If you’re really sold on this sit, you could check into the hotel the evening before they return and one of you and the baby can get settled in while the other goes back to the home until the departure time and then head to the hotel. Not an ideal solution but could work.
Dan and Nan
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THS is about respect from both parties. I appreciate the HO can’t change the flight arrival time but this problem should have been sorted out at a much earlier stage. Not ideal, but if I was the HO and I wasn’t prepared/ able to pay for my accommodation for this last part of my holiday, I would tip toe in and crash on the sofa for a few hours!
If I was the HS, I would withdraw my application.
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We had a sit once in iceland and the owner came home in the middle of the night. She slept on the sofa and we left early in the morning. No issues at all!
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Speaking as a home owner, if we were arriving home in the early hours of the morning I would find somewhere to spend a few hours and avoid coming home until a more reasonable time of day….if that wasn’t possible and we HAD to arrive home in the early hours of the morning we would come home and make ourselves a brew and stay downstairs until the sitters got up.
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Totally agree @Kelly! Expecting a sitter to leave at that time of the night is unacceptable, even without a child and no one should expect a sitter to do that. Either the HO stay in a hotel, give the sitters a hotel, or like you said, have a neighbor do the handover. I’m not sure I would even agree to that sit because that could be just the start to unrealistic demands.
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I would be concerned about what other unreasonable requests they are going to come up with. I would decline the sit. What do you mean the house cannot be left unattended? ever? Are you not allowed to go for walks? supermarket? it really sounds like a very undesirable sit in a desirable location
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Wow, In earlier days HS, we had this happen a couple of times, we physically couldn’t wash and dry 3 lots of bedding b4 owners arriving home at 3am, we agreed to strip the Bedding and put in laundry room and make their bed, we were only an hour from home and we did not have another sit booked until later the next day.
That being said, wow, with a 9mth old, that seems a huge ask on you. There is a site/app where you can book a few hours stay, the Hotel chains use them when ppl check out early and the 3pm booking is not due in until 5pm or after, the app is called Dayuse, mind if you are in the UK it’s peak season so could prove cheaper to find a hotel for 24hrs. I suppose it depends of in if you in the UK and travelling around or from overseas, either way what a challenge for a sit.
I suppose at worst you could look at the airport they are flying into and see how much a room would be and offer to pay and see what they say, or think, (hopefully think about you guys with a newborn and the time of day they are asking you to leave, but not leave after you have walked, and fed the dogs?)
Or if you are still travelling etc, look at a Hotel not to far away, get your Partner to take yourself and Bub to the Hotel/B&B/ etc and them strip and remake the master bed, put all the other washing in the Laundry room (I hate leaving sits where I can’t wash and remake all the beds and do the towels, it happens and it bugs me, however sometimes it’s just too early and the HO insists we don’t, they are just happy to have clean sheets on their bed, come home to a bed to climb into) then your Partner can meet you at the Hotel (get a spare key and make sure they can enter at 3am with no security problems)
Good luck, I hope you get it sorted. xxxx
This is frankly inhospitable. I would absolutely tell them it’s not possible, nor is it incumbent on you to sort it out. If they don’t immediately eat crow for such a gross ask, then I’d cancel as a sitter. Location is not a reason to accept this kind of behavior.
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walk away!
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This is not only bad for you, it’s idiotic for them. They don’t want you to leave early because they don’t want the dog to be alone a few hours at night, but if they get delayed and you are out of there in the middle of the night the dog will be alone possibly for many hours. This doesn’t make sense. They need to stay at an airport hotel and changeover in the morning. If the flight is delayed, you’ll still be there till morning. This isn’t complicated.
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Exactly. The entitlement behind this request … there is no way I would sit for someone with that expectation
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Cancel, advise membership services, run for the hills! These HOs are not good people.
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At my first housesit in New Zealand, a family of 5, I was given the parents’ bedroom which was left really nicely for me. When they returned it was 2 or 3 in the morning but they told me to stay in their room as they would sleep on the couches. I felt uncomfortable with that but they were adamant. Like everyone else here I just cannot understand these owners’ way of thinking at all and it would make me uneasy throughout the sit, if indeed I were to do it which is unlikely.
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And if we are all adding our own experiences: we sat for a lovely couple in Scotland and their connecting flight arrived back in the night. They insisted we remained in their own bedroom and they returned to the house in total silence and spent the rest of the night in their spare room.
I have noted that there is no spare room in this instance but it’s the attitude I’m illustrating, not the practicalities.
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Yes, exactly
We’re HO’s and we wouldn’t dream of a greeting a sit with this requirement. We would stay at a hotel at the airport without a second thought or make arrangements for the pet to be cared for by someone else.
I would politely suggest this and seriously reconsider the sit.
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Right. They could buy an air mattress and leave it and bedding out and ask OP to set it up for them in the living room.
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Gosh! this is just suuuch an unreasonable ask. If anyone should be looking for hotel accommodation it should be the home owner, not the house sitter. After all they are the ones returning and already up and awake. I am a home owner myself, not a sitter (albeit I am new to THS and we’ve only had one sitter so far). To be honest, I think it is rude and inconsiderate of them to even ask.
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I’ve had similar experiences to @Saltrams and @Smiley . I had a HO who insisted I sleep in her comfortable king-size bed and she slept in the less comfortable spare room bed both the night before and the night she returned. I was leaving the following morning. I had HO who vacated their home the night before so I could have their bedroom – I think they stayed at their son’s or a friend’s. Then I had HO who spent the night on their uncomfortable sofa bed the night before so I could have their bed. I know it was uncomfortable because my daughter later joined me and slept on it. She informed me and I tried it out. There are so many considerate, kind HO. You happened on one who most certainly is not.
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