andrealovesanimals
Yes the lock was faulty according to the locksmith. Apparently a screw was intentionally removed and the owners were able to unlock it because there was a knack to it. I have taken a pic of the invoice and sent to the HO with my bank details. So if she does not honour it then I can seek the help of THS.
Yes, it wasn’t anything you did. BUT…hopefully you won’t have issues getting reimbursed. But THS won’t be too helpful if they put up a fight…the good news is, the amount of money seems manageable if you don’t get paid back.
How has the sit been so far, other than paying a locksmith for someone else’s home? Is the home nice? How are the animals? Good location?
Yes, you are right. You are in a foreign environment.
But even a plumber in your livingplace will maybe not be able to come the same day. So I think the two days is very fast. Compliments for the plumber/ home-owners or whoever did respond so fast.
(In my country they have a shortage of handyman, could take much longer for them to come)
Pet- and house-sitting is great, but just like with having pets or owning a house yourself, there are always times that something unexpected comes up that you have to deal with.
If you can’t live with these sort of things happening and don’t want to deal with this on your vacation/ holiday, I recommend indeed to book a hotel. As you say, they would reimburse you or give you other accomodation.
And…you can go exploring the whole day without the responsibility of watching after pets .
Or, as you yourself mentioned above that you like the possibility to go to friends if something like this happens, you can stay home and explore your own environment.
In the coronayears I explored my own country/ environment. I found beautiful spots!
A lot of the time we people go around the world and don’t even know the most beautiful spots at our own environment…
@TravelMan
The house is lively, the dogs are great and yes it’s a lovely location. Looking forward to explore Lincoln which is 20 mins away
@Karen65 ,
The glass is half full!
Wait, what?! Sitters can’t see the information that’s listed with the photos of the animals? I have important information there regarding the health of my FIV+ cats, notes that don’t fit under Responsibilities. Those areas show up as an option when I edit my listing so I assumed they were visible but I can’t test what a sitter sees via app, website or whatever. I’ll be really annoyed if this is true, on top of sitters not seeing how long pets can be left alone for. What is the point of filling in all that information if the people who need to see it can’t see it? It’s so misleading. No wonder there are so many disputes and disappointments these days.
@Shafofo - none of that info shows for a sitter so utterly pointless you guys filling it all in. We still have to ask at video call stage! #totallybonkers
It’s insane but true! I use the web based more than the app. If you look at your listing preview you can see what is and isn’t there. Have no idea why THS hasn’t fixed this. It’s been an issue for years.
And the other thing is that photo captions are only visible in the app.
The user interface is terribly inconsistent. And most changes are not upgrades but degrades.
My very first house/pet sit had a faulty front door.
The owners knew how to unlock it, but I just couldn’t manage it.
In the end, I found a way of half locking it that still allowed me to open and close it.
I pet sit as a vacation - I look at listings in areas I want to visit, and choose sits that are within an hours drive from specific points of interest and where the listing says the time the pet can be left is over4 hours.
I find pet sitting more leisurely than my other mode of vacation (touring caravan) as I am more likely to stay home with the pet often, rather than hurtling around the sights. I guess I’m absorbing the location.
Off topic: I had a local friend sit (not THS) for my cat one Christmas so visiting family could stay in her home (my home became her annexe!) and late on Christmas Eve the front door lock failed and locked her out. I had numerous panic messages, but if it had to happen to anyone over a holiday period she was the best person because she got it sorted so quickly. It was a shame that the perishable treats that I’d left her were spoiled. The cat didn’t notice a thing - she went in & out of the cat flap and I suspect got lots of Christmas treats from neighbours!
We would definitely recommend not seeing this as a “vacation”. More of an equal exchange for both HO and sitter. Yes, most sits allow you to go out and explore for a few hours, go on hikes, etc. But the HO and the pets will appreciate it so much more if you show more interest and put more effort into the sit. A lot of the negative reviews we have seen were HO saying that the sitter was gone too often, didn’t follow instructions, etc. Essentially, the HO is wanting you to fill their shoes. Not just come home at night to crash and then go explore all day. Wouldn’t recommend doing this if you just want a free vacation. While most HO will say that it’s fine to go out and explore, you don’t have to be home all day, etc. really they want you there…caring for their home and pets. If you are looking to explore more while doing this, definitely don’t recommend sitting for dogs and probably just stick to cats. Good luck. 
An ordinary HO will crash in their bed at night. After a day at work. And some social event.
Sitters on vacation would spend much more time at the home than that.
Not necessarily. I have sat for people who really meant it. On one occasion, they left me a travel card with 50$, let me the use of their car, which was not included in the listing and I didn’t ask them to do it. They kept suggesting places I could visit and excursions I could do. They genuinely wanted me to enjoy the sitting and the area and they were confident I was looking after their pets well and following their guidelines.
