bay House Concierge?
You start with a free 45-minute walkthrough at your house. Call 727-642-6982 or use the contact form, and Pauliane Stenberg comes to you (kitchen, pantry, laundry, garage) to see how your household actually runs. Nothing is charged for that visit and nothing follows it unless you ask. If it is a fit, your first working visit is usually inside the same week.
What happens at the walkthrough, and does it cost anything?
The walkthrough is free, takes about 45 minutes, and happens at your house rather than an office. We look at your kitchen, your pantry, your laundry and your week; we ask which door you want us to use and who else has a key; and we tell you honestly whether this is worth the money for your household. A written quote follows by email. You are never asked to decide anything while we are standing in your kitchen.
Do I have to sign a contract or commit to a monthly plan?
No. Bay House Concierge sells single errands at $60 and hourly work at $50 an hour with a two-hour minimum, with no membership required and no minimum term. Monthly retainers exist because they lower your effective rate (the Resident tier is $270 for six hours, an effective $45.00 an hour) but they are optional, run month to month, and you can drop back to hourly whenever you like. Full numbers are on the pricing page.
Can I hire you once, for one thing, without becoming a client?
Yes. A Single Errand is $60 flat: one stop, up to 60 minutes, anywhere in Zone A. No account, no household file, no walkthrough required. Using us once for a return, a pharmacy pickup or one airport-week grocery run and never calling again is a legitimate way to use our errand service, and you can pay for it online. If you later want the standing weekly slot, nothing about the first booking has to be undone.
Do you serve my neighborhood?
Bay House Concierge serves St. Petersburg, Florida, the Gulf beaches and the barrier islands, in three zones. Zone A carries no travel charge: St. Petersburg, Gulfport, Tierra Verde, Isla del Sol, Pass-a-Grille, St. Pete Beach, Bayway Isles, Shore Acres, Coquina Key, Snell Isle and Old Northeast. Zone B adds $25: Treasure Island, Madeira Beach, South Pasadena, Kenneth City, Pinellas Park. Zone C adds $50: the Redington Beaches, Indian Shores, Indian Rocks Beach, Belleair, Largo, Clearwater (including Clearwater Beach and Sand Key), South Tampa. Mileage is never billed separately anywhere.
How long before you actually know how my house runs?
About three weeks, and roughly twenty minutes of that time is yours. Everything we learn goes into your household file: brands, cuts, ripeness, allergies, the dog's food, the coffee grind, which door, which gate latch. By week four you should be able to stop writing lists and send three words. By month three the substitutions are the ones you would have made. By the second December we know what your holidays look like before you mention them.
Who comes in, and what happens to your key.
These are procedures, not promises. Every one of them is written into the service agreement you read before you sign it.
How do you get into my house when I am not home?
However you prefer. You choose from three options at the walkthrough, and you can change your mind later. One: you are home and we ring the bell. Two: a smart-lock code issued to us alone, which we remind you in writing to rotate on your schedule. Three: we hold a physical key, tagged with a number rather than your name or your street. Start wherever you are comfortable and change the method whenever you like. Nothing about it is fixed at the walkthrough.
What happens to my key while you are holding it?
Your key is tagged with a number (never your name, your address or your street) and the sheet that connects the number to the address is kept locked somewhere other than the keys themselves. Every removal and return is logged with the date and the time, and you can ask to see the log for your own key. Ask for the key back at any hour and it comes back that day, logged out, with no conversation required.
What happens if you lose my key?
We tell you within the hour and we pay for the rekey. That is written into your service agreement, not left to goodwill, and you can read the clause before you sign anything. The same applies to a door code we have mishandled: you hear from us the same day, and we cover the locksmith. We would rather write the failure case down in advance than be trusted about it afterwards.
Are you insured?
Yes. Bay House Concierge carries general liability insurance. Certificates go out the same day you ask, addressed to you, and you should not have to ask twice. Ask for them before you hand over a key rather than after. A provider who will not send a certificate the same day has answered a different question from the one you asked.
Are you bonded?
