A professional sitter asks the right questions because it's their job to know what to ask. A friend or neighbour doing you a favour usually won't — not because they don't care, but because they don't know what they don't know yet. That's on you to cover, not them to guess.
Why this handover is different
With a pro, there's a process. With a mate, it's often a five-minute chat at the door as you're leaving for the airport, and everyone's too polite to ask the follow-up questions that actually matter. That's exactly how the small stuff gets missed — not because anyone was careless, but because nobody wanted to be the one asking "wait, what happens if he won't eat?"
What to walk through with them
Do an actual walkthrough, not just a text. Ten minutes in person beats a wall of text sent from the car. Show them where things are — food, leads, litter, meds — rather than describing it.
Say the obvious stuff out loud. Friends assume they'll figure it out. Some of it they will. Feeding amounts, medication timing, and what's actually an emergency versus what's normal are not things to leave to instinct.
Give them permission, explicitly. "Call the vet if something's wrong" isn't the same as written authorisation to get treatment and a sense of what you'd spend. Say the actual number you're comfortable with, so they're not guessing under pressure.
Tell them what's normal. A friend who's never met your cat before doesn't know that three hours under the bed is standard, not a crisis. Spell out anything that could look worrying but isn't — it saves them a stressful evening and you a middle-of-the-holiday phone call.
Make it easy to ask. Tell them explicitly: text you anything, even if it feels dumb. Most people worry about being annoying more than they worry about missing something, so give them permission to over-communicate.
The bit that's easy to skip with someone you trust
Because it's a friend, not a business transaction, handovers with people you know well tend to be the least documented — which is backwards, since it's often the person least experienced with pet care doing the favour. Trust doesn't replace information. It just means you owe them clear information instead of a vague "you'll be fine."
Quirks & All exists for exactly this — not the marketplace booking, but the part after: giving the person you already trust everything they need in one link, so a favour doesn't turn into a stressful few days for either of you.