I believe you will find you have more applicants with longer sits. So many sitters look for this type of sit and it can be so much easier to settle into a home for a while and not always need to be packing up and moving on.
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I love sits that are about a month long-- any longer than that and I start to get the itch to roam! I would never be able to stay put for 6 months straight at my own home , so I donât think i would enjoy it even in the most glorious of homes in the most glorious of settings-- just have too much of a travel itch.
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@MojaveForever, agreed. I think some folks value longer sits, because theyâre nomads.
I have two homes and donât even want to stay at either for six months straight, LOL.
When I first joined THS, I was offered a six-week sit that I hadnât applied for and asked the HOs whether theyâd be willing to split the sit. I ended up doing about four weeks total, bookending another sitter. Even that experience has shown me to not accept sits of more than a month.
@JudyY, I ended up splitting a six-week sit with another sitter and wouldnât do it again even though the HOs were easygoing and were happy with the sits.
Why not: I bookended the other sitter, handing off the house and pets in good condition in person. I returned and found signs that the sitter had cut corners with the pets. There were signs in their food and water that indicated that theyâd been left for longer than the HOs wouldâve wanted and werenât fed the right food, even though they were older pets that needed a more careful diet. When I returned, they were off their feed. Of course, I donât know why â it couldâve been just a coincidence. But in retrospect, I wouldnât want to be potentially held responsible for what the other sitter mightâve done or not done, or had done suboptimally. Like what if the pets had ended up seriously sick or such?
Also, either the regular cleaners or the other sitter (probably the cleaners) broke something during the gap while I was away. The HOs didnât care, because it wasnât a valuable item, but in retrospect I also wouldnât want to potentially be held accountable for something like that happening.
Thanks all for your replies. Itâs so individual - thatâs whatâs great about this site! The longest sit I would ask for is 2-3 months. I totally agree that splitting the sit is suboptimal. So much more can go wrong!