I am often asked what kind of notice do I need when hiring a pet sitter. If this is the first time you are hiring a pet sitter, call or email them with at least two weeks notice before your dates start. If your pet sitting request falls on a major holiday like Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year’s then contact the pet sitter with at least three to four weeks notice. If you book your trip months ahead, don’t wait around. Book your pet sitting reservation at the same time. Many pet sitters get fully booked for the holidays months in advance.
If you are in need of an overnight pet sitter, make the request as soon as you book your trip to help ensure the pet sitter of your liking has an opening. There are often less pet sitters available for overnight stays than for once, twice, or three daily visits. If you are unsure of whether overnight pet sitting or daily pet sitting visits are the right fit for you and your pets, you may find our article useful on 6 Questions To Ask Yourself To Help Determine Whether Overnight Pet Sitting Or Multiple Daily Pet Sitting Visits Is The Right Fit For Your And Your Pets.
You may ask why a pet sitter may need so much notice. First, professional pet sitters are in high demand and can only help so many clients at once. Second, when hiring a professional pet sitter there should be a thorough sign up process to ensure your pets and home will get the best care. For example, at Rufus and Delilah not only do we need to see if we have a sitter available for the request, we need each new client to complete a detailed online profile with details about caring for their pets and homes before we meet them. We also need to schedule a consultation on a day and time that works for all of us before the visits start. Rufus and Delilah will not offer care for a clients pet(s) without meeting them first for a consultation. We also cannot fully guarantee our services until the consultation is complete. It is just as important for your pet sitter to meet you and your pet(s) in person as it is for you to meet us in person to make sure we are the right fit.
There are times when a pet sitter may be able to sign up new clients with only a few days advance notice before the start date but we prefer when neither the new client nor the pet sitter has to rush through the sign up process to ensure your pets and your home will receive the best care in your absence.
The next time you need to hire a pet sitter for the first time, how much notice will you give?
Great tips! Thanks for sharing 🙂 You can never give notice too early, but you can definitely give it too late!
Hi Kia. We totally agree that there is never such thing as too much notice when booking a pet sitter. The more notice the better. So glad you like our tips. Thank you for commenting. 🙂
Really good tips – we’ve worked with our pet sitter for years now and through it all we can honestly say that they have done a great job! We’ve had 5 different walkers through our pet sitter firm, and each have demonstrated the same qualities!! So, it does pay to have a good upfront conversation, talk about needs, timing, ensure a good fit and like all good relationships, work to keep it all going smoothly!
It’s great to hear you have a wonderful and long lasting relationship with the pet sitting firm you use. It’s important to be very thorough communicating the care you want for your pets and your home. At Rufus and Delilah we use online pet sitting software and have an extremely detailed intake form that we ask our clients to complete so we get all the detailed information we need to give each clients pets and home and the best care. We then review the information with them when we meet for a complimentary consultation which also allows us to find out more details we need to know in order to make sure we are giving their pets the best care in their absence. This of course is just the start to a long relationship.
I imagine a lot of people regret waiting until the last minute to hire a pet sitter. If I had to use a sitter, I’d want one that had several sitters available in case my pet sitter had an emergency. It sounds like you have a wonderful system in place and your clients always know that their pets will be given great care.
Thank you for pointing out that pet sitters are in high demand. My wife and I want to go on vacation next month. We will have to start looking now for someone that can watch our cat while we are gone.
It was helpful when you said to find a sitter two weeks in advance. My husband and I are going on a trip. We’ll keep this information in mind as we search for a dog sitter.
I bet a lot of people could use a pet sitting firm nowadays. I have been having trouble finding a good and reliable pet sitter recently. Especially with their prices now going up, even for no overnight stays, the sitters I’ve used in the past are even more sparse. Wish Rufus and Delilah was in my area.