For a second consecutive sit I have been let down at the very last minute
I have suggested so many times that there is a “swot” team who sit for people who are let down last minute.
I’m sorry, very few of us are unreliable. I know it must be hard to believe that but it’s true. I hope you find a last minute sitter.
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Welcome to the forum. We have a category here for last minute sits. Maybe you want to post it there?
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So sorry to hear this @Hamish152 - have you reached out to Membership Services to see if they can help?
If you would like to share a bit more information about your situation here, I’m sure that our members would be happy to give you some advice as well?
Thank you to @ElsieDownie and @Fatamorgana for popping on to reply so quickly 
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I feel there needs to be some kind of financial penalty imposed on those people that pull out at the last minute . I have incurred significant cost in making alternative arrangements as I had to vacate my home and could not cancel on the guests arriving at my house .
Are you a sitter or host ? You may be covered by the sit cancellation plan ..
I had arranged to sit and had given up my house to accommodate my partners children who were visiting from Uk
@Hamish152, sorry to hear of the cancellation. Sounds like you’re a sitter.
We’ve had two cancellations (from ~40), both international and last minute. Sucks. Stressful. In each case, a rapid Plan B pivot was required. But life happens.
Depending on your membership level, you may have access to THS Sit Cancellation Insurance. The terms of this insurance require careful reading to determine eligibility and specific coverage.
If you’ve not done so already, suggest Internet chat or email THS at support@trustedhousesitters.com. Member services may have helpful guidance.
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You’re a sitter, it happened to us last summer. We had 11 weeks cancelled, because two dogs in two different households sadly passed away, so it was all last minute. However, it only took us 3 days to fill the whole 11 weeks again. Fortunately it’s the start of the holiday/vacation season, so hopefully you’ll be able to find other sits to fill the gap.
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This kind of thing happens with petsitting. It’s awful when it happens to you. A “financial penalty” would not work as members wouldn’t join. Anyone with pets, or a family for that matter, knows that sometimes things happen that could require changing plans. While the premium plan may not be perfect, it was probably made for situations like yours.
There are some things that THS could do to bring the numbers down:
- Get data on what the numbers actually are. Cancelled sits aren’t “tracked” in any way. The only way the get noticed is when members dispute because of a cancellation which they don’t think is fair to them. If THS actually tracked cancellations and categorized them based on the circumstances they’d know how much of a problem they had.
- Tracking cancellations could also mean seeing if there are individual outliers who cancel often. This could mean suspending or ending their memberships. It might mean in some cases, having member services reach out and handle the matter with some sensitivity if for instance it turns out they are cancelling because of an ill pet or family illness. It might mean that THS isn’t for those people until the situation changes.
This would be relatively easy to track through the system and their could be a form after every cancellation to make sure both parties had the same understanding. So a cancellation with more than X numbers of weeks before a sit mutually agreed on, would be looked at with less urgency than a cancellation a few days before a sit that comes as a shock to one party.
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Have you found a solution @Hamish152 has it worked out ?