Hi, I joined to find out a bit more. We are going away for a week at the end of September and live in Hythe, Kent. We have a lovely home behind the golf course and minutes away from both the Sea front and The Royal Military Canal. We have a lively 3.5 year old Golden Retriever who usually returns to her breeder when we are away but she is unable to have her this year. As a first timer I’m obviously reticent about how to go about this and to select the “right” person. Any tips or advice would be useful. For instance do the sitters usually come and stay in the home with the owners for a night or two first to get used to both home and dog?
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Welcome, @Erconwald! There are dozens of threads on this forum to help you get up to speed and I’ll bet at any moment @Jenny will jump in to give you links to some of them.
Every sitter is different, but I prefer to NOT stay in the home the night before. It is so awkward, with the homeowners rushing around getting ready for the trip and me tiptoeing around with people I’ve just met. If it is essential, like with a cat who has an unusual medication routine, I will stay for ONE night with the homeowners there, but never two. My favorite homeowners are the ones who’ve written such a thorough Welcome Guide that I can show up without them there and everything is fine.
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Welcome to forum @Erconwald !
There are many ways to do a sit.
If a sitter is able to travel to you and have a nice handover, many would prefer to not have an extra overnight with the host. If you are leaving quite early, an arrival the night before might be best. Some hosts would rather spend such a night at friends/ family or a hotel closer to the airport, and leave the home for the sitters (for my next sit this is how the host does it - we have a handover and they leave in the evening for an airport hotel and an early flight next morning. Same when they come back, their arrival is in the evening so they sleep at a hotel and we’ll have a handover the next day).
In general, I think many would regard the party that wants the extra night is the one who should arrange it. For one sit I preferred to arrive at the location (not the home) two days early to do some sightseeing which I arranged myself although the host offered.
You only need one good match, not many applications. So act timely, as sitters are encouraged to apply for multiple sits (and may be taken if someone waits too long to reach out).
Finding a sitter it is customary to arrange a videocall before a sit is agreed. Both parties would like to investigate further before committing to anything. Use this opportunity to get to know each other and ask. Trust your gut feeling, and don’t go further if anything feels «off». It doesn’t mean anything is wrong with the sitter necessarily, but it is important to feel comfortable for both parties.
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A good number of sitters are open to coming a day earlier, so it comes down to finding the right match for you. The more lead time you give yourself in posting your sits, the better your odds of finding a good match.
Personally, I typically arrive a day ahead, because I fly in for most of my sits and try to avoid flight delays creating sit problems. I also am very comfortable interacting with hosts and prefer an in-person handoff.
Hosts who invite sitters a day early typically offer dinner as part of their hospitality. Personally, I’m fine with that or dining on my own, but many sitters who are invited a day early think it’s inhospitable to not offer dinner in that case.
Note: I do the early arrivals only when sit homes have comfortable guest accommodations, allowing for privacy. I wouldn’t arrive early in a small home, where you’d be on top of each other.
Some hosts offer to pay for a hotel if they want their sitter to arrive a day early, but would prefer to not have them stay in their homes a night ahead.
I’ve also done a couple of sits where I arrived two days ahead. Those went perfectly fine as well. My hosts in those cases showed me the ropes, introduced me to their pets and left me to my own devices. I telecommute and can otherwise always keep myself busy.
About 20 of my sits have involved arriving a day ahead and overnighting at the hosts’ home before they leave the next day. No problems with any of those experiences. Met lots of lovely people, including a U.K. couple who intro’d me to friendly neighbors. Those folks later invited me to afternoon tea and separately a lecture. I loved that, because I’d always daydreamed about living in a British village.
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Staying overnight is more natural when sitters are taking flights to sit for you, or they have a long car journey, or they are relying on public transport. Basically, if they have a long journey, it’s in the owners favour to ensure they are at your place beforehand.
We’re sitters in the UK with our own car, so if we live within a 1.5 - 2hr car journey, we personally don’t usually stay overnight, unless the pet owners really want us to, because of their particular place, or they could have an early morning flight themselves.
Finding the right person is easier that you think, you’ll know when you find the perfect match for you. It’ll feel natural, and easy. You’ll have a good gut feeling about them, so trust your intuition.
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Thank you! That’s encouraging
When we first joined I spent a full month reading all the threads in the Forum to learn the ropes. I then wrote a list of dos/don’ts also red flags to spot in homeowner listings but in your case it’d be sitters. Our first WhatsApp video chat was quite exciting but I realised I was overly keen to get that 1st sit so agreed to sit a young puppy!! I survived the sleep deprivation but lesson learnt. All sitters have strengths/weaknesses, so you need to decide what your ideal sitter attributes are. Sitters have ideal homeowner attributes lists too. Hopefully THS membership assists you in finding a match. Nice people hopefully find other nice people. Very occasionally there’s a bad apple, as in everyday life. Just be vigilant.
Thank you. This is very reassuring
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I’ve only stayed in the house while the host was present on a few occasions early on—primarily because they hadn’t disclosed it beforehand. I find it somewhat awkward, like a grown-up summer camp with strangers, even in a generously sized house.
It’s essential to read the terms carefully: the dates and duration of a housesit should be clearly stated and reflect your actual arrival and departure. Any additional expectations should be discussed explicitly.
