I will just add that as a homeowner, if I was contacted about a possible cancelation, I would just offer to decline the sitter.
I would very much appreciate the sitter communicating this to me but I would wish them well in a new search and cancel the commitment.
I do agree with @CoolCatAunt to some degree. But I feel like when it comes to my home and my Kitty and committing to travel plans. I just don’t want any uncertainty on the sitter end.
And I am aware that even people that commit to a sit still cancel… But you can only deal with what’s presented to you… And I would feel uncertainty is being presented to me so I would wanted to cancel the sitter.
As a homeowner (and as a general rule) I think it’s best to honour a commitment. A service like THS relies on trust and I think canceling for better would take away from that trust. I’m also reminded of what happens when you’re in a line at the store and change line thinking it will be quicker; we’ve all been there. A bird in hand is better than two in the bush, although in this case it might be cats or dogs.
@Mokina it can take a while to find your way in anything new, we understand even the most experienced sitter members started where you are …
Now you’ve had some very helpful member feedback and from different perspectives … Bottom line always for sitters and pet parents/owners is to carefully consider if the sit/sitter the right one, not purely for convenience or your own plans, but for everyone involved. If there is any doubt, whatsoever, don’t commit.
Thank you for posting and asking your question. First, I like that you wrote a detailed topic title. Honestly, the length of the title is why I read this topic much earlier than I normally would.
So many very experienced members have replied in agreement, so I’ll just say I agree with them. I can explain more my specific thoughts, but at this point it would just be piling on.
That said, I’ll add some side bits:
Communication is so important. So, one could argue that you can/should mention how you feel to the PP you’ve committed to. However, I can’t see how that would do anything but make the PP uncomfortable, which is indeed an inconvenient position. But maybe there’s an angle I’m missing.
As you committed to the sit, you should be able to adopt the mindset/attitude you had then and do the sit responsibly/maturely.
For future reference, the PP can unconfirm the sit:
So if an extraordinary circumstance came up, you would let the PP know, hopefully you’d both agree, and then they’d unconfirm you.
The official Help entry on canceling a sit is here:
What’s interesting is what it says at the start:
cannot be cancelled unless both pet parent and sitter agree or there are extraordinary circumstances.
See that “or”? Perhaps that’s why we’ve anecdotally seen more cancellations in these forums:
(made-up example) “Well, if the PP and I just agree, then canceling is okay, right? And <enter non-extraordinary circumstance>.”
Asking Membership Services what they think is always fine, of course.
All that said, you could still apply for the second sitting. For example, you could apply and ask if they’re flexible with the dates. Perhaps you could sit for them on either end (or both) of your already committed sit.
Best of luck with your TH adventures! From what I can tell, the most successful sitters have built on a solid foundation.
edit: adding this TH Help entry, too:
Admin Notice: Post edited to manage point of process.
If you were a HO, you wouldn’t like it when a sitter says: I can do the sit, but I’m not quite sure… I mean, a HO’s pets are their whole world. They want to be sure when they get on that plane that their children will be taken care of by a fully committed sitter, not a flaky sitter.
(Not saying you’re flaky, just making the point that 100% commitment is needed)
Thank you all for finding the time in answering my query.
I understand what it means looking for a house to buy and then keep searching after this has been found, however this is different.
I keep searching not because I hope to find something better. I keep searching because I have different gaps during those four months that I would like to fill in with other sittings if possible. Therefore, I have to keep looking for other opportunities. Because the gaps are different, it would be not handy to find for a period from date A to date B. I have to browse them all and select at that stage.
I have other sittings booked and I had already seen some what we might call “perfect” sittings in a second moment. I thought oh well and that was it. This one was particularly tempting for all the reasons mentioned above. I think it was worth it to ask anyway, beside the sense of responsability that someone might have. And I made it sure to ask this questions in here, where I could have a broader view among sitters and hosts.
I can see most of you believe in honouring the sits and would never cancel one. As I have been trying to organize these sittings for a while, there are quite many advertisements that I know almost by heart. I saw different ones removed and then coming back again. This is because the sitter had cancelled (according to what I read in their ad) on the pet parent and they had to start their search again. The number of these episodes is not very low, especially considering the small size of the Country and the not very high number of sittings available.
I do not know of course if all those sittings were cancelled for a valid reason or not. For this reason as well I felt like asking to know what are the views and the rules of when similar scenarios take place.
Thank you also to Geoff for the clarification. Beside the sense of commitment it is good to know how rules work and that what also part of my question. I can see the message has been partly amended. If I understood correctly in the original post, there was some incorrection on some of the rules that appear in the public pages. I am glad that my enquiry had brought the opportunity to clarify those in order to bring more clarity amont THS users.
I have a strong sense of commitment and that what had pulled me back from applying for a second sitting.
Needless to say that I did not apply for the second sitting.
I might have asked if they were flexible with dates, thanks to some of you for suggesting it (I had a thought of that too actually). I decided not to do that either.
@Mokina Thank you for your feedback. It can be a logistical challenge to arrange the right sits to cover specific dates and locations as many of us experience from time to time.
Cancellations do happen of course and not always for the right reasons that is why it is so important to make certain the arrangement is mutually acceptable in all respects before finalizing the commitment.
We have also addressed the inconsistency as highlighted by Geoff .
We wish you good luck, look forward to sit updates as your travels unfold and sharing in some of the pets who will be keeping you company along the way.
Admin Notice: Thank you to everyone who contributed to this conversation and for helping another community member on their pet and sitting lifestyle journey. Comments and responses which have comprehensively covered the member’s question while presenting different perspectives. Thank you.
@Mokina. Thanks for the update. One thing to keep in mind is that, the closer you get to the start date, the higher the percentage of shorter sits appearing is. Longer trips are often planed further in advance, but quick weekends away or business trips often get organized fairly close to the start date. So you may still find sits to fill your gaps.
Many of us start multi-month adventures like yours with gaps between our sits (filled with cancellable alternative housing) but continue looking as we go for this very reason.
