I am a new THS H//O. We just completed our first pet sit in our home for 2 weeks. Looking for advice from experienced owners on how much detail and instruction sitters want/need and what you leave for them. This is mostly home related, with regard to use of appliances, AC, general home care. Examples; we have a flat glass stove top that scratches easily if misused and not cleaned appropriately. We also have our AC set on auto temps for cool and heat that we rarely need to touch but doors and windows need to be kept closed to maintain (and also keep insects out). I also do not expect sitters to do any extra cleaning, but just clean up after themselves. We are fine with using pantry items and only ask if they use up or damage something to at least leave a note so we know to replace it. How much is âtoo pickyâ?? Thanks in advance for any comments.
Great question @Pjsnook
We are sitters and we prefer to have all this information on hand in a printed out welcome guide. Making short videos and sending them by WhatsApp can be another helpful way to demonstrate how things work and can be referred to by the sitter during the sit . (Some hosts have made a folder with all the appliance manuals or shown us which drawer all the manuals are kept in case we needed them .)
Itâs especially useful to explain about what products can or cannot be used for cleaning certain surfaces . I have been totally flummoxed by a cleaning cupboard overflowing with cleaning supplies bottles, creams and sprays but no indication which was to be used where .
If possible leave the cleaning product by the appliance / surface and labelled âŚâfor the stove top â If there are pots and pans that canât be used on the stove top put them out of the way so itâs not possible for the sitter to mistakenly use them . Similarly if certain utensils canât go in the dishwasher - make this very clear( label the drawer or shelf) .
Also if there are precious items that canât be replaced ( great grandmotherâs bone China tea set ) please make this clear to the sitter too.
I would appreciate that a host said those things.
For stove top - put away if you have stuff that canât be used on it (I have one myself, and for a while I had kept utensils that really didnât go with it. Took a while to simply give them to a thrift shop. 
)
I made a welcome guide when I did home exchanging, and found it useful to have also otherwise as it forced me to think those things through and it was easy to share with house guests.
My front page was with emergency info. like where is the fuse box and stopcock (to turn off water in the home) for home emergencies, relevant info regarding alarm in home (if applicable) and of course the usual alarm numbers fire/police/ambulance. Phone to doctor sitter can use and for petsitting ofc veterinary for pets.
Otherwise it seems like the prompts one get for the Welcome Guide give a good overview. Just try to imagine oneself in the sitters shoes coming to a home they donât know. What would your day look like and what would you need to know. Actually, operating tv and wi-fi would be high on the list. Especially tv as there are so many different ways connecting devices - I have been to homes with several remotes that needed to be done in a particular order, for instance.
Thank you for the response. Appreciated!
Thanks! I did have a document I created for other dog/ house sitters but they have all been friends who already know Buddy and have been or stayed at our home. I do always immediately go through all Abnb folders when I stay so this makes sense.
Welcome to the community: you sound like exactly the kind of HOs who âgetâ the win/win of THS that benefits both the HO seeking someone considerate to care for their pets & keep their home safe as well as provides an opportunity for a Sitter to enjoy a place in the coziness of home!
I think what youâve described is exactly what Sitters need.
The Welcome Guide is great - but it can be a lot to read through on line!
Printing out chunks of it and putting the chunks were most useful is a good idea.
Going over pet care on the Sittersâ arrival is essential: all pets are individuals!
And donât forget to printout emergency info (vets, neighbors, family/friends)
I would suggest that for the care of your kitchen you print out the info and put it somewhere in the kitchen for reference (such as details about use of appliances, cleaning products to be used and where those are, notes about what the Sitter can use from pantry & fridge).
BTW one thing a sitter will need for any sit lasting more than 3 days?
Room for their things! So it is really appreciated if you make room in your fridge & pantry for the sittersâ groceries.
We have been on two sits where the most basic things were not provided (no oil, butter, salt, spices - literaly nothing). Itâs not fair to ask someone staying for a few days to buy every single thing needed to make meals. NOR should a sitter use up things the HO has not offered. Consideration on both sides!
In the bedroom/bathroom the sitter will be using, another print out explaining anything that needs info (TV? Shutters? Replacement bed linens? How long it takes the shower to get hot?)
Again: any sitter staying for more than 3 nights will need drawers & closets for their clothes, room in the bathroom for their toiletries.
If you are very concerned about anything (the way your bed linens or dishes are washed for example) make a note. MOST Sitters will strip the bed, wash the linens. But itâs helpful to have a spare set so they can make the bed and not have to wait for the wash to complete if they are leaving early.
Another helpful thing? A map of the area in your immediate vecinity printed out with notations of your suggestions: where to buy groceries, where to catch transit (if needed) favorte coffee shops or restaurants, interesting sights to see.
We have done sits in homes we found kept too warm or too cold for our taste but in general we wonât change it unless itâs extreme (expect a sitter to want the same level of comfort you need.)
Finally: clarity on your plans & expectations.
Once youâve chosen someone to entrust your pets and home to, give the sitter your travel arrangement info so they can plan theirs!
IF you are on a driving trip itâs enough to say âWe plan to leave between 10 .& noonâŚâ and âwe expect to be back between 4 PM and 6 PMâ But if you are flying? Include flight numbers so the Sitter can check if your flights are delayed or cancelled!
And if you are expecting a sitter to be at your home for your 7 a.m. departure, consider asking them to stay the night before; if you arenât getting home until 11 PM, consider asking them to stay the night after.
We usualy leave a buffer day ahead/after a sit in our plans in case of unexpected emergencies (and they happen!) but if you havenât made that arrangement with a Sitter you canât ask them to disrupt their plans at the last minute.
Hope you find some of that helpful!
And once again welcome to a great community!
Great information and insight! Thank you
Weâre in a rural area and sitters have to drive everywhere so we mark places on a Google or Apple map and copy the links into separate Whatsapp messages.
Iâm a homeowner who also sits, so looking at this from both sides, I would say the home stuff needs to be âcomplete.â I no longer use the official guide because I donât like how it is set up. I have my own google doc --two docs, one about the home and neighborhood, and the other about the pets. In my home guide I am very specific. I name what cleaning product would go with what job and also make clear that sitters donât necessarily need to do those jobs. I also have video apartment tours, and even a window opening video as I donât want my pets falling several stories down.
Your listing also should give a pretty good overview without so much detail.