Hi there,
I am a sitter and not an owner, however I have been on a sit where the owners split it. I did the first half and another sitter came after me. It was my first sit actually so I was a little nervous about not turning the house back over to the owner also. I asked the owners to have a trusted family member or friend, that knew their home and kitty, meet me and look at things before I left. They did and everything went wonderfully. I heard from them after they got back and all was well from their side too.
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Hi Tamara, welcome to our community forum and to TrustedHousesitters. Thank you for sharing your sit experience and it sounds as though you managed the split sit like a true pet and house sitting “veteran”
We look forward to sharing in more of your TrustedHousesitters experiences … enjoy connecting with members from around the world.
Angela and the Team
Slightly different scenario. I started a sit on Monday. Due to Covid restrictions in Asia, the Home and pet owner has been absent for several months, with friends and workmates looking after her home and pets.
One of the dogs is great, very friendly, the younger one is very nervous, and I think it is the constant change of “sitter” that has made her that way. I am here for 5 weeks and hope to gain her confidence in that time, but I know I will be handing over to another sitter. Hopefully, she will be ok.
Are your pets ok with other people? I know you are only talking about 2 short periods of time, but it is worth thinking about.
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Ok, I’ll look for it. Is that on the Christmas thread?
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Not sure how to edit this thread, but I am looking for Dec 20-January 4.
I didn’t include my car. I’m a bit nervous to do so. But I would consider it.
Hi @mountaingen your kitty is adorable and I’ve looked at your sit which looks like a wonderful opportunity it includes Christmas and New Year which is always a bonus for sitters, including you car for qualified drivers is always a benefit which is greatly appreciated.
There is still time to find your sitters, we do know that the sooner the better is always preferable for peace of mind, however this year is different as there is still an air of uncertainty for many around travel and a “wait and see” position.
We can share on Social which will give your listing more exposure … let me know if this is something you would like …
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Where are you located?
Hi Angela @Angela-CommunityManager
I just added my car. It’s making me a bit nervous but if it’s going to help, I’m willing to consider it.
You are welcome to share on social media!
Thanks!
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@long1016 I’m on the North coast of California, about 2 hours south of Oregon, and 5 hours north of the Bay area. Land of the tallest trees in the world! 
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We are considering a 1 week sit, but the HO has broken a month long sit into weekly segments so if selected we will handing over the house to another sitter. Have you had experience with that? How will the home owner reviews us if they won’t be able to see the house? A few months ago we had a similar situation but we successfully convinced the HO to allow us to do the whole 5 weeks and that worked out great for both parties.
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I don’t think I could do that sit personally!
Imagine being the first of four sitters, anything can go wrong in the following three sits and the finger of blame can easily land on any sitter.
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That was our concert exactly, as we will be the 1st sitters. The location, dates and pets check all the boxes, just not sure about someone else taking over after us.
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That’s a shame if everything else is desirable but for me I’d be too anxious to do that.
I guess you have to decide if the risk is worth it for that one week.
I suppose you could video/photograph the home on the day you leave as some kind of safety net.
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We would also make pictures of everything or make videos of the property and animals. It happened only once that we handed the sit over to somebody else (“friends” of the HO). When the HO came back everything was dirty and the plants had died. The cat was apparently fine, but I also wonder if they followed all the routines with her (she was very peculiar about drinking and it was very hot weather). The HO asked us in which state we left the place one month earlier (spotless, of course). But it would have been better to also do a virtual handover, perhaps a long video tour through the property and garden. PS: We didn’t get a review (I think it’s the only sit where we don’t have one, if you don’t count repeat sits).
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We did this once and it turned out fine. We were the first set of sitters. We wrote a handover document for the next sitters & had it double-checked by the owners.
We also made a little video of how we left everything & sent it to the owners.
We did a little tour with the next sitters and that’s it.
We obviously prefer to hand the animals over to their owners, but as long as you make clear arrangements, I wouldn’t necessary exclude a sit because of it.
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Can anyone enlighten me as to why a homeowner would do this? I find one week for myself as well as for a sitter already quite stressful with all the washing sheets and cleaning everything thoroughly.
Of course our home is usually cleaned once a week, but I do some extra thorough cleaning before a sitter arrives. Do they expect the sitters to do this also? How is the last one to know how the home looked like originally?
Even though it would most likely be fine, I personally wouldn’t do that and I’m definitely the type who believes things will turn out perfectly fine most of the time. But I would avoid any situation that could jeopardize my reviews.
Like someone else said, you could provide some sort of ‘evidence’ you left the home in good condition. But let’s say for example, the owner doesn’t get around to writing the review right away, the next sitter screws something up, and then blames you and the owner believes them and then gives you a negative one. Unlikely stuff but you never know.
No need for someone to take a sit that doesn’t feel totally right because it’s convenient for their schedule, or they have fear of competition, fear of not getting an assignment, attachment to a particular location,etc… There are so many opportunities on here and if someone doesn’t feel totally good about one, let it go and trust you’ll find another.
I think a lot of ‘problem sits’ stem from people going against their initial instincts something was off and then they are proven right, or there are elements about the assignment with which they are uncomfortable, but they did it anyway for the types of reasons mentioned above.
More than likely it would be totally fine but if you don’t feel good about it, then just don’t. No need to stress yourself out or put yourself in a problem situation that could have easily been avoided
In my case, my trip is seven weeks away and I have no THS interest for my two week trip. I have been able to find a paid sitter for week 2. I’m putting together arrangements for week 1 (family + paid house-sitter) but if I can get a ‘full’ sitter for that week that would be easier. If that week 1 sitter wanted to do two weeks, I’d consider it but then I’d be letting down the paid house-sitter that I’m committed to.
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I certainly understand that it might be necessary to split the sit, because you can’t find a sitter who can do the whole time. I was wondering about HOs, who split the sit from the beginning into several sequences.