Dear HOs, if you prefer to keep certain rooms locked during a house sit, I (as a sitter) completely understand and respect that. But…
Before locking a room, please make sure that none of your cats are inside. It can save a lot of stress for the pet, the sitter, and the cost and hassle of calling a locksmith.
As a sitter, I would also really appreciate it if any early morning alarms in the locked bedrooms are switched off, so they don’t wake me up unexpectedly every morning.
For peace of mind, it’s a good idea to leave a spare key for any locked room in a safe place. This allows the sitter to access the room in case of an emergency (after contacting the homeowner first, whenever possible).
I’ve just learnt the hard way, but the cat’s been freed and I can now sleep in for the rest of the sit. The host’s holiday budget is likely to take a bit of a hit, though.
I don’t think they will leave an extra key in the house as the idea is to keep the sitter out of the room. I guess they can hide it and just reveal where it is incase the situations you describe occurs. At least leave it with a neighbor they trust or close by friend or family. The same as the front door key.
And if there is a smoke alarm in that room that might go off or if a water leak occurs - it’s a good idea to have a key hidden somewhere that can be easily accessed incase of emergency
One more thing to add to your points: Our modem is in our master bedroom, if I lock that door, sitters will not be able to troubleshoot for issues. I do have the password written down so that part wouldn’t be the issue.
I did a long sit where the HO had locked one bedroom door. It happened to be the one smoke alarm for which she forgot to change the batteries. It started chirping at bedtime.
Wow, poor kitty. Before we leave the house, I would always do a body check of all the animals. From experience, one of the cats may have run into a room and hid just before shutting the door. Not like they’ll consistently come when you call them, so you got to find them.
Anyway, there are a lot of solutions for HOs to ensure their locked rooms are safe, but accessible if needed.
There were three cats that could come and go as they pleased; the homeowners had no chance to do a body check before they’d left early in the morning.
The poor things had been locked in for about 12 hours; but she managed to shout for help! It then took a while, though, before we’d got the rescue chain up and running.
We had a situation where a cat got locked in a room too. We’d been shown around the whole house before the family left and all doors were left open. However two days into the sit the cleaner came and, at some point, locked one room (a kind of large walk in wardrobe) It was a part of the house we had no reason to visit so we didn’t realise she’d locked it till the cat had been missing all day and we’d searched everywhere! Finally, despite not hearing any noise from within, our Intuition was telling us the cat was in that locked room. Ofcourse the key was not in the door or anywhere obvious nearby. We had no contact number for the cleaner and the family were on the other side of the world in a different time zone! So we had a little panic about the poor cat and tried to figure out a solution! It was about 8-10 hours since the cleaner had left by this point. Fortunately- Intuition again!- my hubby suddenly opened a random drawer in the hallway and there was a key and it fitted! We opened the door and the cat wandered out all calm and relaxed like nothing had happened! Phew!!
We decided, because it ended well, not to inform the HOs on holiday but we did think the cleaner should be told so she could be more aware in future. So when she came the following week we told her what had happened and how much stress it had caused us as we were ultimately responsible for the cat! She did not apologise at all, Infact she was pretty relaxed about it and totally dismissive of the anxiety and stress it had caused us!! Her attitude made us regret not blowing the whistle on her!
We close off upstairs unless needed . Some rooms closed off because really nothing but storage. None of the rooms are locked… doors are closed to keep fur boys from entering.
We have a gun safe in basement that we have some valuables in. Fine jewelry stays in there if not going on our trip.
We have antiques and other valuables throughout the home.
With our 8-10 sitters, we have felt at ease. I would use same precautions I would use if having our son’s friends over for the weekend (don’t leave cash, wallets, valuable jewelry laying out).
Honestly as a sitter I don’t like entering a hosts private space unless absolutely necessary. I prefer to sleep in a guest room if possible, it just feels less personal. I would hate to think someone was going through my things so treat others as I would want to be treated. This should just be common sense, sadly not always.
Hello pet parents - suggest replace any key batteries (e.g. smoke alarms) and leave limited spares of everyday batteries (e.g. TV remote control) before housesit. Such batteries are very cheap. If there’s slight wastage in replacing before old batteries are completely used then the cost is frankly immaterial. Wholly avoidable nuisance.
We’ve had multiple housesits where we’ve had to buy/replace batteries in smoke detectors. We’d rather be caring for pets. And, if we need to contact pet parents, then presumably they’d rather be enjoying their trip.
Though I don’t mind sleeping in the host’s bed if it’s the only or best option, I’m the same regarding privacy. I happen to believe that many people can “feel” that someone has been into their stuff. Sometimes it’s obvious, like how my sister turns physical photos every which way when she’s been through a stack. Or it’s something subtle…but I feel like it’s an energy thing.
That’s right. Like an electrical fire starting in a locked room.
I only stayed in one place where the main bedroom was locked–it had a full-on padlock! The dog was super disturbed by this – that was his sanctuary and he was used to sleeping with her.
Another time, in the not-so Welcome Guide, the HOs forbade me from entering their master bedroom/bathroom, and mentioned it again when I inquired about cleaning products for the toilet/bath.
We did a sit one Xmas and during the walk through the homeowner passed their bedroom suite and said there is no need for you to go in there. Fair enough, we had no intention of doing so.
A couple of days later we got a frantic WhatsApp from them saying they had forgotten to bring family Xmas presents with them (to Switzerland). Could we find the gifts in their walk in wardrobe, wrap them, take them to the post office and send them tracked delivery?
As the post office was due to close for Xmas that lunch time it was a mad rush to locate the appropriate gifts, wrapping paper, sellotape, box etc.
We managed it with minutes to spare as there was a Xmas market in the town square so limited parking and the need to complete a customs form at the post office.
So I guess it wasn’t a problem after all for us to go in to their bedroom suite when it suited them.
No mention of our efforts in the review. We did get the postage cost repaid (to the penny)!
a cat youtube video indicated that cats get stressed when a room is locked and they cannot get in as usual. the video said it’s bc they are territorial and need to keep surveying all the rooms to make sure everything is safe. this can affect their behavior.
