… you see on the sit essentials that the sitter is expected to arrive some time in the late afternoon/early evening, but then the online call with the HOs suddenly starts with the question if it is ok for me to arrive on the day after at 6:30 in the morning? (That for me would mean that I should wake up at least at 4 am).
They probably saw my speechless reaction and the wife said that if I want I can arrive the day before and that I can stay with them in the house.
I’ve now been invited to the sitting and I’ve been told that I can decide what is the best day to arrive a week or so before the sitting. Without any doubt I would arrive the day before, but I still feel that cold shower on me and not the warmest welcome to stay before the sitting to be honest
I find that’s more with newer owners to THS, than the ones that have been on here for a while, as they ‘get it’.
I just nicely explain that gone are the days when we stress about rushing to get somewhere first thing in the morning, and that we’re there to relax with their pets,
@Mokina, from experience, we perceive the information per sit essentials as illustrative. While THS good intent in this functionality then, in our experience, this information is inconsistent with details provided in video call and/or welcome guide.
Any pet parent requirement that housesitter arrive at property at 6:30am on their day of departure is a red flag. Nonsense. On pragmatic basis, this would limit pool of applicants dramatically. On broader basis, applicants may perceive red flag as indicative of employer mindset and withdraw application (we would do this).
Suggest reflect on your desired outcome. Pet parent appears to have offered flexibility. This seems a good repositioning of expectations. Do you still want to complete housesit? If yes, then suggest propose preferred solution to pet parent.
They backtracked immediately, so they do have a sense of what an exchange is. If you like everything else, I wouldn’t let the one boundary-testing comment decide anything. Since they did try to change something in their listing, I would ask for the full welcome guide up front, and if they don’t then consider declining the listing then.
I would’ve laughed out loud…. then asked if they’d be willing to pick me up from home in my pyjamas around 5.30am? Then said ‘Only joking, as I know you were too haha!!’
@Mokina, a perfect example.
We’ve come across a range of potential reasons - most of them reasonable - why real date/time information is different than per listing sit essentials. Suggest discuss in video call.
I think there are two separate things here. Your initial reaction was perfectly understandable, but the circumstances have since changed.
The HOs apparently hadn’t considered the flight times when they wrote the Sit Essentials, and when they realised the implications, they offered you the option of arriving the day before and staying with them. That seems like a reasonable attempt to put things right.
What makes me wonder, though, is that you’re still sufficiently uncomfortable to ask the forum, “How would you feel if…?” Perhaps you’re looking for reassurance that your uneasy feeling is justified.
There’s nothing wrong with that, but ultimately other sitters’ reactions can’t really answer the question for you. If you’re already feeling a niggling sense that the welcome wasn’t warm, it’s worth listening to that feeling before accepting the sit. Conversely, if you can genuinely put the awkward start down to an oversight, then perhaps it needn’t become bigger than it is.
Thank you @WeRPAWsome Yes there was a lot of insecurity when I initially posted the message. I always want to hear other people’s opinions anyway, look at things on a different prospective.
And of course I’m an incurable indecisive in many circumstances
I think they just let the words come out of their mouth without thinking about it. Maybe they are early risers and 6:30 AM is no big deal to them. As a homeowner, I’ve surely made errors when listing my arrival times, if I am specific at all. I usually leave it to be determined though. I have even changed arrival or departure times with sitters after confirmation on occasion, and it has not been a problem. I always ask if they’re open to it, And if they’re not, I leave it exactly as it was. Sometimes things change… Personally, I don’t think it’s a big deal, based on the fact that they backpedaled immediately and left it up to you. If Everything else seems fine with the sit and you still want to do it, I think it is all just fine. They sound lovely that they’ve had people come the night before and dined together, etc. At the end of the day, there are SOOOO many different personalities out there that you have to decide if the overall sit is a good fit for you. Not everyone likes to dine with strangers (or sleep in the same home). I have added in a meal with some sitters as a homeowner after a few sits under the belt. It has been lovely. It lets you build rapport with a sitter, then have the opportunity to private message with them much later to make arrangements for another sit with flexibility on both of our parts.
I had a very similar scenario about a year ago. Applied on a sit which is a 4-5 hour drive from where I live. The homeowner asked me to arrive at noon so I booked a hotel the night before. When I told the homeowner I had booked a hotel, she then asked me to arrive at 0800 so she could get away earlier. The hotel was an hour away. I’m not an early morning riser and was really annoyed she changed the arrival time once she knew I was staying in a hotel the night before. I suggested she find another sitter and she replied that “she didn’t get a good feeling about me”. I definitely dodged a bullet on that one. The homeowners had and continue to have good reviews but this did not sit well with me. I think just the fact that the homeowners offered for you to stay with them the night before though is good on their part. They may be early risers who never took into consideration that other people aren’t. I wasn’t offered to stay with the homeowners in my scenario. I think you really need to go with your gut feeling. Personally, I’m not crazy about staying the night before a sit but I just returned from an international sit where I did. Had an absolutely lovely evening and dinner with the homeowners and their relatives who were heading off very early the next morning - I was really glad I did spend the night before.
I would give the HO’s the benefit of the doubt; they’re trying to figure out how things work. There are plenty of posts here where sitters say they are uncomfortable with being in homes with other people, so maybe the HOs were trying to preempt that concern?
That could be the reason. We do local sits, they think because we’re local we’ll not want/need to stay beforehand, without realising the one thing we definitely don’t want from THS is the wake up call like in our work-days.
I’m a morning person, but that’s my time, it’s not manhandling cases into a car, or traffic of any sort, no matter how quiet the traffic is. My head automatically takes me back to rush-hour in the past.
I think we’ve only done an 8am start time once, all the rest have been 9am onwards.
Given they’ve had past sitters, it’s a little weird it was mentioned in a way that made you feel a little awkward, rather than asking you in an easy “would you rather” way, and just putting the ball in your court to decide.
