The sit I am doing over Christmas, 2-3 hours drive away from me, the start date has changed 3 times, but it was not the fault of the Home Owner, it was Easyjet mucking about with date of their outbound international flight.
Luckily the owners have been very apologetic about it, even though it is not their fault, and as a solo sitter with no other commitments in late December, it has not caused me any inconvenience at all, much to their relief.
Fingers crossed no more changes between now and 21st December,
Your Websters definition actually specifies the engagement for “a fixed sum”, meaning money. As no money passes between owner and sitter, there is no hiring, just a mutual exchange of goods and services @Bobalou2016.
@Bobalou2016 the word hire implies an employer/employee relationship which is not what THS is. It’s a mutual exchange of equals. Both sitters and hosts are looking for something (pet care or accommodations) and both have something to offer.
The majority of sitters have their own home where they can do all these things .
They choose to house and pet sit to visit a location- not for a place to eat, sleep or shower.
I guess something the sitter/s could do is email/text the HO with a simple journal of what they did when they were there, in what condition the home was found, etc.
Interesting. I currently have something along those lines in a description for a sit. However, it’s only because I want to confirm flexibility to the sitter in favour of the sitter. For example, we leave very early in the morning, on a confirmed flight. I don’t think it’s reasonable to have the sitter come at 4 AM for a handover! Therefore the choices are to come the night before, and be welcome to stay with the sit starting on the day in question or come the night before for a visit, and just come when you want in the morning at a reasonable time., or come and we leave the night before staying elsewhere.
We can be flexible. We just don’t want blind handover unless it’s somebody who sat for us before.
I don’t think there are ANY sitters, even local ones, or part time ones for whom flexible dates would work. Just like sitters shouldn’t apply for dates they can’t do and ask a homeowner if they can be flexible! I don’t sit full time, but I’m combined so I’d have to find a sitter once I got a sit and I wouldn’t be able to switch my dates! Several people who’ve sat for me are part time sitters who’ve flown in and out and booked their tickets shortly after confirmation.
The only possible exception I can see would be someone planning a 3 month sabbatical or something where they are trying to square away the sitter first and work around that, but even then, it would be based on the sitter’s availability. Or if it was a super hard to fill sit so the host was willing to be flexible.
This should be common sense for homeowners and for sitters.
Ummm. There certainly ARE. Just had it happen this October. Sitter sat for me before. Asked if they could come 2 days before. Wasn’t an issue as we were out of house, my daughter sitting in meantime and could leave on arrival. Sitter knew we could be flexible but if we couldn’t they were happy to make other plans. Similarly- we came home early- I knew their next sit had a flexible start where they had accommodation any time- it was zero problem. Fine to ask!? Not ok with expectations, if not possible. Lots of times flexibility if not possible. Otherwise - don’t accept the sit.
I can do flexible dates — depending on what else I’ve got going on and where the sit is.
Like I’m sitting in San Francisco now and my hosts offered to abbreviate my sit by a few days or I could stay as planned, because they have a separate guest suite that offers lots of privacy. (They’d also offered previously that I could stay extra days if I liked.)
They’re new to THS and we got on really well from the outset. We’ll probably end up doing repeat sits with flexibility, because I have lots of friends in the area. For this current sit, I ended up deciding to change flights and paid 40 bucks extra. No biggie. I decided I wanted the extra days at home, before I drive to another sit along the West Coast.
Depending on flights, I can fly up and down the West Coast like taking a train ride or such — the flights are plentiful and short. (I used to fly up and down the coast all the time for work and my flight to and from another state was shorter in many cases than when I used to live in the Bay Area and commute to work in San Francisco, because traffic was so terrible. )
I’ve also started doing sits within a three hour-ish radius — there’s a huge variety of mountains, beaches, cities, neighborhoods and such. Since I drive in those cases, I have even more flexibility. I work remotely and have lots of control over my schedule.
If international or cross-country flights weren’t usually so expensive last minute, I’d have even greater flexibility.
I am a sitter and acknowledge that yes, sometimes, things come up that are unavoidable and would precipitate a date change on the part of the HO. That said, the HO should realize that the sitter has a life and is not just someone they can plug into their calendar at will. Just noting this in a conversation could, perhaps, keep the relationship intact. I am responding to temba here, whose story I found rather alarming.
Thanks for this… as a HO it always feels a bit which comes first, chicken or egg.
We tend to make our plans /ight and post sits with this dates. As I live on the East Coast, very often flights are crazy early in the morning. I always struggle with whether or not to start the sit the day before, as obviously I’d like to have a new sitter there the day before to do an in person handover. I find it a bit of a mixed bag whether sitters wants to stay with you the night before, or would prefer to be put up in a hotel or find their own accommodation but be in town night before. I have done a blind handover, sort of- with family doing handover or talking through it. Always a lot of moving parts, and important that everyone has needs met.
A live video walkthrough (FaceTime/Zoom) ahead of the departure date is very useful and convenient for both parties. It could save an entire day of travel and awkwardness.
Presumably, the HO and sitter have already met through video chat.
East Coast US here. So generally our trips if going to Europe are in the evening wth us leaving for the airport late afternoon. Flying within the US, usually early morning. We get a lot of applicants so part of our criteria and rule outs may be who is going to make sense logistically. We often find sitters who have a plan to be in the city maybe for a sit that starts before ours, or staying with a friend, or a hotel reservation they already made that can be amended. We’re often able to do a key exchange and meet and greet a day or more before the sit so there is a lot of day of flexibility, and since this was a sitter’s plan, we don’t feel an obligation to pay for their hotel the night before. However if that doesn’t work out, and we’re leaving 5 AM, a sitter coming by later that day can pick up the keys from a neighbor. (I have cats so my window is about 10 hours not 5 from the time we leave to the time they arrive.)
@anon6309382 I’m a bit late in responding to your comments, but perhaps there are also HO’s who have close relatives working in the airlines and the HO’s/sitters can fly on their relatives benefits. This, of course means, that they have no guarantee of getting on a particular flight on a given day, which could also influence departure/return dates. Where the travel dates are not immediately confirmed, this could also be something that HO’s/sitters would perhaps need to confirm before jumping to other conclusions?
I realise this is an old thread but, I’d assumed the very same thing! The term ‘Flexible dates’ infers that HOs are flexible regarding the arrival and departure dates of sitters, not that their dates are not yet set so they require sitters to be flexible!
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