My husband and I often will book two or more sits together. If we get a sit in a certain area, we may look for one the weeks before or after in the same general location. After all, we’re already there!
Is that something other sitters do?
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I do that as well. The more I travel, the less I want to move around, especially as I work full time as I travel. Last year I had several sits lined up in Yorkshire that unfortunately didn’t end up happening due to Covid, but I’m keeping my eye out and will hopefully be able to do something similar next year.
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Yes, definitely. Generally, we decided where we want to go (usually the UK, France, and Italy). Then we start looking for sits within some rough outside dates (6-8 weeks). Once we get an “anchor sit”, we try to book other sits in the same time frame. Sometimes we end up going directly from one to another, but usually we have a few days “off” when we find a nice B&B and relax before the next one. We’ve found home owners to be very flexible if we are come from or leaving to another sit. One set had to change their dates and we didn’t even get to meet in person, but it all worked out fine.
Anyway, after the sits are organized, we book our flights and leave a couple of nights free before and after the sits. I think the most we’ve done is 3 in a row, and the last trip we flew to London, had one sit in the UK, then flew to France for two more. Lovely trip.
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We frequently chain sits together. For example, in the fall of 2019, we returned to the UK to do a second-time sit as well as a new one. The new one was the sister of a previous homeowner in France. At the end of the year, we traveled to to a third-time sit in France, followed by a new sit, and then on to sit for friends we had previously made when our homeowner introduced us to their walking group. In total we were sitting from October 2019 to March 2020.
Normally, we try to have a day or so with each owner at the beginning and end of our stay. It makes for a nice handover. We’ve even had homeowners suggest we stay longer to spend some time with them. We’ve been taken to Christmas parties, dancing lessons, touring their favourite spots, among other things. On several occasions, owners have collected us from the previous house sit.
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Yes Petermac, this is helpful. I’m a regular to the cities where my family lives so that I can give them space and for myself too. It means I can stay longer ‘as a local’ without being under their feet. As I work in my own virtual business, I feel less anti-social when I need to work than I would if I was staying in their home. It’s a win for us all in my view. Great post - thanks!
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I like to, whenever possible. I have two weeks in Kansas coming up and I booked a sit on the way there to cut off travel time and a “close” sit of 8 hours away to make it worthwhile the drive
Yes. We try to be in specific places at certain times, gliding competitions, sailing regattas etc. so we do book multiple sits in the same areas.
Next year, if the world opens up again, we want to spend about six months in and around Vancouver Island so it will be lots of sits in the same area again. It’s good to really get to know the areas.
Elsie
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That’s my current situation. Three weeks here and 2 weeks right on the heels of it. Great way to extend a visit especially since I’ve got family in the area. Win-Win
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This is what we do also in order to keep transportation costs down and the exhausting travelling days to a minimum.
We are currently on our first of four back to back sits all in London and all involving only around one hour travelling in between each.
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All the time. I have regular sits in London that are a short bus ride apart.
And the HOs are aware, very accommodating and flexible so that it works out for everyone.
I’m doing that at the moment with a bit of round trip in the north of England and North Wales: 5 days in Lancashire, 5 in Sheffield, then 12 over Xmas and NY on Anglesey and now 4 in Liverpool before heading back home tomorrow. They all dovetailed perfectly with one starting the day the previous one ended, and keys were either left with neighbours or in a safe place.
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I try to arrange multiple sits back to back, not necessarily very adjacent but in a way that makes the travel work out.
One of my first pairs of sits was in the UK - 3 weeks in a 19th C castle in Somerset followed directly by a week in Edinburgh. I took the train from Taunton in the morning and was having dinner with the HOs in Edinburgh and started sitting the next day.
A pair of sits - Denver with 3 cats followed by Portland, Oregon with a dog. The sits were separated by a weekend trip to New Orleans where my brother and I and some friends went to scatter our parents’ ashes.
Last summer - a week on Naples Island in Long Beach, CA with a yellow lab and an independent cat then 3 East Bay sits back to back - Walnut Creek with a dog, Oakland with 2 kittens, and Berkeley with a blind dachshund.
Scheduled to fly to the UK in early Feb for a string of 4 sits.
For international, but even for domestic, it makes the traveling a lot cheaper.
Agreed.
Wouldn’t it be great to buy a one way round the world plane ticket and do pet sitting at each stop. Take 9 months to a year. As long as you keep going in the same direction it works. I have researched. It’s on my bucket list.
Ive not done RTW but close (and before I started with TH) - Air France used to sell some US-Asia premium economy tickets for about US$2500 to 2800 that allowed stopovers in Europe. I did it a few times combining Asia and Europe - for example 10 days in Vietnam and a week in Copenhagen, a week in Taipei and a week in Kiev, 2 weeks in Japan and a week in Prague. AF premium economy seats are similar to US domestic first class so a lot more comfortable than coach. These tickets also had a fare class that earned double or triple FF miles.
I have been researching British Airways but I’ll have a look at others. It won’t be in the near future but it’s on the list. I have to swim in the Artic Ocean first.
Imagine the blog……or even the book.
Hi @pc10328
We do exactly the same.
And sometimes we add a last minute one on the way back.
We are driving and in these covid times only house-sit in France, so it makes it very easy to organise (I’m a digital nomad).
So we are actually leaving a house-sit (the 2nd one of our Christmas tour), and will add a last minute 4 days sit on our way back home ! In between, we have 2 free days : we are going to visit a friend who leaves 800 km far away from home.
Love it 
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I was filling in last half of April. Found 2 sits in same area. One was longer than the other, in a more desirable area – for me, in the city, compared to 50 miles north of the city. So I was offered one, after a nice chat, had a scheduled call with the other a few hours later. Told her I needed to know, since I had to accept or decline, and she arranged the call and offered. But you feel bad. It was not like I promised to sit the other one, but you have a nice chat, you are offered, then you decline. It is what it is, but you still feel bad.
The answer probably depends on the area and kind of sitting. We’re combined and have cats at home. Whether I’m doing a solo sit or with my spouse, we don’t like to be away from out cats for too long, so we probably wouldn’t try for back to back sits in the same area. We have returned to some areas and sits and would do this more often if scheduling worked.
When I look for sitters, if they are nomadic, and have a sit that ends near when mine starts or ends and it turns out to be close by, I might give an edge to them in selection because they are less likely to cancel as they are trying to figure out a way to stay longer in the area.