Ha I just remembered I helped one host pack her bag as she discovered her car had a flat battery so am emergency call to the mechanic in the mix of leaving. I am an obsessive packer so I managed to shove a few last minute things in she was hoping for but couldn’t fit. She was grateful and I didn’t mind but this is not usual. Now that I think about it, I could offer my packing skills to hosts that need them, I’m pretty good at it these days 
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You’re hired!
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From our personal experience as sitters, what we’ve found is ‘normal’ for those owners that are leaving in the early hours, is to set your sit to start the day prior and when you receive an application that you feel is a good match either:-
- Write a lovely comment back so that they know you will be there for the first day (it’s totally normal), and say you’ll cook a meal on the night prior (or buy a takeaway), as you’re leaving in the early hours of the following day. Then all being well you can simply arrange a time for them to arrive on the night before that suits you both, 5pm/7pm, I wouldn’t say any later, because you’ll spend 30mins - 45mins showing them whats-what. You don’t NEED to cook them a meal, you could just have them arrive at 7pm with no meal, but being offered a meal is lovely, and also (in a cunning way on your side) it makes sure they arrive in good time, so you can stay relaxed and calm, without clock watching when you’ve got packing and ‘have I told them everything in the welcome guide’ on your mind.
or - Let the sit start a day early, and you go and stay in the airport hotel or somewhere en-route.
Or keep your dates the same, and…
3. Have a friend step in temporarily, but when it’s a dog, and you haven’t done this before, you may feel better by meeting the sitter face to face when they come to sit. I wouldn’t think too hard about getting friends, family, and neighbours to step in, unless a sitter asks if your dates are flexible, and only do so if you think they sound totally perfect for you. It’s fantastic to have a back up plan though, and think about these events before they occur, that’s brilliant.
Just figure out which way works for you, and go with that, and see what response you have.
If you were leaving for your flight a little later, like 8am/9am where you would have given your dog a loo break on the morning, then you could always just leave the keys with a neighbour or hide the keys somewhere in your garden for the sitter. That’s totally normal then.
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Yes pretty much. I would say for around 1/3 of my sits (70)I stayed with pet parents the night before. Please dont think pet sitter only come for a free stay. For me I love the cultural exchange. I mean that’s why I travel. Having a good relationship with the host is as important for me as the pet sit itself.
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We have an early flight next trip but prefer to book a hotel for ourselves. We’ll do the meet and greet and leave the sitters to settle in without us there. This is our usual preference. Last summer we didn’t do this and spent the evening with the sitters and left early the following morning. I regretted it deeply, one of the sitters was lovely and very interested in our animals, the other one was an obnoxious, arrogant A hole who I wished I’d never met. I won’t make this mistake again.
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OMG that would be so amazing
My last trip I took waaaaay too many things, and I realized it was because I was clearing out my closet for my sitter and it was just easier to shove the last bit in my suitcase than find somewhere creative to store it
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I had an out-of-body-hallelujah experience when I discovered the art of rolling my clothes before packing them… 
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Totally depends on the situation and the circumstances. If it’s a house where there’s space for the sitter to stay, I’d say it’s a good practice to have the sitter arrive a day early. That’s how my first sits went. I arrived on the afternoon/evening the day before and got to meet the family and the pets, have some orientation around the house, have dinner together. I’ve also done sits where the family leaves early in the morning, leaves the keys for the flat with the neighbours, and I arrive a few hours later due to travel times, and the sit being for cats, which are much easier in terms of “they got fed in the morning, so feel free to arrive anytime before the next feeding time”. But yeah, if you want to meet the sitter and you have a somewhat early leaving time, be prepared to offer to host them the night before rather than have them make arrangements to then arrive early before you leave.
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It’s pretty common. I admit, as a sitter I found it a struggle in the beginning to be spending the night in the home of a relative stranger. Since then, I’ve become more used to it. I’ve also had HOs with varying preferences, from those who insisted I arrive much earlier than was remotely necessary, to those who weren’t bothered whether they met me at all and were happy to arrange everything via messages on the THS site and WozzApp, then just leave a key.
If I’m looking after dogs, though, I do prefer to meet them with the HOs present. In that case, my favourite HOs of all are those who have me arrive a couple of hours early, give me a house walk-round and an intro to the dogs.. Then leave. I especially appreciate those who’ve stayed in hotels before an early flight, leaving me to settle in on my first night without any constraints.
I’ve done 2 sits so far and just about to do a 3rd.. all so far have involved us staying the night b4 as we don’t arrive until after 5 pm.
All mutually decided. We are sitters .. if we were hosts I would want to meet the Sitters
I think each time a host wants a sitter it would be good to say what time they were departing and include what time on the day or the night before as an option.. as THS dosnt Have the option for you to query stuff like this until you accept a sit.. I’m going to from now include my full availability in my request to sit application so they can decline if it dosnt suit.
We always welcome our sitters to come the night before (or even a couple nights before) a sit. Likewise they can stay a night or two afterwards. In a couple instances a sitter stayed longer.
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A international sitter had 3 days between sits and only 3 hours to travel … she was travelling across Canada in a camper van and was going to rest in Walmart parking lots between visits
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A sitter was doing 2 sits for us with 4 days in between so she just stayed with us; made sense
If timing allows, I like to make a dinner, show them around town and our favourite hangouts. It works well for early morning travel and late night returns. We have plenty of space.
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