What are your choices and "point" systems? Hotel or Sit?

Sitter Questions, Advice & Chat
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A recent post from a homeowner who couldn’t find a sitter in Lisbon has me ruminating about the apparent motivations of both homeowners and sitters when engaging with this service. I realized that for me, when I use THS, my primary choice - my decision point - is: “Do I stay in a three-star hotel, or do I apply for this sit?”

I look for sits only in areas I would be traveling anyway. Typically when I travel I stay in 3-star hotels. I can afford fancier hotels but that is not important to me - I just want to be safe and in a clean environment. And I love cats.

So for me the bottom-line decision is: “Will this sit be more enjoyable and comfortable than staying in a 3-star hotel?”

It seems clear from many listings, like the Lisbon one, that the homeowners/pet parents assume a very different motivation or choice point on the part of the sitter. I can only assume that the Lisbon poster assumed that the choice point was based on finances - like, “Will this sit be less expensive than staying in a hotel?” The expense is not on my radar much at all.

So I wanted to ask other sitters: What is YOUR choice point? What decision are you weighing? Just for fun I put a “point” system below to see kind of how I weigh things. Positive points mean my decision leans toward that; negative means I lean away from that. I randomly allocated 10 points per criteria

What I would get in a three star hotel:

A comfortable bed +10
Complete freedom to do whatever I want, when I want: +10
Housekeeping included +5
Breakfast included (usually) +1
Good location +5
Peace and quiet (and the ability to address the issue in a reasonable manner if that is not the case) +7
Safe Environment, working locks, etc. +10
Privacy +10
No access to washer/dryer - 5
No cats -10

What I would get in a typical Sit:

Iffy bed that I can’t try until I get there: -3
Have to clean the house myself -5
Locked down to a schedule for the pet: -7
Grocery shopping on my own +5 (because I can get what I want, so higher rated than hotel)
Less Desirable Location for Touring (score depends on the sit but rarely is a home or apartment as conveniently located for touring as a hotel)
Iffy noise situation: -3
Iffy safety situation: Depends on sit but I’ve been on too many where windows or doors don’t lock. I give bonus points for a security system
Privacy: -3 (Too many homeowners get too personal)
Access to washer/dryer: +5
Cats: +20 (yes, I know I said 10 was the max but cats get double points!)

I am curious about other sitters’ criteria and how they weigh them. I bring this up because I think many homeowners write their posting assuming that the main thing a sitter wants is free lodging. That is not the main thing I want - I can afford lodging. So the posting has to outweigh my personal 3-star hotel analysis. Like in that Lisbon posting, the “Locked down to a schedule for the pet” would have gotten a -10 rating, as the HO made it clear the sitter couldn’t do anything except watch the pet. So even though I was going to Lisbon, the 3-star hotel would have won out.

How about you guys? What is your “point system” and what is your choice point? I’m deciding hotel vs. sit. Are you deciding sit vs. no trip at all? Sit vs. AirBnB? Sit vs. Stay with Friends? Sit in Florida vs. sit in New York? (I always choose location first, then sit) I’d love to see your criteria and the weights associated with them!

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I agree with the point you are making and the score you’ve given the various categories in both scenarios (I’d personally widen the “cats” category to “animals I like or that I’d like to take care of” :wink:). I’d also give a solid 8 to “use of a comfortable kitchen”.

Another important aspect for me is how much time I want to spend there. If I don’t have a lot of time in a specific place, maybe because it’s part of a longer and varied itinerary, I vote for hotel.

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I am not choosing this way. We have a few times a year when we typically go on “vacation” and travel – around birthdays, anniversary etc.

I might look for exciting sits in advance of those occassions, but if I don’t find one to someplace interesting or where we want to go, we’ll stay at a hotel or book a place with a kitchen through booking.

If I had to be somewhere for an event, I might look for sits, but have a refundable reservation booked.

Most of the sits we do are additional travel. They are trips we wouldn’t be taking if we didn’t have the free accomodations (and the free pet sitter in our home). So this might be a week in the country, or a quick visit to a fun city, etc. I’m not going to pay thousands to rent a Vrbo two hours from my house to enjoy a great backyard and access to hiking trails, but I’m happy to stay there for free in return for kitty care.

If I had a choice, I would choose a paid accomodation not because of the bed or lack of responsibilities but if I needed to be out the entire day for sightseeing. So for example, we went to Iceland in January. We stayed in one hotel, one locaton, but every day we went on one more excursions, usually starting out early in the morning and not getting back until early in the evening. We couldn’t have done that sitting!

