I am looking into some housesits in areas that have had natural disasters in the last 2 years. Some of them had many fatalities. The areas are rebuilding. What is THS doing to help sitters prepare for natural disasters? What are sitters to do if we are in an emergency situation and need to evacuate the home or city?
Unfortunately this is a reality of our time, and we need to be adequately prepared so we as sitters can stay safe – and also make arrangements for the pets. I must admit, this is making me hesitant to take sits in these areas, though I want to visit them. I don’t know what sitters are supposed to do, or what liability we have in an emergency.
It is important to remember that THS is strictly a matching platform and they are not a direct party to these arrangements.
In the scenario you describe, there is probably very little they can do directly. For instance, if a sitter had to leave a sit early because of a natural disaster, THS wouldn’t work on placing you in another sit; they wouldn’t directly cover any costs–premium membership does have coverage for sits that are cancelled/cut short but there are a number of requirements and conditions, the reimbursements are capped at a certain amount. It really isn’t a true insurance policy.
It is not as if THS is some sort of agency that directly pairs sitters and hosts and us sitters are employees for whom they have certain responsibilities and obligations.
While it could be helpful for them to provide some guidance for information purposes, they likely wouldn’t issue any specific binding guidelines and protocols.
As far as what to do in an emergency, where to go,etc…concerned sitters should discuss these things directly with the hosts.
For example, if you needed to go to a hotel with the pets for a few days until the hosts could come home, you may want to discuss how the payment would be handled. Would you be expected to cover costs upfront and get reimbursed later? Would they make the arrangements themselves and pay upfront? Would they leave you a credit card for this other potential expenses?
If a sitter is genuinely concerned about such matters, it is probably best not to take sits in these sorts of areas. Any problems you may encounter, you will be left to solve on your own for the most part.
THS being held financially responsible for natural disasters / force majeure scenarios is a big ask. They aren’t a travel agent, nor are they accommodation providers themselves.
They just simply provide a platform as a matching service.
Sitters pay a relatively low annual price, so to cover something like that outside of the normal insurance terms, would mean a huuuuuuuuuge price increase.
HO here and I was asked this question for our upcoming sit. I have researched hotels in my area that take animals and have a list of four that I will have in my Welcome Guide. I have told my sitters this and in case of emergency evacuation, I will pay for the hotel.
THS isn’t responsible for your travel plans. Why should they help you evacuate a city in a natural disaster? That’s your government’s job or the job of the local government.
Preparation for travel and any potential issues are your responsibility and can include travel insurance although that’s more likely medical evacuation only.
IMO a host living in such an area should have emergency plan (-s) and share them with the sitter. If not, it is in general a red flag, I’d say. But ofc many hosts are leaving in for instance hurricane season for a reason. The reason being that they don’t want to be there themselves and are happy to let a stranger stay with their animals and handle whatever comes up.
Can we please keep the thread about natural disasters and not about generalizing assumptions about owners pet dumping on sitters?
Many trips are planned way in advance during vacation dates/time off work so to generalize that folks would dump their pets on sitters to avoid natural disasters is truly unfair. Not saying it might not be the case once in a blue as there might be bad HO’s out there, but for most folks trips are trips not planned dumpings.
As for an HO leaving a plan, absolutely, the sitter is keeping the pets safe so their safety all together is paramount and HO’s need to have a solid plan for that in advance.
It is about natural disasters and relevant as it might impact the back up plans of one of the sit partners. The party living in the area should have a plan. Not the sitter or THS. The host has the local knowledge and should have such an emergency plan for themselves anyway and make the sitter able to take care of the home, the pets and the sitter. If they haven’t such a plan for a sitter I’d call it negligent.
Like most people replying, it’s not up to THS to have a plan or help if a natural disaster strikes.
We have sat in BC, Canada two years ago when the wild fires were rampant. At each of our sits we discussed with the hosts how we would respond if they got too close. Planning a strategy and having mobile numbers to call if we needed help.
Another sit was cancelled because of a huge earthquake in Mexico. The hosts were concerned as they knew we had already bought our plane tickets but I think they had other more important things to think about than our cancelled flights.
Planning is essential.