WHY welcome guide is not mandatory in THS …better THO as I ve just had a sit that the listing…edited at 6h30 am in the morning…
Didn’t say I had to do 18 floors a day…the “ snuggly cuddly dog” was in fact a Tasmanian” with a leash with double lock plus…in welcome guide and spray and hold till “ after a month…6 days before my trip payed,
I ve stayed 3 days but the review (her first is one star with full of lies) likewise mine…as I offered to prove…
3 nightmare days…
Why THS…(sitters? ) allow this kind of people not provide a welcome guide before acceptance ?
It’s not the first time it happens to me and Howners were excluded…
This is the last one I accept with no reviews.
@Lucians I don’t completely understand your edited post .
If I am understanding you correctly, the dog is a dangerous one ? The T&Cs state that pet owners on THS should not have these on a sit :
5.2.11. not have any inherently dangerous pets (such as venomous snakes or constrictors, primates, wolves or wolf hybrids, non-domesticated cats, alligators), banned dog breeds, or any animal with a history of attacks on pets or people;
It’s not clear to me if you are still on this sit or if it has finished ? Have you contacted member services to discuss the issues you are having with the dog’s behaviour? Try live chat and ask to speak to a human .
My question is - was Why Why the Welcome Book is not mandatory….?
You accept per listing……the Welcome book comes 1 week before….i was alredy abroad….
Not to say…the listing…now edit after my departure “ forgot” to mention the little detail…apt on the 3rd floor…with….No lift…and walk the dog 3x a day…
This little detail is now edited by the HOwner….
Then decline the sit, report them to membership services for breaking Ts & Cs & look for more sits in your new destination. Don’t take it if you don’t want to! Don’t be held to ransom. Loads of HOs don’t do the WG in advance. It’s clunky and painful to do. This is about the HO being deceitful @Lucians
From experience, as HO, I send the part of our guide pertaining to the dog’s care before I even do a video call with the HS so that if they have questions or potentially decide it’s not the right fit, we have not wasted each other’s time.
As an HS, if there is no guide provided or information in the listing is light, I ask a ton of questions before accepting the sit and will ask to see the welcome guide well ahead of time, giving. The reasoning that I want to make sure I fully understand how best to care for their dog and home. If HO takes issue with that, I do not accept the sit. Not worth it.
It sounds like you could have vetted the sit a lot better before accepting.
If I were you, I would make sure to call out all the concerns in your review of the sit, stating the facts, good and bad, and be as objective as possible.
Your posts on here are a bit hard to follow but I think I got the gist? If I misinterpreted, apologies.
That sounds a lot, but my guess is that this was not a sky scraper without elevator… So three walks per day I guess. Three times up, three times down, three floors is more probable. If that is a problem for you, how long are the walks that you can take the dog on?
Anyway, it is up to you to make the enquiries before you confirm. The Welcome Guide is only made available after that.
I suggested on some other thread with suggestions, that there should be a Welcome Guide or equivalent with no addresses, phone numbers or passwords available to a sitter once a sit is offered to that sitter. The sitter should have up to 24 hours to read the guide, possibly negotiate or talk to the owner, and accept or decline. Everyone would be happier! And it would encourage HOs to be more upfront about responsibilities.
I’ve looked in the T&Cs and it’s not mandatory to send a Welcome Guide.
However as sitters we will not accept a sit that doesn’t have a welcome guide in one form or another . We discuss this with the HO before accepting a sit . When chatting with HO we always ask “will you be providing a welcome guide? . If they say no or say yes but then don’t provide one ,we would withdraw from the sit .
Fortunately we haven’t had to do this as all HO have provided Welcome Guides ( not always the THS template ) as soon as a sit is confirmed we request it and when received we read it through and if we notice missing information ( pet’s routine/ cameras/ registered vet/ emergency contacts ) we will ask for the missing information to be added .
Im currently on a sit that i nearly cancelled because the HO sent a Welcome Guide that was empty apart from the post code which covers the whole village (about 200 homes). The sit description was pretty light on detail too. (I’ve also mentioned this in a different post, so apologies if this repeats but i feel its worth mentioning it here).
The HO provided me with a handwritten list when i arrived (i found the address through carious internet searches) but it was still missing information which i was able to ask after she left.
This sit would make a great repeat visit now i know what i know as the pets are adorable and the HO is lovely, just seemingly unaware of what a sitter needs to know.
I’m still learning as this is just my 2nd sit, so this experience has given me ideas of what I’d like to make sure is covered by the sit description or in a chat before accepting a sit. One thing I’d like to make sure of is that the mobile number they gave me will work where they are going (this HOs didn’t - i found that out when she rang & left a message to call her - its good there are alternative ways to communicate!)
Using WhatsApp via wifi is common among many folks worldwide and works well for many hosts and sitters. You can use it to message or do video/audio. Alternatively, I’ve used Signal with a host when WhatsApp acted up. Of the two, Signal is considered more secure.
Just get them to create a WhatsApp account before they leave, in case they’re not savvy enough to do it themselves and you have to hand-hold. Likewise with Signal.
As you’re enjoying this sit @DianeS and would contemplate doing it again, you could have a chat to the lovely owner on her return about how she could make it an even better sit. I’m not sure what communication you had at time of confirmation and leading up to the sit but not asking for the address straight out is something I would have done. Postcodes in the UK are usually pretty specific, especially in villages, but often the residence has a name as well which your owner should have told you.
Did you have clear instructions re emergency vet care and payment?
It’s so important to make owners aware that there needs to be a communication channel used during a sit for unexpected issues that will be responded to asap.
Were you her first sitter? If so, you can help each other for future experiences. Glad you’re enjoying it though.
Thankfully my 1st HO showed me how helpful a good Welcome guide can be and I have already started to put together a form of a Welcome Guide for this HO as I’m not sure she’s comfortable using the THS app to that level. I’ve started to do this mostly to untangle the information that was in what she wrote for me - I wanted to make sure I don’t miss anything. I’m planning to offer to send the finished document to her to help her and future sitters - she can either add it he details to her Welcome Guide or simply pass it on to future sitters.
For finding the place: the only thing that I had to go on was the property name (it was mentioned in passing in the sit details) and the village name. Although in 2 phone calls the HO was adamant that it was just for her home, the postcode really does cover the whole village - I checked on the Post Office postcode map. Her description of the property could have described a wide number of the properties here, and after I arrived she told me a street name for it, which doesn’t exist. Google Earth combined with an internet search were my friends!
I used a checklist that I had put together, based on the Welcome Guide, of what I felt I needed to know was in place (especially vet details and emergency contact numbers) and whatever I hadn’t already found out in our phone calls or emails I made sure everything was covered when I arrived. The HO was in a bit of a pre-trip fluster and my questions/prompts helped her remember things (including the house key!)
I’ve already added some items to my checklist, including making sure I really can contact them on the number(s) they give me (there are still people, like this HO, using phones that don’t do WhatsApp or messaging).
My decision to apply for (and stick with) this sit was based mainly on reviews left by previous sitters who had clearly found the home and had left good reviews - but this was before the new way of reviewing and I’m wondering how much was left unsaid that I would have found helpful. The pets, the home, the location and the HO are great - it was just the communication that has been challenging.
You’ve been very diligent @DianeS and well done on all that you have done. Great your first owner was well prepared so you could use that to put together something similar for this sit.
I understand about the one postcode for a hamlet as that was the same for my Cotswolds sit this year. I knew the cottage was opposite the church so drove until I spotted the cottage from its name and door colour.
Speaking of the Cotswolds, I hope there wasn’t a murder in your village!!
and ask to speak to a human .
