I’m thinking of this post thread as a thread where THsitters can list confirmed sits that got cancelled/ shortened by the HO.
Perhaps this can be a very informal stats thread that we and hopefully TPTB can see for a trend. Not really meant as a b**** thread.
I know the forum in a silver of membership but there seems to be a lot of cancelling/shortenings and new members posting.
A HO canceled my last sit and I was holding a non-refundable airfare. She was ill and canceled her trip so there was nothing to be done about it.
Out of 19 confirmed sits, 3 cancelled on me. Ugh.
Out of 10 sits since I started sitting in March, one host shortened their trip, because they were involved in a serious accident and wanted to return home for further treatment.
In 2023 our first year with THS . 2 owners curtailed the sit coming back days early . Both were very stressful situations for completely different reasons.
First one due to extraordinary circumstances (HO had a medical emergency whilst on a cruise requiring a prompt return for follow up medical care back home on Drs advice) . In this case the owners were very apologetic and invited us to stay on with them when they got home. We appreciated their offer but didn’t take them up on it , as we felt we would be in the way since they were very poorly. We have subsequently sat for the same owners without any similar incidents.
Second one curtailed by owner who didn’t inform us until midway during our stay that they would be returning several days earlier than the confirmed end date. Sit was due to end on a Sunday, they arrived back home mid week to attend a social event on the Saturday.
To keep things somewhat balanced, I had 20 sits in 2023 and no cancellations.
Out of 59 total sits the only cancellations I ever had were during the height of covid, mutually agreed, one sit that shortened their dates well in advance so I decided to cancel and another one that was also a mutual decision that caused no real problem.
So far, so good—39 confirmed sits and no cancellations… as yet. Considering others’ experiences, is it just a matter of time?
24 confirmed house sits through THS over 2 years plus. 3 more have been cancelled. None shortened. One for good reason (emergency back surgery), two for utterly flaky disorganisation & thoughtlessness (for the same HO in two different countries).
Thanks for taking the time to post y’all.
Keep 'em coming…
I’m hoping @geoff.hom will be inspired to run stats at some point😁
Right.
In 2023
3 sits and 3 complete🙂
30 sits
3 cancellations. One had a valid reason, one just changed her mind and decided not to go on her trip, one changed plans and decided to travel a few weeks later (I was already booked for another sit for the later dates).
4 shortened sits - a three week sit shortened to one week, 3 sits shortened by 1-4 days due to changes in travel plans.
I think almost all my sits have been for owners who were traveling by plane and/or were on vacations where they had booked accommodation.
There was one exception: the owners travelled by car to their cottage in the mountains. And then one of them came back one night to see to his father who was old and frail. I did not have any problem with that, also because they had decided to take their pets with them (one dog needed injections), so for me this was a very easy sit.
Well they can’t run stats from this forum, we don’t represent a sizeable percentage of sitters and owners here. But they surely could run some stats based on overall data. We all give details of the reasons for canceling.
We are 10% @anon42826925 and brands like L’Oréal & Nike make consumer statements based on 2000 people and they have millions of followers. 14k on the forum is sizeable and should be listened to whoever you are 
Understood. But we don’t represent a random sample. We represent those who wish to interact via a forum. A random sample is … random. I’m a clinical researcher. And published in peer reviewed journals. So please forgive me for my love of research methodology.
It wouldn’t be hard to pull a random sample from all members. It would be very interesting to see those results.
As HS, (2/2 completed).
0 cancellations made by our HOs.
As HO, (8/9 completed).
we cancelled 1 sit after the orientation day because it was clear they were ill-equipped for our sit and we did not trust to leave our dog (who also displayed discomfort with the individual) with them and we would have cancelled a 2nd one if we hadn’t been so far away (another bad fit, but our dog was sound, so we let it play out even though we were uncomfortable.)
In the event of shortening a sit, personally, we would probably either find alternative arrangements or offer to allow the HS to stay with us as guests for the remainder of the sit.
…Would be cool to see a thread in the opposite direction as well of HS cancelling sits! X
There is one! It’s a duplicate of this one in the owners forum.
oh! can you share a link?
Here you go.
But a lot of that data never makes it into the system. Maybe a homeowner comes home three days early and the sitter is okay with clearing out or staying as a guest and there it never goes into the system. They don’t have the data to pull from. If you follow the recent product update thread for example, you’ll see that some of the impetus for the change came from anecedotal experiences, NOT data.