Hi All! This is my first year and I am currently traveling in my car across the USA. I have had wonderful experiences however a few times the home owners would return a day earlier than stated. Luckily I had the feeling to just check in and ask their estimated time of return to then find out they planned to be home a day before my departure. One time it was two days before. Im curious if others have experienced this and if they were notified in a timely manner or did they find out by asking the day or two before the HO original date of return?
One of them, however offered for me to stay in their guest house for extra days if I needed. And thats great, and helpful, however I still would like not to be surprised or have to ask each HO when they plan to return.
I can certainly understand your concern, Maria. Even when everything has gone wonderfully, having the homeowners return a day or two early without telling you puts you in a difficult position.
I think it’s reasonable to expect homeowners to let their sitter know as soon as their plans change. It’s not really about expecting them to predict the future, but about communicating once they know.
I also agree that you shouldn’t have to routinely check in a day or two before the agreed end date just to make sure the original arrangement still stands. The confirmed dates should be the starting point unless the homeowner tells you otherwise.
The guest-house offer was certainly a thoughtful solution, but ideally the change of plans would have been communicated proactively in the first place.
Thank you for this, Im still navigating the land of Trusted House Sitters and all of its customs and ways. I guess I will continue to check in on the HO since I want to have everything clean and my things packed on time of their arrival, when-ever that may be.
@Maria-LOVES-Animals, we’ve had a few misunderstandings in regards pet parent return.
Initially, in video call or shortly thereafter we asked pet parents for departure/arrival times - but some gave time leave/arrive home; some gave time flight leave/arrive airport. Our bad - so we now ask for flight numbers (most of our pet parents are departing by flight).
We have had one instance of a pet parent arriving earlier than expected. But was a simple misunderstanding as they gave us time based on incorrect time zone conversion … again, we now ask for flight numbers.
What you’ve encountered is probably rare. And thoughtful that you were able to stay in guest house. But no harm in asking very clear questions during video call.
I’m curious to know whether you got the details of their flight arrival time before they actually left as it seems strange that you should check with them before they were due home. In over 100 sits I have only had one couple return home early because one of their cats wasn’t well and they were worried. They did say I could stay, and I stayed one night but the man was difficult so I booked alternative accommodation at my cost for two nights.
I’ve never had a problem with hosts surprising me with their departure or return. That’s on 30+ sits via THS and beyond.
Even in two emergencies — one host had an accident that required returning home for follow up surgery and another pair returned early to say goodbye, because their dog unexpectedly needed to be put down — we quickly coordinated their updated return times, so I was prepared.
I avoid confusion by asking hosts to send me their departure and return times in writing (even when they’ve driven or flown their own plane) before I make any travel arrangements or plans. Only do I then send them my tentative arrival time, so we can coordinate.
If someone hesitated or lagged on such, I’d see it as a yellow flag and be prepared to cancel, if needed. That was especially so, because I’ve worked remotely during most sits. I wouldn’t let my meetings and such be screwed up by a host being careless or thoughtless.
We’ll have been sitting over 3.5 years, and I can think of only two occasions when the owners dates changed after the sit had started for very good reasons both times, and on both occasions we were told straight away as they were both unexpected events for the owners, and on both occasions they said we could stay as planned.
Just a thought, but we’re in the UK, maybe that’s the difference because most of our owners have travelled to other countries, so there’s less chance of flights/plans changing. Whereas perhaps in the US more owners you have sat for have potentially stayed within the US, so maybe it’s easier to change plans. It’s just weird how we’ve only had 2 thus far, and you’ve had more than that in 1 year. No idea if that’s potentially a thing, but if it is, perhaps in your application ask where they are off too, so you limit/control the number of sits for those with internal flights, to decrease your chances.
In the UK, there are a lot that travel using budget airlines, and some (including us) don’t pay the extra to allow us to change our flight times at a later date, because the flights themselves are reasonably cheap.
That would be my plan B.
If I were you, I would inform them at video chat stage of past experiences and let them know that you don’t appreciate being surprised by an early return which has not been discussed or communicated in advance. Raising this issue will help identify the hosts reaction and likelihood of this happening.
Upon arrival for a onw week’s cat sit, I was told by the Home Owners that a recent change of plan meant that they would be returning home two days earlier than agreed.
I gave them the benefit of the doubt that the change had been due to a last minute decision based on a non urgent family issue. In fainess I was told that I was welcome to stay until the agreed dates, though it didn’t feel that the offer was reluctantly made.
I didn’t question them as to why I had not been informed earlier because it wouldn’t change anything. When asked after the Sit if I would like to return for new dates, I politely declined. I did include the earlier return in my review but did not dock a star off.
I was glad on that occasion that I had driven my car to the pet sit & didn’t have my normal prebooked train tickets.
I vowed not to
@Maria-LOVES-Animals Having hosts return earlier than expected is unusual I think. In my experience of 8 years and 140+ sits the only unexpected early return that comes to mind was last winter in Australia. It was a two month sit and the hosts were road tripping from another part of Aus. They told us a few days beforehand that they’d be arriving a day earlier because of massive storms & flooding down south that were threatening to block their main route home, potentially for days, so they needed to get through before that happened. They had school & work to get back for so we were absolutely OK with that. We ended up overlapping 3 nights- one night was already a pre-agreed arrival back overlap and another extra night for us to bridge a gap. They were very laid back people & we got on well so it was ok & my hubby cooked dinner for us all -twice- which they appreciated!
