Hmmm…I wouldn’t say those that asked good questions during the video chat communicated any more or less than others. I would say they communicated appropriately, with brief regular check ins and any questions as things came up!
I always include , “Tell me about a day in the life of ‘Fido’ ,” in our conversation.
@BonnyinBrighton Never been to Brighton yet, so that is always a good reason to come!
I will keep it in mind when we come back to Europe!
Now on a ‘world tour’, and feel very blessed discovered house & pet sitting and this helpful community and many positive contributors like you and others.
@silversitters Thanks for sharing your experiences and choices. I find it interesting that, especially with this kind of list, people can make very different choices in the same situations.
About daily transport of dogs: we have an old, well-maintained car and we simply enjoy taking dogs with us. For us, this wouldn’t be a no-go, but I can absolutely respect it when people have a different lifestyle or make different choices. At the same time, there are also homeowners who have utility cars especially for this kind of use. Or is it maybe more about the time it takes?
Where pets sleep is definitely something HO sometimes want to agree on upfront we noticed. Although I’ve noticed we can be very strict about it beforehand, and then when a cat is soft purring on your lap, it suddenly becomes very hard to say ‘no’…
And yes, leaving and returning can be a thing. I think we are more flexible when it is a big house, or when there is a friendly connection with the homeowners. Then it can also be really nice to meet new people and spend time together. This has happened to us several times, and we considered it time very well spent. But maybe we only were pet sitters with people who are a great match with us. Who knows?
I’m not allowed to say that we are lucky ‘Bees’ on this forum, but honestly, we really are!
Oh, and to the homeowners where we had this kind of experience: we truly enjoyed spending time with you, we created great memories and sometimes we made new friends!
@Prissie Great suggestion! It sounds like you are very well organised.
I’m curious, what are your video calls like when everything is already in the welcome guide? How do you assess whether a pet sitter would be a good match? What are your main criteria?
Have you usually already made up your mind before the video call, based on things like the reviews, for example? Or is the video call more to check the feeling, and only if something doesn’t feel right, you decide not to go ahead?
@GotYourBack I really like your answer, especially the part about becoming more aware of your own preferences around pets, care, people and all the little things that come with a sit.
I’m curious how your preferences have changed over time. That is one of the things I like about TrustedHousesitters too. It makes you very aware of your subjective preferences, and also of where you are in your own life at that moment.
For example, we are in a phase now where we are studying quite a lot and spending more time at home, so it works very well for us when pets like having us around. But in another phase, when we might want to travel around more, it may be better to care for pets who need a bit less attention.
The same goes for location. At the moment, we really enjoy going to places where we haven’t been before. But I can also imagine that in another phase, we might make different choices.
So yes, I’m curious how your preferences have changed.
And I fully agree with you about assessing a two-way fit. That really is what it comes down to. It is not only about taking care of the pets. Your communication styles and expectations also need to work well together.
@toreishi I really love this question! I hope I will remember this one. This is such a great question! As a pet sitter who love to share stories out of the daily lives of pets, I immediately feel an urge to reply which I will suppress now, as I need to sit on the couch with my beloved one before we go to bed here in Fiji!
What a fab discussion thread! After 10 years and 26 sits, I have a full checklist of questions - which serves a dual purpose: clarity for me, and confidence for the host.
This include essentials like: vet info/ emergency contacts/ spare key/ exact location - so I can check transport/ amenities, - have they completed the Welcome Guide, and exact arrival/departure info.
After a few years experience I also now ask: Will the place be clean? Are there internal surveillance devices? Will the place be private for the duration of the sit? - because THS don’t seem to be onboarding hosts so well any more.
Through these structure questions, great conversations emerges- generally, the kind, hospitable hosts who understand the nature of the exchange are aways happy to chat about these things and really appreciate attention to detail. I also share the homeowner guidelines with them once the sit is booked, and suggest they read the ts & cs.: House Sitting Guidelines for Pet Parents | TrustedHousesitters.com
The platform has changed a lot since 2016, but somehow I still manage to find kind, generous hosts who show their appreciation for loving pet care through extraordinary hospitality.
@EmilyDickinson, there’s probably several aspect to our learnings & preferences through housesitting.
New pets/breeds. We owned, loved & trained one dog. But that’s just one animal/breed - so plenty of learning as we encounter new animals/breeds.
Different owner mindsets. We have encountered wildly different human-animal relationships. From casual mindset of co-existence (e.g. habilitating a former stray animal) to co-dependency (e.g. single person with pet companion) to substitute child (e.g. furbaby). No right or wrong in this at all, and we make no comment. But we observe and learn what situations fit best with our preferences.
Different pet lifestyles. Especially dogs. Human training and dog behaviour varies greatly. We again make no comment on specifics but we have come to appreciate pets that fit with our preferences and therefore lead to a more enjoyable experience.
Different environments. Urban pets vs country pets are different experiences.
Pet eating. We’ve come across all manner of pet food practices. From simple kibble to complicated protocols. Sometimes for medical reasons but, in our experience, often due to human preferences. In regards food, we’ve been surprised at some PP practices re human food. And don’t even get us started on the seeming practice of pet ‘pre-washing’ dishes (lick plates before dishwasher). No comment - their pets.
Pet sleeping. Before housesitting, it had not even crossed our imagination that pet parents would sleep in same bed as their pets. Their lives and pets, not ours. But we have a strong related preference.
Everyday lifestyles. We applaud your comment about your own lifestyle. We do likewise, and our lifestyles are different now than before housesitting. Finding a good lifestyle fit with pet needs & housesit matters is important.
