Oe rule of thumb with us on a sit is we like to send our first pic about an hour after they leave showing their pet engaging with us (whether that be in the yard playing or cuddling up on the sofa). Everyone has told us this gives them a sense of relief to see their pet happy in the situation and makes for a great segway for future pics and updates.
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I find you end up getting the vibe of the host - as a rule when looking at listings I steer well clear of anyone who sounds demanding, so generally people seem to be happy with every few days. I have one specific host who I look after her dogs regularly and she’s completely indifferent as she’s had so many sitters so I send perhaps one photo the whole week!
I’ve just finished a sit where the host asked me, for a very elderly cat that was her world. She assured me that “no news is good news” and to just send a photo here or there - but I picked up she was actually quite anxious about the sit, so sending photos every day went a long way in her feeling better about it.
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I’m happy to send daily updates of critters, but I take cues from their humans. Some people love frequent updates and some don’t seem to care. With the latter, I do fewer, knowing that some folks want to be on vacation with few interruptions and they figure no news is good news.
In one case, a HO was going to be without reliable cell reception for intermittent days and I offered to send daily updates anyway, because they’d see them when they reached a signal, whenever that was. They adored their dog and I got the sense that they’d love frequent updates.
I take countless photos of the pets I sit anyway — I find them lovable. I have more photos of my own dog than some people probably have of their kids, LOL.
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When the pet parents requested a daily update do you always get a response back once you’ve sent them your daily update? We often times don’t get a response at all. We try taking nice pics /videos, craft a meaningful daily update but if we don’t hear back it does feel like waste of time. In a private feedback from one HO he told us we didn’t provide enough updates on how we enjoyed the house and what we did during the day. We were puzzled because we thought the updates should be all about the pets. Do HOs like to hear what we did everyday?
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I feel that HO expecting to know about your own daily activities ( Aside from those things relating to home and pets ) seems rather intrusive to your privacy .
We are sitters, we include update photos with a caption or a text to briefly describe things done with the pets that day
(eg took xx for a walk at xx place -)
( funny anecdotes dog chased a pheasant, cat caught a shrew ) etc and may include a reassuring sentence “all ok here at xx (address ) .
Obviously we would also tell HO about any issues that have arisen at the home, even those already dealt with and resolved . ( e.g power cut here today but all back on now we checked the freezers and everything ok )
If we’ve met the neighbours or visited a pub or restaurant or local attraction that they recommended we might comment on that .
We view our updates as providing reassurance, aiming to provide the HO with information before they have to ask us .
Every HO is different, some want frequent updates and respond immediately so we know that they really want to know about their pets regularly. Others are away with limited access to their messages so can’t respond quickly or they are on holiday in a different time zone so won’t see our messages until several hours later … in that case we try to send the message at a time we know they will be up .
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I would expect something along the lines @Silversitter described. Basically just seeing that the pet looks happy and that everything is ok. I wouldn’t be interested in how the sitter has spent their day.
As for what @BunnyCat said about HO not responding to the updates sent. I kind of understand that to some extent. The purpose of the updates for me is to see everything is ok. I might send a 
or a sticker, but not necessarily comment anything every time.
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We feel the same way. Getting a like or thumbsup reaction takes only a second. On a recent sit we sent three daily updates without any kind of response, all pics, videos and messages were read and ignored. On day 4 we didn’t send anything. On day 5th HOs asked us if everything is okay and we resumed the daily updates after.
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During our only sit so far, our sitter didn’t take many pics but when I’d send a “Hey I hope you and the cats are having a great day!” I’d get a response a little later. Lol she sent me a pic of my tiny cat hustling her for extra food 
.
I think acknowledgement of the sitter’s efforts to share with me, are part of good communication unless the PP happens to be without signal but that’s just me.
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I hope you didn’t feel intruded upon, as pet parents and you being an adult, we really aren’t supposed to be in your business like that. It’s one thing to know if you have a commitment going on such as work and being away from the apartment for a set number of hours, etc but as to what you do with the time in the apartment and a play by play of what you did inside is kinda your own business.
I can imagine some snark coming out from an inappropriate request like
“I watched the tv, used the bathroom and then used the bathroom again. 10+ for the tissue. I then sat, got up and sat again. Great couch for couching.” Lol.
As a HO, I like to get updates at least every 3 days on a longer sit. This is mainly so that I know the sitters are OK and haven’t cracked their skull falling down stairs or something. I had to remind my most recent sitter to send updates, although I had already specified the frequency. I always acknowledge the updates.
As a sitter, I do shorter sits and send updates at least once a day. It is always just about the pets, unless I have a house question.
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As part of the pre-sit information we always ask HO what their preference is for updates. Some say one a day throughout the sit, others say daily at the start of the sit and then only if there are issues and some have said they don’t need updates unless there is a problem. I have never been asked for more than one a day and quite honestly not sure what the value of that is anyway unless there is a specific issue with a pet that requires it. I only give information about what we’ve done during the day as it relates to the pet e.g. walked the dog in the woods for 2 hours or took the dog on the train to walk by the sea etc. accompanied by a picture or two of the activity.
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All great advice here.
Here is our thoughts. We have about 35 sits under our belt and have found that on shorter sits (less than 2 weeks), 95% of the time, HOs like a daily picture/video/short message. We concur with everyone that a message and picture a few hours after they leave is definitely a must and this just seems to put ease into the HOs and make the rest of the updates/communication much more relaxed.
Longer sits, we ask “About how often would you like updates? We know its a longer sit and don’t want to inundate you with pictures and texts…so just let us know :)”
We have found that on longer sits and when it is only just cats…they prefer a message/pic every 4 days or so. It never hurts to ask HO how often they want updates…but we usually can just ‘feel’ it out and see how they respond and get a general sense of if they like daily updates.