We have been using TH for a couple of years now but would like some advice from others about how to begin a sit. In the past we have been able to have the sitter come for lunch with us, we show them around, then leave. Now we’re finding that we need to leave early in the morning and this doesn’t work. Do other owners always meet the sitter in person before the sit??? How do others do this?
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Hi @jocoop1066 and welcome to the forum we’re glad you’ve come here for this important question. I can tell you what we have done for our sitters and hopefully other members will chime in with their experiences as well.
Leading up to the sit we go over with our sitter “check in” so to speak we let them know our travel date and times…if it is an early morning departure we ALWAYS offer them to stay the night before (unless we have a full house). That way we can get or make them dinner and get to know them. More often than not most sitters do take us up on this offer. We always took Homeowners up on an offer like this too when we were sitters. What I like about it is that our dog (really any pet) get to see that everyone is getting along and able to sense a “peace” in the household. I find that it makes the transition a lot easier for our dog as he’s already spent the evening getting to sniff our new guests and we get the bonus of making new friends.
We let our sitters know that we have a baby so we don’t have a quiet home and bedtime to the choice is up to them of whether or not they would like to stay in our home the night before an early departure. Our sitters have always let us know if they are interested/available in staying the night or having dinner together…those that prefer not to stay with us typically get lodging nearby or stay with fiends/family but still come for a meal.
If in the future you will always prefer to be able to meet your sitter before the start of the sit I find it helpful for both parties to add that in your profile or let them know early on in the communication so the sitter knows your preference is to meet prior to the start and they can either let you know they will make themselves available or that meeting before the start doesn’t work for them.
We live 3 hours from our airport and almost always try to book the 1st flight out, so what we do is stay the night before at the airport. That way the sitter comes the day before our flight we get to spend amble time with them and we go stay at a hotel. It’s worked out well.
That said, we have done a walk thru video chat via WhatsApp (vs in person), where we showed them everything and I would be totally comfortable (with the right sitters) to leave a key with a neighbor so they could get in if we weren’t here.
Lastly we are also sitters, and we always stay the night before near our sit and if HO are leaving early we meet them the night before. As a HO I have offered to pay for the sitter to stay locally the night before as we don’t have room to house them here.
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With dogs I always want to do an in person handover with the owners and we often stay the night before in the home or nearby. With cats depending on the cat and owners comfort level we often arrive after the owner’s have left. We will have video chatted beforehand and reviewed the manual and asked any relevant questions.