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The Art and Importance of Staying Flexible: Housesitter’s Guide
Seasoned full time housesitters usually master the art, understanding the importance of staying flexible in housesitting by about the third month. In this housesitters’ guide Maria Vano shares her top tips on why and how keeping a flexible approach, even when you are committed to a back to back housesitting year, is the key to success. Read on to learn more.
Photo courtesy of Maria Vano
The importance of staying flexible as a housesitter
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from being a full‑time housesitter and petsitter, it’s how incredibly important it is to stay flexible when you travel between house sitting assignments. Of course as a full time housesitter the planning is more of an art, underlining the importance of staying flexible.
For example, other long‑term travellers -Blog: Packing up the pieces – using house sitting to see Europe suggest keeping flexible travel plans and alternative options in case a sit changes at short notice.
What does this mean? This means booking refundable hotel and train tickets (or any other transportation), and making sure you have at least one day—ideally two days—of buffer between sits, especially on international housesitting trips.
My own example
I write this as I’m two days from completing a five‑week housesit in rural Ireland, caring for a lovely home and several much‑loved pets. I have another petsitting and housesitting assignment starting six days later on the northeast coast of the UK, so I thought I’d have some fun with that little break: seeing Dublin for the first time, wandering over to the ferry the next day, staying in a new city where some friends live for three days, and then going to the next sit a day early where the owner will show me around before she leaves.
What does this mean?
Dublin refundable hotel reservation… check.
Ferry… same price to buy on the day, so not booked yet.
Train… same as above.
Manchester refundable hotel reservation… check.
Photo credit – Maria Vano
Navigating Unpredictable Events on a Housesit
This morning I received an urgent message from the homeowner saying their baby was ill and they might need to go to hospital, and asking if there was ANY way I could extend my stay. They were willing to pay any cancellation or change fees. Because I’d chosen flexible options and left a bit of a gap between sits, I knew I still had three more days for one cancellation and four days for the second, so of course I could stay and continue petsitting for their animals.
These poor people were days away from a very long and very expensive flight home that they were already going to have to scramble to change and pay huge fees on. They had even booked a hotel for me for the night they returned, although I don’t actually know if that one was refundable.
Importance of Staying Flexible – Rationale
As I sit here, I can only imagine what these “kids” (the homeowners are really in their 30s, but as I’m 67, they feel like kids to me!) are going through. They are worried about their baby, and also about their fur‑covered ones here at home, and wondering what was going to happen because they know I have another house sit afterwards. This is where a flexible approach to house sitting and pet sitting really matters.
In‑home pet sitting is widely seen as less stressful for animals than boarding because pets can stick to their normal routine in their own environment.
Even though I try to keep myself booked in back‑to‑back sits, like many full time housesitters I don’t have the funds to leave one to two weeks between housesitting assignments every time. So I take my own advice and keep at least a few days in between sits for emergencies such as these. Despite careful planning on all sides such incidents do happen, hence the importance of staying flexible if you possibly can.
Photo courtesy of Maria Vano
I Sail Close to the Wind on Occasion
Saying that, I do have a couple of sits booked that have only an overnight between, or even going from one house to the next on the same day, and those are the ones that make me nervous as a full‑time housesitter.
I can’t imagine having to tell these people, “No, I cannot stay a couple of extra days.” Most sits may have “emergency sitters” in place, but that’s usually not feasible for more than a day or two, especially for complex petsitting routines. So what happens if a child needing to go to hospital makes that carefully laid emergency plan impossible?
The Importance of Contingency in Planning
What happens is that you hope your sitter has built in a bit of a cushion, especially when you as a pet owner are travelling a long way from home—sometimes 14 hours or more by plane. As a pet and homeowner, you need to make sure your sitter understands this; personally, I feel it’s important to talk about flexibility during the initial housesitting arrangements. If the owner is just going to a neighbouring country, it might feel different from flying halfway around the world.
A Few Simple Guiding Rules
The Importance of Staying Flexible for Pet owners:
- Make sure your sitter always knows where you are and how far away you’ll be during your trip.
- Accept that if an emergency happens, you may need to cover your pet sitter’s costs, such as non‑refundable hotel nights or transportation change fees, if you ask them to extend the house sit.
The Importance of Staying Flexible for Pet and Housesitters:
- Be understanding, especially if you are sitting for a family with small children who are travelling far, far away to visit relatives.
- Know that things happen: babies get sick, flights are delayed, emergencies appear out of nowhere, and your flexibility can make all the difference to stressed pet owners.
Photo Credit – Maria Vano
The Importance of Staying Flexible in Housesitting – In Summary
So be flexible. Will it cost a little more to book flexible train tickets, transportation or hotels while housesitting? Probably it will. But in the grand scheme of things—and in the immensely fun and loving free exchange that sits at the heart of house sitting and in‑home pet sitting—isn’t that extra amount worth it? The art and importance in staying flexible matters because it makes it easier for both of you. Work together.
The moral of this tale? By choosing flexibility as a housesitter and petsitter, instead of adding even more stress to parents dealing with a sick baby a long way from home, you can ease their minds by saying, “Yes, I can stay a few extra days. Prepare checklists as both a housesitter and a homeowner. Take care of what you need to. I am here, and your pets and home will be safe.”
FURTHER READING
At Housesitmatch.com we like to share useful blogs and practical advice about housesitters, housesitting and pet sitting. If you have enjoyed reading about the importance of staying flexible on a housesit, try another blog. We hope you find this small selection of our blogs on house sitters and house sitting in Europe useful.
