Hi all, I think I lost a much-coveted Long sit after my"virtual interview", because I mentioned that my adult children are all disabled, so there’s a small probability I might have to nip back home briefly during the sit, to help with a family crisis. Too honest, always my problem.
I thought that the Pet Parent’s own insurance might cover this contingency, e.g. pay for an emergency sitter or pet care. But she didn’t know.
So then I’ve looked into Premium sitter membership. All it seems to provide is funding for alternative accommodation if the pet parent cancells on you at short notice. And from the thread I read, even that is rather hard to arrange.
Has anyone had this happen to them and what did you do?
Surely it might happen occasionally to anyone? We all have families and s**t happens innit. Tough call between family members in need and furry adoptees.
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Haven’t had that happen. But I have the insurance and both sit and host.
- If you are the host and you cancel because of a personal emergency or illness, you are not going to be able to claim the insurance. Rationale: It would be to cover a pet sitter and you would no longer need a pet sitter.
- If you are the host, you can cancel because the sitter did something egregious that violates the guidelines and you had no choice but to ask the sitter to leave and you still need a sitter because you want to continue your trip, you’d be able to claim the insurance to pay for a sitter.
- If your sitter suddenly cancels the sit because they have a personal emergency or something else and it’s not about the conditions of the sit violating any rules, then you would be able to claim the insurance to get a sitter to finish the sit (with deductions and limitations.)
What you cannot do is claim the insurance on behalf of the sitter to pay the sitter’s accomodation costs. That is absoutely not happening. If the sitters have their own paid for premium insurance, the sitters would be able to file a claim based on your cancelling the sit. They’d pay out of pocket for accomodations and get reimbursed later with a $150 deductible and other limitations, so not a great deal for them, but better than nothing.
So if you think you might need to come home for a short time during the vacation, basically you are ending the sit. Let’s say it’s a longish sit – one month for instance. If you think you might have to be around for 3 nights – a short stay and then go back – you could for instance, stay at a hotel or other accomodation and allow the sit to continue undisturbed. This might not only be better for your sitters, but also for your pets! You could if you had a nice guest room, discuss with your sitters whether or not your staying there is acceptable to them and figure out what the roles are. They might feel they have no choice but to accept or they might prefer that you end the sit so they can find something else.
If you think that owing to your adult-children’s disabilities you might have to come “home” early, you need to figure out another way to handle it besides the premium plan. If your plan involves disruption for the sitters, you need to let them know this is a real possibility. Probably it will be more difficult to find a sitter, but not disclosing this could lead to more problems for you in continuing to use the site.
[Misread and though this was the host! Now see it was the sitter!]
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You shouldn’t be using this service if there is a high probability of cancelling. Back up plans are not preferable and it’s not fair to anyone when you know you may have to cancel. Yes, things happen to others, but you are saying there is a better chance than others that you will have to cancel.
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It sounds like you are the sitter, is that correct? Basically you told them you may have to end the sit early because of a possible family emergency. You told them that on the interview call. I read you thought the PP could get reimbursed to find an emergency sitter. Am I reading that right? If so it would cause a hardship for the PP if they get reimbursed or not. They would want to interview a complete new stranger staying at their home. They may be out of the country. I understand why they did not offer you the sit. Please always be honest and don’t say you were too honest just to get the sit.
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Tweak the way you’re viewing it, your family are not the owners responsibility. Please don’t go into this thinking you can just give them notice and leave, it’s not like that.
You need to pre-think solutions for yourself, a list of worse-case-scenarios. It’s never happened to us, but my partner’s Mother is elderly, so these are just some of our back-up plans.
1 We often sit within around a 1.5hr drive, so we ‘could’ potentially go back and forth if we had a real need to. Have you thought of sitting closer to them?
2 On the occasions where we’re sitting further away, there’s 2 of us. So potentially one of us could go, leaving the other behind. Do you sit with a partner? If not, do you have a close friend or family member that you’d like to sit with?
3 We return to a lot of the same pets, so we already know the dogs that will happily pop in our car with us (actually a small number of the dogs that love travelling in the car have already met his mother, because she’s a real dog lover and loves us taking dogs to visit), so the dogs could go with us.
4 Cats can be left for longer than dogs, so that works too, as long as you can go back and forth reasonably easy.
We’ve got loads of back-up plans, but the above are probably the simplest ones.
So write a bunch of potential solutions and thoroughly think them through before applying, but sitting closer to your family is the easiest of all.
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If you are the sitter – the homeowners will only be able to claim the insurance if they have it. They cannot use YOUR insurance to claim a new sitter.
I have the premium as a host, but I probably wouldn’t take a sitter with a good chance of having to nip home. The only possibility I could see is if you get one of those new couple accounts that verifies both people, and sit with someone else who could remain if you have to go. Other homeowners, might be okay if you offered for instance to pay for a petsitter if you had to leave and they had someone they normally use. Your insurance doesn’t pay for a pet sitter. Your insurance pays for your accomodations if you are cancelled on.
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I don’t expect you to spread personal info online (I would advice against it) so don’t answer it here. But is the «chance» you are talking about like the chance any one might have for something coming up, or is it a real risk it might happen during the sit period.
If it is just the risk any one of us might have (there isn’t really a reason to believe it will happen during sit) then it is no reason to mention. I say this because some parents of children with special needs are always in «prepared mode» trying to cover all eventualities no matter what.
If the health condition is such that it is likely it will happen in the period of :long sit: then I would think it should be disclosed and how you plan to handle that. For instance if it is not so far and you can pop home during the day. I did that for a sit, because I could do that not having to cancel sit, and the pet and I went home to my place and spent the day together there and returned to pets home in the evening.
If it is a matter of might/ might not be able to do the sit, and the pet parent might end up with no sitter on short notice to handle, then it is a bit unfair and a decline would be likely if the host has other options.
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Very good explanation thank you Marion, but yes I’m a sitter, not a host. Maybe you should repost this in the hosts’ section as it’s vg
Thank you for advice rayray,. I said “small” probability, not “high”.
As luck would have it, I’m on a sit atm and one of my children did have a health crisis, first time in 8 years, but I’ve managed to support her remotely.
And my sit is 60 miles from home so could go and come back in a day if needed
Thank you for the advice. Yes I was just puzzled by what the insurance did and didn’t include, thought I might be missing something. I know better now
Really, really good advice and suggestions thank you so much @HappyDeb. Yes, I should think on doing petsits with An Other, and yes, dogs who do car travel a great idea too.
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It was still helpful thanks Marion, as it helped me understand what is included in a hosts insurance, which was kind of my question. Now I’m on my 5th sit I’m a bit more clued up. I’m loving it and prioritising myself and my pet.
Yes @Garfield, thank you, my question related to Anyone’s chances of an emergency cropping up.
I don’t think mine are higher than average and thought I’d explained that in my post.
I was just surprised the insurance didn’t cover that, and was trying to make sure I’d understood correctly.
And some vg advice. Thanks so much.
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