I usually lean against first-time hosts, with this exception: If they’re an older couple with a beautiful home, I apply and see how our video chat goes.
Why: If they’re (retired) professionals who are used to entertaining / hosting guests in general, they’re more likely to be good hosts and partners for THS. (I see sitting as a partnership and expect hosts to think likewise.)
Something else about such folks: They have roomy homes, so the guest rooms offer privacy and they have guest baths. Someone with a nice guest room tends to know how to host, even if THS is new to them.
So far, I’ve done three such first-time sits (currently on my third such sit) and they’ve been great. I’ve felt easily comfortable with all those hosts, including overlapping and staying overnight with them and having dinner with them. (In one case, we had dinner, breakfast and lunch before they left. And breakfast again before I left.)
All of our exchanges have been friendly and I’ve felt welcomed and appreciated. They also all have been reasonable and relaxed. I could tell that by the relatively few questions they asked of me — not micromanaging, distrustful or anxious. Of course, I’ve screened out any hosts who gave off warning flags.
Yeah, I wouldn’t apply to that sit. By asking for voluntary contribution towards bills, it sounds like they are thinking of the sitter as a part-time roommate instead of an exchange for services. The only time I would consider that is a housesit that was several months long, and I’d probably suggest it if they didn’t.
The attic could be nice but twin beds is not great. At least full size would be better.
This does not seem ambigious - it reads as though the HO thinks they can have family, friends or perhaps paying “guests” stay in the house while the Sitter is also there.
Completely inappropriate: puts the sitter in the position of sharing a home with an unknown person or persons, in unknown time frames. Disconcerting at best, could be flat-out scary or even dangerous.
Several years ago while doing a sit the HO shifted dates three times because their large family kept changing plans.
The last change? Announcing an adult child & partner would arrive two days before the end of the sit, telling us we’d have to leave. When the adult child & partner got there, let us know we should leave ASAP yet afterwards complained we hadn’t cleaned the fridge sufficiently.
If it happened today I’d inform THS.
And, because of a similarly inconsiderate host last year, we opted this year for the highest tier THS membership protection.
Happily the VAST majority of HO we’ve encountered have been thoughtful, considerate, lovely people!
BTW, we have agreed to another person in the home when doing a repeat sit with a host we know to be a considerate person: we agree to specific arrangements (person involved, time frame) ahead of time. Every one of those was fine: BUT again, essential that we already knew the hosts and knew them to be considerate people. For safety it’s VERY important to recognize Red Flags.
Right, and if you’d reviewed and mentioned that, I’d avoid them for sure.
BTW, if you’ve already agreed on dates and they shifted after the sit started, you’re not obligated to go along with it. I mention that for any newbies who don’t know.
TBH, Maggie8K, we weren’t really aware of our “rights” as sitters back then.
More aware now, but we try to be flexible & accommodating whenever we can just as we appreciate when HO are flexible & accommodating to us.
In one instance home owners came back a day early because of weather: apologized and told us to stay in the Master Bedroom, they’s sleep on couches…
Knowing they would be doing an 8 hour drive in bad weather we booked a hotel and left before they got home (we could have offered to sleep on the couches but we had no problem leaving a day early to continue our travels!)
Oh, and we stocked the fridge with breakfast foods for the family before we left.
Simple thoughtfulness: they were hugely grateful.
That was my first impression because of the distinction between “guests” on one hand and friends and family on the other. But when the other interpretation was suggested I think it can be read that way, too. “Guests” meaning sitters and friends and family, sitters’ guests. Either way, quite weird and confusing.
I’d edit your OP here with that they’d also mentioned an AirBnB for more context… it makes the ambiguity of their phrasing seem a little less ambiguous, IMO, depending on how it was worded/included.
Asking for “contribution” is against THS policy. I have read here previously that if it’s a very long term sit, something could be worked out but I tend to think that’s not the way we operate.
“Prior to a sit being confirmed, pet parent’s may request a contribution to utility bills from the sitter during the sit.
Although rare, this usually only happens on longer sits, but the pet parents can request it for any length of sit, as long as they are upfront and transparent about it on the listing and in their first contact messages with the sitters.
They should clearly agree on which utility bills the sitter will be paying, how they will be paying the bills and by which date/s before the sit is confirmed.“
Haha… This is what prompted me to question if new HO understood what the dynamic was meant to be about, and that sitters have a lot of sits to choose from.