I just received a text message from a pet parent whos sit was supose to start next week however they have asked me to come 6 days later due to circumstances out of their control.
This has put me in an aweful position as i don’t have enough money to stay at a hotel or airbnb for 6 nights and can’t stay with any friends.
What is THS policy on this?
They have now amended their dates on THS and im not sure what to do. Hopefully i will get another sit but im not liking the outcome.
Sorry to hear of your predicament @Cat_Lover
Are you a Premium member?
If so with the sit due to start next week you are covered by the sit cancellation plan - contact member services for advice on how to make a claim .
The urgent support line is a 24/7 phone line - the number is on your dashboard.
If you are not a Premium member you may need to return home and not do the second sit if it’s not viable for you anymore . ( You don’t have to accept the change of dates )
Do you mean you don’t know if you are going to accept the new dates?
You could do a quick search to see if there are other sits you can get last minute. They might overlap but you don’t have to agree to the new dates if they don’t suit you.
If you’re prepared to roll up your sleeves, you could check out ‘helpx dot net’ .
People post opportunities to work in exchange for board and lodgings, often on farms, but also in the hostel/hotel industry. Many would want you to commit to a longer stay than 6 days, as there would inevitably be an element of training involved, but it could be worth a try.
@Cat_Lover if you’re in Sydney, it might be worth joining other housesitting websites for Australia specific sits. There are 2, and they have A LOT of sits. You might have to leave the city centre, but there’s usually quite a lot of sits.
Have you thought about checking out hostels. Hostels tend to be cheaper than hotels are Airbnbs. And many have private rooms. We are currently traveling in South America and hostels have been a good inexpensive option for us.
Yes I have, theres some airbnbs also im just not as financial as I would be. I’ll speak to the pp, hopefully they can go halves with me. They are very kind ppl and regular clients. Things don’t seem so dim this morning as they did last night.
Thank you everyone for your support I really appreciate it. What a wonderful support network we have.
One more suggestion: WWOOF (Willing Workers on Organic Farms). There’s many that would happily have someone help out for less than a week, even sometimes last minute. WorkAway is a quite similar option, but goes beyond farms.
For hostels: Hostelworld. In Australia you can get a bunk bed from as little as 20-25 US$/night. Not much privacy of course, but at least it gets you through these 6 days and you might meet some interesting people
It is always unfortunate when plans change and we have to find an alternative. However, the spirit or maybe the aim of THS is not to provide housing for the unhoused, whether voluntary or not. This is a mutual arrangement site that provides HO and pets the opportunity to have their pets and or their home looked after by someone who is responsible and also traveling. Not having the resources, ability and funds to manage change on your own, does not become the responsibility of THS. The benefits provided as a Premier member is a benefit not a right of liability.
The changes to dates of an agreed THS happens and most members have probably had the such experience. It should not be a crisis, to you, just a problem to resolve.
I have only had date changes happen in the planning stage, months ahead. If an HO did this one week in advance, I would not considered myself bound to do the sit (even if the change had been beyond their control). If I found a replacement sit, I might take that instead.
So by acting like this, the HO risks needing to scramble for pet care for the second half of that sit, at very short notice. If they want to avoid that, they can offer to host the sitter or (better) to pay for lodging in the vicinity.
Same. I’ve only had the dates of a sit change once and it was because they had taken their mom on holiday and she’d gotten I’ll so they needed to come home early. I was welcome to stay as long as I needed to after they returned.
If someone halved the sit a week before it started I’d start looking for sits to fill the entire sit period, not just the adjusted time. But, OP says they’re a regular sitter for this HO, so probably not worth burning that bridge if they’re otherwise reliable.
I also agree with the above that it’s imperative, as sitters, that we have enough resources available to support ourselves without sitting because you never know when you might need to do an emergency escape from a bad situation and you don’t want to be held back by financial limits. I know that timing can sometimes suck, but even having a spare credit card that you only use for emergencies will give you the ability to get out and a month to figure out repayment.
