Cancelled international sit

Sitter Questions, Advice & Chat
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Hi all,

I had an international sit which I confirmed several times. The pet parent has cancelled - although I understand there are circumstances which may lead to this, however, I already booked my flight. I’ve politely asked for my flight cost to be reimbursed and the parent is reading and not replying. She is also not cancelling the sit in the app.

Sits are extremely hard to come by and I would not expect to lose money on account of a sit with zero repercussion to the pet parent. There is no opportunity to leave a review. Has anyone else had this experience and can advise on next steps?

Thank you.

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Sorry to hear about this @Jlt59
Yes unfortunately it has happened before as discussed on this thread

https://forum.trustedhousesitters.com/t/who-had-a-confirmed-house-sit-then-the-ho-cancelled-shortened

An emergency situation can happen to anyone ( sitter or host ) so it’s important that members should always have a Plan B in the event that either party cancels .

Some suggestions for a Plan B are

*Having sufficient funds for alternative accommodation before committing to a sit so that you can go ahead with your trip as originally planned

*Refundable airline tickets

*Apply for a replacement sit ( you will need the host to cancel the sit before you can apply for those dates )

*The Sit cancellation Plan ( if you are a PremiumMember and the sit is cancelled within 14 days of the start )

*Insurance

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Greetings @Jlt59,

Thank you for posting.

As @Silversitters indicated, everything mentioned above is great. And yes, hopefully you have the premium membership but be aware, you must still pay for alternative lodging and then it will take THS a few months to finally reimburse you. You still must have your own funds to take advantage of the insurance. Follow the terms and conditions closely…

However, the fact the HO is now dodging you is not good. Was it really necessary for them to cancel and leave you in limbo?

The HO is NEVER under any obligation to pay you back. THS won’t get involved on that end.

If you truly do go home or NOT go on the trip and you can prove a financial loss because of their specific actions, small claims court will be the only way for you to get repaid.

But if the host doesn’t cancel the sit, oddly enough you should be able to leave one when it ends. At that point, detail FACTS of what happened in the review.

Hopefully THS can help you solve this, in that regard.

Please keep us updated, best of luck!

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I am sorry to hear that. I know cancellations are never ideal, but especially when we have laid out significant transportation costs, and securing a sit in the same area may be difficult.

While the host offering to reimburse your expenses would be a super nice thing to do, they are under no obligation to do so, and even if some wanted to, they may not be in a position financially. You had every right to ask, but with the way the site works, you are not entitled to recoup these costs.

Housesitting like many other endeavors in life comes with risk, and there is always a possibility of cancellations on both sides. It is a completely voluntary activity and no one is being forced to book sits that come with higher travel costs.

My husband and I always buy the lowest non-refundable fares. Should a trip get cancelled, and we are out that money, that was a choice I made. It is a risk I choose to take.

There are lots of reasons a host may need to cancel a trip and they are inviting us into their home for a very specific purpose, not just as some kind gesture to give us a free place to stay.

So if they are no longer going way, they are obviously going to cancel since they no longer require the service being offered. And if they do something like offer to reimburse costs, let the sitter stay anyway at least temporarily, or offer to pay for alternative lodging, again, super nice, but nothing they are obligated to do.

When they invite a sitter into their home, it is not as if they are entering into some binding agreement to provide the sitter a roof over their head for the dates they have booked them, or are taking on any sort of financial responsibility for any costs a sitter may incur from them having to cancel their travel plans.

I know there is a lot of talk about ‘repercussions’ for hosts cancelling, but in reality, I don’t really know what can be done about this. THS can’t force people to take a trip. It is not realistic for the site to come up with a list of acceptable and unacceptable reasons, and then require proof of the former. I don’t think it would be a good look for a housesitting site to suspend accounts or kick members off for cancelling travel plans.

This is an area of complaint where I really understand people’s frustrations, but they have unrealistic expectations and ideas about how it can be handled.

The one thing I can say as someone who has been sitting a decade is that cancellations have been very rare for me, and I have never had an international sit cancelled.

Best of luck and I hope things work out!

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Where was this sit?

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Thank you for your pragmatic reply. Unfortunately premium membership does not cover flights in any case.

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It was Switzerland and I’m based in the UK.

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Hi there,

As you mentioned, you have not had an international sit cancelled, and did not offer any advice I can use currently. I understand it’s not a contract, however, a sitter should not be out of pocket because of a cancellation.

Thanks for your lengthy reply.

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The trouble is that if the HO doesn’t cancel the sit on the THS site the Sitter can’t apply for any new sits during that period and there’s absolutely nothing the Sitter can do about it except perhaps raise it as a complaint to the THS team.

It’s happened to me and t’s very frustrating, and is a consequence of the new ‘blocking dates’ feature THS has introduced which solely benefits HOs and can leave Sitters in situations like this.

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Flights are also not covered in the premium plan, accomodations only.

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This advice is only useful before booking and unfortunately does not help my current situation. Has any body got any further advice?

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Contact support@trustedhousesitters.com. Ask them to look at your Inbox (assuming that is how the pet parent communicated the cancellation to you) for proof the sit is not going ahead, tell them the pet parent is not cancelling the sit so you are not able to apply to others, and ask them to cancel it for you ASAP so that you have a chance to secure another sit.

The pet parent is under no obligation to reimburse you for the flight. In the future, consider paying a little more for a changeable ticket.

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@Jlt59

This seems to be about the money that you are losing for a flight that you are choosing not to take. Unfortunately, I don’t think anyone else can help you in this specific situation. If THS can cancel the sit and you end up still going, you are still spending all the money plus a lot more!

