I have several requests right now to meet a homeowner and their pets before the sit starts. I think I’m going to start declining these requests because it puts an undue amount of stress on me as a full-time traveler to find and secure lodging and travel beforehand.
What do you guys usually do? I imagine it’s much easier to meet beforehand if you have a car and you’re doing a sit in a nearby city from where you live. But for us full-time travelers, how do you handle requests to meet the pets and HO before the sit begins?
Nope, and that includes video chatting for a couple of sits within 45 minutes of me, while my new-to-me home was being remodeled. I had my own car, but would have rather passed on sitting than meet in person in pursuit of a sit.
One sit was in a high-end apartment with two cats that cost thousands each and another was at a custom-built home.
The host couples on both sits were easy to partner with, and their pets were lovely and sweet. We handed off in person, with an overlap of an hour in one case and a couple of hours for the other.
For me, hosts who want to meet in person beforehand are too high maintenance.
If I can I do. And it’s usually me that instigates it.
It gives me an opportunity to check out everything in person and see how the dogs react to a stranger. We arrive at 50% of our sits after the hosts leave.
We have done it for a long sit when it was convenient and beneficial for us . Due to the owners travel logistics, there wasn’t going to be an in person handover . The sit was confirmed after a video call . The owners offered to bring the dog to meet us somewhere convenient for us or come to their home when in the area .
We wouldn’t typically go out of our way to meet owners beforehand . There are plenty of sits available without such a requirement .
Paid sites with local sitters often suggest a meet and greet beforehand. If the owners are familiar with that formula they may suggest it .
We have done it a couple of times when it just so happened that we were in the area anyhow.
As a rule of thumb, If we could get there and back for a tenner, then we probably would . If it was likely to cost us more than a tenner, and they really wanted to meet us prior to the sit, then we would put ourselves out but they would have to be happy to pay our travel/accommodation costs.
I have done, mainly at the start of my housesitting ‘career’ if it was convenient or if I’ve been housesitting nearby. I also offered it to a couple of owners who were new to THS and a bit nervous.
Once, I received an unsolicited invitation for a last-minute sit. The host noted in their message that they’d want to meet in-person the same day (as they’d sent the invitation), so they could see whether we matched. I thought that nervy enough to be funny. Nope.
I have done this a few times when the sit prior to theirs was in the same area and the hosts were leaving for their trips very early. We went there to get keys and go over the basics. I don’t mind doing that in this sort of scenario as I can understand some hosts preferring to go over things in person and perhaps get the opportunity to actually meet the sitter. Being close by, and having flexible schedules, this wasn’t any sort of inconvenience for us.
But if we were overlapping with them the day of the sit ,or coming the day before, I wouldn’t see the purpose of going there beforehand and probably would say we weren’t available to do that. In this scenario, I imagine most hosts would not feel the need to do this and wouldn’t ask.
If you find yourself facing this request frequently, and it is becoming a source of stress for you, it would probably be a good idea to mention you are not available to do meet and greets prior to the start of the sit–this could be something you put in your profile or something you are sure to mention at some point prior to confirmation so hosts are aware of this.
It depends! If I am in town anyway or it’s feasible, then I don’t see why not. It’s nice for me as well to get shown how their place works. However, if it’s on the other side of the globe, then it must be a video chat or they need to find someone locally, which then is also perfectly fine.
We’re full time travellers, and only have our car for half of our sits. We’ve still visited on the odd occasion when we haven’t had the car, we just get public transport, or work something out with the HO.
We’ve also met up with the odd HO’s in a cafe midway too.
We don’t do it often, but when we do, we see it as a fun couple of hours, doing something we never expected to do that week.
If you don’t want to, just say no. Everyone’s different, there’s no rights or wrongs. Just say you’re not going to be in their area, or you can’t leave the pet your currently sitting for that long, and see what they say.
I think it comes down to the connection you have with the HO as to whether it feels natural to do so or not.
I’ve never met a host before the sit even started. I usually meet an hour before they leave or I stay with them the night before. The one time I met a host a week before the sit started because I was in the city was the worst one. They canceled on us last minute. They did offer me to stay with them which was very awkward. They were nice but than the wife seem annoyed that I was there. I ended up leaving and getting a hotel but the whole situation was just terrible. If I was the owner and I didn’t really want the sitter with me. I would have just gotten the sitter a hotel for a few days
I understand your hesitation, it involves significant logistics, not to mention a time commitment. Unreasonable requests can suggest they haven’t fully read your profile, an early hint of a lack of consideration or a reluctance to be fully transparent about pet behavior and conditions - in writing - in the listing.
I often find myself in the specific city days/ weeks early due to varied accommodations and plans. This usually allows for a far more relaxed and flexible handover; keys, routines, etc. Compared to the usual rush on the day of departure. Generally, a win for both sides.
Have also met hosts before confirming a sit. In one case, it revealed a mismatch to me, and I withdrew. The benefit of receiving the exact address that early in the process, can’t be overstated either.
Once had a host repeatedly postpone meeting me until the actual day of the sit. That stay unraveled into a nightmare (shared elsewhere in here). Last-minute shifting like that is now a very firm red flag for me.
When it comes to early flights and logistics, I rarely do nightly overlaps - even in larger homes - but I’m certainly open to arriving early if the host is heading to an airport hotel to depart at an odd hour. That’s practical and considerate.
As for “interview” coffees at cafés or multi-hour detours just to meet before confirming… Absolutely not. I pass at the mention of that word alone. The only interviews I do are with journalists, and those are in the context of real work and my profession, which this is not.
Yes, I travel full-time too with my dog but have a campervan and always do this whenever possible esp for multiweek sits. I also tend to choose places that I know I will want to come back to for future sits, so do meet n greets for other sits while on a current sit. And most HOs like having the same person return. Some hosts have been willing to host for a night or pay for camping for me to visit them before for a long sit, and offered me tickets to a desireable park/venue, or some other token of appreciation for the pre-sit visit, and even let me borrow their dog for off leash hikes with my dog lol, etc. For example, if I want to go to DC in the US say for NYE, I apply to a bunch of sits all at one time and plan a shorter 1-3 day trip there and schedule my meet n greets during that time. Sometimes I can find a last minute sit to set up for the longer sit for NYE.
I ask for at least a video tour of their home before accepting. I don’t accept sits in places that are hard to have a backup plan (i.e. lack affordable hotels). If there is an area that I’d like to revisit, I plan my visits to build up rapport with the HOs in that area and do my meet n greets while on another sit in the same area.
Some homes are not as pictured and HOs have personalities/mental health issues that are not apparent via photos/video, so more judicious in the sits I choose. After a few bad sits, I will no longer so sits with people I dislike, poor communicators, entitled, controlling, selfish, etc.
I’ve done it a couple of times and both times it was my suggestion as I was going to be nearby and exploring the town anyway. So I was there and I had a metrocard. One of the hosts offered to come and pick me up, which I declined.
I wouldn’t use a noticeable amount of time and/ or money for such, and if it was the need of the host and not mine I would find it rather frank to expect me to spend my time and money on it if I wasn’t in the area. If they offered to reimburse or cover costs it could be different but personally I would probably say no anyway, as I would probably then regard the sit as high maintenance.
Could be different for certain sits where I would like to take a look before committing fully.