If on a sit,one of us became ill and needs to get home or to hospital. What would we do
Its often worried me.
Communicate with owners as soon as you know you are not fit to complete the sit and they will activate their plan B.
If it is your own health care you refer to, this is where a good insurance comes helpful and having friends or family have access to the insurance contacts in case they have to act on your behalf. When I sit internationally, which is most of the time, I also register my travel itinerary and addresses with my country foreign office so that they can help if emergency repatriation was needed.
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I think most countries only help with that in case of mass evacuations because of revolutions and wars.
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Iâve noticed you started two threads about the same topic. In both thereâs no mention whether you tried to talk with the HO about this.
Firstly Iâd hope that they can find a solution (can the temperature be increased?), secondly, if they canât offer one, letâs hope they have a plan B, meaning a friend or family that can take over the care of the cat.
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I assume that the one of us who is not sick/injured would stay with the sit. We would let the HO know what is happening in case the situation escalated and we both had to leave, so they would be prepared.
We usually bring both cars on a sit incase something like this ever happened. It hasnât. But only have one car on this sit.
Iâve decided to tough it out. I canât upset their holiday and leave the cat. Hubbyâs been and bought us heated throwsâŚwe should survive. .
@Cathy12121 What is the temperature set on? I donât understand why you arenât being provided with heat. Is this what you agreed to?
Regrading what happens if a sitter is ill or has an emergency, hosts should always have an emergency contact. I sit solo, if I had appendicitis or something and needed emergency surgery, a prepared host would be able to have their emergency contact jump in at least temporarily while they implement other arrangements. This is the same as if they had an emergency in their own daily life. If they had to be rushed to the hospital they would have a friend or family member jump in and care for their pets. So far, 50 sits in, Iâve never needed to contact an emergency contact for anything, but I always make sure they have one listed in the welcome guide.
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I know people who have been working in that service for my country and they can provide helpful information and assistance regarding the process, relevant contacts and so on. Of course, some people expect too much.
The temp is set to 18. ButâŚits only 6 am to 7 am and 7pm to 8pm. Itâs just getting to about 16 when the hour is up. Back to cold again.storm bert caused us to have no power sunday and monday. 28 hrs in total. Luckily we had the log burner.
About 20 sits here,never had any bother apart from once in france we had âlog guiltâ.but we replaced them.
Sorry was that meant for me ? What service
Thatâs my answer to @pietkuipâs post. And I understand now that this information is not relevant to your situation. I wasnât aware of your other post when I wrote my answer to this. It seems youâre not in a foreign countryâŚ
We have a few back up plans in our heads, because we have no idea about the future, so at the point that something adverse happens, we can let the HO know a potential solution, at the point we tell them about one of us getting ill, to help keep things calm. Weâre in our 50âs & 60âs.
Our potential solutions:-
- We split up, so one of us goes alone to get ourselves sorted out, and the other remains with the pet.
- We take the pet with us to our own home, as itâs near a hospital, and is pet friendly.
- If itâs an illness that just needs rest, the ill one stays in bed at the HOâs house.
- Go to the local hospital where the HO is, ie donât go home.
- The emergency contacts of the HO come into play to take over.
- The emergency contacts take over for a few days until we can all figure things out.
Itâs not something that can be planned for. At least with sitting as a couple we stand a better chance of being able to help the owner out more than if it was a single sitter, and because of that I see it as ultimately the HO that needs to help find a solution that works for them, because theyâd have no choice but to sort it if we were single sitters, and thatâs why they have an emergency contact. Itâs once in a blue moon that it will happen, and itâs never happened to us yet.
I am sorry you are not feeling well. I appreciate hosts wanting to save on heating costs, and some people may be okay running it so little at such a low temperature, but to assume the sitters should adhere to such heavy restrictions that the average person would find uncomfortable is not reasonable.
It would be one thing if the house just didnât heat up well no matter how high you ran it, but that the discomfort is due to such stringent restrictions is another matter. I know it might be uncomfortable to request they let you use it more but that is definitely something to consider. That ask would be far from unreasonable.
This could be a good learning experience too to inquire about heating use when doing future sits in colder climates, especially if the house seems older,etcâŚ
I am currently on a sit in Scotlandâa seaside town where the house is right across the street from the beachâand I was a bit concerned initially since these âcold house issuesâ almost always seem to be in the UK.
Even though I know problem issues that get posted on the forum are usually not representative of most sits, it did get in my head a bit since I have had a couple of sits where it was cold inside constantly and it was really unpleasant.
When the listing described the house as âwarmâ and I saw there was central heating, I figured the house was comfortable or it wouldnât be mentioned specifically. They stated that they built this as their dream home and I could tell it was very modern; so I figured it was probably built in a way that minimized drafts,etcâŚ
I commented in my original listing that it was great they had central heating as I know that is not always the caseâŚI figured that comment would open the door to mentioning if there were any restrictions on its use.
Turns out they have triple glazed windows and the indoor temp is always .between 23 and 25 degreesâŚsometimes I actually feel a bit warm, but I just leave the settings as they are on all the thermostats. I think they have floor heating as well. I feel very fortunate.
That is good you found a way to warm up and hope the rest of the time feels a bit more comfortable!
Thanks,I am a retired nurse of 42 yrs and hubby was a soldier 25 yrs so weâre pretty good at problem solving and looking forward. As I said we always take both cars. Just not this time and
Weâre 600 miles from home. Weâre staying. 5 more sleeps.
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Thanks, we live across from the beach in Scotland too. 
Hi, Iâve only just jumped in on this topic, so hopefully, Iâve got the gist that the house is too cold & making you not well.
I must admit, personally, weâre fairly frugal with our heating, but below 16, is i think too low. (Though sadly, many are probably living in that or less)
Although im frugal, i also dont like to be too cold., so think youve done the best thing with the electric throws, they at least will keep you warm.
We had a particularly cold house one winter and weâre aware of not wanting to overuse the HOs fuel so we bought a low watt electric heater and hust moved it from room to room as we needed. I now swear by these and will probably travel with them.
In our own home we also have a couple of blow heaters that we use in places like the landing and hallway. You can buy these on amazon with next day delivery.
We bought one today thanks. I think itâll be at least bearable now. Iâm not as breathless âŚwhich came as a shock because itâs new to me.
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Iâve read your other post, so i hope that helps. At least if you can get the rooms, youâre in warmer.
I think to set the heating at 18, at least a couple of times a day isnât unreasonable.
I feel the biggest problem here is just how energy bills have gone up in general (especially if its oil) & people are excessively focusing on where they can cut costs.
Overall, though, itâs also detrimental to the building with insufficient heating, too.
I wish you well and hopeful youâve not long left on this sit.
One of the things Iâve noticed while traveling and living abroad as an American is that many of our homes are much more comfortable heating wise by comparison, because our buildings are newer and even many âoldâ ones tend to be retrofitted.
I mention that for Americans who are looking to sit abroad, but havenât yet.
I donât know how utility prices stack up in various countries, but for instance in a 6,000-square-foot home with central air (where you set the temperature and the system automatically adjusts to keep the temp steady), we never paid more than $500 USD monthly even through winter in the East Coast, including occasional snow. And that was even with a living room with 20-foot+ ceilings and lots of double-paned windows throughout the house. Three stories.