We travel full time and sitting internationally and I always have a cushion in my travel plans. I plan to arrive at least one day early at my own expense as this give me flexibility in case of delays and allows me to do some exploring in the area that I won’t be able to do while caring for the pets.
So far is say about 1/3 have had their travel plans change a little and the flexible allowed us to accommodate their needs. Also about 1/3 have offered to let us stay with them early if we chose. Some we have taken them up on the offer and some we didn’t.
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We had to take three flights to get from the very top of South America to Mexico. It took us 6 days as I wasn’t willing to let the house of cards fall down with one missed flight, so I built in huge amounts of redundancy, at our cost. It’s not the HO fault where we choose to come from!
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I try to get the earliest flight out on the day I agree to start my sit. I have only done short haul flights so far. I did get asked to arrive a day earlier for one sit and had to pay for a hotel. In an ideal world yes I’d arrive the day before and pay for a hotel or airbnb but in some places this can get expensive especially with many places cracking down on airbnb.
There are no hard and fast rules for petsitting, to include how and when you arrive. This is purely a personal preference and the timing should be discussed fully with the homeowners. The arrival to the area, is something figured out and arranged in advance, taking into consideration, how a possible delay could impact that timing. It appears from all the responses here, that most folks have their own way of making plans to arrive in a timely manner that suits each of them Individually. As seasoned sitters, they have found their comfort zone. This is something learned over time with years of travel experience and sitting. Each pet owner has different expectations, and it’s a sitters responsibility to plan how to accommodate those requests. Our preference to live the lifestyle of almost full time petsitting without travel stress, includes giving ourselves a few days between sits. Taking the stress out of the equation, is how we approach arriving and departing from each home. It’s entirely up to each individual, and it’s Never expected that we will stay the night before/after a sit. I can’t imagine the undue stress or necessity of scheduling a back-to-back sit, to save on overnight accommodations.
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@richten1 If the home owner actually asked you to arrive the day before they should have invited you to stay the night or paid for your accomodation! After all you were arriving a day early for their benefit -to ensure their peace of mind! You should not have to incur extra costs as a result! I would have expected them to offer either of the above options or I’d have declined the Sit. Its a different story when you choose to arrive earlier for your own reasons. We’ve experienced both scenarios.
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@Joanne We’ve just done a UK mega-housesitting tour! 31 Sits in 5 months all back to back- not a single gap! Every potential gap was filled by hosts either inviting us for extra nights (for our benefit) or requesting us to arrive earlier or stay longer (for theirs!) It was quite the logistical challenge to get that trip organised but it went like clockwork! We arrived in the UK directly to our first sit in Oxford and left 5 months later from the last sit in Eastbourne!
Having said all that international sits are a different story and we always make sure to arrive a day earlier where usually the host invites us for an overnight or we choose a few extra ‘off duty’ days before or after a Sit! It always seems to work out!
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As mentioned @Lokstar it’s a personal preference and up to each individual to determine their own comfort zone for travel, and how to approach various responsibilities as sitters. As retirees, we travel a bit slower, and don’t seek logistical drama, for just that reason. We prefer to be on our own, before and after a sit. Having also sat overseas for 5 months this year, we chose a more laid back approach. There is a way to create a stress free environment and still petsit full time.
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@Joanne I completely understand! Our UK tour was combined with overseeing a property sale and we decided to make a sportive challenge of it- to have as many different experiences as possible and also reach our goal of 50 Sits! We ended up surpassing that! Now in Germany on Sit 57! We wanted to give our profile strength a big boost (with all those opportunities in UK this summer!)and from now on we will take it all easier! Busy now applying for a 3/4 week Christmas Sit somewhere warm! Time to chill! 
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What we welcome on the Forum is an exchange of ideas which can be invaluable help to new members and even those of us with more experience, after all we never stop learning and evolving on this journey.
We each arrange our THS lifestyles differently, there is no right or wrong way just the way that works best for everyone involved in any given moment or arrangement. We have always allowed a cushion whether sitting domestically or internationally and we travelled for 6 years without a home base.
On repeat sits with pet parents/owners who have become friends, we are delighted to spend an evening or two together. With new pet parents/owners we prefer to arrange our own accommodation, and leave them to have a stress free pre departure evening, or day whichever applies.
My choice, my dollar. If invited to stay we will graciously accept or not, depending on the circumstances, each is different as we have already said.
We do everything we can to avoid any timing dramas and to date have been 100% successful … Communicating with pet parents/owners and planning is key.
However … Travel today can be uncertain and even when not expecting delays, they happen, especially with airlines. @sarahmarye please do not feel like a failure as the following happened to me recently, fortunately I was not heading for a sit.
I was delayed 5 hours in Heathrow on a domestic routing to Scotland as 3 flights were cancelled without prior notice. … Life as they say happens it’s important to have a plan B and plan for the unexpected and when it doesn’t happen, that’s a bonus.
From our profile …
“We aim to be as flexible as possible leaving “cushion days” either side of any arrangement and if for any reason plans change or your return is delayed you’ll only have one set of problems to deal with. Should you be unfortunate enough to experience an unforeseen drama on your travels rest assured there will be none on your return home”
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@sarahmarye I can understand your frustration but for future out of town/out of country sits, you might suggest to the pet parent/owner that you come in the day before so you can meet and greet with them and their furballs. This is pretty common with out of town sitters. This will also allow you some extra “wiggle time” if needed…especially in these uncertain airline times.
Good luck, and as @Lassie commented, just make sure you take extra special care of their babies so they forget about the late arrival!
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I hope it all goes well from here on out.
Things happen–if the hosts/PPs are actually angry at you, that is not cool, IMO. They should have offered you a bed for the night before.
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Thank you so much. The HO seem happy and very understanding of the fact that things were beyond my control. Everything is going smoothly now.
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@sarahmarye so glad to hear!
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Thank you for the wonderful advice and words of encouragement Angela. Helps hearing your recent situation knowing you are a longtime pet sitter!
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Thanks! I’ll definitely be coordinating differently in the future!
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Sounds like that’s the best option. Thanks so much for appreciate it!
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Thanks so much for the much needed feedback!
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The original plan was to meet at 2-3pm with a max deadline of 6pm. Despite a pilot who made errors on the preflight checklist causing the plane to be routed back to my hometown, the airline losing my luggage, and 2 cancelled flights I made by 6:30pm. I think the HO were understanding and we’ll both plan in more detail in the future. Thanks for feedback.
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Thank you so much! And you’re right…the HO seem very happy and were extremely understanding. Everything is going great bow. Thanks again so much.
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The HO did not request I arrive a day early. They were happy with our plan of same day arrival. I did incur extra costs but hopefully I’ll be quickly reimbursed by the airlines.
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