Arriving Early For Introductions/Instructions

This could certainly be arranged :wink:

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Wonderful! If I ever have the opportunity to house-sit for you, please get a cleaning lady. :laughing:

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:+1:t2: Not a problem, ours just left ten minutes ago. Sheā€™s here once a week.

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We have a lovely cleaning lady tooā€¦:kissing_heart:

Wonderful! Maybe Iā€™ll house-sit for you someday. :grinning:

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Just a note that every city and town is different as are the socioeconomic status of hosts. We live in a very small flat in one of the worlds most expensive cities. We donā€™t have a guest room so would not be able to put anyone up and at a hotel (any hotel that is safe ) in our city costs close to $300/night. We donā€™t have a lot of money and would not travel at all if we didnā€™t have someone who was willing to care for our pup in exchange for a free place to stay. Our dog is home defensive, so for our sitters safety, I make sure they can meet the dog beforehand and that I am there for the hand off. Because of all this, we often need to use local sitters or sitters who have other accommodations they can utilize the night before. Just letting people know there are many perspectives and situations.
Thanks

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I havenā€™t done this yet, as I am new to the site, and Iā€™m only applying locally to begin with.

But for the sits that are far away, where itā€™s not practical to visit beforehand, do sitters ever offer to turn up the day before (if thereā€™s room of course), so they can get to know the homeownersā€™ and petsā€™ routines?

Or do homeowners ever want the sitter to arrive a day before they leave?

Thanks

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Yes, certainly! Even our last sitter, who was only a two hours train ride away, did arrive a day early. We wanted to leave around 9 oā€™clock in the morning and her earliest train would have arrived at 9.05. Thatā€™s why we decided to ask her to come late afternoon the day before. We went through the house with her, invited her for dinner at a restaurant around the corner and were sure the next morning that she knew everything there was to know about caring for our cats.
It really depends on the departure time of the HO and, unless they were ok with not meeting the sitter in person (which we are not), it is necessary to arrive a day early.

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Lots of discussion about this topic here: Arriving Early For Introductions/Instructions - #2 by mars

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Weā€™re always happy to arrive a day early, if we can stay with the host (we have seen listings where they wanted you stay in an AirBnb at your own expense, which we try to avoid). Good way to have the time to learn everything from the hosts.

Hi @BillyBonnieBenji and welcome to TrustedHousesitters. Applying for local sits is a great way to get started, to build up your experience, reviews and be able to easily do pre-sit visits, but as you mention, sits further away do require a different approach.

Iā€™ve moved your post here on to the thread that @Lassie mentioned as it does have a lot of feedback and advice on this particular topic. So much depends on the pets, the accommodation, the location and the routines, but weā€™ve always favored arriving the day before the sit for reasons Iā€™ve talked about in an earlier post on this thread.

Do have a read through the comments from a wide range of our members here, and if youā€™ve got any other questions around this topic donā€™t hesitate to ask. And we look forward to hearing more about your next (first?) sit, whether itā€™s home or away!! All the best.

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I almost always arrive the day before and always suggest it to the home owner, especially if theyā€™re new. Several had never thought about it before but think itā€™s a great idea. With few exceptions, Iā€™ve pretty much always stayed with the home owner that night. During the negotiation, while hashing out details, I generally include the following:

ā€œIn the past, Iā€™ve found it useful to arrive the night before so I can spend the night in the home getting to know the pet while youā€™re still there. This generally provides for the smoothest transition as the pet will feel safer with me knowing I have your approval. It also gives us the chance to go over everything and I can handle the evening and morning routines to make sure Iā€™m doing it correctly. Let me know if youā€™d like to do this and I can plan my arrival accordingly.ā€

Some people are just not interested or legit donā€™t have space for you to stay. Regardless, Iā€™m always prepared to stay in my own lodgings the night before they leave, just in case theyā€™re not interested. And heck, some donā€™t want to meet at all. Iā€™ve had a couple sits where I never met anyone. I was just told where to find the keys and given the instructions. Iā€™ll say that I donā€™t generally like this, but owners have their reasons for doing things and itā€™s their home so I just roll with it. lol

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If itā€™s only one sitter coming a day early, itā€™s not a problem to spend the night at our house. As we only have one bed suitable for two people to sleep in, we cannot host a couple while we are still there, but I see it as a courtesy to book and pay for a nice B&B. We know beforehand when we are going to leave the house and that we need the sitter to arrive the day before, so if we then choose a couple instead of a single sitter, I think the payment of the B&B is on us.

It really is depending on the HO. Most of them invited me to come earlier and even offered that I can stay at their place. I had a few occasions where I arrived earlier but took a cheap accommodation close by for a day or twoā€¦ I always offer to arrive earlier for a proper handover and that the pet can get used to me. :wink:

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As I sitter it always feel awkward to stay after the pet companions return. They are tired and probably on a downer thinking about returning to work and normal life. I always feel itā€™s better to give them a quick handover then leave.

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I always expected to arrive on the day the sit officially starts and itā€™s been that way except for this most recent one that the homeowner asked me to come a day earlier. I donā€™t want any inconvenient surprises. Should I expect to leave at least a one-day gap between each sit just case HOs want me to come a day early? I wouldnā€™t want to be out a dayā€™s worth of a hotel cost. Is the question of when to arrive something to always ask in the beginning because I thought it was normally expected to come the listed day of the sit.

Hi @FreeSpiritManette This should always be discussed prior to agreeing any sit, just to clarify did they want you to start the sit a day early or was it that they preferred for you to arrive the night before because perhaps they were leaving early the next morning?
We have often stayed with the owners the night before at their request, not only because of an early departure for them the next morning, but also to get to meet them and the animals beforehand, usually over dinner.

They asked me to start the sit a day early after we had confirmed the sit. Initially, it was going to be that I come on a separate day just for her to show me around, which frankly wouldā€™ve been kind of a waste of time on my end because it wouldā€™ve been a 15-minute tour around her apartment only for me to go back to where I came.

@FreeSpiritManette If there is a request for a change of start date by the homeowner after the sit is confirmed, (this could be for many reasons by the homeowner), then this should then be agreed by both parties before a change of date is made. If you could not do the new date you would have to tell them and then it be either worked out or cancelled (both in agreement of course), from there.