Hi - I’m Christine. We had to pull out of a housesit on the morning we were due to start, as my husband had Covid (30th Sept) confirmed. The owners were incredibly understanding, and took their dog with them. THS think we did the sit, because we couldn’t make contact with the site, and are consequently automatically requesting we do a review and feedback! PLEASE ADVISE as I can get no response from THS at all - I’ve emailed, phoned, and done a chat and only get automatic FAQs and not a personal response. What do the house owners, or us as housesitters do? Thank you
Hi Christine. I’m so sorry to hear about your husband, and hope he recovers quickly. I’ll tag @Therese at membership services and she’ll contact you directly when she’s next online. That may not be until tomorrow, but they will take care of you and sort things out.
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Hi @Christine1 and welcome to our community forum, we’re sorry that your first conversation with our community is about something unfortunate, I echo @Snowbird in wishing both you and your husband well.
No one likes to cancel a sit, but there are occasions when it is completely unavoidable. Thank you @Snowbird for helping and signposting Christine to Therese, who will be back online tomorrow (Monday)
Once again we wish you well and thank you for joining, when things have settled down for you we hope you will explore the forum and become a regular, you’ll find lots of help and support from other members.
Angela and the Team
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Thank you. Although my first message on the Forum was to ask for help, we are loving THS and have done many wonderful sits. Hopefully you can resolve this particular problem tomorrow.
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My sit to Mělník is cancelled. They were going to Sri Lanka. But they never cancelled.
Just for my personal info … not bitching about it but is it usual for owners to cancel sits at the last minute? just curious as I had a sit booked and on the night I left for my first leg of my journey the Owner cancelled my sit (2nd leg ) of my journey so 2 days before I was meant to do her sit.
Does this happen often? and is there no protocol for house owners to follow with regards to last minute cancellations. ? I was traveling for 2 days to get to her area and had to make alternative arrangements quick sticks and book into a hotel at the last minute.
has this happened to others?
Yes, we have had lots of cancellations this year due to COVID. Here in the UK people use lateral flow tests regularly and this summer it has meant that there have been lots of last minute cancellations. However, we were not travelling great distances and it was easy enough to pick up a last minute sit. Maybe the sit wasn’t our first choice but we did get to spend time with lovely fur balls and meet interesting people.
In the UK we are still recording over 40,000 new covid positive cases daily so, unfortunately, we do have to accept that last-minute cancellations are still a real possibility. I can not imagine a home host cancelling their holiday for no reason and of course, they must be as disappointed as the sitter is when they are forced to cancel.
I think it is happening far less now than it was a year ago but it is always a good idea to have a plan B in your head ‘just in case’
(Excluding COVID illness) Agree not everyone has the same level of commitment on here. We’re a homeowner and rather than cancel on a sit, we’ve stayed with family near by. But we’ve have had a sitter cancel on us. We’ve extended or shortened our trips to help sitters between their travels.
**Does anyone use the drafted THS Agreement Form? We always used it, but recently a sitter took offence to using it so both sides pulled out. We’re afraid of being taken advantage of, after reading a forum discussion where a sitter admitted to simply agreeing to all homeowner pet and house responsibilities but once arriving followed there own itinerary needs. This scares the heck out of me and we’re considering going back to pet boarding.
@Bonnie I am really sorry to hear that your sit has been cancelled. It is not the norm for any confirmed arrangements to be changed in any way and we appreciate the disruption this can cause. Covid has definitely exacerbated problems with cancellations, which is a little beyond our control. However, we do have a Code of Conduct, that all members agree to, regarding changing or cancelling confirmed sit arrangements. If the reason for the cancellation is not for ‘extraordinary circumstances’ or if you feel the reason for this cancellation is not in accordance with our guidelines, please do just let us know, so we can reach out to the homeowner. Kind regards Therese
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Hi @Christine1 I see someone from membership services has helped you now.
Wishing your husband a speedy recovery. Kind regards Therese
Hi @Robb welcome to our community forum, thank you for joining and it’s very disappointing and concerning to hear of members who have not had good experiences with all arrangements, I’m going to Direct Message you to discuss.
I hope you will explore the forum more and connect with other members of our community, members who will give you assurance that we are connected by trust and that pet and house sitting is and should be, a mutually beneficial fair value exchange.
Angela and the Team
@Angela_L having difficulty replying by email and not to the group. Please send me another private email. Looking to share my email address and member ID with you.
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There was no actual reason given - I think a change of mind and them not going away any longer. no big deal just inconvenience.
I had this situation twice, when the HO cancelled last minute and eventually, after a long time, I posted a “review” stating what had happened. Both cancellations unavoidable and communication with HO excellent, so no gripes, but I felt I needed to resolve the problem of these sits appearing as being completed and requests for reviews.
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Last-minute cancellations are very rare (we have had 2 and have done around 50 sits). In the first case it was during the first lockdown and we totally understood (we got a 1 day notice). In the other case the person had forgotten to ask about our vaccination status and our reply was different from the one she expected (2 days notice). So I think close to 99% of our hosts were reliable, of course there were some minor adjustments, but we were usually asked in a timely manner if that would work for us. We still try to stay flexible, though, and although we don’t have backup plans, we can adjust to the new situation quickly.
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