Hi we had an accepted sit from the 10th of september until the 10th of November in Madeira Portugal.
We already booked our expensive flights but the Homeowner just canceled us and wont support us with the flight tickets.
She canceled because we are not able to arrive on the 9th of september (because of another sit we have right now) although the sit starts on the 10th?
its insane… please help us! we cant afford the flights if we have nowhere to live
Welcome to the site, Orcca.
Wasn’t the arrival date and arrangements discussed before the sit was confirmed, and flights booked?
Was the sit actually confirmed, and showing in your dashboard?
Do you have premium membership, which should cover you for alternative accommodation in the area if you cannot find another sit?
Are you full time nomadic sitters or could you stay at home?
If you have Premium with insurance that will help with hotel costs but you have to pay up front and it won’t cover that many days. If so, can you shorten your trip by changing your return flight?
The HO has been very unfair - Madeira airport can closed and flights cancelled/be diverted for safety reasons so I understand why they want you there in advance of when they need you, but they should have built that into the sit dates or made it clear to you that you need to arrive early. You can’t force them to help you though.
This on the face of it seems to be an unfair cancellation and not fall into the category of extraordinary circumstances. You can raise a member dispute about the owners behaviour, however THS can’t force the owner to have you as sitters .
Do you have travel insurance or flexible fares? Where are you travelling from ?
The owner now has to find sitters to cover a 2 month sit at very short notice so this doesn’t seem very reasonable behaviour by them as they are on the face of it making their own life difficult by cancelling you ( if you were their confirmed sitters ) . It will be expensive for another sitter to get a last minute flight to cover this sit .
Were there any other factors that you are aware of to the cancellation ?
When did you accept the sit ?
Did it show on your dashboard confirmed ? What was the agreed arrival time ?
I suggest that you send the owners proof that you have the flight tickets booked for the start date . Say that you are still available for the sit ( on the agreed dates as shown on dashboard)
Suggest a solution- they could do a video tour and handover if they won’t be there in person for the handover .
It is why I have so far avoided taking a sit in that kind of nice destinations. It is very unfair, and I am very hesitant to take such a risk.
I have found the listing and it is reviewing applications, so she hasn’t finalised her choice, although not sure this will help much. The owner has 2 sitters review, (listed in the app as the sitters didn’t leave a review for her, my first red flag) and marked down 1 star for her first sitter, even though the sitter has received almost 5 stars in all categories: this tells me the owner doesn’t necessarily understand fully the concept of reviews and how THS works, so I would suggest definitely reaching out again to either her and membership services, or both at the same time. Again, it depends on what you had discussed prior to booking the sit: did she say anything to you about arriving the 9th? also can you stay home, as someone suggested, or maybe try to direct your research towards the UK, as there are many last minute sits available.
Plane tickets are cheap enough (depending on where you originate from) and you’ll find a lovely sit there, for sure.
I empathise with your situation, but you will definitely find something with the help of THS.
Since you said we, is it possible for one of you to go the 9th to save the sit, and the other finish your current sit and arrive on the 10th as planned?
I found the listing too - unless there is some sort of glitch, any sit that shows as ‘reviewing’ means there is no confirmed sitter, so the owner must confirm you on the site for the sit to be verified by the THS platform. I also see that there are no reviews/ a 1 star review, which is not a good sign, and that the owner has also mentioned that the neighbour’s cats (plus strays) may need feeding, which is against THS policy; all pets on a THS sit must be listed as a pet requiring care on the owner’s listing - third party pets are a big no no and is at your own risk, as this agreement will not be verified through THS 
Unfortunately this owner has broken THS policy with the third party pets, the possible non-confirmation, and the cancellation for a non-emegency/extraordinary circumstance (which technically may never been ‘cancelled’ on the platform either if it was never confirmed in the first place) - really this owner needs reporting I would definitely speak to member services 
Most likely it’s reviewing, because the HO already cancelled @Orcca , and now has new applications. I would guess finding a sitter for a sit in Madeira is not too hard?
As for the over all 1 star review for the one sitter, that might be a mistake. Seems to happen too often
But I totally agree with you, that something seems off if two sitters haven’t left a review for her!
The listing is showing ‘Reviewing Applications’ and the start date is still 10 September. If she still intends to travel surely she should have confirmed a sitter by now with only 6 days to go.
If you are sure it was definitely a confirmed sit and showing on your dashboard there is still time for THS to get involved.
Ideally all the arrival and departure details should have been firmed up before confirmation. It is unreasonable to expect you to arrive a day earlier than discussed and agreed, especially when flights are involved.
If you have Premium Membership you should have grounds to claim.
Contact Membership Services and ask to speak to a human asap.
Let us know how you get on.
We told her that we can maybe make it on the 9th but never confirmed… Our current HO asked us if we could stay until the evening of the 9th because an emergency happened. We thought its better to dont leave the cats here alone and just go with the starting date of the listing on the 10th and booked flights…
yes it was confirmed! unfortunately we have no premium membership
Agree with @Voyager about offering to split up so one of you arrives on the 9th. You can still communicate with the HO via THS inbox because you already had an open communication channel. Might have to pay a fee for flight change.
yeah thats the thing we are full nomadic sitters… I guess we ask our parents now if we can sleep there for awhile
Unfortunately we have no premium membership 
Yeah we already contacted the support team and they will investigate…
We told her that we can maybe make it on the 9th but never confirmed… Our current HO asked us if we could stay until the evening of the 9th because an emergency happened. We thought its better to dont leave the cats here alone and just go with the starting date of the listing on the 10th and booked flights…
Also she told us now that a video is no option for her…its really insane
Yeah we do that thanks for the tip!
We told her that we can maybe make it on the 9th but never confirmed… Our current HO asked us if we could stay until the evening of the 9th because an emergency happened. We thought its better to dont leave the cats here alone and just go with the starting date of the listing on the 10th and booked flights…
thats a good idea but we just dont have a good feeling with her anymore…