Sometimes home owners believe that there are too many responsibilities or too many pets for one sitter alone. For example, one of my upcoming sits has 8 indoor cats which I am confident I can beautifully handle alone and I have been booked for this task.
Only now I found out that the same home owners also have two dogs and they want to put them to a boarding kennel, as they usually do - and I asked them why, as I think it would be nicer for the dogs if they could stay at home. The home owners think that it would be too much work for me alone. Maybe they are right, I really cannot tell upfront.
My question:
Would THS allow them to book a second solo-sitter in addition to me, to look after the dogs while I focus on the cats? They have a “tiny house” next to their main house which would even allow for separate accommodation of the second sitter, although I for my part wouldn’t mind to share the same household either, as long as we have separate bedrooms of course. What is the THS’s position on this?
Hello, @Romana That is great that you are willing to be so flexible and help the owners and it is also a great question to ask here.
I am sure that sitters will feel differently about the prospect of sharing a sit with another sitter, even with separate accommodation, but from the position of THS, there is no way for an owner to confirm two separate sitters for the same dates on the platform and only the confirmed profile can get a review for the sit.
Also, there is the third-party rule that no one else can be on-site during the sit, for safety and to protect the sitter’s privacy.
It also could get complex if one sitter was dealing with some of the pets and home responsibilities and another sitter is dealing with other pets and responsibilities either in the same home or on the same property.
It could work, but it does open up the possibility of confusion or misunderstanding of whose responsibilities are whose. Plus everyone has different ways of doing things/different standards of cleanliness etc so it could inadvertently lead to further misunderstandings or even conflict.
Therefore on the platform, it is one sitter’s profile (and whoever is on that profile) confirmed with one owner’s listings for any given set of dates.
I do love this question as from a sitter perspective when I was younger and housesat for horse owners (not on THS), there would sometimes be additional buildings on the property where others on occasion cared for the dogs or even the kids!
Once when I was doing the horses, the nanny let themselves into the main house where I was staying to collect some washing from the utility room and did not lock the back door afterwards or close the dog gate, which can happen we all have human error moments.
Luckily nothing happened apart from the dogs opening the dog treat cupboard and helping themselves to too many snacks and a toilet roll! But I think now I would worry in case something like that happened again and something could happen to the pets or home.
I have a best friend that is also a sitter on THS (with many great reviews) and we’ve toyed with the idea of possibly trying to do a sit together. I’ve never seen it done but I’d love to hear if it has.
@Romana , a cool idea, but since it’s a no-go with THS, maybe the HO could pay to have a dog walker/sitter come twice a day while you’re there. The dogs would get to stay in their own home, you’d have the enjoyment of having them there but you’d have less of a work load. I don’t know if this would violate the no-third party rule, but maybe not, as it could be like having a cleaning person or a gardener, which is permitted if okayed by the sitter beforehand. Or maybe they could try the dog walker on a trial basis and you can decide if you can handle the workload once you’re there.