As experienced, full-time housesitters then we find the Saved Search function for housesit listings to be simply marvellous. We have experimented with the ‘more filters’.
We would welcome an incremental ‘more filter’, being ‘Pets sleep in pet bed’.
With so many great listings out there, we seek to filter out listings where there is a requirement that pet(s) sleep in same bed as housesitter.
During 2024, we completed multiple housesits where the pets slept in human bed. In each case, we were attracted by some other housesit attribute and accepted housesit. Until recently, we had not really paid much attention to pet sleeping arrangement. But disturbed nights, across each such housesit, were problematic. We make no comment on pet owners that have encouraged this behaviour. Sorry, but we do not seek it ourselves. So it would be significant value-add to add an optional filter within the ‘find a housesit’ search function to flag such listings.
Some pets may prefer to sleep in human bed but are willing to sleep in their own bed. Some pets may need to sleep in human master bed but are ok if that bed is unoccupied by humans (e.g. housesitters can sleep in a guest bedroom). All good. Some Pet Parents already state such details in their listing. Two-way transparency and upfront expectations seem beneficial.