However in general we always agree arrival and leaving times on confirmation or as soon as possible after. Certainly well before the sit starts if at all possible. We clarify it in black & white over WhatsApp for our benefit as well as theirs and we ask for flight details where relevant. We also share our own travel plans & flight numbers etc. Peace of mind for everyone when it’s firmly clarified. Its happened more than once that on requesting those details hosts realise they’ve got the day or time wrong! You should not be going into a sit without knowing when they return. I think if I was in your shoes, and hosts were driving, or on anotherwise casual schedule, I would say to them, ahead of time, that you are making your own travel plans around their schedule so if there are any changes for any reason they should notifying you immediately. Let them know that if they change plans it could seriously inconvenience you and/or leave you out of pocket
I’ve had HOs change their return date either returning a day or two earlier or later several times (out of 80 sits). It’s almost always been when they are driving on their trip. Now if they are driving I ask in the video chat if their plans are firm and remind them that I am making my own plans around their travel dates.
For me this is the main issue. I want to hand the house back over spotless, but if I don’t know when they’re coming home I have to keep it spotless 100% of the time.
I have been sitting for 12 years and only three instances come to mind when a host came home earlier than expected.
Two got Covid–the one set of hosts came back early because the last part of their trip involved staying with some friends for a few days so obviously that was out. The other set were from upstate NY and had driven to Canada and I think probably just wanted to be comfortable in their home rather than sick in a hotel. And the third had some sort of situation arise with their son–it must have been pretty serious for them to fly back to the US from Paris only 4 days into their trip.
In all these instances they contacted us at least a day before to let us know they would be coming back early.
So in all these cases, their original end date of the sit was accurate but something arose that made them feel they had to come back early.
From your message it isn’t clear in these cases whether you explicitly confirmed the end date with the host, or understandably assumed the date listed was accurate–though it is really important to directly discuss dates, as well as what time you plan on arriving and need to leave. The most obvious reason to ask is there is always a possibility they made a mistake on the calendar and marked the wrong date.
It was not until I just wrote that previous sentence that I remembered two instances about 7 or 8 years ago where the host came home a day early because they put the wrong date–in one case she came back pretty late and we had already been in bed so we naturally just stayed until morning.
In the second I was still awake when she walked in and she said of course I could stay; but at this time, we were staying at my mom’s house in NJ and did NYC sits to break things up. She had showered and went right to bed when she got home and I just decided to go back to NJ that night and left her a note.
While I cant remember because it was so long ago, I am pretty sure that the apartments were both in pretty decent shape upon their return though probably not the same level of clean we would normally leave them. But reviews were still good so no problems there.
Now if they just randomly decided to cut their trip short, that is annoying but ultimately it is their house and they are free to come home whenever they want. They should be informing you at least a day before, unless of course there was some sort of emergency and they don’t know until shortly before;but it doesn’t sound like this is the case here.
Being that this has happened to you a couple of times now, you might feel better discussing expectations with hosts, letting them know that you are basing your travel plans and other sit bookings around the agreed upon dates.
Of course things can come up where a host may have to come home earlier than planned; but if you have a host whose listed dates are more of 'suggestion ’ and they want the option to come home early for no particular reason, that is a whole different scenario and you take a pass.
While that may work for some sitters depending on their schedule and other factors, it does not for many others. As a full-time sitter who schedules sits back to back, I would not go into a sit knowing ahead of time the dates may change, leaving me on the hook for accommodation costs. And the only way to find out such information is directly asking the hosts about their plans.
we had this happen once at the very beginning of our house-sitting experience. Mid sit we found out quite by chance that the host was actually returning three days earlier than the dates listed on THS.
Since then, before we confirm a sit, we always ask for the arrival and departure times and, importantly, confirm the exact date and day of the week.
For example, we’ll ask, “What time are you arriving back on Saturday 19th?”
On quite a few occasions, the response has been, “Oh, we actually get back on Friday!” It’s surprising how often the day the hosts leave or return is different from what’s listed on THS.
Since we started making a point of confirming these details before accepting a sit, we haven’t had any unexpected early returns.
Thank you great tip!
from my experience, those that had flights did not return early, however, those that drove, did.
Yes, those that had flights, were fine. But several drove and even though it states the day and time window, that they were suppose to return, a few came earlier. But I contact HO now just to check in because the first time it happened they had forgot to update the day and time on their profile and forgot to tell me that.
Thats good, and I going to make sure I do ask. I thought I had but maybe not. too many now to remember.
I hear you and thanks! I was assuming that the dates listed are the correct day and time. I will definitely start asking because I am driving in my car and need to know ASAP.
good tip! thanks
If the host is driving then we do extra diligence about early returns. We had a month long sit recently where the hosts returned in the middle of the sit for 5 days.
I think they thought that was fine since we could continue our stay while they we home. We took the opportunity to leave and get a place at the beach. We had a heart to heart conversation and I think they thought that they got it.