Confirm which dates are no longer covered, contact the people most likely to help and arrange a backup that meets your pets' needs. If you are already away, first establish who is with the animals now and who can take over. Keep the care plan separate from any later complaint or discussion about responsibility.
Sitterly does not find or fund a replacement sitter. That makes a clear local contact and a realistic alternative important, but it does not mean accepting the first person who replies without checking the arrangement.
Establish the exact gap in care
Ask whether the sitter is definitely cancelling, can cover part of the stay or has a changed arrival time. Keep the answer in writing. You need a clear gap to solve rather than several people working from different assumptions.
If the stay has already started, ask what care can continue while you arrange help. Contact your agreed local backup and confirm access to the home. Do not assume a friend can collect an animal, enter the property or manage its routine without speaking with them.
If there is an immediate animal welfare concern, contact a vet or an appropriate local service. Waiting for a platform message is not a substitute for arranging necessary care.
Reopen the search with an accurate request
Update your listing or contact suitable sitters with the uncovered dates, location and essential duties. Check the listing's current status rather than assuming it is still visible to applicants after a previous agreement.
Start with people you previously considered, if they agreed to further contact. Ask whether they are still available, and do not imply they owe you a replacement because you chose someone else. If your dates or handover can genuinely change, explain the flexibility.
Keep your message factual. A cancellation has created a care gap, and it does not establish that the original sitter acted dishonestly. You can deal with conduct concerns separately through the Report function.
Pursue alternatives at the same time
A new exchange sitter is one option, not the only plan. Contact a trusted person who can provide the required care, a paid in-home carer or an appropriate boarding provider. Ask about actual availability rather than relying on a website showing that the service exists.
For boarding, confirm the facility's requirements, what care it offers and how your pet will get there. The RSPCA's guidance for cat owners going on holiday asks owners to consider how the cat copes with unfamiliar people, animals and environments, and to make sure it has access to veterinary care.
Tell a paid provider about the full routine before accepting a quote. Costs, cancellation terms and any extra care should be clear. If none of the available options meets your animals' needs, reconsider the travel plan rather than treating inadequate care as an unavoidable compromise.
Hand over to the replacement properly
A familiar face still needs the relevant notes. Give the new carer feeding and care instructions, vet contacts, access arrangements and the name of someone who can make decisions if you cannot be reached. Discuss any medication or health requirements with your clinic and pass on its written instructions, rather than improvising a new routine to make a rushed replacement easier.
Confirm who is responsible at each handover. If one person helps temporarily before another arrives, record when responsibility changes and who checks that the next person has arrived. Avoid a gap created by each person assuming the other has taken over.
When it collapses mid-sit rather than before it
If the sitter falls ill or has an emergency
Tell the homeowner immediately. Do not carry on while genuinely unwell and do not simply leave. Often the honest answer is that you can feed the dog and let it out but cannot walk it, which is workable for two days if the owner knows. If you cannot stay at all, hand over to the backup contact and stay until someone takes over wherever possible. Document it in the platform's messages as it happens.
The backup plan the homeowner should have written before leaving
- A named local contact with a phone number who agreed in advance, and where the spare key is.
- A boarding facility or a vet that boards, with its number.
- Written authority for the sitter or contact to arrange emergency veterinary care, and up to what amount.
- Who to call if you are unreachable, for example on a long flight.
The RSPCA recommends keeping vaccination certificates, veterinary records and the numbers for your vet and an alternative animal accommodation facility together as a pet emergency plan. Check your microchip details through PetAddress at the same time.
If the homeowner comes home early
It looks harmless from the owner's side. From the sitter's it is serious, because in a non-monetary arrangement the accommodation was the whole of what they received, and someone who arranged three weeks and gets nine days may have nowhere to go. Tell them as soon as you know, not on the day, and be flexible about the changeover.
Agree this before the sit, not during it
One line handles it. If the homeowner returns early, the sitter may stay up to two further nights if needed. It takes seconds to agree beforehand and prevents an unpleasant conversation later.
If the arrangement simply is not working
Raise it once, calmly, in writing through the platform's messages. Many of these are fixable, because homeowners often do not realise the animals are more demanding than the listing described. If it cannot be resolved, end it properly: give notice, agree a handover, make sure the animals are cared for until someone takes over, and keep the record factual.