No, and the reason is worth knowing. A service or fidelity bond indemnifies a client against theft by a company’s employees. Bay House Concierge has no employees (Pauliane does the work herself) and the standard bond form also excludes theft by the owner, so a bond here would be a certificate that covers nobody. We do not carry one and we do not use the word. What stands behind the risk instead: a current, dated background check handed to you before she is given a key, a numbered key protocol, no stored card numbers, and photographed receipts the same day. If something is damaged rather than taken, that is the liability policy, and a certificate for it goes out the same day you ask.
Do you run background checks on the person who comes to my house?
Yes, and there is exactly one person to check. Pauliane Stenberg will give you a current background check (national criminal database, county-level search and motor vehicle record) on request, before she is handed a key, and you can ask for a fresh one at any point after that. There are no subcontractors, no gig marketplace and no rotating strangers behind her, so there is no second person whose screening you have to take on trust.
Will it be the same person every time?
Yes, and not as a policy, but as arithmetic. Bay House Concierge is one person, so the person who comes to your house is the person you spoke to on the phone. There is nobody else it could be. The honest other half of that: there is no backup. If Pauliane is ill or away you hear it from her and the visit moves, with as much notice as she has. She does not send a stranger to cover it, because there is no one to send.
What if I don't like my shopper?
Say so plainly, and you will not be asked to justify it. There is no second shopper to move you to, so there are two honest outcomes: Pauliane changes what she is doing (a different day, a different route through the house, less conversation or more) or you stop, on the cancellation terms published further down this page, with no retention call and no script. Your household file is exported to you as a PDF and your key comes back the same day. Leaving is not made awkward here.
Will you talk about my house to anyone?
No. Bay House Concierge publishes no client list, names no addresses, and posts nothing from inside a client home: no photographs, no before-and-afters, nothing. Confidentiality is written into the service agreement Pauliane signs with you, it does not lapse when the work ends, and you may read that clause before you sign anything of your own. If we run into you somewhere in town, we have met you for the first time.
What if something in my house is already damaged?
We photograph it on the first visit and send you the photos. Anything already scratched, chipped, stained or loose gets recorded before we have worked a single hour, and the record goes in your household file. It protects you and it protects Pauliane. Neither of us should ever be in the position of trying to remember what the counter looked like in March.
This is really for my mother. What safeguards do you have?
The main safeguard is that you see everything she does not have to explain to you. Any second person you name is copied on the weekly photographed ledger automatically. Beyond that, there is a fixed list of things we will never do: never be added to an account, never accept a power of attorney, never witness or sign a document, and never drive a client to a bank or a notary without a named family member informed first. If something looks wrong to us, you hear it the same day.
All four protocols (key, money, insurance and discretion) are published in full, not summarized. If a provider will not show you the written version before you commit, that is the answer to the question you were asking. Read ours here.
What it costs, and whose money we are spending.
Every rate Bay House Concierge charges is published. The number we quote is the number you pay.
| Service | Rate |
|---|---|
| Single Errand: one stop, up to 60 minutes | $60 |
| Hourly: two-hour minimum ($100) | $50 / hour |
| After 6pm, Sundays, holidays | $70 / hour |
| Resident retainer: 6 hours monthly | $270 |
| Seasonal retainer: 14 hours monthly, Oct through Apr | $600 |
| Estate retainer: 34 hours monthly | $1,360 |
| Signature Arrival: stocking, up to 60 items | $95 |
| Grand Arrival: two stores, up to 120 items | $175 |
| Season Opening · Season Closing | $260 · $155 |
Pay any of these online, by PayPal or card.
How much does a personal shopper cost in St. Petersburg?
Bay House Concierge charges $60 for a single errand, $50 an hour with a two-hour minimum, and $95 for a Signature Arrival stocking, as of August 2026. Monthly retainers start at $270 for six hours (an effective $45.00 an hour) and every tier above that lowers the effective rate again. You pay shelf price on everything we buy, mileage is included, and there is no percentage of your checkout total anywhere in the model.
Do you mark up the groceries?
