Some recent sits have been located in deep countryside and the satnav has only managed to get nearby, not the exact location. Has anyone else been experiencing this ?
Been thinking it would be good practice to get location via what 3 words app, after sit is confirmed.
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I have HOs send me a Google map link with the exact location pinned and I can get directions off of that. When I get their address Iāll map it out and send them the link asking them to confirm thatās the location of where I should go and requesting, if itās not, a more accurate link from them.
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Good idea, and getting the HO to confirm it, certainly helps getting it wrong
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Yep. And I always do it right away, I donāt wait until Iām en route just because things can be crazy at the last minute so Iād rather have everything nailed down in advance.
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@Twogreys We always check the location of a sit as soon as we get the address- usually straught after confirming the sit but sometimes before. If it comes up āpartial matchā on google maps I then ask for a What3Words link. Sometimes they do a pin drop instead. Whatever helps us to get there successfully!!
We do a lot of remote sits in North Yorkshire, and find Google maps is better than relying on satnav, also as soon as we get the full address, we go on streetview to make sure we can see their individual house, based on their profile images. For us, itās part of the build up of excitement to see where we are going.
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Google Maps all the way. And definitely worth making sure you have the exact location before you get lost in the wilds with no internet or phone signal!
What3Words is excellent, and can be used to take you right to their front door! We did a sit that was on a farm with several buildings and another house at the end of the driveway. The postcode on satnav would have taken us to a dead end track with no turning place! What3Words allowed us to drive through the farm buildings and right to their front door.
We have also been sent GPS coordinates, and google map pins.
When using google maps, put the whole address in if you can, not just the postcode and it will take you very close to the house. One postcode in the UK can cover anything from a handful of houses (mine covers just 5) to a whole village and many surrounding rural properties. Google will take you to the centre of the postcode area - only useful if your sit is located at the centre of the area covered by the postcode. We have actually done a sit where the centre of the postcode area was just outside their gate!
We did another sit where the area covered by the postcode was 2 separate groups of houses in the same village, but they had homes in a different postcode area between them. Needless to say, Google went to the other half of the postcode area. The hosts had sent detailed directions including an alternative postcode to get just around the corner from their home. They had needed to go in search of delivery drivers too many times!
I found google to be not very accurate when we were in France. It was convinced that the name of the (very rural) property was the name of the (very long) road, so it was pretty much useless. I got closer using online Michelin maps - they are French after all. After a few attempts, the owners sent a google maps pin too.
I always check satellite view and street view in advance of travelling to a sit, to virtually get my bearings.
Do such hosts never have anyone visit, deliver or do maintenance or other at their homes? If a host couldnāt tell me how to get to their home and left me to figure it out if it was in the sticks, Iād think them pretty feeble ā Iād question what else theyād be bad at, partnering wise for a sit.
those kinds of people would probably already know. my last sit was in the boonies and Google maps didnāt work and the HO didnāt know enough about tech to send me a link so gave me verbal directions which included such helpful things as āgo to x farm and take a left and the 2nd barnā as if I knew where x farm wasā¦
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For me, no thanks to such sits. What if you needed an ambulance, firefighters or such. Oh hello, turn right at X barn. 
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This is probably something to cover in your chat with the HO before you both confirm the sit.
On my 2nd sit the Welcome Guide had only the post code (which was for the whole village of 95 homes), not even a house name but I gleaned that from a review and from there found an estate agentās listing from a few years ago, so found it on Google Earth (a bit Miss Marple-ish) To be honest I was about to cancel until then but I felt i had made a commitment. Lesson learned.
When eventually i was given an address by the HO, it was for a street that doesnāt exist. Iām sure they wouldnāt know where to start with What3Words.
Now I make sure I know the address and have looked on Google Earth to make sure I know what to look for when I arrive, and if Iām uncertain I clarify with the HO at least a week befire the sit begins.
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I look up the place where the sit is and get a street view so I have some idea. If the welcome guide doesnāt give directions I ask the home owner for some. I am on a very rural sit in Norfolk at the moment and even Google maps told me I was there when there was almost a mile down a narrow lane to go. The WG guide gave exact instructions. Rural France is very bad for finding places as the post code is for a whole village. Many roads donāt have names and some villages have the same names only a few miles apart but in different departments.
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Maybe a good idea to use Google Street View, you can take a good look at the location and potential quality of access roads before committing to a sit.
It may save you a lot of issues
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Yes, been caught out in the early days in very out of the way remote areaās, with no internet and unable to find a property, either had to drive to where I could get to internet or if I had a CP ring them.
we have since learned to either download offline maps if it is a remote area and also in early communication with the HO clarify where their home is, property name, screen shot of the area, my 3 words is good too. Just remember to make sure you can access it.
We had alarm codes/key lock box codes that in the Welcome guide that we could not access as no Internet and were arriving after the HO had departed, we either had to drive to get internet to get the codes from the THS app or walk around their property outside until we got enough signal to open the App, we all have different Mobile phone providers now so that in case there is just no service where are, someone has service in case of emergencies, and so that we can access the codes, we also make a note on paper and then burn it at the end of the sit.
Our Teens will look who will have mobile phone coverage before a new sit too now, so we know in advance as there is nothing worse than the satnav going silent because there is no coverage, so we know in advance now who needs to have their phone on giving directions.
Happy sitting
Happy sitting.
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I always screen shot the welcome guide info ahead of a sit, in case I canāt otherwise access it in a pinch. Like if I end up not being able to get in, I want to know where the emergency key is or how to reach the emergency contacts.
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@Maggie8K I agree with this suggestion.
We have been in the situation on arrival where there was no mobile data,( This was unexpected as itās was in a densely populated street in a village close to a London airport ). Without mobile data we were unable to access the Welcome Guide (WG) which had the Wi-Fi code in it .
With the wi-fi code we would have been able to access the THS website and the WG.
We also found out from this particular sit that the WG on the app did not include all of the information that was in the WG if we accessed it through the web page . ( the key code did not appear in the WG on the app - it could be seen in WG on webpage )
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On several of my sits, the WiFi has gone out temporarily. I fell back on my cell plan or SIM till I could restore access (and in one case couldnāt, because of road work that affected connections). But I was thinking it would be problematic for travelers who rely only on wifi. Better to have the WG screen shotted, so you have access more reliably. Likewise with downloading maps for offline use.
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I used to be a delivery driver doing small house moves, and quite often going somewhere remote I would have trouble finding it, and when I finally got there would say āOh yeah a lot of people have trouble finding itā. Apparently it didnāt occur to them to mention that BEFORE I set off and provide directions! In summary: People are idiots.
After a few years I started to be able to tell from the address when it was going to be hard to find, and ask for directions.
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That sucks.
Weāve bought homes a couple of times where the neighborhood was so new that the address wasnāt included on online maps yet. We always checked and geo-located so people could find us.
Meanwhile, weād ping the online mapping services frequently to ask for them to add us. It took awhile, but eventually worked. We were in relatively densely populated areas, though. Like our homes were in-fill or the whole neighborhood was being built up or had been recently.
If I lived in the sticks, Iād figure out how to geo-locate and offer other specific directions as needed. Seems like common sense.