We are based in Hampshire, UK and considering signing up for a premium account but we have many more pets than average and are worried that people won’t want that much responsibility or won’t have the confidence or ability to cope. We do have a nice secluded rural place that is near a station to London, so has appeal. Does anybody have any insight that would help us decide?
Welcome @richfranke have you calculated how much time it will take a single sitter to complete the responsibilities ? Likely to take longer than you as they will not be familiar with the routine at first .
Are you able to host a family or a group of friends stay so that the tasks can be shared ?
I have seen a few posts here with sitters taking on many animals. Will a sitter have time to enjoy the local area while taking care of the responsibilities? I guess it boils down to how many hours in a day or week it would take while still enjoying their travels and also including working time for the digital nomadic workers
We have two double rooms and a living room with a big sofa. We welcome any responsible and caring sitters.
The chores are only a couple hours in the morning and an hour in the evening.
We wouldn’t go away for so long that any major animal cleaning would need to be done, and we do have some volunteers that come on some mornings to help too.
Hi @richfranke and well done on seeking advice before joining. I’m sure you would agree that with the number of pets/animals you have, you will not be inundated with applicants. There are sitters on the forum who have looked after quite a number of animals but it is usually a couple or a family.
Obviously with the range and number of pets, this would be a sit where you would need to invite your sitters several days beforehand so they can learn the routines from you.
You mention a nearby station to get to London but just how realistic would that be for sitters to have time to visit there?
THS is based on an equal exchange - free accommodation for free pet and house care. What sitters would need to do is decide whether this is indeed an equal exchange. You may be able to offer other help e.g. dog walker, cleaner to reduce the time and duties required of sitters.
It would also depend on the length of the sit too.
Sitters are entitled to some free time to enjoy and explore the area so that is another consideration to be taken into account.
I’m sure other sitters will offer more advice for you to consider. Good luck!
@richfranke Wishing you a very warm welcome to the forum community and this is the perfect place to get feedback before you join up.
You can also use the spyglass to search previously discussed topics and as someone that grew up on a farm, we would consider a sit like this occasionally to get our farm fix! Plus some sitters like to learn how to care for new breeds like wallabies & emus!!
I just saw your comment about volunteers helping care for the animals, this might be something to consider as normally the pet sitters provide sole charge care of the animals. Things to consider, would they need to be responsible for the volunteers - what if there was an accident or maybe a disagreement between the sitters and volunteers, would the sitters share any amenities with the volunteers?
This is always something to consider if you want the sit to go as smoothly as possible.
I have seen some sits with horses where they have someone that comes and just cares for the horses but the sitter would not care for the horses at all and the sitter would just care for the house and dogs, so there is some clear separation with responsibilities etc.
It’s worth having a look at our third-party rule just to make sure it all works for you and your situation.
I do (and largely prefer!) farm sits with lots of animals, but this would be too much even for me-- 3-4 hrs per day is basically a part time job. I already have a full time (remote) job, so this would not be in the cards, as fun as it sounds. The farm sits I have done are usually about 1-1.5 hrs per day of work.
To me, this is something you need a paid sitter for, OR someone to take some of the responsbilities off the main sitter’s plate.
@richfranke - really good of you to pose the question. I am a solo sitter but the most animals I’ve ever cared for is 6 - 5 dogs and a cat. As much as I’d love to sit wallabies and emus and your other critters, that is probably too many all together for me. This seems a great sit for a family with a few kids old enough to participate in animal care.
tom
Hello @richfranke & welcome. We’ve just taken care of 36 animals on a Thai sit and are a couple. We had 3 dogs who didn’t need walks plus a lot of birds & tortoises so low maintenance. We loved it but were on site in the jungle a lot of the time which suited the set up. Most of yours look pretty easy other than 5 dogs would make us pause, do they all need walking twice a day? I think a family might go for it as a farm style adventure especially if you can get to Winchester, New Forest etc. on downtime. Getting in & out of London and back to Hampshire with all those pets wouldn’t be relaxing for us even if you’re near a station. If your place is beautiful they might just chill, BBQ & enjoy the rural location. Best of luck. Sounds like fun to us
It’s easy for us to temporarily cancel volunteers if they create complexity.
Also for this worried about the amount of work, once you’re in the swing of it I am pretty sure you could do a full time job remotely as well.
It’s simply letting everyone out in the morning, knowing what food to give who, making sure they have water. Possibly a clean out if necessary but for a 5 day stay that can be minimised.
The dogs can be walked on site, we have an area on the wooded slope where they can run around and play. You simply need to take them up there, we don’t even necessarily supervise them up there for too long but it is nice to spend time with them.
I think most sitters will see how many animals you have in your listing - then move on. But there is also that rare sitter who will think that taking care of wallabies and emus sounds like a blast. But it won’t be me.
@richfranke in addition to the amount of time per day that the sitters will need to take care of your pets ; it will be helpful to state how long the dogs can be left alone for - so that potential sitters can see how much free time they will have for exploring the area .
This platform is about mutual exchange so think about any features that make your home stand out from other house sits in the area - ( e.g swimming pool , home cinema, bbq, near a beach or other local attractions) .
With approx 80.000 sitters (half of 160.000) I´d say you shouldn´t have a problem finding a sitter. However, not a single sitter but a family or at the very minimum a couple. Keep also in mind it might take you a couple of hours a day to take care of your animals but less experienced people would require more time, especially during the first few days.
Bear in mind that if it takes you 3-4 hours, it will take sitters longer than that when they are not used to the routine.
It is not a sit that I would apply for, but maybe you would find a family who wanted their kids to experience farm life at your location for your specific dates. It won’t be easy to fill, but it could happen.
I love the idea of it, my favourite sit I’ve ever done was 4 dogs, 4 cats, lovebirds, a turtle + a frog that kept trying to join! The absolute escapism of being with them all brought me so much joy.
However, I only work during academic term times - so did this during the holidays where I could commit the time (although I did submit my MSc thesis so wasn’t completely idle). I’d definitely consider it, but only if I could make the timings work - and that’s the thing with THS, it’s such a jigsaw, I did two long sits last summer, and will be doing 4 or 5, maybe even 6 shorter sits this summer, because that’s just how things worked out.
I think you would be lucky to find the right sitter at the right time for this one. Not impossible, but difficult perhaps.
This is a sit we would certainly do if coming to your area. Lots of animals does not turn us off, we actually have quite a few of our own but our sitters usually only have about 15 min at the beginning of the day and 15 min at the end of the day needed typically. But I work from home so would be there a bit more that those that are only in the area to explore I would think! Good luck in your sitter search and just wanted to pop in and let you know this wouldnt be a detterant for all of us on here.