Hope doodles help. Some learnings help us to explore/confirm listings that seem a good fit. Some learnings inform our personal boundaries of listings that we would not consider. And hopefully, various learnings help to enhance the experience for ourselves, PP and pets. Feel free to share your own evolved preferences.
Our videochat starts with a brief introduction and how we came to live where we are and we ask the sitter about their bio. Even though it’s written on the profiles it’s nice to hear it in real time and of course it’s never quite the same as a written summary.
The rest is a walk around the house and property, showing our pets and the various areas of responsibility. Based on how the sitter responds, comments they make, and questions they may ask we are able to get a good feeling about what they’re all about and if they’re a good fit. At the same time they have the opportunity to see if this sit is what they expected based on our profile. We have yet to turn away a sitter after doing a videochat, but we only invite sitters who have multiple 5 star reviews so it would be unusual for something to come up during the videochat that would turn us off to a sitter.
At one time we had more pets than we do now and one sitter contacted us after the videochat and said she felt it would be too much work for her.
Everything we cover in the videochat is in even greater detail in the Welcome Guide. Repetition is a good thing, especially when there’s a lot of information to take on.
I’m Not aware of a pattern of ageism so far,(me having been “outed” in a past review as being 70!), but wouldn’t doubt I’ve been rejected because of my age by some! But, on the flip side, I’ve been chosen and lauded by both young and old HOs. Hard to say what’s the trend of choosing sitters. Questions I find helpful in the video chat are lifestyle ones, like noise issues ( I carry ear plugs just in case), if dogs do their last call efficiently in the back Yard or do I have to take a walk just Before going to bed (ugh.. hated that one on last Month long sit), do pets bite or scratch (you’d be surprised to know how many cats tell you to quit petting by a quick bite!), safety of neighborhood and property, and general cleanliness issues like if they have a system of clean up that’s user friendly. Of course alot more is helpful in the general getting a feel for the homeowner in the video chat… gut check is the final arbiter for a “successful partnership”, as Maggie always says.
I do not have many questions, as I only apply to sits that are pretty much a “done deal” for me. For me, a video chat is a social affair. Do we vibe? Do we connect, can we work together, are we on the same page, especially in a crisis?
However, if it is a cat sit, I always ask if the cats can be picked up, if they are allowed to roam outdoors, and what to do if they do not return.
I really like the way you describe how housesitting has helped you learn more about yourself by observing other people’s experiences, habits and ways of living with their pets.
Your post made me realise again that we always look at situations through the lens of our own habits, culture and preferences. What I find especially beautiful in your reflection is that you seem to have become more and more aware of what genuinely works for you, and what doesn’t, without turning that into a judgement of other people.
That is something I really appreciate in this community. We all come from different countries, cultures and backgrounds, and what feels completely normal in one place or household can feel very unfamiliar in another. We are from the Netherlands, for example, where it is very normal to walk and cycle everywhere. When we are in some parts of the US, we sometimes hardly see anyone walking or cycling outside. You can have an opinion about that, of course, but after walking for an hour and a half along a rather boring road, you also start to understand why people do things differently there.
I think that is one of the quiet gifts of housesitting. It invites you to stop using yourself as the measure of what is ‘normal’. You learn to observe, adapt, respect differences and also become clearer about your own boundaries and preferences.
That comes through very clearly in your post. You are noticing differences without being negative about them, and you are allowing those experiences to help you make better choices. Not everyone can do that with such openness, and I really respect it.
Thank you for sharing your reflections.
@EmilyDickinson Americans love their cars! When in suburbia, it’s very difficult to walk or bike ride if there are no bike lanes. People here do not look for bicycles much less pedestrians.
@avidtraveler Yes we know! We adapt and just enjoy where we are. Still we might be a bit biased towards working out for free 
by using our body as mode of transportation.
@sandydandy Thanks for sharing your experiences. Love it that you are a beautiful example of 70 and still going strong. So many thing in your story are recognisable! The quick bite when enough is enough. The ear plugs.
And the neighbourhood is very important. We are now in Fiji and discovered doing a walk after dark with the two doggies on a golf course, watching the moon and the stars. The same time in another neighbourhood can be a total different experience.
I wish you many beautiful travels!
@august Thanks for sharing your experience. Oh, I love this question: what to do when the cats don’t return? I can ask that too when there are dogs. We had two sits where the dogs suddenly were away. One was a ‘Houdini-escape-artist’ and figured out how to get of the land (big land) and luckily came back home. Once we experienced other people opening a gate for unknown reasons.
Everything went well, the dogs came back, but these moments I will never forget.
@CatStaff Personal preferences also play a role.
Some pet parents are micromanagers, and some say that honestly upfront. Others prefer to ‘let things go’, but are not always clear about their preferred communication style, and may only speak up when something goes wrong, even if they did not explain beforehand how they would like certain situations to be handled.
The same applies to pet sitters.
Being aware of your own preferences can be very helpful. These preferences may also change depending on the situation. For example, you may prefer to be quite involved, but simply not have the time or energy for that because of other time-consuming activities. Sharing that openly can prevent a lot of confusion.
Self-awareness helps, even when it brings up a little discomfort.
I’m writing this because I recently communicated with a friendly person who told me upfront that she was a micromanager. For me, as a Dutch person who really appreciates clarity, even to the point of directness, that was actually a relief. It felt much easier than trying to read between the lines, guess what works, and eventually find out only after some trial and error.
Regardless of whether someone prefers a lot of involvement or a more relaxed approach, a bit of humour and flexibility is absolutely necessary. Sometimes things simply take their own course, especially with pets who turn out to be little Houdini escape artists….
Sounds marvellous @EmilyDickinson, enjoy the experience!