No. You pay shelf price on everything we buy: the same number printed on the store receipt, with no markup, no percentage of your checkout total, and no delivery fee. Our fee is the flat published rate for our time, and nothing else. The photographed receipt reaches you the same day so you can check the arithmetic yourself.
How do you pay for my groceries? Do you need my card?
We never hold your money and we never store a card number. You either issue us a dedicated card in your own name with a per-transaction and monthly ceiling that you set, or we front the cost and you reimburse us weekly against itemized receipts, by card, ACH or cash. Bay House Concierge does not want access to your bank accounts and will decline account access if it is offered. Both of those are refusals, not oversights.
Do you take tips?
Yes, if you’d like to. The published rate is already the whole of what the work costs, so a tip is never expected and nothing about your service depends on one. If you want to leave one, it is welcome. If you would rather do something in place of a tip, tell a neighbour what worked: for a company this new that is worth a great deal more than cash in an envelope.
Can my daughter see the receipts?
Yes. Any second person you name (an adult child, a spouse, an accountant) is copied on the weekly ledger automatically, at no charge, and you can add or remove them at any time. Receipts are photographed and sent the same day they are incurred, itemized line by line. It is set up at the walkthrough, and you should never have to ask for it twice.
How do I pay you, and when?
Invoices come by email and are paid by card, ACH or cash: no checks, no stored card numbers. Hourly and single-errand work is invoiced after the visit; retainers are billed monthly in advance and renew only if you leave them on. Your rate is held for twelve months from your start date, so the number on your first invoice is the number on your twelfth.
Is a monthly retainer actually cheaper than paying hourly?
Yes, if you use two hours a week or more. Hourly work is $50; the Resident retainer is $270 for six hours, which is $45.00 an hour; Seasonal is $600 for fourteen hours at $42.86; Estate is $1,360 for thirty-four hours at $40.00. Retainers also carry a standing weekly slot. Below about six hours a month, hourly is honestly the better buy, and we will say so.
The shopping itself.
Which stores do you shop?
Whichever ones you actually use. In St. Petersburg that is most often Publix, Trader Joe's, The Fresh Market, Whole Foods, Rollin' Oats, Mazzaro's Italian Market, Detwiler's, and the Saturday Morning Market downtown in season. Bay House Concierge is not tied to a platform or a store partnership, so we will go to the counter you like for the bread and the butcher you like for the meat. A second store adds $25; a specialty purveyor stop adds $35.
What happens if the store is out of something?
We follow a substitution rule that you set, so nobody has to guess. Under your threshold with a clear equivalent, we substitute and note it on the receipt without interrupting your day. Over your threshold, or anything you eat, wear or give as a gift, we send one photograph and one line and wait for your answer. Anything on your never-substitute list comes back empty, with the reason. You can move the threshold at any time, and it is normal to raise it once we know the house.
Can you handle allergies, and will you read labels?
Yes. Allergies go into your household file in the first week (the food, the severity, and which member of the household it belongs to) and we read labels against that list on every trip. We will not improvise around a severe allergy: if the safe item is unavailable, we come back without it and tell you, rather than substituting something that looks close on the shelf.
Do you put the groceries away, or just leave the bags?
We put them away, and it is included in the rate. Cold goes in first, the pantry gets faced, packaging and boxes leave with us, and the receipt is photographed on your counter before we go. If you would rather everything stayed on the island, say so once and it goes in your household file. Nobody should have to repeat a preference like that twice.
How do I send you my list?
Text it, email it, photograph a handwritten one, use the list page (which sorts it by store and by aisle and lets you pick a window on the calendar), or send nothing at all. By about week four you should not need to write a list at all, because the household file already holds the weekly staples, the brands, the coffee grind and the ripeness you want. A normal week's instruction is three words. Anything unusual, you add. Texting between visits is not billed.
Do you shop for anything besides groceries?
Yes. Bay House Concierge handles returns and Amazon drop-offs, pharmacy pickups, dry cleaning, the post office, hardware runs, gifts and gift wrapping, party and holiday supplies, and waiting at the house for a delivery or a repair technician. If it is legal, fits in a car, and does not require a license we do not hold, it is usually just an errand. The errand list is here.
