Hello fellow TS!
Has anyone had a home/pet owner not return on the agreed to date from the site?
We may encounter a possibility that the homeowners will need to extend their trip due to travel mishaps and not return on the to date agreed upon. Hopefully things will work out as we do have a bit of unbooked time between house/pet sits. We are at our first housesit ever so any advice is welcomed. They are aware of the date we will need to leave for our next sit…I’m sure all will work out. Please feel free to share any experience with a similar situation.
Happy Trails,
Trusted Tail-Sitters
Lisa & Eric 
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A few times due to cancelled flights. We have always managed to stay the extra night & day to cover it (we try not to book back to back if there are international flights and logistics going on) & it has all been fine 40 sits in. Just be clear on comms and if you can’t stay then it’s their issue to sort not yours. Don’t feel bad. #clearcommsalltheway
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Hi @trusty-tailsitters , I hope your first sit is going well !
This has happened to us a few times. As we are a couple it is normally easy for us to help out by splitting up for a day or two.
On the rare occasion that we can’t help out, we just say so and it is then up to the home host to find alternative sitters for the extra days
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Fortunate that you had some unbooked time!
One thing to think of, if you have the THS Welcome Guide, is that access to that information will be gone after the last scheduled day of the sit. This can be a problem when you need it to find cleaning materials or the local rules for garbage disposal etc.
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@trusty-tailsitters -We haven’t had this happen but if it was for an emergency situation would stay if it was at all possible- if not we would co-ordinate and hand over to their Plan B / emergency contact .
We always bring up this type of scenario in our chat with homeowners before accepting a sit … if there was an emergency and your return was delayed / or we had to leave early what is your back up plan ?
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Good point @pietkuip about the Welcome Guide .
Also if you agree to stay longer it would be prudent to get the owners to extend the dates on the platform so that you are both still cover by THS ( liability etc etc ) .
They may need to contact MS to do this - as the sit is already in progress.
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Well done you for adapting your plans. Sometimes things happen which are out of control of the HO or you. Whilst the forum is full of doom and gloom & nasty stuff linked to breaching t&cs, it isn’t always like that, sometimes things happen and you just need to adapt the plans between with the HO and yourself if you are able. It’s not the normal, but sometimes it happens, and you just need to let common sense and kindness take over. It’s great that you have some free time afterwards, I bet the owners are so relieved about that, but just make sure the HO has a back up plan for when you leave, for example, with friends or family for if their flight is delayed. Also, ask the HO to change their end date, not sure if they can do it themselves with the sit already starting, but they could pop a message to the @support team to tell them it needs changing.
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If your sit ends up being extended by mutual agreement, I suggest that you get the owners’ request in writing and then contact membership services, so they can change the dates of your sit to reflect the actual dates. That way, if anything comes up, your extra sit dates are “official,” rather than off the books. That also would extend your access to the welcome guide.
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Back in 2021, we had a woman coming back one week later than foreseen, because she caught Covid and wasn’t allowed to fly back.
Since we sit as a couple, one of us went on to the next sit, the other one stayed on.
We also had owners that were stuck a month abroad. We could extend for 3 weeks, but after that they needed to bring in new sitters.
If it is at all possible, we stay. If not, I guess that’s what emergency contacts are for…
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Hi @trusty-tailsitters
I had this on one of my sits where the HO’s car broke down and needed a couple of days extra on my sit. I wasn’t in my home country so to change my flight would incur a charge and the difference to the new flight. The HO agreed to cover these extra costs.
So my advice would be to discuss the unexpected extended stay with the HO.
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I can only recall one instance where the HO’s return time was significantly delayed due to a cancelled flight. They would need to arrive a day later, but due to our plans we were unable to stay. Luckily a next door neighbor could watch their dogs for a night.
We are full-time sitters, and usually have minimal gaps between sits, especially when we are sitting in the US and have an abundance of options, no matter what part of the country we are in. We very frequently finish one sit and start another the same day.
If staying the extra time didn’t interfere with arriving to our next sit in a timely fashion, happy to do it.
It is important for homeowners to realize a delay in their return is ultimately their issue and not the sitter’s, so they should think about what they would do in that instance if the person could not stay.
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#1 Always make sure their Sit dates are the date you arrive to the date you depart (not just their actual trip dates).
This all needs hashed out BEFORE you even commit to a Sit!
Why?
Because if you’re a Premium Member, the Insurances only cover the dates published for the Sit.
I have at the bottom of my Profile “How to Edit Dates”, cuz HOs say they “tried” but couldn’t figure it out.
- I do back to back Sits… SOOO, that means I communicate in the beginning, BEFORE committing to the Sit about:
- need to know the expected Arrivate Date & Time
- AND expected Departure Date & Time.
I don’t allow just a response like “any time Tuesday morning”. Because “morning” is a personal perception. lol Does it mean 5am, 7am, 9am, 11am??
- Yes, things happen. Flights are delayed, or even canceled til the next day. Even driving trips can be delayed with rush hour traffic, weather, accidents, construction, flat tire, etc.
I always make sure it’s okay with an owner if i can arrive or depart a day before or after a sit – just to build in flexibility. That all happens in my initial phone or face-time. If they have a spare bedroom, most are fine with the flexibility. If it’s someone with a 1 bedroom, another story.
Another alternative…
If you are departing before they arrive home, and something happens with their flight… most people have a back up plan with a neighbor or friends/family. But I usually confirm to stay until after they arrive home if no other back up plan.
I’ve never had responses on requests for support team to change dates from their end.
Assumed they won’t do it.
The difference here is that her sit has already started, so I’m not sure if they can adapt the dates in the normal way, I have no idea, but if not, the support team need updating of the scenario from an insurance point of view.
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Yes, my sit had already started too. I sent all the details of date changes, etc to the support team but nothing was addressed. The HO isn’t tech savvy, and couldn’t figure out how to manuever the THS app, that’s quirky even for us tech savvy people. In the end, I never received credit or any history showing the Sit at all.
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@AkronTaxLady From our experience you cannot request the change yourself- whatever info you send- it has to be the HO who contacts THS.
We’ve had this scenario a number of times- usually to change something on the review- e.g stars or spelling mistake etc but we’ve also had date changes. E.g on the current sit- after arrival- the hosts said they would be returning one day earlier. In the old days we wouldn’t have bothered to change that officially but now, with the overlap rule, we asked them to get the dates adjusted. We like to do back to back sits and the last day was effectively blocked. They understood & got it changed by the next day. We may not have needed that flexibility but as it happens we did manage to find a great sit starting later on the same day we leave here. We would not have even been able to apply if the HO hadn’t got the date changed.
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@everyone
Thank you so much to you all for all the responses, advice, tips and sharing past experiences! We appreciate you taking time out to help us out and give us guidance regarding the before mentioned matter. We just want to adapt and handle situations with kindness, while respecting TS rules. We weren’t aware of the guide no longer being accessible after the agreed to sit end date, so thank you! We tend to make our own notes and write down emergency contacts etc to have handy in our phones or “old school” by handwritten memos.
Thanks again for reaching out to us… we appreciate your time and consideration.
Trusty-tailsitters
aka Lisa & Eric 
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Not at all relevant here but I love your handle name! I’ve recently started growing in my silver hair (13 months now and I have very long hair) and I’m sharing my journey on social media and our blog so I get overly excited when I see the word silver anywhere! ha
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Yes we do the same and also many house sits have a printed out version of some kind also handy as reference for the duration of the sit. We are also new. On our 5th sit now, we had 4, 1 week sits to help build up our rating with a month long sit now. All the best to you both!
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