I have a sit booked in Nov. Right after I have to travel about 700 miles to get to relatives for Thanksgiving, my daughter is arriving in the morning after a red eye. I asked what time I have to arrive and depart and they haven’t booked their flights yet. Though said in the afternoon. What does that mean? 12:01 or 3 pm? I am confused. At what point are you expected to get that info? And I am thinking they haven’t booked flights yet, maybe there isn’t a sit? Am I being paranoid?
Depending on travel before/after. I will sometimes ask before accepting the sit so that I will know if I have to travel the day before/after. Explain why to the HO.
You can tell the HO what time you will be available to arrive and what time you will need to depart.
Its not all about the HO your needs are important too.
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I am somewhat flexible here as relatives can pick her up from the airport and I don’t have to be there. But I realize that I should have firmed up at confirmation. But this was a low application sit, so no video or call interview. They just took me.
I would say it is normal to need to have times to make travel arrangements. If they don’t give you theirs in a timely manner then you can give them your times and they work around your times and figure it out.
I have done that. As soon as we have an agreement I present my travel arrangements according to their times, and if they don’t give me any specific times then I tell them my travel plans that suit me best.
Then they can cry out or that is what I’m booking. Last time they first said ok, and later asked if I could stay another day, i said my tickets I’d told them about couldn’t be altered and I think they got somebody else to pop by the last evening (easy cat-sit).
Are you happy to proceed without a proper conversation with them? Are you confident enough that it’ll go well?
It ain’t my cup of tea.
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So you haven’t discussed if pets are registered with a vet , do they expect you to pay vet fees upfront if there require emergency treatment?
Do you know how long the pets can be left alone for ?
Will you overlap with the owners at start or end of the sit ?
Have you received the Welcome Guide ?
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Sounds like you’re walking into another potentially troublesome sit. There’s no guarantee that any sit will go well, but sitters have to practice at least basic due diligence. Otherwise, odds are high for a pattern of problematic sits.
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And you just took them !
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This doesn’t sound very committed or organised on their end @Huronbase - give them your travel timings so they can fit their flights around you and explain that’s what they need to work to. #thisisapartnership
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Yeah - personally I would never accept a sit without a video call first, but each to their own. During a video call, we always ask if they know their departure & arrival times. If they don’t know yet, we ask them to please let us know as soon as possible, so we can organise & coordinate travel times. We learnt through experience that if we don’t ask/prompt, HO’s often won’t tell you, instead just stating what date they leave & return but never the time. Communication is always key, so make sure you ask them and communicate any other questions you have 
One time during a sit (before we knew to ask for travel times prior to the sit) we didn’t know yet what time a HO was returning, so we messaged and asked. They said before 6am. With their 2 small children. 
If we had never asked, they probably would never had told us and we would have woken up to the shock of our life. Always ask.
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I need to be in that area for a dental reason. The timing and location fit. I do have the welcome guide and it is 6 nights. I know the area. I don’t have a problem with the time, but the fact that she hasn’t booked flights. Not awful. My good friend is an hour away and I can always crash there. I can imagine that no one else applied considering the location and time. But it suited me. This is a location of convenience, so I am not that worried. But until today, the fact of arrival time and departure is not clear. Hence, it was something that I had taken for granted, and something I need to be more aware of. Why I posted.
Hi @Huronbase. Whenever a house owner asks me to come early, I take it as a question, to which I will say yes or no. I have found that when everything about a house sit is written down, having an hour in-person time is sufficient time to clarify any further details. Before I would agree to come even an hour early, I would do so only if I had received all details in writing. It has been my experience that some home owners will not write anything down, and want to talk everything through - I don’t go for that anymore. It puts the onus on me to scribble down pages of notes. When everything is in writing, you have legal recourse when things don’t go as planned.
Second, having a sitter come early is not the time for a house owner to say that they would like to get to know you better. That needs to happen before a sit is agreed upon.
Third, I don’t mean this to sound harsh, but the reality is that I have wasted precious time agreeing to come early for a house sit, when it was completely unnecessary and unwarranted. I can’t count the number of awkward hours I have passed trying to make chit chat with people who are well-meaning and good hearted, but with whom I have nothing in common.
Forth, I don’t buy into a line that I hear often, “We always ask house sitters to come a day or two early.” I value my time enormously, and have learned to question such requests. I know that there are many cultural differences involved here. The length of a house sit is also a major consideration as to whether to come early or not. Still, I want to be in charge of how I spend my time.
I have been house sitting for 10 years, and the more I do so, the more I learn to leave no stone unturned.
Ok so if i now understand correctly your only concern is that she hasn’t book flight yet.
If that us the case the only person who can help you is the HO.
Have you considered making contact again and asking her to let you know as soon as her flights are booked. You could also tell her what your concerns and considerations are and maybe suggest a video call which may be more helpful that messages.
No you aren’t being paranoid at all. Nov isn’t that far away, so it’s understandable to be concerned. HOWEVER, it depends where the owners are travelling from and to. For example, I live in the UK and flights to and from Spain to the UK in Nov have loads of spare seats right up until the last minute, because most don’t want to go to Spain in the colder weather.
I imagine it is similar for internal flights in the USA. But if they are flying further afield, then you have a right to be hugely concerned and need to get them pinned down to a time that perhaps suits you now, but word it in a nice way.
I’d just ask them when they are likely to know their detailed travel arrangements so you can plan yours accordingly. Communication is key. We’ve just had a second video call with our late September sit as it was booked so long ago I felt we needed a ‘closer to the time’ check in to make sure everything was still ok & all the logistics were agreed & sorted.
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And this was around Thanksgiving? Really strange.
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Well I hope this topic is helpful for new sitters, as I realized that I was not clarifying in my video chats or I booked without video call to clarify details like departure and arrival times, all the time. This time it is not super critical, as I can work around. I just hope the sit isn’t cancelled because flights didn’t work out.
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