Rentals, arrivals, and the hosts who own them.
How do you get into my vacation rental to stock it?
The same way your guests do, and we confirm the method in writing before the booking is accepted. Send the lockbox code, the smart-lock code, the keypad entry or the property manager's instructions, and we use it once, inside the scheduled window, and text you when we leave. Access codes are held the way client keys are held (stored apart from any address label) and we ask you to rotate them on your own schedule.
Can you stock the house before my guests arrive?
Yes, that is the Signature Arrival, $95 flat (pay online). One store, up to 60 items, timed to check-in, fully put away, cold chain iced in transit, packaging removed, and a printed inventory card left on the counter so the guests know what is in the house. The Grand Arrival is $175 (pay online) and adds a second store, up to 120 items, flowers, a bar setup and the first night's dinner staged.
How far ahead do I need to book a turnover?
Five days is the standard lead time and it is free. Shorter notice carries no extra charge, confirmed the day you ask, subject to availability. March and the last two weeks of December are the busiest weeks on the beaches, so two weeks is the safer booking window for St. Pete Beach, Treasure Island and Pass-a-Grille in season.
Do you work with property managers and Airbnb hosts?
Yes, through two arrangements. Host Partner costs the manager nothing: guests pay Bay House Concierge directly, and you get a co-branded booking link, a 10% referral share, a certificate naming you as additional insured, a W-9, and a 90-minute guest response window during stays. Turnkey Host is $105 a month per property and covers consumables par-stock, quarterly deep inventory with a photo report, and monthly reconciliation.
Can my guests pay for the stocking themselves?
Yes. Under Host Partner, guests book and pay Bay House Concierge directly through a co-branded link, so nothing touches your books and the service costs you nothing. You still receive the 10% referral share and the certificate naming you as additional insured. Put the link in your welcome message and you stop fielding grocery questions from arriving guests altogether.
I am a snowbird. Can you open the house before I fly in?
Yes. Season Opening is $260 (pay online) and covers the walkthrough, the air and water running, the linens, the refrigerator and pantry stocked to your file, and a written condition report before you land. Season Closing is $155 (pay online) at the other end. Between October and April, the Seasonal retainer is $600 a month for fourteen hours; off-season standby is $90 a month for biweekly home checks with a photo report.
Booking, changing, and stopping.
Cancellation is symmetrical at Bay House Concierge. The rule that applies to you applies to us.
How much notice do you need?
Five days is the standard lead time and carries no fee. Shorter notice is usually possible, at no extra charge, confirmed the day you ask, subject to availability. A standing weekly slot on a retainer needs no notice at all. It is already on the calendar, in your name, every week.
Can you come today?
Sometimes, and you will get a straight answer within the hour rather than a maybe. Same-day work is billed at the standard rate with no added charge, and whether we can take it depends entirely on where the day's route already runs. We would rather tell you no at nine in the morning than tell you maybe at noon and no at four, when it is too late for you to solve it another way.
What are your hours, and do you work Sundays?
Bay House Concierge works Monday through Saturday, 8am to 6pm Eastern. Evenings and Sundays are available by arrangement at $70 an hour, and holidays are billed at the same rate. The phone at 727-642-6982 is answered by Pauliane during business hours; anything left outside them is returned the next working morning, not three days later.
What is your cancellation policy?
Cancel with 24 hours' notice and there is no charge at all. Under 24 hours is 50% of the booked minimum; under 12 hours is 100%. It runs both directions: if Bay House Concierge misses a booked window, that visit is free. Cancel by replying to any email or text from us: same channel, same effort, no retention call and no script.
What happens if you miss my window?
That visit is free, and you do not have to ask for it. If we miss a booked window (late, no-show, wrong day) the visit is not billed, and if it was against retainer hours those hours go back. You will also hear why from Pauliane Stenberg rather than from an apology template. It is the same standard we hold you to in the other direction.
What if I want to stop entirely?
