I’ve avoided using EAs for stuff that’s not directly related to work. I don’t think they should be handling my personal business, since the company pays for them.
I have had a CEO / boss who had his house manager handle personal stuff for his family, which makes more sense to me. His EA handled his work-related stuff, which is more typical of CEOs and execs I know.
I wonder if I’ve done this same sit? Her brother ended up showing us round the house (he had been pet sitting before us) and told us to keep the heating on the settings he’d used. We did get a very short and unenthusiastic review from them and perhaps that’s why.
There were so many issues with that sit (builders in the house, cameras, snappy pups) I definitely wouldn’t take it now that we’ve got more experience
I just withdrew an application after a video call.
Context: I had calls set with two HOs on the same day and their sits happened to be in the same metro area. During call No. 1, I was offered the sit, so I canceled call No. 2, with the other HO. I would’ve been happy to do either sit and it was just about one HO picking a later time to video chat than the other.
The takeaway is, if you’re feeling good about a sitter, try to chat and lock them in ASAP, assuming the chat goes well.
Separately, I accepted another sit today as well, for another city. And that HO offered me the sit based just on my profile and trading a few msgs on the THS platform. We never video or phone chatted. When she initially replied to my application, she said I’d checked all their boxes. Our msgs were just about logistics.
That sit is in a city and neighborhood I know well, because I’d lived there before. Plus, I telecommute during all of my sits, so will spend a lot of time with the pets.
Hi @Junipers
Not sure but this was a cat sit. Very expensive apartment in London they didn’t want to heat!
No heating in .December……
you’d have frozen! We always (used to) go on our hols in January-February but since we’ve adopted our 2 cats, we’re not doing it anymore due to heating costs for a sitter. If you want animals you need to adjust your life/pockets accordingly.
I have withdrawn two application after a video call; I even told one of the HO I might have to because of a change of circumstances that happened between their reply to my application (p.s. HO respond to applications, especially those you really like ASAP or they’ll make other arrangements) and our call.
But I send them a message saying I’ll have to withdraw my application due to X (whatever is your reason, or if you feel uncomfortable telling the truth just say your plans have changed in the meantime which are incompatible with the sit in question), thank them for their consideration and that it’s been lovely speaking to them and I hope it will work out on some other occasion (if you mean it!).
I never just withdraw my application with no comment if there was some kind of rapport going on already.
I would get an instant connection just in reading someones details and a bit about their personality. Cheers.
I have not done it yet but in two past sits wish I had. I have 15 sits now under the belt into my second year. Some were repeat requests.
Sometimes the pets are nicer than the owners, who can be really demanding. They forget we are offering our time, trustworthiness and love. Twice the beginning of a sit started with messy chaos and I went ahead. But lesson learnt. In both cases, the chaos and demanding nature did not stop. So yes. Gut feeling next time just say no if it doesn’t feel right.
I totally agree with everything you said here. My time on THS has definitely taught me some pretty harsh lessons in discernment!
After years of doing this, I finally feel like I’m getting much better at tuning into my gut to see if this is a person I want to be dealing with. It has almost always been a less than pleasant experience whenever I’ve glossed over my initial gut feeling in the beginning. Still not immune to getting it wrong mind you but it doesn’t happen anywhere near as often as it used to.
My key advice to anybody now is not to go ahead if there are any slight or minor alarm bells in the beginning during the pre-sit conversation. I’ve unfortunately found through bitter experience that there’s almost always a price to pay at some later stage.
Well said.
Yup, I cut bait very quickly to avoid possible trouble. I’d rather live with some false negatives than end up with false positives. So far, so good one year into THS, but I’m ready to switch to a fallback plan if needed on any sit.
Judging by various accounts posted on the forum, there are numbers of terrible hosts and sitters and THS offers little or no help (and rarely boots anyone from the platform, even for egregious behavior), so we’re better off paying attention to any worrisome signals as early as possible.
I do both sitting and hosting.
As a sitter, I’ve only withdrawn once after a video chat. I was offered the sit, but there were new details disclosed on the chat regarding the cat’s anxiety and toileting habits. I did wind up telling the homeowner I’d “think” about it because she was pushing. But by the next morning, I wrote her declining.
As a homeowner I’ve had sitters decline after a video chat for different reasons. These weren’t always sitters I was going to offer the sit to, but I’ve had it happen with sitters where I was ready to offer the sit. The only objection I have is when I’ve offered the sit at the end of the chat and the sitters basically said it was fine but they just wanted to “check flights” or something and then never got back to me or declined a day or two later with or without an excuse.
I’m not sure if sitters are aware that when a Homeowner invites a sitter and is waiting for the confirmation, the homeowner has to “uncheck” the invitation to confirm another person. At this point, I only offer the sit when the person is ready to accept. If the sitter tells me they are waiting to hear about something else or need to think, I tell them I respect that but will need to keep looking and fill the sit if I find someone else suitable in the meantime.
I think some people are just afraid to say no. I’ve learned there is no such thing as a “verbal acceptance.”
I will also say, that given that this is a matching service, sometimes the alarm bells aren’t about “demands” or something that just sounds weird. Sometimes it’s not about a host or a sitter not being good enough. Sometimes the choices are about chemistry. If I don’t feel I’m on the same wavelength with a person, then it’s just not a good match.
It’s kind of like meeting your forever person. You meet lots of frogs throughout your life and you just know they aren’t the right “fit” for you so you move on. But when you meet your prince/princess, you DO just know - you feel it! And you stay.
Interaction between HO’s and housesitters, and people in general, is no different. You just have that sense, that feeling inside of you that it is right or its wrong. Follow that sense, it’s usually pretty spot on, and if you don’t follow it, you could end up in a very bad “marriage”. 
This I really need to work on! I always regret the sits I know I’ll regret, yet I keep taking them. We’ve had a run of less than great ones lately and I’m trying to think if there were any red flag or weird vibes that I ignored. I don’t think there were - more just a feeling of “this will be fine” rather than “this sounds amazing”
Sounds to me like you actually do have quite a good gut instinct but just don’t ignore it.
Nowadays, I’ll only accept sits where I get a very good overall feeling about them and a strong sense that the HO will be a decent, respectful person and pleasant to deal with. I want the people who truly see the value in this brilliant exchange service as opposed to those who consider themselves to be my boss and think they are my superior.
As I said earlier though, I’ve definitely made more than my fair share of mistakes along the way. I strongly believe that was because I often used to ignore the warning signs, even the small ones.
Just remember you deserve to have the sits that feel great to you and not just feel OK about them.
Yes - the ones that haven’t been great what they’ve all had in common is a lack of acknowledgement from the homeowner that they do also stand to benefit from the arrangement. It’s felt more like they’re doing me a huge favour by letting me look after their dog. Maybe we need to make this our hard stop - if they don’t seem aware of the mutual gains then it’s a hard no. All our best sits have been scenarios where both us and the homeowners couldn’t believe our luck haha. This should be fairly easy to gauge on a video call.
Absolutely spot on! Couldn’t agree more.