Since I mentioned that I’ve had a high rate of date changes, I decided to look back and see where they were or if there were any other commonalities. The majority were in the US (not all, but most) and most were sits where the HOs were driving to their destination (not this particular sit). Much easier to change dates when you’re driving. Might be a good idea to reconfirm dates a few times with HOs who are driving.
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Wow, that is pretty bold of the Owner. You are well within your right to tell her that you cannot be there on the new start date. And you should not feel guilty about it!
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I agree with you & find it hard to understand the chopping & changes of dates by HOs. We’ve all busy lives & I’d be very unhappy about these sorts of changes as our schedule is very tightly managed.
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We have been caught out a quite a bit in the early days of Sitting, I always check several times, If it is a sit that’s booked a year out, I send each Month, sometimes, they have changes that out of their control or their Travel agent changed it, the airlines, tour company etc. When we were sitting back to to back full time, I had to make sure with the HO that if their flight was delayed was there someone that could come over etc. I just sent to my June Sits to check dates and what time they would like us to arrive and their ETA home, sometimes they honestly just forget and updating the THS site is not on their mind, “we have a sitter in place”
There might be a few who change their plans and then get upset because you can’t just drop everything and meet their needs, however I think they are the exception.
After we have confirmed the sit, I WhatsApp them and keep in touch that way, I send each Month depending on how are out they are and then a Month before, 2 Weeks before, a Week before and then 2 days before and the day before to say " we will see you at … time etc or let you know when have arrived and Pets are accounted for"
What a lot of HO don’t think about is, many of us are doing full time, some back to back sitting and we have other things going on in our lives too. Eg sending house notes and the sit is 4mths away, it’s great, however things change, a gentle reminder has anything changed about a Month beforehand and 2 weeks before.
We had a HS where we knew that they had 1/4 Pets pass away before our sit a Month before, we knew about that, we got found 2/3 pets, it was common for this Pet to only show up for Food and then sleep in cupboard, we checked the cupboard, nil, we checked everywhere, I even sent the Teens walking either ends of the Rd looking just in case, before I was going to ring the Vet’s and I thought I will just call their CP, who asked “what colour one is that?” If I had of rung the Vets they would have told me that it had indeed passed away a week before. The HO was pre occupied and upset with loosing another beloved Pet so soon, they just forgot to tell me and because we don’t seem them, we arrive and leave without seeing them, they just simply forgot. We saw them on return and told them I had called their CP before my next call was the Vet, just so they knew that I had called them. I didn’t say anything while they were away, they really needed the break, they just wanted to be sure that the 2 remaining pets were happy, healthy and having a lovely “staycation”.
Happy Sitting
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@BonnyinBrighton did you get replies are there any unexpected date changes ?
None so far 
although some arrival departure time adjustments agreed to make things work better on both sides.
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