Love this response! It hadn’t occurred to me that a HO dropping in during a sit may potentially be distressing or confusing for the animals, but you make a great point. Lovely to read the comments of supportive and understanding HOs on this thread.
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Hi @jelly. Welcome to the community forum. I’m glad you found us. I love your solution about meeting away from the house. That sounds like the perfect solution in your situation.
I’m not sure if you’re aware of it or not, or even interested, but many members of the forum include a link to their pet sit listing or sitter profile in their forum profile. That way it’s easy for forum members to look you up on the main website if the need arises. Many members also post, asking for other members to review their listing or sitter profile, to gain additional insights and ideas of ways to make their listing or profile shine even more.
Again, welcome to the forum.
It really boils down to how the sitter feels about visits from the pet owner and her family. I’ve had older children coming in to collect mail and parcels or find stuff they need that they forgot which wasn’t stressful for me or the animals. I think they were used to a busy household. I’ve even had someone come and stay the night which I found very interesting and entertaining. However, I like the idea of meeting them off the property so as not stress the animals. It’s all a matter of your preference. No one should feel awkward about saying no to anything that they didn’t sign up for.
We also have a dog right now that is extremely attached to her owners and it has happened that they had to come by to get something in the middle of a sit. They didn’t come into the flat but she smelled them in the stairway and she wouldn’t let me walk her, she wanted to return home after a few 100 meters. Once the same HOs also came back early and I was supposed to give them a last long walk, but no chance! We managed a few 100 meters and she was so emotionally torn up that even that was a challenge.
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The first time we used Trusted Housesitters the dog broke his leg spectacularly, such a complex fracture it could only be treated in one hospital in the country, so by arrangement with the sitter I drove home from the other end of the country and stayed overnight in order to take him to hospital early the next morning. She was more comfortable with that option than with driving him herself, and so was I, as of course I wanted to see the poor fella and talk to the surgeon myself. We have plenty of bedrooms so I didn’t displace the sitter. We were near the end of our holiday and he was in hospital until the day after we came back so the sitter had a few days with just the cats to recover from the dog trauma! In less urgent circumstances I wouldn’t dream of returning during the sit.
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A “few days” would be awkward and against the terms of service. We’ve had a few experiences and each were unique. With one, their flight was delayed, then cancelled, they rebooked a different flight, which was also cancelled and, unable to reach us by phone at 3 a.m. because we were sleeping, came back home. It was a 1 bedroom apartment and they were very apologetic…wife slept on sofa, and husband on living room floor and let us continue sleeping in bed. They got rebooked the next day. this is an unforeseen situation so obviously they were not in any way at fault. Another time we arrived, but the homeowners put us in a hotel the first night due to a change in plans. That’s perfectly fine too. Another time we had a homeowner who decided to cut her holiday short and with only an hour notice informed us she was coming home early and we were to vacate. We said we had no problem with this as long as she formally cancelled the rest of the sit by contacting Trusted Housesitters. Then she called back and said she wanted to do some emails and other activities but would leave at night to go to a friends house. Normally that would be ok except for the tone of her phone call and texts and some other “issues” that arose during the sit as well as she treated us like staff that she was bossing around. We encouraged her to cancel the remainder of the sit. She then said she wanted us out by 6 a.m. which we felt was very early and thought 10 a.m. would give us time to have breakfast, coffee and pack. She was there at 9 a.m. I haven’t given her a review because my mother said, “if you can’t say something nice, say nothing”. Despite everything she left us a decent review.
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Not sure where to put this. I just saw a listing in Mallorca where it really sounds like the PP will be living there…she’s just too darn busy to take care of her dog and would like to have overnight trips.
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Hi. I am new to THS and had only 1 sit which was a very pleasant one. I am currently trying to get sits in Europe. One HO is interested in me and in one message she said that some family members would be dropping by occasionally to visit the pets because they often do that. I would love to hear the opinions of others. Thank you.
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That home owner should inform her family they cannot visit the pets during your Sit. Its an invasion of your privacy. We once had a Sit where the owners delayed leaving the country and were staying nearby-they kept popping in for all sorts of reasons, usually unnanounced. It was very uncomfortable for us and I would never agree to that in future.
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Nope. Unless of course you desperately want this sit, in this location, and nothing else will do? But that just feels disruptive.
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Hi @Katie Should you ever come across a listing that you think needs membership services help/input, please always DM me the URL of the listing, so we can have a look and also email the homeowner. I could not find this particular one, but it may already have been removed due to the owner staying there intermittently.
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Hi @AnnaBaker - you should let them know that is not possible whilst you are there as it goes against THS terms and conditions.
You can send them this link to confirm to them that what you are saying is correct
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Maybe you can arrange to meet the family in a park nearby, so that they can see the dog (if it is a dog!). But only if it will suit you…
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Not really. I am ok with almost anywhere in Europe. Dates and duration are more important as I want to align with my confirmed sit. Thank you, Harris2 for your reply.
Thanks, Lokstar for your input.
Thank you, Colin. I appreciate it.
It’s live. Just forwarded it to you.