Rover and TrustedHousesitters handover checklist

Keep the platform's process as the source of truth

Complete the booking, confirmation, identity, payment, messaging and safety steps required by the service you are using. SitSorted prepares information for someone you have already selected; it does not find, vet, book or insure a sitter.

If a platform provides a profile, care-information area or Welcome Guide, keep it accurate and use it as instructed. A separate handover is useful for arranging the practical details into the order the sitter will need them, not for bypassing the platform.

• Confirm the sitter and dates through the platform
• Complete every required profile, pet-care or Welcome Guide field
• Keep booking, payment and support conversations in the required channel
• Resolve any disagreement with the platform or sitter before the sit
• Use current platform help pages when a process or policy is unclear

Separate the listing from the day-to-day operating brief

A listing helps someone decide whether the sit is suitable. The operating brief explains what to do at breakfast, on a walk, when a cat hides, when a delivery arrives or when you cannot be reached.

Write for the confirmed sitter who is standing in your home. Put the most time-sensitive and safety-critical information first, and separate pet routines from optional household requests.

• Measured feeding, fresh water, walks, litter, toilet and sleep routines
• Behaviour cues, handling preferences and escape risks
• Owner, agreed backup, usual vet and out-of-hours contacts
• Supply, lead, carrier, cleaning and waste locations
• Required home tasks, boundaries, update rhythm and return plan

For a Rover booking, agree the care details before the stay

Rover's UK guidance recommends a clear checklist covering feeding, walks, play, emergency contacts and instructions specific to the dog. It also recommends meeting where possible and agreeing communication expectations before the stay.

Use the meet and greet to test assumptions. Show the equipment the sitter will use, discuss behaviour and access, and ask whether any responsibility is unclear or outside what was agreed.

• What the booked service includes and when each visit or stay begins
• The ordinary routine, plus anything that must not change
• Walk equipment, route limits, lead rules and known triggers
• How often updates are expected and what requires an immediate call
• Which details remain in Rover and which are in the practical handover

For TrustedHousesitters, complete and review the official Welcome Guide

TrustedHousesitters describes its Welcome Guide as the place for essential pet, home, contact and emergency information that can be shared with a confirmed sitter. Complete it, share it through the platform and ask the sitter to read it before arrival.

Use a short SitSorted brief as a scan-friendly companion when that helps: today's routine, the most important boundaries, who to call and the final return tasks. Avoid copying conflicting versions of the same instruction.

• Confirm the official Welcome Guide is complete and currently shared
• Ask the sitter what remains unclear after reading it
• Walk through pet routines, home equipment and household expectations
• Agree internet, sleeping, kitchen and visitor arrangements
• Update both places if a safety-critical instruction changes

Keep sensitive access details separate and plan for offline use

Do not put alarm codes, payment details or reusable passwords in a general handover. Use the secure method agreed with the sitter and the platform, and share only what is needed for the sit.

Make sure essential contacts and instructions can still be reached if a phone, app or connection is unavailable. That may mean a carefully stored printed copy or an offline copy agreed with the sitter, without exposing credentials in an obvious place.

• Test keys, locks and the agreed arrival process
• Keep codes and passwords out of broad or reusable documents
• Give a trusted local backup person the role they have agreed to take
• Make urgent contacts and current instructions available offline
• Remove or revoke temporary access when the sit ends

Give the sitter a first-day view, not another long profile

This fictional example shows how to reduce a longer platform profile or Welcome Guide to a quick operating view. It is not a care recommendation for another pet or home.

Run one final review with the confirmed sitter

Ask the sitter to read the current platform information and practical brief before you leave. Walk through the home, test access and invite questions about anything safety-critical or time-sensitive.

Finish with one agreed version of each instruction. A shorter current handover is safer than several detailed documents that disagree.