Sometimes it might be both. We got a sit in southern France in November which was super-exciting, but we wanted to see Paris so that was a few additional days at a 3 star hotel. The chance of getting a sit that would allow us the freedom we wanted in Paris for 3 days prior to and one day after our sit in France would not have been possible.

Everyone sits in a differnt way and for different reasons. That’s the beauty of it!

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I sit for variety when telecommuting. If I want a vacation, it doesn’t involve working, cleaning, caring for someone else’s pet in ways that affect my freedom to sightsee. In that case, I get a hotel, take a cruise or take my RV on a road trip.

When telecommuting and sitting, I want the types of comfort and convenience I have at home (or better). So I want a clean, uncluttered, comfortable home near amenities. Just because I work doesn’t mean I want to be trapped at home — mine or anyone else’s. And I love hanging out with pets, especially cats, because my territorial dog means I can’t have any. (My homebody husband stays with him and I always sit solo.)

I often piggyback hotel stays onto sits, so I can really sightsee. Because I save hotel money during the sits, I often stay at luxury hotels before or after.

I also consider, will sitting give me experiences I couldn’t get at a hotel? Like I used to daydream about living in a British village. Well, living like a local — including having a fully outfitted home with pets — isn’t something I’d get from a hotel, regardless of spending. Doing various U.K. sits have given me that experience as an American.

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This is a really interesting question and I suspect each of us has different ways of evaluating potential sits. It may be helpful for homeowners to get a sense of what we’re looking for, so here are my top priorities.

I housesit in France and the UK for 5/6 months at a time, so cost of lodging is a big factor. I don’t drive in Europe so I’m looking for sits where I can walk to the stores and catch public transit to neighbouring communities. I prefer smaller towns, and part of the joy of housesitting is going to places I’ve never heard of before. I choose longer housesits so that I can get to know the area, take part in some community activities (Christmas concert, local library, farmers markets), and buy food that is available locally. I want a house that is clean and tidy and not cluttered. I’m not concerned about the bed, but I do want comfortable chairs for an aging back and a desk or dining room table where I can set up my laptop to work. I look for housesits with cats as I love their independent nature combined with a need for cuddles. I have occasionally looked after dogs, but they tie you down and require regular walks.

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I love hearing the different perspectives - thank you for sharing . And welcome to the Forum!

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I also use hotels when traveling, but no longer use Airbnb, as it has severely impacted the housing market and neighborhoods in my own city — contributing to ghost neighborhoods and pushing out locals, along with small, unique businesses. A global trend with serious costs.

THS offers a more sustainable alternative, without the hassle of noisy hotelguests and missing essentials like a decent coffeemaker, washer, stable Wi-Fi etc. The places I’ve stayed have been beautiful, spacious, central, and uniquely personal — with gardens, historic charm, even private beaches. Things you’d rarely enjoy alone in a hotel.

As Airbnb regulations tighten in some countries, hotels are thankfully filling up again — especially in smaller capitals. Which I think is a very good thing. In that context, THS is often one of the few last-minute options if you haven’t planned far ahead.

I’ve traveled across four countries on two continents now, and this kind of matching service naturally also becomes a highly interesting study in human nature, cultural differences, and unexpected class dynamics I never knew existed.
It can be rewarding, insightful — sometimes challenging, sometimes wildly entertaining.
A human experiment with a big reward🌏

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I do not have disposable income to pay for more than a night at a hotel, even a 3-star one. So a lot of my motivation to sit for people and pets is the free lodging. However, I adore animals so much and have always loved experiencing new surroundings, specifically if they’re quiet and preferably rural but within easy driving distance of charming small towns. I love getting away from my routine life but far prefer a home to stay in vs. a hotel. In fact I hate hotels these days because they all look the same - drab gray walls and carpeting, no character, and sterile. I do rent Airbnbs or VRBO homes once a year for a family vacation with my kids, but again we choose one that’s more rustic or historic vs. bland and cookie cutter. For sits, I look for homes with character - preferably old houses with charm, lots of color, interesting artwork and books, and most of all in tranquil, beautiful settings. I don’t have any interest in staying in noisy, polluted cities. I love nature and am fortunate to live in New England, where I do most of my cat/house sits. There are endless opportunities through THS for me to get away and connect with nature and ALSO have feline, fish, feathered or livestock companionship that I miss when I leave my own kitty behind. I am a professional pet sitter with my own business, so the care of other people’s houses and pets is second nature to me. I haven’t done a THS dog sit though because dogs are so much work and I get paid to take care of plenty!

