Owners' plans may change last minute. How lenient are you with your cancellation policy?
I'm supposed to be starting a stay tomorrow evening with two dogs that I've watched before. The stay is supposed to run from Sept. 1 - 10. I had been in contact with the owners all month regarding the stay. Yesterday, I double checked with them what time they would be flying out and they added that because of storms at their vacation destination they would keep me posted if anything changed. I figured that to mean a flight delay or even needing to leave the following morning instead. No big deal. Tonight, a few hours ago, I got a message from the owner stating that they were possibly changing their stay from the aforementioned dates to Sept. 5 - 11, shorter on the front end and longer on the back end. I had made plans for the evening of the 10th, since the stay would be finished, so I was up front and told them that I could work with those changes if they were ok with me being gone in the evening. Their response was that they would let me know what they decided regarding their dates/trip. I'm almost ready to go to bed, my bags have been packed since earlier today, and my schedule is all set as if I'm supposed to be going over there tomorrow, but I still haven't heard anything.
I guess at this point I have two questions...
- At what point do I tell them that I have to know what their plans are? I want to be sensitive to the fact that their whole vacation is possibly getting changed because of weather, which is obviously something they have no control over and really sucks. However, I want them to be sensitive to the fact that they hired me for a service and I'm slightly inconvenienced by all of this.
- If their plans change (moving stay from Sept. 1 - 10 to Sept. 5 - 11), how should I deal with the financial side of things? I have a moderate cancellation policy and I know what that entails. The stay isn't technically cancelled, just changed. Where do I draw the line? (Balancing customer service with being flexible with being inconvenienced.)
The owners finally got back to me at 11:15 last night - three hours after telling me that their trip might change. They stayed with the original plan. Incredibly frustrating and kind of rude in my opinion, but at least it's resolved.