Also, keep in mind that this is a mutual matching platform between travelers—no one is “selected”… An agreement only becomes valid once both parties have confirmed
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Hi @Erconwald & welcome. Just to clarify, do you mean you have you joined Trusted House Sitters & paid your annual membership fee so you can list your sit? As that will be your first step.
Hi @Erconwald I hope you have joined THS and paid a membership and not just joined the forum! Having completed many sits over the last 10 years, I find the majority have been where I have arrived late afternoon/early evening the day before the owners leave. Sometimes this date is built into the dates advertised; otherwise, it is raised and agreed to during the video chat. Rarely do I feel uncomfortable in the owners’ presence as I work at communication and building relationships from when the sit is booked until day of arrival. Not all sitters would be comfortable doing this but that’s the type of person I am.
I find this is of particular importance to me when sitting a dog or dogs and do not accept a sit if the owner will not be present for handover. Letting the dog/s see me in the company of their owners plus having an opportunity to go out on their evening walk with their owner works really well in being accepted by the dog.
Take time to read the many excellent blogs on the THS website by typing in the Help section how to write the perfect listing, for example. Also carefully read the Code of Conduct and Terms of Service, especially the responsibilities of both the owner and the sitter, as you are agreeing to this when you join. Keep in mind this is an equal exchange of free accommodation for free pet care and home security. Wishing you well!
@Erconwald, there’s a surprising variety in pet parent listing particulars (pets, duration, location, etc) and in housesitter preferences.
As experienced international housesitters then majority of our housesits include a request by pet parent to arrive a day early. For pet parents about to travel internationally then this gives comfort that housesitter actually turns up! But sometimes such a request simply reflects appetite by pet parent to engage with housesitter on a personal level and/or seek to build relationship for future (rather than one-time transaction). Or to explain atypical complexities with pet care or property management. Giving the housesitter a choice to arrive on-day, day-early or multi-day-early may be an appealing feature to full-time housesitters that are juggling commitments. Use of vehicle may similarly attract non-local sitters.
If you require that housesitter met dog well before housesit date then this effectively eliminates non-local applicants.
More broadly, suggest reflect on that aspects of the situation are most important to you … include that in listing … and then engage in ample video calls with housesitters. As a newbie then it’s likely that video calls may be illuminating - perhaps you’ll connect with some and not others. But bear in mind that this is not employment … rather it works when it’s a fair trade … housesitters, even after video call, may politely decline.
Good luck and happy learning.
Hi, your response to staying over and needing to meet up with owners seems to be in the minority.
However, It’s very much what I would prefer. I would not be happy going away and leaving my dog until I was sure she had bonded with the sitter and I had gone out for a walk with her/him. However, it seem that this is not the norm.
@Erconwald Forum members make up a very small percentage of the overall number of THS members so it’s hard to determine what the norm is.
You need to do what you think is best for your dog and yourselves. There will be sitters to meet your requirements.
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Hi @Erconwald
Welcome to the Forum!!!
There’s some really good advice in this discussion already, I thought i’d also share this discussion where pet parents have shared some advice on welcoming a sitter to their home.
Just to echo what has already been said, Trusted Housesitters is all about being mutually beneficial experiences. You’ll find the right person for you, your pet(s) and your home, the key to this is often good old fashioned communication. 
There’s so much fantastic knowledge and experience in the forum and we’re always here to help.
I seem to have noticed a difference between dog sitters and cat sitters, too. I know very little about dogs so have to trust the judgment of others in terms of handover procedures, etc. For cats, unless the home has some very strange quirks or the cat needs medication that might be complicated (most cat medication routines are simple), I see no reason why there has to be an in-person handover.
And what @buttercup said made me laugh out loud; it expresses perfectly how I feel having to spend the first night with the owners: “I find it somewhat awkward, like a grown-up summer camp with strangers, even in a generously sized house.” 
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@KittySitter I primarily sit for cats too and typically the only time I arrive the night before is if they are leaving extremely early in the morning. With cats there is usually no need for an extended handover.
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We would not sit for a dog without a direct handover of at least an hour or two. We do not mind one overnight. I believe two nights would be too many. If it were only cats, I would do it however the homeowner wanted. Cats don’t care, you are here to serve me, that’s all they care.
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One of the advantages of arriving and doing an overlap with hosts (beyond what’s already been mentioned) is that the sitter can check out the host, home and pets and the host can check out the sitter.
With some of the hideous sits gone wrong that have been described in the forum and Facebook groups (which are of course the exception, since most sits go fine), had there been an overlap, some folks could have canceled before the host’s departure and avoided staying at a nightmarishly filthy home or one where plumbing wasn’t working or was infested with fleas or overrun with mold, or where the pets were aggressive. And hosts might’ve potentially canceled and not ended up with a sitter who gave them bad vibes and damaged their homes, stole from them or neglected their pets.
Of course, canceling at the last minute isn’t something to be done lightly, but to me, if I were the host, I’d never leave my pet or home with someone if I got bad vibes in person. And as a sitter, I wouldn’t be trapped into a filthy or dangerous sit. If you overlap and find that out, if you have a backup plan, you could quickly extract yourself, without having to stay till the host arranged alternative care for their pets (because of course pets shouldn’t be abandoned without care).
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Thank you for taking the trouble to reply