My first sit was more than 10 years ago, now I have 70+ 5* sits. I don’t do it full time but I do love it and I have made lots of friends with owners who treat me like a very welcome guest and book me for repeat sits a year ahead.
On the first sit in Norfolk where I am originally from was also a first for the home owner. We met beforehand when I was home with family for Christmas as we were both unsure how it all worked and the sit was 5 weeks with 2 lovely cats.
All was lovely and very easy, she was in India buying textiles for a a history course she ran at University. Large parcels came frequently in the post. She was out of contact a lot of the time.
But, there was a building project which when we met was meant to finish 3 weeks before the sit. Of course it wasn’t done and the builder was meant to let me know when they would come.
In fact they really didn’t come much, obviously had another job and really only came just before as she was due to return. I had taken down the curtains so they could put in new patio doors and they were doing that on the day she flew home. In that week they left me with a window that wouldn’t close. I couldn’t clean up properly. Never again.
She understood of course and I did a repeat sit it but it was stressful.
My first sit was in New York. I really didnt pay enough attention to the area and how far away the home was from the heart of New York, but it ended up turning out great. The area was perfect, just half a block from many stores/restaurants/subway. So, even though I was disappointed I didnt research more on that, it was wonderful. I have since done more work on my end to make sure my sits are in walking distance to many things and use maps alot to see what’s in the area, etc. Also, when I have a sit confirmed and know the address, I use the live version of maps where you can actually see the neighborhood and surrounding area.
We had a five night sit, early on and booked before we completed any sits at all, which ended up having the HO in the house for the first two AND last night. We had two nights in the sit without them. Apparently the routinely allow TWO NIGHTS for handover, for cats and chickens! We were treated like children, simple tasks “mansplained” to us and then told to execute the task in front of the HO. We were even instructed to pick up EVERY chicken poo with paper towel and disappear of it on a bin as well as closely supervise (as in sit with them)the chickens foraging in the garden in case of foxes. The entire handover could have taken an hour, even with the mansplaining. But to to out off the HOs told us they weren’t sure if they would actually go to their planned trip and would “let us know”. In the end they decided to just go for two nights and were back in the afternoon the day before or departure. We would never accept those circumstances again. If another HO told us they were staying the first two nights for handover, even just days before the sit as these ones did, we would tell them we were not comfortable with that and cancelling the sit. It’s unreasonable. While we often enjoy a meal and chat with HOs before a sit, it’s always nice to do the quick handover and get on with it.
Which reminds me of another lesson I learned, dont book flights you cant cancel or change! And agree with you, wish I had known of THS sooner!
OMG !!! What a horrible experience! Not sure if I would have stuck around when they said they weren’t sure if they would go. Obviously not an urgent pet care need! I saw one listing I was interested in, but it said to arrive a few days before their departure to learn the routine of one middle aged healthy dog. I later saw the host post different dates, and she asked to arrive the day before, so obviously someone educated her!