I agree with @pietkuip . Most HO work and are gone long hours, PLUS commute time. And a lot of the retired ones I sit for, whom have longer sits often have lots of friends, hobbies and family and that can keep them out of their own home for a day. I also tend to watch dogs and cats that have 2 (but not more than 3!) animals. The one sit I sat for with 1 senior dog…I just took her everywhere I went when the HO went weeks without taking her for more than a walk around the neighborhood at a time.
If a HO tells me don’t worry about the dogs for 8 hours, or the cats are fine to be left with each other the entire time between feedings twice a day, I take what they say at face value. I don’t try to read between the lines when a HO tells me they work, come home, go to bed and the such. A simple example, if I ask my Mom if she needs help planting flowers and she says, “no.” I don’t say, “Are you sure? Let me help you anyway.” If a HO wants us to be there for shorter times, they need to be honest the first time they are asked.
I will point out, I do work full-time, 8 hours/day, 4-5 days/week so in most cases, I am around more than when I am gone. If a HO lives in a nice area with lots of hiking and skiing and/or boating, it is likely THEY do those things themselves when not working as well.
But if a HO is giving you permission to be gone for 8 hours…they mean it and do so if desired.
This sounds like great fun. Sort of like a dog-cat!
@shortyi3 Part of what you’re taking on when you agree to a house-sit - rather than a holiday - is that you’ll be that person to stay there and look after the animals, even when the boiler cuts out and there’s no hot water. This actually happened to me on a recent sit, and there’s no way I’d just up sticks and expect someone else to sort it out because the house was ‘unliveable’. It’s just not what this whole thing is about.
So, we do use pet sitting as a means of saving money on accommodation, but we also prefer it to airbnbs/hotels because we actually like animals!
Because of this i am very careful about the sits we apply for, not just because we don’t want to spend all our time tied to the pets, but because we are sitting usually as a family of 3 or 4. We never go for dog sits due to the huge amount of attention they need, although i’d consider it locally for a weekend. This does mean our options are much more limited, but I’m happy with that compromise. We tend to be home in the evening and if it’s just me and the kids having a cat cuddled up with me on the sofa is lovely once they’re in bed!
I generally find there’s an understanding that family holidays are extortionate during the holidays. I’m always open about saying we will be out exploring for some of the time, but that we don’t tend to be out all day. If there’s an attraction that we wanted to go to that would be a particularly long day out i would raise that, but that’s not actually come up yet. Usually the thing the kids are most excited about is the pets anyway, and while we love to explore, we aren’t mad daytrippers.
We are actually heading to a sit soon where the hosts have commented how nice it will be to welcome a family who will really appreciate the local beaches.
We also stayed at a sit while my aunt was ill in order to spend time with her without putting any pressure on family to host. That was really positive and I spoke with the host about our reasons for wanting to stay, and how care for their cat cat would look with that. We have been invited back twice but the dates never match annoyingly! I’d rather stay with them than my family in future as gives us a level of freedom.
What I am saying is- I think if you are honest, hosts appreciate it. However if you don’t actually want to look after animals, then this isn’t the way to save money.
You’re better doing workaway, helpx or some other kind of volunteering in return for accommodation.
I think as a newbie myself the 1st or 2nd sits are learning curves. This is where you learn what you want and dont want in future sits. Looking at photos on profiles can be deceiving, you can always ask for me for better views of rooms. I did my 1st and 2nd sit just last month. I have learned alot to benefit me for future sits. I made lists of questions from each sit that I now know will help me very much next time. Ive also learned not to pack so much, to bring certain things i never thought i needed like tweezers for cactus thorn removal. My own grocery shopping bags as in California’s law is to charge you .10 per bag you need. They also charge extra deposits on beer,soda, or sparkling water. Ive learned how to operate a hybrid car that you start with a push start, but will only start if you have the car fob with you. Many little things make a huge difference once you learn the ropes. But no newbie will know this until they get that 1st ,2, possibly more sits and ask ppl in the forum who have done this many times. So dont get discouraged. Dont give up over 1 not so great vacation. I too like to find sits that i can vacation. Im more of a homebody so i find that sits where the pets cant be left more then 4 hours or so. I also like places with pools to have fun at the home while i am there. I think there are sits for everyone . Everyone looks for certain things that fit them. So if you like to go out and about for about 8 hours maybe cats might be your thing. I wish you luck and dont give up.
I am a little shocked you got a dog sit when you didn’t realize the dogs could not be left alone that long. I use the sit in lieu of hotel when visiting my daughter at school. And when I need to be out, like moving her out of her campus housing, etc, the small dog I have sat, or going to sit in August, can be in the apt while we move stuff in and out. I did have a second sit where they gave me some cover contraption to put in my car so I could drive the dogs to the dog park. I did every day. It probably cost me $40 in gas over the week. Going back and forth, sometimes twice a day. But I wanted to be in a certain location for certain dates. Sitting dogs is very different than sitting cats.