Yes - bang on!
So true. Get there super early and sitters will have to get a hotel the night before. Can’t leave until evening, then another hotel required. If it’s an expensive area, now the sitter is paying to do the petsit
It’s my bugbear too. I never apply if it only says 2 hour option.
I feel just a single box for each (arr/dep) would work fine, IF it were clear it was defining when the Host needs to leave/will arrive home. It’s informative to applicants by stating the non-flexible fact, but leaves negotiating the logistics to the adult parties involved: If I see you have to leave by 7:30am, I ask you if staying the night before is an option, or offer my suggestion for how to accommodate your need.
I do think some hosts don’t stop to consider that it will personally cost me in the range of $200+ to meet their start time if they can’t accommodate me the night before, & am a little surprised it never crosses their mind that this is quite an ask for a free sitter. Of course, sometimes I plan to be in the area in a hotel anyway for a few days, & that’s fine.
You make some good points. However, I typically put in dates for the day before we leave and the day after we return, because I don’t expect the sitter to have to be too inconvenienced. Unfortunately, on my latest sitting the sitter just sent me a text that they will be arriving the day before, so now my wife is not happy as we usually are busy cleaning the house and packing for the trip the day before. It’s as if they sitters don’t even look at the times on my posting. When I request an arrival window of 6 to 9pm I could live with an afternoon arrival the same day, but NOT the night before. This is the second time in a row that a sitter has asked to come a day early. We are not a free hotel for the sitters convenience.
@TT2 you can simply say that you’re not able to accommodate them a day earlier. No further explanation is needed.
Did they specifically say they’re arriving to your home? Perhaps they just mean to the area.
If you say no to them arriving to your home a day early, you do run the risk of them cancelling or mentioning it in their review. However, if they told you rather than requested, then that’s an orange or red flag that shouldn’t be ignored, in my opinion. Communication and mutual respect are key elements of a good sit.
I agree with you. Unfortunately they said in the message to me that they booked their ticket and when they would be arriving at my house. It wasn’t a request, so I think it presumptuous of them (or anyone) to think it okay to arrive an entire (24 hours early).
Before jumping to any conclusions, have you discussed the overlap in dates with the sitter?
Could this simply be a misunderstanding? Perhaps they interpreted the dates you listed as the dates you would be away and thought you were asking them to arrive the day before. If so, they may have been trying to accommodate what they believed was your request.
Since you mentioned that this has happened before, I wonder whether there might be something in the wording of your listing that is causing confusion for sitters. It may be worth reviewing how the dates and arrival expectations are presented to see if they could be interpreted differently.
@TT2 Did you have a video call with these sitters? It rather sounds like you may not have done as Arrival/departure details are usually discussed and agreed apon during the call. Then there should have been no confusion on arrival time. The recent addition to listings of exact timings can easily be misinterpreted , and imho is not a helpful addition. If there is no call or message discussion then sitters may just go by the timings on the listing which may or may not be accurate. I’d suggest in future you confirm timings clearly and confirm them in writing so there can be no misunderstanding.
We (sitter-couple) travel in our van and are therefore extremely flexible, which is also greatly appreciated by the HO. For example, for our upcoming sit, the flight details were recently brought forward, meaning we also have to arrive on the sit much earlier. Flexibility is required on both sides, particularly when travelling by air.
Arriving the evening before is no problem for us either; in our experience, hosts are happy to invite us round for dinner. We then either sleep in the van in the car park or in the house itself.
However, we’ve learnt from experience that we only stay overnight at the host’s place (whilst they’re there) if we have our own bathroom; otherwise, we prefer to sleep in the van.
And do you make that clear in the listing?
I think the arrival and departure times feature isn’t very helpful at all, unless greater details are provided in the listing. I also suspect it might give HOs the illusion that sitters are at their beck and call, rather than suggesting things should be worked out for the benefit of both parties. As has already been stated, there is no indication of what this actually refers to: is it the time sitters should arrive and depart (I suspect so?) or the departure and arrival time of hosts? Does it apply to their day of departure or are they hoping for sitters to arrive and depart on days which differ? As it stands, I feel it adds nothing to the old way, and communication to clarify is still entirely necessary.
Just seen a brand new listing (& hosts) for 6 weeks in the Balkans with 2 dogs & 2 cats with a departure time of 9pm to 1030pm and no mention of hosting the sitters or flex. It’s enough to put us off applying because as others say they appear to have no thought for the sitter and where they’ll go at that time of night! #backfiring
I am new to this forum and am trying to figure it out. I have posted photos, done the welcome guide and everything and sent invitations but no bites. Is this normal? So far, my exper has been very sub par. I welcome sitter feedback. Thank you!
I would prefer they ask for flexibility…the times are not set !
@CharlieLuna there are many threads for newbie hosts. I’m not talented enough to link them but someone might. Have you actually listed dates or are you hoping invites will work? Statistically not that effective.
We always do buffer days for this exact reason. The fact that we require an orientation day aside, we build in a travel buffer to our date range so that sitters can arrive at any time the first day listed. We then have a full day to do orientation before we then depart.
Similarly, we typically put a buffer day on the end in case of international travel issues on our return.
Doing this also means our sitters don’t really have travel restrictions and can book based on what makes sense for them.
Hi, @CharlieLuna ; welcome to the Forums.
As was alluded to, the model with THS tends to be that pet owners list their sit dates, then wait for interested sitters to apply. There’s lots of reasons for this, but primarily it’s because Sitters are generally travelers who “shop” potential hosts based on a desire to be in your specific geographical area during the dates of your sit.
Of course, homeowners can send out unsolicited invites to sitters - but minus a few specific use-cases (new sitters needing to build their reviews & references, for instance), most sitters in your area aren’t generally looking to do free house/petsitting in their own hometowns.
It probably helps if you think of THS as being somewhat closer to resembling AirBnB, vs a site like Rover.
Best of luck — and if you feel like you might want some input or advice for maximizing the appeal of your listing to attract the most sitters, feel free to link it to your Forum profile; the community here is always happy to help out if they can. 
Edited to add instructions:
actually what you have to do, once you have your ‘paperwork’ done is to list your sit dates on the actual site, not do individual invitations.
Double check things first, like arrival and leaving times as these don’t have to be completed and it is in IMO better to tick the arrange later box, think about if you want the sitter to stay over the night before so you can meet them properly and if not give enough time to cross over to hand the house and your pets over to them.
Once you have that all sorted and you are happy with your ‘advert’ then go into the add a sit and go through the very short questions and press publish. Then your sit is live for all sitters to see and any interested ones can contact you to express their interest.
Thank you. I’ve done all that but still crickets. No responses at all. Pretty disappointing for a first-time user!
Have you provided a link to your listing so forum members can check it out? There are a lot of people here who could provide really good feedback.
Quick question, where are you located?