What to include in "house manual" or "welcome guide"

And I like the questionnaire idea :bulb:

Hi@cuttlefish
I have said on previous posts how much I dislike the Welcome Guide. For any new HOs I send a template for their consideration and they can then choose what they want to use.
Like @temba , I ask for it well in advance then I can ask any questions.
There has been another thread on First Aid kits. I never expect one, I carry a tube of Savlon and tell Mr Itchyfeet that is sufficient to treat his many ailments

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Love it :+1::rofl:

Do I have to wait for the review to go through to get to the Welcome Guide? Itā€™s not on my dashboard at the moment.

Hi @DinkyDi007 and welcome to our Community Forum ā€¦ as an owner you will have access to the Welcome Guide through your dashboard, are you referring to your August sit?

Open the dashboard go to ā€œYour Welcome Guideā€ and start to complete it so that itā€™s ready to share once you confirm your sitters.

Please let me know if you need more help.

Angela and the Forum Team

Thank you. It wasnā€™t there until the review of my listing had been completed.

Hello everyone,

Iā€™m new to TH and am filling out the welcome guide for my first sitter. I am wondering how much detail to include. It seems like Iā€™m getting pretty detailed about things and wonder how much is too much? If the more detail the better? I see there is a thread about this but it doesnā€™t seem to answer this particular question

Alsoā€¦do HO leave a tip?

Thank you
Latifa

@Latifah
I am a sitter and also, just recently, an owner. As a sitter I like a very detailed welcome guide in regard to the pets, house, and garden. Iā€™m not particularly interested in restaurants, bars, tourist attractions, itā€™s easy to find these online. Names of grocery shops and info on local markets is helpful.

I am currently filing out my own welcome guide and itā€™s taken a huge amount of work, especially as Iā€™m doing it on my phone, but once itā€™s done Iā€™ll have it for ever, with just a few adjustments as needed. I think itā€™s worth putting plenty in. On my last sit it took me two days to find the sugar so Iā€™ve even put things like that in my guide. Iā€™ll be printing it out for sitters, itā€™s much easier than always having to go online.

Regarding tips, I have had some lovely welcome gifts of food and wine, been taken out for dinner many times, been given money for taxis (when itā€™s been a remote sit), Iā€™ve had airfares paid, Iā€™ve had my groceries bought for me etc, but Iā€™ve also had sits where itā€™s obvious the owners are not affluent and I havenā€™t thought any less of them for not doing these things. Iā€™ve also done a sit for someone who made their own dinner and sat beside me on the sofa eating it without even offering me a cup of tea. Certainly wonā€™t be going back there!

Not all these sits were through THS though.

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Thank youā€¦this is very helpful! I am being very detailed even though itā€™s a small place and I was worried it would be overwhelming. Iā€™ll put sugar and sale and pepper on now though :wink:

ā€œIā€™ve also done a sit for someone who made their own dinner and sat beside me on the sofa eating it without even offering me a cup of teaā€. WOW :face_with_spiral_eyes:

Thank you!

@Latifah Welcome to the forum and to TrustedHousesitters. Please use the embedded link here to view this post on your question about tips. Thereā€™s a wide range of responses there. Hopefully that will then allow for this post to stay on-topic and not stray from the welcome guide question.

Anytime you have a question, itā€™s best to first use the magnify glass to search a key word. Youā€™ll often find your answer has already been discussed. Otherwise, of course then start a new post.

Francine,
Volunteer Forum Moderator

Can I just check if pictures can be added to the Welcome Guide? I can see pet ones can be but I would like, for example, to show pictures of applicances with arrows, add a map showing train/bus stops etc. Not sure if Iā€™m just not seeing it!

I can obviously send these on separately if not, and I plan to print everything off and leave in the house, it would just have been nice to have absolutely everything in the one place.

Many thanks.

Jane

Hi @theonlyjaneo
If you go to Edit Welcome Guide, Home Detail, and scroll to the bottom ā€¦ Photos, you can upload photos of your appliances there.
I hope this helps.

Good grief. Mortified! Many thanks, I will look beyond the end of my nose in future!

No problem at all ā€¦ always happy to help where I can. :smiley:

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@Itchyfeet - Sudocrem is our magic potion! :joy: