Hi everyone!
I’m hoping to get some insight from the community. I have a month-long sit posted for this summer in the Pacific Northwest… literally prime time and prime location, right? I have a spacious, clean, and comfortable home in a very convenient area. Public transportation is available, but it’s not super convenient… most errands or outings would definitely be easier with a car.
The catch: I can’t leave my car behind for the sitter this time. (Normally I do, but this summer I need it for a cross-country move.)
I thought a long summer stay in the PNW would get a lot of interest, but so far, I’m surprised… very few applicants. I’m wondering if not providing a car is a major deterrent, even for a desirable location like mine?
If you were a sitter, would the lack of a car be a dealbreaker or do you think something else might be turning people off? I really appreciate any honest feedback! I’d love to get a great match for this sit and make it a win-win!
Hi @Myka, I just checked out your listing, and I think it’s great. No problwem with it.
he house is beautiful, the location is great, and the pets seem easygoing and adorable
In my case, I consider using a car when public transportation connections aren’t excellent or at least not very good. If the sit will be long enough, several weeks, I’ll consider the car as an important variable, to take the pets to different places and get supplies mainly. I won’t say a dealbreaker, but I would ask the HO about how connected is the place and if the pets are ahppy to use public transport for example.
As a quick advice, I suggest that if you can’t leave your this time, avoid including it to the AMENITIES LIST.
Some sitters will filter the homes/sits using Use of car includedfilter to find options:
and it could be discouraging to find the inconsistency regarding the car. It’s better to avoid the surprise to find that it won’t be available this time.
Generally, there seems to be an oversupply of sits in the PNW vs. the number of sitters who want to be there at any given time. That means sitters will probably lean toward sits in the city center or close to it vs. farther out, where you are. Like someone could easily get estimated drive times between your city and wherever they want to sightsee. If there’s a dog, that means they’d have to be more careful about commute times and getting back and forth vs. with a cat sit. That would be tight with public transit, which is generally so limited in the 'burbs. And pets aren’t usually allowed on public transit in the region unless they’re service animals.
If you’re looking for ways to make your sit more appealing given the above and you can’t leave your car (a car being a necessity for visitors in your location, IMO), you might consider offering a subsidy for a rental car. And/or offer a dog walker for some days.
I say the above, having lived in Portland and Seattle and knowing traffic and public transit well in both areas. I look at sits in the PNW all the time and have done multiple sits in the region. There are so many to choose from, it’s easy to stay closer in. And I always have a car in the PNW, so personally don’t look to borrow one. (Though a pair of hosts in Portland did volunteer theirs when I told them I might take their dog to the beach. Their car was outfitted for their dog and they gassed it up, because they said I shouldn’t spend any money taking their dog on adventures. So in that case, I used their car even though I had my own.)
Great info, totally appreciate it. I can’t leave my car this time, as I have to move my daughter across the country, so I’ll be driving it. I briefly thought about getting a rental, but I need to pull a small trailer so a rental isn’t optional either. I’m doing an 8 day sit in San Antonio & will rent my own vehicle, I was planning on staying in a hotel, but found this sit, so I hope it works out great. I’ve had a few sitters bring their own car, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
We are sitters and HOs on the platform. As sitters, we flew into Washington state recently for two weeks and just rented a car. We do not believe it’s the HO’s responsibility to provide transportation for us.
Your sits are a while off so I would not worry. Many sitters use their own vehicles and many are still putting together plans for July-December.
As HOs, we do not provide a car due to liability and the mess that would be created if the sitters have an accident with our car. It’s just outside our risk tolerance. That doesn’t make us – or you – bad hosts if we do not offer use of car.
About your listing: Be patient. Don’t fret too much about what your listing doesn’t offer, focus on all the great stuff you do offer. It really looks good from here!
Just be sure to relist your ad frequently. Boost it a week after it’s posted as “new.” Then, if days go by without any suitable applicants, delete the listing, wait a day, repost it as “new” and repeat the process. As HOs, we’ve had to do that and have gotten amazing sitters for our two upcoming sits.
You’ve got tens of thousands of sitters they all do things differently. I would think that eventually a sitter with a car maybe someone from a city a few hours away who wants a summer getaway will see it. Maybe someone doing vanlife who can use the van for grocery runs and hikes. Personally, we don’t sit full time and do two kinds of sits: Sits we can drive to and sits in places like cities where we can fly or bus or train to and won’t need a car. If we start adding in car rental, it wouldn’t be worth it to to a sit especially a month long one.
