Hi, I’ve just recently heard about THS and am thinking of joining but have a few questions first which i was hoping someone might be able to help with.
I have one 4 year old cat and a corn snake. My cat gets really stressed at a cattery, so I’m looking for other options which world be less stressful for her.
I tend to go away quite a bit for short trips, but we have an upcoming 3 week trip in mid August which is what prompted me to look in here.
Do you find you have any problem finding sitters? I wasn’t sure what the ratio is between owners and sitters, so don’t know how difficult it is to find a sitter.
Once a sitter is confirmed, have any of you had any issues with last minute cancellations? I’m so scared of booking someone then being let down, as this trip has been cancelled 3 years in a row, so I’m very nervous that we end up not being able to go due to no pet care.
With the different membership options, what is the benefit of the middle option over the basic one?
Do you find there are many sitters that would be happy looking after unusual animals, like a snake? She’s very low maintenance, and would only require 2 feedings while I’m away, but obviously the sitter would need to be comfortable with that.
I want to join, but I’m just unsure whether the above queries might be an issue at all, as obviously don’t want to join and then find no one will come sit for me, so wanted to check this out first.
Sorry about all the questions.
Hello @Macbeth and welcome to our community forum where you can connect with some of our 100,000+ members to get some reassurance from your questions.
This forum is full of helpful sitters and owners who I’m sure will jump in through the day with some answers to your questions, so for the moment, I’m going to leave you with a link to another post that you might find interesting, which also identifies some of our snake loving pet carers!! Tell us, how long can a corn snake grow to? I actually have no problem with snakes at all, but as yet we haven’t added this to our list of house sitting pets! Our encounters have all been in the wild
In terms of memberships, each of the standard and premium memberships offer different benefits over the basic level all of which is shown on the pricing page, but @Lucy-B will be able to advise which is the best for you when she comes back online later today if you still need more information.
I got tagged in this bc I am eager to land a pet sit that includes a snake just like yours!!
I can’t tell you what the need to sitter ratio is as I’m just a sitter - not an admin. Sometimes it seems it’s very hard for us to land a sit and there is much competition and other times I think people struggle to find sitters. It seems to depend a great deal on your location/home and dates. Certain locations get snatched up right away (especially cities like London, Paris, NYC, Amsterdam).
Sitters are also anxious about cancellations - I have made extensive travel plans for some sits so getting canceled on would cost us dearly. So far, so good in our case…but we all know emergencies do happen.
I don’t know where you are located and I wish I was free in August because a cat and a snake would make me SO happy.
We will be pet sitting in the UK and Netherlands in August.
I have definitely seen people sit for snakes and other unusual creatures. Some of us love them.
We have no snake experience, but are always looking out for unusual pets to sit (if we feel we can properly care for them)! There isn’t really a guarantee for either HOs or pet sitters. We have never cancelled a sit, but some HOs have had to cancel/change/come back early because of Covid, the flight situation or personal reasons. We’d probably go for a couple / 2 people that are planning to be in your country before your sit, already live there or don’t need to fly (and listen to your gut feeling if you feel that they’re reliable). You can also search for listings in your area and see how many applicants they get. If you’re in a desirable location you might even be able to secure a sitter last-minute.
Thank you to all who have replied. Your answers have been very helpful.
I have a few more questions if that’s okay?
I’m based in a village just outside Cambridge in the UK. Would being in a village affect my chances of getting a sitter, as in do you think its more likely for sitters to want to be in a city so much easier to get around and see the sites as such?
Do you find that you predominantly have local sitters, or predominantly overseas sitters? If local, do you get a chance to meet up with them beforehand and let them meet your pets? I understand obviously that wouldn’t be possible if it’s an overseas sitter.
Hi @Macbeth and welcome to the forum, hopefully we can welcome you, your cat and your corn snake into the TrustedHousesitters community soon enough.
You are certainly in the right place here as our experienced and helpful members have a wealth of knowledge to share and are always happy to answer any questions based on their experiences.
For any membership-based queries, I am going to send you a quick email directly from our Membership Services department so that we can discuss the best plan for you and answer any questions you have in that regard.
HI @Macbeth, We are a family of UK based sitters and so far have only done housesits in the UK during our school holidays. We personally enjoy village and rural sits. We occasionally do town / city sits too. It all comes down to personal preference. Some sitters like busy towns, others prefer more rural.
Living in the UK, we would drive to most of our sits in our own car. At the moment many sitters coming to the UK from abroad are finding the cost of car hire prohibitively expensive, so they will be looking for sits accessible by public transport. If your village has decent public transport links and facilities like a shop or a pub, this can be mentioned in the listing. If not, offering to pick sitters up from the nearest station can help attract more overseas sitters.
Like @Timmy we have no snake experience but are always keen to learn about different pets. We would apply for a sit with a corn snake.