If you are out $150…this won’t be worth your time I imagine. If you are out $5,000…it would be. But trying to find a new sit…and going through with it, you will still spend MORE money than staying home. You should be lucky you are at home and not between sits!

If you want your money back, your best bet is this;

  1. Cancel the entire trip…meaning don’t go. If you go, you will have MORE expenses…such as transit and all the other cost associated with travel!
  2. Send the owner an invoice with receipts and give them a 5 day deadline to contact you or alert you they are making payment within 5 days.
  3. Once that time has expired, file a case with small claims court and maybe see if a judge sees your side. But getting your money back is between you and the HO that isn’t responding. If they don’t respond to a court order…you win by default! But you still have to collect…just because someone has a judgement doesn’t mean they will pay. For $5K…that may be worth it to garnish wages.

Without knowing where you are in the world…good luck with small claims!

But you don’t seem to be satisfied with what anyone else is saying. That means you are reliant on THS and yourself at this point. It is frustrating the HO has no repercussion with THS. But that doesn’t mean you can’t settle this privately.

We are sorry to hear you are in this situation, but you are at home…you are one of the lucky ones.

Please update us!

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@Jlt59
I know it must be frustrating to not get the info you are looking for, but ultimately what you are looking for–a way to get the money back-- really isn’t possible unless the host voluntarily offers it. The terms and conditions of the site state that sitters are responsible for their travel costs (though someone could offer some assistance if they chose) and contain nothing about a host being required to reimburse travel costs in the event of a cancellation.

The purpose of everyone’s advice was to give you a sense of how things work on the site and tips for planning future sits. And the reason for stating my experience with cancellations was to illustrate the point that for the most part, I think they are pretty rare, and to not let this experience keep you from booking international sits in the future.

I am sure this is a disappointing situation, but ultimately nothing can really be done in terms of recovering the money you paid for the flights.

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When we first started to apply for sits, it was really exciting to line up back to back sits for almost the entire summer. Then a pet parent cancelled because they couldn’t afford their vacation. I got THS involved and they did nothing. They told me to just apply for more sits. Then after a while another pet parent cancelled. I got THS involved and once again they did nothing. After that, I realized that I couldn’t count on THS for anything in the future and told myself to have a backup plan going forward. My backup plan is to book and Airbnb if necessary. We have an international sit coming up too soon and you’re right, flight ticket costs are no joke. THS will not do anything for you. I hope you can either find a replacement or go and enjoy yourself the best you can even though it may be out of pocket

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Hi @Jlt59 yes we have had two Swiss sits cancel last minute. One of us was coming from UK & the other was flying in from Istanbul as it happened. One cancellation was for good reason & one utterly flaky :roll_eyes: We had bought cheap non refundable flights so had to swallow the cost of those which was about £200 (they also cancelled a back to back Palma sit which cost us another £200 & we raised a complaint about them). Our logic is that even if one in 10 sits cancelled this is still always the cheaper option. On the other one we were in transit & it was emergency back surgery for the HO. We booked an Airbnb for 4 nights and then took a Flix bus to Germany for two more shorter sits plus a single night sit in Basel (the cancelled sits were Zurich canton). We were still out of pocket but it worked & was an adventure. Plan B everytime :raised_hands:t3: Get the HO to cancel asap so you’re free to apply for new sits. Unlikely they’ll offer to cover your flights & they don’t have to. It’s opening your THS diary that’s most needed! #lifeofasitter #wenowhavepremium

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@Jlt59 Unfortunately, there really isn’t anything you can do. Housesitting comes with significant financial risk for sitters. And there are no repercussions for hosts who cancel without a valid reason. I’ve had two international sits cancelled (I’m from the US). One in Europe (for a legit reason) was in between two other sits, so I had no option but to pay for alternate accommodations and was reimbursed $1500 through the premium insurance. The other was an upcoming sit and I’m hoping I can find another sit for those dates.

If you have premium membership you could go to the destination and stay in a hotel and then make a claim. If you choose to do that make sure you contact THS and meet all the requirements. As others have said, you will have to pay and then wait a few months for reimbursement.

If the host did not have a valid reason for cancelling you can report them to THS.

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I just looked at sits in Switzerland and there are quite a few. They may not work with your schedule, but if one of them may, you can see if you can change your ticket instead of losing it by cancellation. If you decide to apply to some of the sits, you can let the host know that you already have a ticket, but the host cancelled. If accepted, you will change the flight to their dates (checking the costs first).
New flights next month are around 228chf round trip, between Heathrow and Switzerland, and are under 2 hours. You may be flying in and out of different airports, but see if you can get creative with your exisiting ticket.
You can also ask the sit that was cancelled if they are planning to travel again and would they just change the dates to their next trip if they work for you. If there’s a change fee, maybe they will cover that or at least it will be a smaller out of pocket cost for you.
Lastly, if you really wanted to visit Switzerland, maybe you can change your flight dates to a long weekend and look for an inexpensive place to stay. Before you lose anything, see if changing things may be less costly option.
Good luck.

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The most important thing is that the host, or THS, cancel your sit, and then you can apply elsewhere.
Switzerland is quite a good location to look for alternative sits. If none are available there, you can look for sits in Germany or France. Travel by bus/train is pretty cheap in these countries.
Feel free to private message me if you’d like suggestions on possible locations near Switzerland. But first of all, your dates need to be freed up.

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If it was me, i would just bite the bullet, lick my wounds, book some accomodation in Switzerland and have a holiday there. It has some stunning places to visit.
Unless of course, the sit is for an extremely long time where it will not be feasible.

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