I think for sitters based outside the US, it’s a very big deal. Rental isn’t cheap. I keep seeing sits in parts of the States without public transport which look like my dream stays and I absolutely wouldn’t begrudge the air fare. But when you add in car rental, costs really start to soar.. So, sadly, I don’t apply for those sits.
But then, I’m sure you have plenty of USA-based sitters to choose from and they’d answer the question differently.
Good thing is, you only need one sitter (or a pair) at a time and you’ve got some breathing room till your sit.
There’s never a uniform sitter (or host). You just play the odds when you’re in an area where much of what’s worth seeing requires a car. Hope you’ll get a sitter with one of their own or who can afford a rental.
@Myka, looks like you’ve had some great advice.
Portland is a nice spot - we completed multiple OR housesits in winter 2023/4. Happy days. Alas we’re in wrong continent this year.
As others have said, you have plenty time before housesit. But never a bad time to think of a Plan B.
Re use of owner vehicle, suspect views vary extensively within housesit community. So i’d be wary of too much generalization. Partly as method of housesitter travel (drive, flight, etc) to your location may vary. And housesitter lifestyle during housesit may vary significantly (e.g. remote worker vs touring local area).
I’d add three thoughts re your listing: #1 are you requiring, recommending or simply encouraging housesitter to have their own vehicle? #2 if housesitter vehicle is optional then consider adding details of local public transit #3 are you expecting the housesitter to use their own vehicle to transport your pets? (say to walks, etc) … especially as at least one of your dogs ‘needs lots of exercise’.
@Myka
I think @GotYourBack had some good advice. I’m an east coast US sitter and I’ll drive 4 or 5 hours to a sit, and figuring out a string of sits across the country to get to and from the west coast would be challenging. (I did create three 6 to 8 week strings in the UK and one 6 week string in Australia a few years ago. But it wasn’t easy.)
I did look at your posting and while it seems like a great sit, for that length a sit, I think I’d need a car.
I’m guessing you will find some western sitters who would drive.
That said, when I sat in the UK, several HOs had offered use of their cars only to withdraw the offer as UK insurance had changed and it had become very expensive or impossible to add a US driver. Working with the HOs, we agreed to split the cost of rental cars - which worked fine for me as I didn’t have to buy train tickets to travel between sits.
Something to note about remote workers: We have a lot of choice among sits, especially when we have cars or are willing to rent one. I mention that, because many hosts say, oh, I just need a remote worker. But you’re often competing for such folks as a host.
It’s important to be realistic, not to generalize — odds exist, good or bad, whether we’re sitters or hosts. Can you maybe find someone who doesn’t need a car? Sure. But are your odds better if you can offer a car or a car subsidy or a dog walker? Undeniably that would give you better odds as a host who lives in the 'burbs in the U.S. and is already seeing limited applications. You can pressure test this by checking what other sits are available in your area. If there’s a lot of inventory, that probably means some hosts won’t get sitters. So, yes, I’d definitely be thinking of Plan B, in case.
Personally, my rescue dog needs professional care, and even though we’re willing to pay a lot, we have to plan ahead, because the right sitters aren’t always available.
@toml, re UK car usage … we’ve had several UK housesits that included use of Pet Parent vehicle. Was fabulous enhancement to pet care (drive to lovely walks) and aided our experience too.
But … we now appreciate that car insurance mechanisms vary greatly by country. To our knowledge then car insurance policies in US, Canada and continental Europe provide coverage for the vehicle. So adding an extra driver is easy and often free. But UK car insurance policies provide coverage for the driver. So adding an extra driver is highly dependent upon the specifics of the pet parent car insurance policy. Two UK Pet Parents offered us cars prior to sit confirmation then withdrew them at start of housesit - one kindly funded basic car rental cost. So our due diligence for UK housesits that include a car now includes greater related due diligence prior to sit confirmation.
Yes, I totally get it, if I were traveling Internationally, I would want a car option as well, unless it was in a big city, but even then, I prefer more remote areas. Trouble is I need my car to help my daughter move across country, so it’s just not an option this time. When I fly somewhere I always leave my car.
this time, avoid including it to the 
