Blind hand-off: when sitter leaves before HO arrives

We had one sit agreed upon the dates etc, and had booked the following night near the airport so we could fly home the next day. Close to the arrival date, the home owners realized they’d made an error on their dates and they weren’t actually coming home until the following morning and asked if we’d be able to stay any extra night. We agreed but we’d have to leave early in order to make it to our flight and so we would be gone before they arrived home late morning.

As we’d likely be passing one another on the highway, they asked if we’d meet up with them half way just to say hi (since we hadn’t met them on our arrival either), but I felt too much pressure to get to the airport and declined. It all turned out fine but it was strange to never have met the family at all.

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I’ve done a few, but almost always with return sits. Doing a recurring one tomorrow. I know the whole return although the pet owner will leave me updates on the counter when I get there. They leave super early for the airport and late when they return so again I won’t be there. I have to take a ferry each way. I would Never leave without seeing the owner if it was not somewhat local. There can always be major delays and emergencies and I would always be willing to return as quickly as possible IF there was a problem.

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We prefer to do in person after we left four hours before HOs returned and a fitting in the kitchen blew and flooded to house! All good once they calmed down, but even three months later, we think about it. I like your photos/video idea

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Oh no Fred! What a nightmare!

I wouldn’t leave the home early unless the homeowner asked me to.

Sometimes people are trying to be thoughtful and considerate… saying they’d prefer that I just go ahead so I’d drive home during daylight. I make sure they understand that my plans included greeting them for the handoff upon their return, but I’m not going to start a fight :slight_smile:

This is exactly the reason I take my paranoia photos :slight_smile: It’s absolutely worth the 15 minutes of time spent documenting the well being of the pets and that I left the the home clean and tidy (and dry!)

Every sit we have done we have left before the HO arrived home due to travel requirements. We have always met them before the sit. Nothing has ever gone wrong and the HO have always been happy but reading some stories here have made me rethink this…

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Still wondering - what are your full-proof (fool-proof?) ways?

Hi @MissChef as I said in my reply we always give the owner the choice of whether or not we hand over in person or not.

For owners who choose to return to their pets and home, sitter free if traveling internationally we stay connected until they have boarded and about to depart to determine there are no delays.

Then we track the flight. When they land they contact us (we are still with their pets in their home) once they have their baggage and homeward bound we leave, knowing how long it will be until they are home. If they are traveling domestically we leave when they about an hour away from home.

We never book sits back to back, we always leave Plan B space and on the odd occasion that we have it’s been within a manageable distance so that we could split up, always informing both owners. Should something happens with an owner’s return they have enough to worry about they don’t need the extra worry of pets and home.

Lastly keys, in the unlikely event of an emergency and we need access to the home, we will do one of the following, take them with us and mail back, leave in a designated place or with a neighbor. The final bit of the safety net … we make sure there are emergency contacts and people who can step in with pet and home care.

Last act for the owner is to message us when they are in the home … no matter what the time.

We have been sitting full time for 11 years with 200 sits across 5 continents and this has always worked when an owner would rather return to the comfort of their home without us there, remember though that is their choice.

BUT … we are all different and need to manage our sits and sitting lifestyle the way that makes everyone involved feel safe and secure.

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Yes! Exactly this! Thank you! I have always had a worry about whether I’d need to get back inside… But I’d never considered taking keys with me and sending them back later, if the family was good with that.

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Hi Angela

That is exactly what we do and the only difference is we don’t travel internationally. The majority of our sits are in the UK.
It works for us. Thank You

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For us, at the HO insistence, we’ve left before they returned. Additionally, each HO has requested to add another day/time to the sit, either prior or after. We are more than happy to accommodate their requests. I try to leave a little travel/wiggle room between sits for just those occurrences. Sitting in the north, storms and delays are a common for flights. We almost always drive in the US, or use trains overseas. While we have concerns over blind handoffs, it’s completely at the HOs discretion.

I do that too, whether it’s when I’m pet sitting or in a vacation rental, for the same reasons. :+1:

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@Angela_L thanks for sharing what you do. We do most of those things, but now we have a few more to add to our list. Thanks!

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For all three of our upcoming sits, the homeowners aren’t getting home until 7-8pm. They’ve all offered to let us stay the night if we like, or we can leave in the late afternoon once the dogs have been walked/fed, or we can stay until they get home and then head out.

Normally, we would probably just stay the extra night and just leave in the morning, but because of covid we don’t really want to share the house with people who’ve just returned from travelling.

Because our sits are all close together, we’ve booked B&Bs between each one. Our current plan is to clean up and leave in the afternoon and go check into our B&B and maybe have a meal. Then we will return to the house to spend time with the dog, feed him if needed etc, and wait for the family to get home so we can touch base them with them. Then we’ll head back to our B&B (a 15 min drive).

We may adjust this plan once we get there, because all three sits are flexible anyway. Right now, it feels like a simple solution for us.

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I felt the same with my first sit.

We never met the family we house sit for but I am certain we would of passed each other on the highway as they were holidaying in my home state and took the same highway back,

Regarding keys transfer: I belong to a home exchange site as well as THS. In home exchanges, it’s very common for both parties to use lockboxes for keys. These are often used on homes for sale so that they can be accessed by multiple real estate agents. There’s usually a code that can be set to any easily remembered code for the visitor and then changed for the next visitor. Perhaps THS can suggest this in the THS guide as on option for homeowners who think they may likely need to make transfers without being present. The lockbox obviously helps sitters who may need to get back in after locking up.

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One of my recent sits had this type of lockbox. It was used for an infrequent dog walker to access the home. It worked well for that use, and would have for me too, if I’d had to leave before the owner’s return.

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We’ve used lockboxes or key safes a few times and they work really well. We also have one on our house at home and had to smile when one of our housesits had the same keysafe code as ours at home! It made it easy to remember!

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I know that I mentioned Rover.com a lot, but they had a promotion, for a while, where you got key lock box, like the kind that realtors use… They were branded, of course, so there’s that :slight_smile:

Maybe that could be a renewal incentive for homeowners?

I get why people don’t like to use them, they’re easy to pick/break, but if they are just in use for hand-offs, it’s less risky. LOTS less than the innumerable keys left in mailboxes and under doormats!

I never leave until their flight has touched down. Most of the pet owners are tired when they arrive back home and really can’t be bothered with someone else in their homes which I totally understand. I’ve never thought about taking pictures or videos. To me that’s a bit OTT. The word trust is very important to me and I hope to them.
I have arrived after they have gone but there’s always been an initial meeting beforehand to discuss routine, feeding, exercise.

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What do you do if their flight arrives especially late? I guess it depends on where you are, where you’re going next. It feels like, in my experience, most of the homeowners will either invite me to stay an extra night, or leave before they get there so that I’m not driving back in the middle of the night or incurring the expense of having to check myself into a hotel, or what I used to do… Which is pullover at a truck stop and sleep in my car. As a single woman traveling alone, none of those last three things I just described are especially appealing!