I am a homeowner (in Oregon ) and would probably turn down a housesitter from out of the country - but not because of anything to do with them.
I had to cancel a trip a couple years ago (with someone that wouldâve been coming from about 1500 miles away) because Covid had ramped up dangerously and I just couldnât justify either of us taking the chance. Thankfully, she had come to the same conclusion, so it wasnât an issue.
We may have passed that point now, fingers crossed, but being as possible infection is still kind of a crapshoot, the idea of having to cancel - and inconvenience!) a sitter who has all the arrangements in place just makes me cringe.
So until things settle down, or it just becomes a ho-hum fact of life, Iâll probably look for folks as local as I can get, just in caseâŚ
There are tons of sits in the UK with very few applicants. We personally donât fly to sits at the moment because of the heightened risk of flight cancellations, but it might be prudent to address this already in your application and to offer to fly to the UK a few days before the start of the sit. The other option would be: fly to the UK and apply for a last-minute sit (in this case you would need to be very flexible, though!).
We are in the UK and welcome sitters from all over. We have had several from Australia and all went well. We were unfortunately unable to find sitters for our planned holiday in the USA last Sept but that would not rule us out from trying again. I hope you are successful in the future.
Yeah! I just landed a LOVELY sit in the UK and this was the second UK sit I applied for. It looks like I was unnecessarily discouraged about the chances of getting an overseas sit.
I did take your suggestions about letting them know that I would be in UK for a period before the first day of the sit so that may have helped. Thank you for your encouragement and suggestions!
Absolutely not. We have done sits all over England and Scotland and we are from Washington. Many pet owners are looking for single women, which can help in your case. Itâs a big plus if you have experience with sits from Trusted House Sitters for good references. There will certainly be lots of competition from l people more local, but just keep trying and just accept some turn downs. This was our view from just one of our many sits in England from just down the road a couple of miles in Cornwall. Weâve done this sit twice.
A lot of brilliant responses here already. I not long got back to Scotland from doing a month-long sit in New York. Iâve been trying to get one there for a long time and Iâm sure Iâve had declines because of the distance. Iâve got a decent number of reviews under my belt now so that might have helped. Like someone else said, emphasis why you really want to come to the UK to do a sit and whether youâll be planning more before or after. Intending to have a number of sits back to back in the UK might go some way to assure an owner that youâll be less likely to pull out. Plus if this sits you apply for are in a particular appealing place with an especially appealing sit, chances are that theyâll be able to find someone else if a disaster were to happen x
The likelihood of acquiring more sits significantly increases once you have your first and once you are there.
My first year pet sitting in the UK, (18 months really) enabled me to go to Scotland 8 times and a wonderful plethora of deliciousness in Wales and England.
Never give up. It always starts with one!
Hi jakkij,
There could be various reasons and owners donât always say why. Donât give up. I am in the UK and pre covid managed a six week sit in Australia and three weeks in Spain. Would love another in Australia, so if one comes up that looks suitable I will apply. Keep seeing ones for just a couple of days to a week though, rather than at least a month to make the fare worthwhile. If any sits only say 0-3 applicants you may stand a better chance. Good luck,
Itâs just a matter of a good fit, timing, all sorts of things. I am from the US and I will be doing two UK sits this spring. I stopped questioning why awhile ago. Just shake it off and try again. As someone said in an earlier post, the sea is fullâŚGood luck!!
@DianaO Haha! Yes the logistics were complex! It was like putting a jigsaw puzzle together trying to coordinate dates & locations. But it was a fun challenge! We started off with booking the first 20 Sits whilst still on other sits in Germany & Switzerland. We had a plan- firstly to spend three months of summer housesitting around the UK doing back to back sits, and secondly to reach our goal of 50 (5*) reviews by the end of the summer! There were so many sits in UK this summer- it was a great opportunity to strengthen our profile! Therefore we focussed exclusively on short sits of no longer than a week. Another little goal was to see if we could avoid overnight costs! In the end our trip became combined with a property sale so got extended to 5 months with another 11 sits tagged on along the way! And amazingly every single potential gap got filled by the odd weekend or mid week sit or hosts inviting us/ asking us to stay extra nights- for our benefit or theirs. So in summary we arrived by car ferry from Calais to Dover in May and drove directly to our first sit in Oxford. 5 months and 31 sits later, with the flat sold, and not a single overnight cost, we left from our last sit in Eastbourne directly to Dover again! All goals accomplished and some amazing experiences along the way!! It felt very satisfying, especially as we are not usually ones to plan much but once we decided on this challenge we went for it!
It was also super intense- so much moving around and constantly new homes, pets & routines to get used to and daily reports to every single host! I donât think weâd repeat it-(that level of intensity) no need anymore!- but It was totally worth it!
Now looking forward to flying to Singapore at the weekend for a 3 week Christmas Sit (no 58!) Villa, pool, 2 cute little doggies- time to take it all a bit easier!
@Lokstar Wow! That is indeed a crazy schedule. We had our own crazy schedule (see Bedhopper post). But yours sounds more intense somehow! A lot of ours were paid nights inbetween, or Camino walking.
PS. We also arrived in the UK from France in May 2022. We spent 5 weeks in England and Scotland, before heading over to Ireland for another 6 weeks. Then back to mainland Europe for the restâŚ
Well done on reaching your goals and all the planning.
Hi, I donât think so because my first Pet Sit was in rule Italy for 30 days and I was travelling from Australia. I wasnât already travelling to Italy I travel to Italy specifically to commence to PetSit so I really think itâs based on your profile as well as your application, and if you clearly address the issues about your willingness to come over to another country, then hopefully the pet owner will acknowledge that and potentially approve you
Hi! Weâre from the UK and fairly new to THS. Our first sitters were a German and a South African, both US citizens, and things couldnât have worked out better. We donât honestly care where our sitters come from, we just want to know that they will be great sitters and will look after our dogs and our home as well as we would. Wishing you luck in getting uk sits.
Hi Jillbow,
Does it make you nervous about them arriving in time for the sit and do you ask that they plan on arriving 1 or two days early?
Thank you,
J
We always offer an early visit (for local sitters) or the opportunity to spend a few days with us beforehand. This seems to work for our dogs, the suites and us. The dogs and sitters get to know each other. We can help sitters get accustomed to our home, our neighbourhood and dogs. Sitters get a chance to explore the area dog free. And we leave feeling more confident this will work. So far, so good!
) and would probably turn down a housesitter from out of the country - but not because of anything to do with them.
