After learning that the Home Owner was already away & that the sit dates posted were for taking over the pet sit currently being undertaken by the HO’s friend, I withdrew my interest. The HO told me that she would do a verbal handover by phone & that I might not even meet the previous sitter(s), who would leave the house key for me, somewhere secure.
I now wonder, if it really would have been a problem, or was I right to avoid it?
Have any sitters had any experiences of a split pet sit? If so I would love to know how it went.
We did a handover with other sitters
twice.
Once they took over from us, while the owner was stuck abroad. We insisted on a physical handover, so the dogs could see us interacting with their new sitters before we left.
Another time, we took over from another sitter. The owner created a Whatsapp group with both of us, so everything was very transparant.
Only three months ago, during syncing arrival and departure times with the host while shopping for tickets, I discovered I would be taking the sit over from another sitter. Quite a surprise, but no panic. Because of complicated logistics, I arrived two days before the sit was due to begin. As it was my first time taking over a sit, I was quite open to the experience, thinking, “Sure, let us give it a try.” I had no expectations one way or the other.
It turned out to be a wonderful experience. It felt as though I were visiting a friend. We spent most of the time together, hanging out, chatting, going out to dinner or for a drink, and had the best of times.
Thinking back, perhaps it was my early arrival that contributed to this great experience. Things would surely work differently if we were to do a handover at the revolving door.
I have one upcoming, but it is slightly different.
It is a repeat sit for me, but I am unavailable the first week due to my own holidays, and will be taking over from the owner’s personal friend, who is not on THS.
I have not met the friend, but I know the house, the animals, the feeding routine, and the area, so I am confident it will just really be a straightforward change in personnel, and hand over of the keys.
We did a split sit where another sitter came in for two months between our two Turkish village sits (a bit like @BonnyinBrighton) - it worked fine but we helped the other sitter by having a crossover night and two walks with the dogs plus showing her around the local town. It worked out fine and she left the place clean and tidy for us on return. We made sure to take pics on exit and re-entry to the home just in case. There was the classic “something is missing, who knows where it is?” message when the host returned but fortunately it turned up safely. That said, we wouldn’t be keen to do it again as so many risks. #splitsits
Yes we videoed and took photos of the spirits/wine rack etc….but the biggest thing was the cleaner was there on handover days.
Oddly enough the middle sitters had a few mishaps… but sorted these out themselves, we were all 5* people.
I found myself in a split sit situation months after I agreed to the sit, as the people decided to add on to their trip and I was otherwise committed. It worked out fine. I did a handover with the first sitter, who was lovely and left the place in perfect shape. The owner did arrange to have a cleaner come in the next day, which was very nice., but not needed.
There have been a bunch of threads about split sits, which you can find by using the magnifying glass at upper right.
Personally, having done a split early on, when I didn’t know better, I avoid them now. I shared my experience on a couple of previous threads. I got off easy, considering what could have turned out worse.
It does need to be actively managed, more overtly than a regular sit. I probably read those threads and learnt from them prior to setting up my own split sit triad.
In my situation, when I bookended another sitter, she left early and cut corners on the senior dogs’ food. When I returned, there was a big pile of kibble with dead gnats and the water had a bunch of debris. The dogs ended being off their feed, though fortunately recovered after a couple of days. They were normally only supposed to have a little kibble mixed in with fresh food the host had made and frozen (which sitters were supposed to defrost). And they were supposed to have their prescription meds mixed in meals.
It’s luck of the draw on whether the other sitter is a decent human, much less a good sitter.
A vase also was broken, maybe by the regular cleaner, during her sit. The other sitter asked me about it, though everything had been fine when I left. Luckily, the host didn’t mind. Plus, the host offered use of a car. Fortunately, nothing happened to it.
I later realized that if had anything had turned out badly, there could’ve been a bunch of finger pointing and I could’ve been dragged into a mess(es) created by someone else, whatever managing was done by me. So no thanks to split sits for me. I don’t need to sit that badly.