I am brand new here, my listing posted and I have had some interest which is great but I’m unclear on a couple of things. I’d like to be able to meet the sitter so my dog can meet them too, and also walk them through the house to show them where things are etc. But what if they are coming from far away via air travel? Most of the interest is from people out of state or even overseas. Do they come a day early and stay in a hotel? Do I pay for that? Is it typical for sitters to pay for their own airfare and get themselves to my home? I added a day to allow for a visit a day before we fly out, but I’m not sure how that would work. Thanks!!
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Hello @JanMB and welcome to the forum. The answers you are likely to receive will be as varied as the sitters. There is no one answer for how things will work, but communication and understanding of all details is the key component of a good sit arrangement.
Sitters are responsible for their own travel costs. Arrangements for pre-sit meetings varies, depending on the arrangements made between the sitter and homeowner. However, unless a sitter is relatively local to you, they are unlikely to be willing to travel any great distance unless they are a confirmed sit - so both homeowner and sitter agree and have confirmed the sit on the THS website.
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@JanMB We’ve done many overseas pet & house sits and there are numerous options for you and your sitter to consider.
First off, travel costs to your home are the sitters expense, whether it be driving or flying. Of course there are always exceptions, but typically the sitter bears the cost of travel.
With regards to a pre departure meet and greet, most often we have arrived the night before and been hosted by the HO in a spare room, likely the room we will stay in. On a recent pet sit, we did end up renting a hotel room as the HO did not have a spare room. The hotel was our cost.
We have, on a few occasions, arrived the morning of the HO’s departure, given there is time from our arrival to the HO’s departure for a thorough handover.
On one rare occasion, we arrived after the HO had left. All worked out fine, but this was far from the norm and not ideal.
Hope this helps.
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Hello @JanMB and welcome to TrustedHousesitters and the community forum. It is perfectly acceptable to add an extra day beforehand to allow for a visit and to meet you and your dog.
We would arrive even earlier than that as we did with a recent foreign house sit so that we could explore the area prior to the sit and so in this instance could meet up anytime with you before the start of the sit. We actually met up a few days before the sit in this instance with the homeowners and got to know the dog we would be caring for beforehand.
It is down to the sitters to travel to the destination so you do not incur any of these costs and we would also pay for any accommodation prior to the sit. Sometimes the homeowners invite the sitters to stay the night before they actually leave so as to get to know each other and the pets that we will be caring for. We have made many wonderful friends by getting to know each other over dinner the night before. If you do not want people to stay with you the night before you leave your home then the start date should be the day from when the sitter is required to be in your home.
It all comes down to good communication between you and your sitter/sitters and would usually be discussed by both parties before agreeing to any sit.
As @PetSitterBug mentioned we have also arrived to a sit twice where the Homeowners had already left before we arrived which also worked out fine.
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Hi Jan
Sitters are responsible for their own transportation costs. Most of the international sits I have done, we have stayed with the owner the night before.
I have seen on the forum here that some sitters think the owner should pay if they request they come early but don’t offer accommodation in the home (whether due to space issues or personal preference for whatever reason). I personally probably wouldn’t ask for that but if the owner offered I might take them up on it.
I have also seen on the forum here that some sitters aren’t comfortable spending time in the house with the owner and they may prefer to stay in a hotel…not sure how common that is. I would imagine in that case they would have no expectation of you offering to pay since it is their choice, but you never know.
This isn’t something that is clearly stated on the site like it is with transportation costs. So it will ultimately depend on the arrangement between individual sitters and owners.
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I agree with everything everyone else has said.
For example, we have three international sits coming up. We are paying for all of our own accommodation before and after the sits, our car rental, and of course, our flights.
And with 3 sits, we have three different handovers.
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Owners are leaving very early in the morning and we are arriving mid day, after they’ve already left. Their son is meeting us and showing us around.
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Owner is leaving in late afternoon, we are arriving in time for lunch and a visit before the leave. They get home late morning and we will stay until they are home.
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Owner is leaving in later afternoon/early evening, and we are arriving in the early afternoon.
In the 1st and 3rd sits, the homeowners are arriving home in the early evening and have both offered to let us stay the night if we want. Because of COVID, we have declined their offer and have book B&Bs about 15 min away. In the afternoon of their return day, we will clean up and check into our B&B and then return to feed the pups their dinner and meet the owners when they get home, and then we will head back to our B&B.
We have stayed overnight the night before a sit a number of times, particularly when the owners are leaving early.
So, hopefully you have an idea of your options and responsibilities. :).
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As sitters, our preference is to arrive late afternoon /early evening the day before the HO leaves. We get introduced to the pets, see how they react to us, get to know the HO, can see how the evening feeding is done, where they sleep, and have a chance to ask any questions that come up during the evening. We think this puts everyone at ease. The HO can see their pets are comfortable with us… that is the most important thing for them to be able to leave with peace of mind that their babies are with someone they know will take good care of them. We have made many new friends this way. We’ve had a few time that schedules had us arriving the morning of for an afternoon departure, so we’ve still had time to get acquainted, but much prefer the day before.
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When we were on the owner side, we always asked our sitters to come the night before and were welcome to stay in our home. We typically had dinner together which gave us a chance to answer questions, show them our home, but most importantly, get to know our sweet baby so she felt safe and secure when we left.
Thanks everyone for great suggestions/advice! Super helpful. I added a day before my trip and our flight leaves super early so have decided to stay in hotel near airport which will give me time to meet and orient sitter(s) as well as get to the airport more easily.
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