42 questions you must ask to avoid house sitting hell

Ask the right questions of your house sitting hosts and your travel dreams will come true. Here’s 42 questions you must ask to avoid house sitting hell.
Kirsty Carter

Kirsty Carter

WHEN you agree to house sit you make an important commitment to your host(s). They rely on you so they can take a once-in-a-lifetime holiday, go on their honeymoon, visit ailing relatives or leave their home and pets for any number of other significant reasons. It is important that you understand and honour your commitment.

Of course, you also want to enjoy your time in their home, and having a fabulous sit starts long before you talk to your host or even before you apply for the sit. There are no shortages of house sitting disaster stories on the internet. If you’ve already been house sitting and part way through the sit thought to yourself, “I wish I’d asked that” or, “What did they tell us about that?” chances are you didn’t ask the right questions to start with. Knowing the important questions to ask of yourself and your host is vital to getting all the information you need for a successful sit and ensuring you don’t end up in house sitting hell. 

FREE CHEATSHEET

42 questions you must ask to avoid housesitting hell.

Everything you ever wanted to know but are were too afraid to ask! 

There is as much variation in house sits as in house sitters. Sits can be in the city or country, big houses or small apartments, lots of pets or very few or even no pets. Some pets need lots of company, others little or none. Happy house sitting arrangements come from a good match between hosts, pets and sitters. Don’t assume anything. Ask the right questions and you will be well equipped to make the right decision about whether to take the sit. So what should you ask?

Before you apply for the house sit

You’ve seen a house sit that interests you. It’s in a country or region you really want to visit and the host and pets seem great. But online profiles can be a far cry from reality. Before you apply there are a few things to think about.

There are seven important factors we consider before we approach a host: climate; safety; travel costs; the number, type and needs of pets; local activities and attractions; availability of public transport; and deal breakers.

Climate, safety and travel costs

What is the climate in your destination, is it a safe area and what are the travel costs to reach the house sit? Do some research. Barcelona may seem like an amazing location but it gets seriously hot in summer. We don’t go to areas that the Australian government warns against visiting. You may love the idea of two weeks in CapeTown, South Africa, but if the airfare is going to cost a small fortune and you can’t afford it, perhaps you should reconsider.  

The number, type and needs of the pets

Ask yourself whether the number and type of pets suit you. There’s no point in taking on a large, powerful, young dog if you are not strong enough to manage him on walks. If you don’t like cats don’t take a house sit caring for a cat even if the home is in your favourite destination in the world. Caring for other peoples’ pets is all about giving them the genuine affection that their owners give them.
Kirsty and Toby the staffie

Local activities and local transport

If you’re going to be in Upper Moose Head West, Idaho, for three weeks, with only one cat in your care, will you have enough to do? If your host is not providing a car and the only bus that comes by is the school bus, will you be too isolated? There is a remarkable amount of information on the internet seemingly no matter how remote the location, so go for it. And remember to ask your host for local knowledge of public transport, places to visit and interesting activities. If no car is offered, you might want to raise the possibility. In our experience, hosts often don’t think of how you might get their pets to a vet if need be, but they are prepared to leave a locked car in the garage

Deal breakers

Prepare a list of your definite deal breakers.  If there’s something about the sit that you really would not enjoy, be honest with yourself. You don’t want to have a terrible time because of something that could have been avoided easily. For instance, we feel very uncomfortable in homes in which people smoke. And for now, anyway, we’ve had enough of really hot climates, so we don’t consider those sits.

Prepare a list of questions to ask the host

From your research and consideration of some of those points, you’ll probably have a list of questions you will want to ask a prospective host. These might include some of your deal breakers as well as basic questions about the sit. So, now’s the time to contact the host and arrange a time to meet.

FREE CHEATSHEET

42 questions you must ask to avoid housesitting hell.

Everything you ever wanted to know but are were too afraid to ask! 

Meet the host

We’ve taken only one sit where we didn’t meet the host beforehand. It was one of our first sits and it was a big mistake. Meeting hosts gives you an opportunity to see whether there is a rapport with them and their pets and to get all the answers you need.

 

Meetings don’t necessarily have to be in person, but can be arranged on video through apps like FaceTime, What’s App or Skype. The best option is to visit but, of course, it isn’t always possible. We are booked up to a year in advance and we may be returning to a city or country and able to visit a host months before the sit starts. If we can, we always do.

 

I’m not suggesting that you ask all your questions in rapid-fire style.  If your conversation with your host is good, many of your questions will be answered as you chat. You may also find that many are answered in the host’s profile and might just require confirmation or a bit more detail.  For example, if you have a car you will want to ask about parking arrangements. Depending on the your unique circumstances and the characteristics of the assignment and host, you may not need to ask some questions at all.

Lawrie and Kirsty made us feel confident and secure from the very first video chat we had with them. Meeting them at our apartment confirmed our feelings.

The pets

It’s really important to consider the pets’ needs and whether you are the right person to look after them. If there is a dog that needs company all day but you want to explore the area, maybe that sit isn’t right for you. Experience has shown us that it is wise to meet the pets or at least see them online and ask the following questions of your host.

Home and environment

We all get used to the creature comforts of home and develop a liking for certain things. There are some things that sitters just can’t do without. For us, it’s good tea. So we carry the tea we like and tea-making pod. (We thereby eliminate the potential catastrophe of arriving somewhere to find we can’t have a cup of tea!) It’s really important to know your own needs and make sure that the sit suits you. If the host doesn’t have a food processor and juicer and you can’t live without them, the sit may not be for you.

 

One of the most important questions you can ask  hosts concerns their previous experience of house sitters. Look for references from past sitters. If the host has had several but none has provided references, it might indicate that the sit was an unpleasant experience. The same is true, of course, when there are several poor references. One bad reference among many good ones is more likely to mean that an individual sitter had a bad experience but that this is an anomaly. We have taken sits where there are no references after satisfying ourselves that the host is a reasonable person offering a high quality sit. 

 

The list of questions below was developed from our experience. Some of them may seem odd to you, but we wished we’d asked them all before accepting some sits. These should be in addition to your list regarding the pets.

Is this sit safe? clean? secure? accessible? manageable? liked by others?

The location

The host's personal likes

Now you have all the answers

Now you have all the answers, you can make your travel plans and pack your bags. Have fun!

More to explore

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Share contact