How can you trust a stranger staying in your home?

Posted on 29 May, 2017

prevent burglaries

There has been a rise in the number of people using house sitters. Recent research from insurance specialist Policy Expert[i] found that almost half of UK adults (45%) now arrange a house sitter to help prevent burglaries, avoid damage and to look after pets, when they go away.

Research from Google[ii] also indicates there are around 1.5 million searches every month for house-sitting and pet-sitting related terms, however whilst there are many house sitting websites offering such services how do you ensure you can trust the stranger staying in your home?

The most important advice is to always use a reputable company who interviews and vets their housesitters. Many online agencies don’t have these processes and so the onus is on the home owner to make the necessary background checks.

It’s also advisable to meet the potential sitter a few months before the assignment starts. This is means you can fully brief them on your house and pets, but it also gives you the chance to make sure you are happy and confident in their abilities. If you are not happy you have will then have time to find someone else.

Homesitters Ltd has been providing home and pet sitting services for over 35 years and we have an extensive network of meticulously vetted professional homesitters – all of which are employed by us. Sitters working for other companies or as individuals tend to be self-employed.

We have met all of our homesitters and each one has gone through a three hour interview process, plus we carry out background checks covering their previous 20 years of experience and employment.

We are also fully endorsed by many leading insurers. This is important as home insurance companies should always be informed if someone other than your family is staying in your home. This helps avoid any issues if a claim needs to mad, following an incident while a sitter was in charge of your home.

When it comes to your pets you can also be assured that our homesitters are extremely proficient at looking after animals, with most having previously owned pets, or had experience caring for their friends and/or family’s pets.

Prior to the assignment our homesitters will have a preliminary meeting with the client, to discuss the brief in more detail, meet any pets and ensure both parties are happy with the arrangements. Post assignments, we ask for feedback from both the client and homesitter to check everything went as expected.

And our job doesn’t stop there. Whilst homesitters are on assignment we check-in with them regularly to ensure everything is going well, plus our homesiters know they have our backup with someone available on the phone just in case of an emergency.

If you are looking for a professional house sitting company to look after your home and pets when you go on holiday, please get in touch with us on 01296 630 730 to discuss your requirements.

[i] https://www.policyexpert.co.uk/insurance-blog/travel/the-rise-of-the-house-sitter/

[ii] https://www.policyexpert.co.uk/insurance-blog/travel/the-rise-of-the-house-sitter/

Tags:

Share this: