I agree with this. I had one sitter with Rover reviews, local paid pet sitting business, didn’t really get THS though. Norw I look at that Rover experience with a grain of salt for sure.
I’ve found “second” chats to be the best course of actions as both a host and a sitter when things feel off. The outcomes I’ve had have ranged from “Great, let’s move forward. Glad we talked” to “This isn’t going to work, is it? Glad we talked!”
Great advice.
+1 for great advice from @Silversitters.
Communicate, communicate, communicate.
OP does not give ballpark geographies of housesitter and pet parent so tricky to get sense of order of magnitude of flight cost. @jollyfolks, you may need to somehow assess likelihood of housesitter funding any elevated flight cost; and perhaps number of alternative applicants and/or relative attractiveness of chosen sitter vs others.
Reality here is that there is non-trivial risk. Considerable uncertainty in the duration and direction of flight prices, especially longer-haul that use more fuel.
A seemingly high proportion of pet parent - housesitter challenges that are raised on THS Forum may be progressed through simple, honest communication. Not email, message or equivalent but by a simple video or audio call.
@GotYourBack New Jersey to Texas flight (sitter to homeowners)
Hello everyone!
Thanks to those who flagged that this topic was getting off track.
I’ve now had time to moderate the discussion, so that we can get the focus back on @jollyfolks, and let them have the space they need to discuss their situation.
Jenny 