Some owners request that you come a day early and stay overnight and have dinner with them though by all means not all.It is a nice welcoming gesture though especially if you know the sitter is travelling long distances and going to some expense to get to you to offer to pick them up from abus/train station or airport.
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My feeling is if as a sitter you have travelled long distances and paid 100s of dollars for a flight to get to a sit It is great if the homeowner can extend the hospitality of coming to pick you up at the airport That seems fair somehow
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Unless you live in the boonies, I’m not sure I would offer airport pickup, but we live in a very well connected city.
Re:everything else, we do that standard. It’s important to us to get to know HS before we entrust our entire home and dog to them. We require HS to arrive early to do an orientation so have no issues putting them up for extra nights and then will typically share meals, etc.
It seems a lot of people have a more transactional approach to their sits but ultimately you should do what you’re comfortable with.
EDIT: regardless of what both parties decide to do, I just want to add that I’ve noticed a lot of people make assumptions about what should or shouldn’t happen for a sit and ultimately the answer should just be that regardless of what party you are, it’s important to be explicit about your expectations BEFORE confirming the sit. So many problems that I see shared on here are basically miscommunications caused by a lack of clarity and easily avoidable by making sure assumptions aren’t being made.
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I couldn’t agree more.
Funny thing is part of that miscommunication is also due to assumptions. We sometimes assume that the other party may feel uneasy or challenged when asked certain questions.
I think on the thread about Inappropriate questions the conclusion what that it’s more about tone and opportunity than the topic itself.
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Just went to read that and saw @anon10466095 ’s response 
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I can definitely see the grey in that OP’s question but questions like where am I sleeping? What time should I be there? How do you normally handle handovers at the start and end of sits? Etc, are logistical questions that aren’t at all loaded and could easily be introduced by either party to the conversation BEFORE the sit is confirmed. (This is just an example )
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I think what it boils down to, provided they haven’t asked you in a demanding way, is how do you want to make the sitter feel? Do you want them to feel welcome and appreciated?
For me a sit always goes better when the HO’s attitude and behaviour say these things.
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Totally agree.
This thread has been interesting, because I didn’t realize how many people feel so awkward or uncomfortable about having dinner or staying over. I never gave it a second thought, because I have high comfort with that sort of thing.
Just wrapped my 18th sit and I stayed over and had a lovely time over dinner with my hosts. I have yet to have anything but when I’ve stayed over or shared meals with folks. Have even been invited for thank-you meals after my hosts have returned and some have offered extra days if I want to hang around and sightsee. If my timing allows, I wouldn’t hesitate to take them up on it, provided the home is big enough for comfort and privacy.
If nothing else, we have pets and travel in common. And there’s always stuff to learn about a city or country, or maybe what people’s careers or hobbies are, or what books, movies or such they’ve enjoyed. Or what’s good to eat, see or do locally, or novelties or such that only locals know about. People also love to talk about their kids, even if all grown.
I can do transactional sits, too, but sitting is more enjoyable to me if I get to know people. Plus, building rapport is more likely to result in a good sit, better for pets.
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It is indeed a wonderful thing if collection from the airport can be offered and provided by a home owner however my point was that this should not necessarily be an expectation from a sitter.
I think this may tie back to the changes in marketing with TH, or at least I’m wondering that. I am starting to see so many more posts of people balking at the idea of an exchange and treating this like a community and more people expecting this to be transactional and treating it like a service where they don’t see or interact with people and expect it to be standard and look the same every time. The truth is, each sit will be somewhat unique.
Social anxieties aside, I still think there is a lot to be said about the fact that if we are genuinely putting the pets and homes first, it means we should be thorough and make sure there is at least some semblance of a working rapport between HS/HO, and that means having very clear expectations set, making sure everyone feels comfortable and if some type of a handover isn’t happening, putting mitigations in place for whatever your contingency is going to look like. There is also something to be said about being flexible about making sure that you’ve done your part to make the other party feel comfortable and that may mean that on some level, you need to make an effort to actually get to know them.
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Yes, this is perfectly normal. About 90% of the sits I do, the owners want me to turn up ther afternoon or evening before. They find it less stressful knowing that the sitter had arrived and no last minute panic the next day, if sitter should get delayed due to traffic problems etc. They also like to spend some time showing me around and if looking after dogs the walks they do andc surrounding areas. They always provide as meal and sometimes even take me out for one. I have also been asked to stay over on the day they arrive back, if it is going to be late.
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I sit, and live in MI and am surprised that you did agree to pick them up, and provide dinner. Since you are not leaving until afternoon the next day. I can understand an early exit, where I have come the night before, but not when it is not an early exit. But like my experiences as a sitter, you learn as you go.
There is no “Typical”. To me I find it uncomfortable to have to spend the night in a strangers home with them in it. My husband and I love to do TrustedHousesitters and are financially secure so we really prefer to get a hotel prior to the sit if it is in another state or country.
While we have spent the night on occasion we have never asked anybody to collect us from the airport. And in one situation where they wanted us to spend two nights prior to them leaving to get familiar with the animals, we compromised on coming over to do a visit prior a few days ahead and then doing dinner and spending the night of their leaving–but they were leaving at five in the morning.
I think it is extremely presumptuous of someone to expect you to collect them at the airport, and also expect dinner if it is not something you have already mentioned you. In my experience it would usually be the homeowner that would feel more comfortable with this, not the sitter.
But again I don’t think there is a is a norm, sits are always different.
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As an experienced 5* sitter I’d like to tell you it’s really a give and take and each and every HO has the option to hire a professional service person. If you decide to invite a person then what you mentioned is a fraction of a business person’s invoice. Some HOs go beyond and what do they get? Of course a sitter being eager to return if ever it will fit next time. So do I. And all this niggling is it really worth when your pets are taken care of in a nice and personal way?
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I’m a HO and we do this. I would rather have the sitter come the night before to get to know our dog and go over any details in the house and the hiking trails by our house and any shopping needed. We always offer to take them out to dinner so we can get to know them. We normally leave super early in the morning, so it’s nice when the sitters are already there.
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