What is acceptable to ask a owner when their profile has no pertinent information? Like showing only photos of the view, not the rooms, and no photo of the owner themselves? I’ve accepted a sit and I did ask for photos of the home/rooms/pet and felt I was (almost) intruding on them. I was sent some pictures but still very little actual information. No idea if this is a couple, what they do, or who they are! Yes, I accepted! It’s in a location I love and the timing is perfect! I’ll post back, but I’d like to know if this is normal or even allowed?
No way would I accept this, unless I had done a video call or better still, personally visited. It sounds dodgy. Have they had sitters before?
1 Like
Yes. They have a good review (of course!) and I am thinking about emailing them. However I already have my US to NZ tickets purchased and they are nonrefundable!
She replies whenever I send a whats app message…but I was wondering more about the profile minimums THS requires. It is dodgy! I told her that I thought her home was beautiful and why didn’t she have it on her profile, but she didn’t answer that. 
It sounds like you’ve accepted this sit without having a video chat, which I would always do before accepting. You can glean so much and can ask to look at the rooms not shown in the profile. There are lots of questions to ask the home owner in advance of confirming and they can be found in the forum if you do a search.
Hopefully everything will work out well. I’m coming to the end of 6 months’ housesitting & travelling in NZ’s South Island and have had a brilliant time.
1 Like
@sitkashel You are taking a bit of a risk agreeing a sit on so little information but hopefully it will all go well! We’ve done similar on occasion- and usually all went perfectly well- but we’ve learnt over the years to be more discerning and ask all the necessary questions!
You should never feel you are imposing by asking for imformation that is important for the sit! After all you’ll be living in their space taking care of their precious pets & belongings! You don’t need to have a video call if you don’t want but they should definitely send all the pics and all the info you require to make a good decision. Some hosts prefer to send extra info privately- for security reasons & that’s ok -but if they don’t want to send anything then that’s dodgy.
Think about your own profile- how many pics & how much info you have provided! The host knows far more about you!
You have every right to ask anything at all!
Most hosts do not post a picture of themselves in their listing & I think that should be a requirement. And many don’t say anything about themselves either. I always prefer more transparency- it seems much more friendly and welcoming.
We had a recent sit where we did not meet the hosts & there was no video call & not even a telephone call, just messaging, and the host had no pics of themselves in their profile or in their house! During the sit we invited them to send us a pic of themselves on their holiday - they didn’t. The sit went great but we still don’t know what they look like!!
In contrast we once had a long and very friendly video call for a sit in Spain. The host was in the UK for the call and we were in Mexico at the time. All looked very promising and we flew in especially. Well to cut a very long story short the sit was a disaster from start to finish! & it was a very long sit of a few months.
We managed to extract ourselves a few weeks earlier but we had to involve THS and it was all a big stress…
Moral- you just never know! No amount of info or calls can protect you against every possible scenario. Usually things go well but sometimes it just doesn’t work out. Beyond getting all the info you can you just have to trust your gut!
3 Likes
Agree with @Smiley in that by having a video chat the HO can show you where you’ll be staying and you get a feel of their place.
Hello Sitkaskhel
I wonder what part of New Zealand the sit is in. I am a New Zealander living in Europe but if you know where in New Zealand the sit is, by all means private message me and I’ll see if I can give you any info on the area. Best of luck, I’m sure you will love your time there. New Zealanders are pretty “laid back” and generally not too demanding - I hope!!
I would be a bit worried to be honest. Are you sitting by yourself or as a couple? How long is the sit?
1 Like