Reply to any email or text and say so. Retainers run month to month with no termination fee, and unused hours in your current month are refunded rather than forfeited. The Seasonal retainer is the one term commitment (seven months, October through April, $4,200) and it is stated up front, not buried. Your household file is exported to you as a PDF on the way out, and your key comes back the same day.
Can I pause over the summer instead of cancelling?
Yes. Seasonal retainer clients can hold their place with off-season standby at $90 a month, which includes biweekly home checks with a photographed report while the house is empty. Resident and Estate retainers run month to month and can be paused or ended with 30 days' notice, at no fee. Tell us your dates as early as you can and we will say honestly whether we can hold your standing slot; we will not call to ask whether you have changed your mind.
About Bay House Concierge.
How long has Bay House Concierge been in business?
Bay House Concierge LLC was founded in 2026 in St. Petersburg, Florida. We are new, we have no tenure to trade on, and we are not going to imply otherwise. What a new company can offer instead is everything an established one usually leaves vague: published prices, a written key protocol, one named person instead of a dispatch queue, insurance certificates in your inbox before you have signed anything, and open capacity in February.
Do you have reviews I can read?
Not yet. Bay House Concierge opened in 2026 and has no reviews, no star rating, no press mentions, no awards and no testimonials, and we would rather write that sentence than manufacture any of it. When there are reviews they will be on Google, where you can read them without our help, including the unflattering ones. If you would rather hire someone with a decade of local reviews, we understand, and there are good people in this market doing that work.
Who owns Bay House Concierge?
Pauliane Stenberg owns and runs Bay House Concierge LLC, a woman-owned business founded in 2026 in St. Petersburg, Florida. She is also the whole of it: the person who answers the phone, the person who writes your household file and the person who walks into your kitchen are one person rather than three departments. She calls every client twice a year, and nothing is sold on those calls. They exist so that anything going quietly wrong gets said out loud while it is still small.
How many households do you take on?
As many as one person can hold properly, which is fewer than an agency would quote you and is the point rather than the drawback. There is no published number, because the honest limit depends on what each household actually needs: three season openings in one week is not the same work as three grocery runs. Capacity is discussed at your walkthrough, in the specific: what your week looks like, and whether that slot is still open. When it is not, you get a start date and a straight answer rather than a stretched schedule.
Is this the same as Instacart or a grocery delivery app?
No. An app sends whoever is nearest, charges a percentage of your checkout total plus a tip, marks prices up above shelf at some stores, and leaves bags at the door. Bay House Concierge is one named, insured, background-screened person who comes on a standing weekly slot, charges a published flat rate, declines tips, passes shelf price straight through, and puts the food away in your kitchen.
What don't you do?
We do not clean, we do not provide medical or personal care, we do not drive clients to appointments, and we do not do anything requiring a license we do not hold: childcare, nursing, contracting, pet grooming. We also never witness or sign documents, and never accept a power of attorney. Ask us for something on that list and we will tell you who in St. Petersburg does it well, which costs us nothing and saves you an afternoon.
Is my household file mine?
Yes. Everything Bay House Concierge learns about how your house runs lives in one document, and it belongs to you. Ask at any point and we export the whole thing to you as a PDF, including on the day you leave. If you then want it destroyed, we destroy it and confirm in writing. We would rather you left with the file than stayed because leaving was a nuisance.
What does “woman-owned” mean here?
It means Bay House Concierge LLC is owned and operated by Pauliane Stenberg, who founded it in 2026 and runs it day to day. It is a statement of fact about ownership, not a certification claim. We have not applied for third-party certification and will not display a badge we have not earned. For a number of clients it also means the person walking into an empty house is a woman, which is a consideration people raise more often than they say out loud.
If your question is not on this page, it is probably a good question. Call me at 727-642-6982 or write to pauli@bayhouseconcierge.com and you will get an answer with a number in it, or an honest “we don't do that.”
Pauliane Stenberg
Founder & Principal · Bay House Concierge · St. Petersburg, Florida
Book a walkthrough
We will look at your kitchen, your pantry and your week, and tell you honestly whether this is worth it for your household.
Book a walkthroughForty-five minutes. At your house. Nothing follows unless you ask for it, and you keep the household file either way.