Whether a live-in sitter acquires any occupancy or tenancy right under your state or territory's residential tenancy law is outside what this article covers. It is a legal question and it varies by jurisdiction, so put it to your state or territory consumer affairs or fair trading agency, or to your own solicitor.
What Sitterly can and cannot do
Sitterly provides direct messaging, email confirmation for every member, a References available indication on sitter profiles, and a Report function. Sitterly is not a party to your arrangement, does not supervise sits, does not mediate disputes and does not find or fund a replacement sitter.
Keep complaints and prevention in proportion
Save the messages and report relevant conduct through the platform where appropriate. Read the actual terms of any paid booking or cover before assuming a refund, replacement or reimbursement is available. A promise from one service does not describe every platform.
For a future stay, discuss cancellation and early endings in your written agreement. Ask a willing local person to be the backup, arrange access and identify another care option before departure. These steps organise a response, but they cannot prevent every cancellation.
If you are the sitter and suddenly have nowhere to sleep
For a homeowner a cancellation costs money and sleep. For a full-time sitter it removes the roof, usually in a town where nobody knows you, with the fuel or the airfare that got you there already spent.
Book two nights before you look for another sit
A bed you have already secured changes what you can negotiate. Without one you will accept the first sit that answers, in the wrong suburb, with duties you have not read properly, because the alternative is a car park. Book something cheap and short, then search from a position where you can say no.
| Option | Bookable the same day | Works best when | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caravan park cabin | Usually, outside peak weeks | You have a vehicle and are outside a capital city | Peak-season pricing over Christmas and school holidays |
| Hostel or budget motel | Usually | You are in or near Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane or Perth | Costs mount fast beyond a few nights |
| Your own van, caravan or tent | Usually | You already travel that way | National park campgrounds book out in peak weeks |
| Family or friends | Sometimes | You are still in your home state | Ask early rather than at 9pm |
| A homeowner you have sat for before | Sometimes | You left on good terms and the timing suits | Ask, never assume |
If a few nights turns into something larger and money is short, Ask Izzy, run by the not-for-profit Infoxchange, lists housing, financial and food support services by location across Australia.
Then reopen the search, wider than last time
Increase your radius, because a fortnight is worth more travel than a weekend, and put every scrap of flexibility in the message: an earlier arrival, a later handover, a spare night at either end. Then work the listings again. Australian travel clusters around school holidays and Christmas, so a cancellation in February leaves a thinner board than the same one in December.
The money you have already spent
There is nothing to refund, because nothing was paid. That cuts both ways: no commission, and no compensation. Consumer guarantees apply where you paid a business, not where two people made a private arrangement. Whether a travel policy responds to a cancelled private booking is a question for that policy, and Moneysmart's travel insurance guidance is blunt about reading the product disclosure statement. That is general information, not advice.
Never let one confirmed sit be your only plan for a leg
This is the version that bites van and caravan travellers. Commit to driving Ceduna to Esperance for a sit and you cross the Nullarbor on the strength of one message, so know the park you would stop at instead. The same holds without a vehicle: a sit three weeks out in another state is not accommodation until you walk in, so do not hand back a lease on the strength of it.
Common questions
- Can I get compensation if my house sitter cancels?
- Not through Sitterly. A sit here is a non-monetary exchange, so there is no fee, deposit or commission to refund, and Sitterly does not compensate homeowners or find a replacement. If you paid a pet care business that failed to deliver, consumer guarantees may apply instead.
- What if my sitter cancels while I am already overseas?
- Same order, faster. Confirm in writing, republish, message your shortlist, then ring your neighbour and your vet clinic. Whoever holds your spare key is the bottleneck, because boarding only helps if someone can collect your animal.
- Can I leave a review for a sitter who cancelled?
- No. Reviews only open once a booking reaches completed status, in both directions, so a sit that never happened cannot be reviewed. Use the Report function instead.
- I am the sitter and the homeowner cancelled two days out. What can I ask for?
- Ask for it in writing, and ask whether they know anyone locally needing a sitter for those dates. Beyond that there is no financial remedy on any exchange platform, because no money was ever held. Book a bed first, then search.
Post the uncovered dates
If an accommodation exchange still fits the remaining stay, post the uncovered dates on Sitterly. Explain the care clearly and assess any new applicant before confirming. There is no sitting fee or booking commission, and a suitable replacement is not guaranteed.
