That would be in time to give the cat its dinner. (But in fact, the HO left at 13:00.)
Problem is that the HO had not heard from the sitter after asking the sitter a question in the morning (of the day before, if I understand the timing correctly). And that the sitter had not given his phone number.
The HO never left at 1PM, as their trip was cancelled.
Seems canceling the sit because of one missed text is a little extreme, especially when the sit had reached out less than 24 hours ago to confirm. I think the home owner should have followed up with another text messages and a phone call.
But the sitter had not given his phone number (although the HO had given theirs).
Yes, the owner could have sent another THS message. But maybe they thought that that would be little use, when they saw that the last question had been read?
The HO never disclosed the reason for the the trip being cancelled, however, it WAS NOT due to the fact that she feared not having a sitter for Louie. She never left the home at 9:30 AM or 1:00 PM. I do bear responsibility for the lack of communication the day before. The whole situation is very unfortunate for both sides. I spent a lot of my time going to the HOâs property ahead, getting an orientation, then packing and preparing for the sit. I am petitioning THS to officially cancel the sit as it never happened. I think it best to take away the lessons learned from this and move on to a fresh start.
A voice call that would not have been answered, because sitter did not have her phone with her.
More reason for HO to panic!
If she didnât disclose the reason, how can you be so sure âit WAS NOT due to the fact that she feared not having a sitter for Louieâ? Did she explicitly deny that? I think youâre probably right, I think if that was the reason, the owner would have been more explicit and would probably have said âTHEY had to cancel the tripâ instead of âitâs been cancelledâ but if reasons werenât disclosed there are no safe assumptions, Iâm afraid.
True, but the HO might also have tried to make a voice call in the evening when that THS message to the sitter had not been answered all day.
Good point. Exchanging phone numbers (BOTH parties!) should be something that is a givenâŚand an expectation. If I agreed to a sit in the initial video call, if we havenât already exchanged phone numbers I wouldnât book the sit until communication is easy to do via phone or text message. Everyone using this platform I am sure has a cell phoneâŚcommunication is too simple to mess up. If a HO canât communicate with me effectively throughout the entire process, I am not even booking and as I have done before, retract my application before it is approved.
Great comments by many (including @pietkuip) and thank you to @apierlioni for such a topic!!! 49 and counting commentsâŚyou know you had a great topic to discuss and benefit everyone, regardless if mistakes were made. No one diedâŚand the cats survived!!! All is good!
Definitely report to TH this is good bad manners all round. And certainly needs to be noted Incase it happens with more plannend sits. Less than 2 hrs notice is just bad.
Does not also sound the most friendly and welcoming person & I would be afraid she would turn out to also have many hidden demands and possibly points with the sit that werenât mentioned.
And def. Not friendly that she talked to you on the porchâ:scream:
Well the sitter said she did not have her phone. So a voice call would not have made a difference, I do think the sitter should have immediately reached out to the home owner as soon as she retrieved her phone. I think to much time passed with no contact between the HO & the sitter. Itâs hard to determine in this case if the home owner changed her travel plans for fear the sitter wouldnât show up or if something else happened to make the cancellation. I say that because the homeowner had already informed the sitter that she wasnât going to leave till 9:30 am & then she asked if 1:00 pm would be ok? So Iâm thinking something was already going on with her travel plans then. Whatever the case maybe I think some communication should have taken place alot earlier than 6:30 pm on the day of the scheduled sit. The good thing is tho this sit was local to the sitter.