I often come across listings that are very vague about sleeping arrangements for the sitters. Some would describe their place as having two bedrooms or more, but then mention a very nice sofa bed in the living room. As a sitter, I wonder where I am supposed to sleep? Frankly I don’t want to find out that I would have to couchsurf during the interview. It’s awkward and a waste of time on both sides.
The more practical information HOs can include in their listings (e.g. arrival/departure times, sleeping arrangements, daily pet routines), the less misunderstandings on both sides, and the more and better responses they would get from sitters. The less time wasted for everyone involved.
It makes me laugh when I see " we have a 5 bedroom detached property, the sitters will be sleeping in the self-contained apartment in the garden" - or servants quarters as I like to call it
@Colin so true! It’s when you read to the bottom of the listing after all the nice pictures to read sitter won’t have access to any of the rooms pictured!
If I remember rightly this site is called TRUSTED house sitters, if an home owner doesn’t trust me in their main house and expects me to stay in their servants quarters I give it a miss and move on.
Having said that when my partner and I arrive we do ask HO to close the doors to any rooms they don’t want us to go into so that we know our boundary’s.
I’m with everyone on this one. I once applied to a sit where the listing had nice pictures of the master bedroom and bath. The listing mentioned that there was an air mattress in the basement, so I figured they were saying it was “family friendly” and could accommodate more than the one sitter. On the video chat, I inquired about the sleeping arrangements, and she said that she had been told the air mattress is very comfortable and asked if I would be comfortable staying in the basement on the air mattress. All of a sudden, I remembered my sister in law had said she would be visiting me that week
My first ever sit, using a different site - when I arrived I was shown a space on THE FLOOR of a tiny box room! The HO hadn’t even forked out for an inflatable! . . . If it hadn’t been for the fact that I was concerned about leaving the lovely cats on their own, I would have walked out . . . I’ve grown older and wiser since then.
In line with other comments about sitters using the outside guest cottage, my reaction to that is ‘if the pets live in the main house, and they also will be in the guest cottage, the owner should simply put them into a boarding kennel as they will not longer be in their normal environment’. House sitting and caring for pets should be in environments where the pets can feel safe and familiar.