I often choose sits near family and friends to visit with as a bonus. Also as we’re into the sixth year of the pandemic, with no sign of it letting up, THS continues to be a really safe alternative to getting COVID exposures in common areas of hotels, bed and breakfasts and in crowded cities. It’s far safer and cheaper to make my own meals than eat out, so it’s very handy to have a full kitchen at my disposal. And I love bonding with both the homeowners and pets on such an intimate level. Many days while I’m sitting I don’t leave the house because I never run out of ways to relax with the pets! If Covid weren’t an issue and I were a millionaire, maybe I’d appreciate some bed and breakfast or boutique hotel vacations - but that will never happen, and that’s okay as long as I have THS! The work I put in on sits is well worth it.

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I love what you say about there being many days where you don’t leave the house - I’m the same way! It seems many hosts assume that the primary reason sitters do this is to go to places like Disney or whatever. And I’m sure for some that is true. One reason I started this thread is to get some more insight into what really motivates and matters to sitters.

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Bet you love a spreadsheet. :grin:

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I do! I was even wondering how I could post a spreadsheet in here :joy_cat:… #Busted

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I don’t use it for actual vacations, I want freedom on vacation and I am the go, go, go type when I travel. I use it for places I wouldn’t take the time to go to otherwise. For example, I love hiking in Utah, but don’t want the expense when I can certainly hike where I live. But if I’m only paying for a flight and rental car for a long weekend, it’s perfect!
Even when I retire, I’ll just find neat places that I want to explore a bit, but not want to spend money to visit. Only difference will be I can do longer sits. It will give me more time to just relax and see new parts of the world that I wouldn’t go to otherwise.

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It’s a great question….
I suppose hubby and I associate hotels with our careers so on the whole try to avoid them. For years we’ve tried to use Airbnb over hotels although apartment hotels are our current choice for holiday type travel…. House/pet sitting is in our case the option we prefer when visiting family. So far (we’re currently on our 6th sit) we’ve not used it to have holidays, I don’t think we will as it feels too restricting. We don’t sit cats, and dogs can’t be left more than 4 hours and this doesn’t fit with days out doing tourist stuff plus an evening dinner maybe….when we were homeowners using sitters a few treated it as a change and a rest so a kind of holiday maybe (we had horses).

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For us, house sitting is an adventure and the vast majority of our experiences have been better-than-good ones. We don’t apply any sort of points analysis but we certainly do weigh things up with a similar objective when applying for sits:

We don’t just want accommodation, we want the whole positive experience deal, so we’re a bit picky. It’s nice to sometimes stay in hotels and have some time without any responsibilities for pets and homes, but then we look forward to the next one (and I’m always checking the listings, even in periods when we’re not sitting!). So, in short, our choices relate to whether this or that sit will enrich our lives.

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I know what you mean - I, too, associate hotels with - work!

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What a wonderful perspective. I’m going to use this precise criteria for all my future opportunities: “Will this enrich my life”? Thank you for sharing.

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I love the whole experience of pet-sitting, meeting the owners and establish a connection with them (often sharing a meal together, and often staying in contact after the sit), plus the loveliness of being in a home - books to browse, maybe a piano or guitar to play.

And, of course, having lovely dogs and cats (and sheep, hedgehogs or more) to hang out with.

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I think this is key. It’s not just the accomodation. It’s the experience. Our sit in the south of France allowed us a 6 day opportunity to live and explore “like a local.” We got to walk around town and be greeted by friendly neighbors (who knew the dog). Similarly, we had a ten day sit a while back in San Fransisco. We would never stay in a hotel there for 10 days, but 10 days gave us tiime to Netflix and chill, AND hang out in cafes, work, find new neighborhoods and excursions outside the city limits, really have the feeling of “living” there including the day to day duties of home and pet care.

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This is the one reason that I wish I could sit dogs - that “walk around and meet the neighbors who love the dogs” thing!

And I should probably mention to those that are not native English speakers that “Netflix and chill” has a very different meaning in many parts of the US than one might think… :flushed_face:

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wait, what is the alternative meaning?! @KittySitter

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