Lots do… and I’m one example of that.
When I first got started, I would take local weekends all the time, just to get ratings up. (Also to get some alone-time during covid.)
Now that I have 30 sits under my belt, I will still take a weekend sit for a few special locals, whenever I’m free. They have ensured my loyalty with sincere friendliness, generosity, and a clean, comfortable house.
The Owner was there for 3 THREE of the 5 FIVE nights!
Yes! If it was a two week sit or more, perhaps it would be less intrusive but 3/5 of the sit was was actually about them overbooking for their own flexibility. It was very disappointing and uncomfortable.
I agree. There is always room for negotiation but if a HO wants to leave all those sections unanswered they will likely have less applications and learn to be more forthcoming.
That’s my assumption too. And the house was not large enough for us to be anywhere but in our bedroom. We couldn’t have fit in the tv room with them.
This is true, but an indication of timeframe should be possible. Eg: morning, afternoon, evening
I arrived for a three week sit once to find that the owner had me come in two days early. I did not find out until I arrived. They wanted to make sure I knew how to operate every light switch and appliance dial and all of the streaming services and even drive me around and show me where the grocery store was. Quite excessive and I was not thrilled but they were nice people and had a comfortable room for me so I waited it out.
The situation here though, having had time to think about it, I believe I would have told them that this is not what I signed up for. Here are some options. 1. I go to a hotel that you pay for and I will return when you are ready to begin your trip and I will depart when you return home. 2. I stay and you begin your trip early and I will depart when you return home. 3. We part ways now and I wish you well in finding a last minute sitter.
I’m flexible but now I try to nail down departure and return days/times before agreeing to the sit.
Gosh, that does seem a bit strange. Our sitters always check when our travel is. Whilst it’s nice to spend time to get to know each other two days out of five is very odd.
Think I’d have gone away and come back if that were me.
The system does not let hosts create personalized listings for each sit, so there’s really no way to say “hey these dates are tentative and might change” in each listing. We can’t say “I’d like sitters to arrive a night before” for a specific sit, unless we literally update our whole listing each time. Now,t he hosts should have communicated all this, but also sitters need to ask. It’s incredibly stressful getting everything ready before departing. Things slip peoples’ minds.
I typically book long term sits as I have been nomadic for long periods of time and I dont enjoy short term sits as much anymore.
I honestly always appreciate the HO allowing us(me and my dog) to stay beforehand or after as it alleviates some anxiety.
If I did a 5 day stay and they were there for 3 days I would be asking many questions.
For one of my future sits I have asked, why don’t you come back instead of spending the night at a hotel the night you get back?
With that said I don’t know what issues this HO may “Create”. I am at the point where i take photos before and after I land.
@JessicaP I am only a Sitter, and editing my Sitter Profile is extremely easy. I assume that editing a Pet Owner Profile is a similar process.
There should be a way to easily state “dates are tentative at this point” for a particular Sit listing, and then delete that sentence for your next vacation, if it does not apply.
It really isn’t that hard to change the first section of your listing. And when you’re booking a timeframe months in advance the stress of getting ready shouldn’t really be a thing. If it is your practise (as apparently it is for these HOs) to allow this much time for handover, be open about it up front, from the beginning. And most specifically, look at your overall timeframe and ask yourself what you are expecting of a sitter. I don’t imagine there are many people who would find a two night handover, late morning departure and afternoon return the day before reasonable on a FIVE night sit. It shouldn’t be up to me to ask every HO pointed questions like this to draw out information that should simply be on the table. The risk you run in not being upfront about it, is that the sitter may just leave. And that would be on you.
I agree 100%. We have done 10 sits now, and on 3 of the 10, the arrival and departure information was not clear and we had to ask repeatedly for it. On one sit, the homeowners actually arrived home a day earlier than we expected! I have learned to confirm specific flight departure and arrival information before accepting the sit.
It is easy to update the HO details before listing new dates. I do it every time - adding a detail, or updating info about the pets.
If dates are uncertain, it is possible to start the listing with “Exact dates TBD” or similar. Most sitters need to know exact dates before confirming, but there may be others who can be flexible.
One thing we always ask during the interview process is:
What days/times are you leaving/returning?
What days/times do you want us to arrive/leave?
How do you want to handle the handover?
Then a couple weeks before the sit starts, I contact them and reiterate our understanding of those dates/times to make sure nothing has changed.
As a HO I would never dream of doing this. I always send out details of our Itinerary before the sit. We have a small house and, on occasion, to manage early departures, we have paid for the sitter to stay in a nearby Premier Inn, from where we pick them up in the morning.